In My Freezer

I have really been trying to kick the fast food/drive-thru habit. I do plan all of my meals ahead of time and do a pretty good job sticking to the meal plan. Planning my meals helps me save time and money. I don't wander the store aimlessly grabbing things here and there and since I know what is for dinner, before I go to bed or leave for work I can pull whatever out of the freezer to defrost if needed. There are times though when my schedule gets a little crazy or I simply don't feel like cooking dinner. 

I have mentioned on here several times about my back problems and winter months are particularly hard on me. Some days I simply cannot stand on my feet long enough to get dinner cooked and a nice real food meal was almost always out of the questions on painful days. 

What had been happening too often was me calling Kip and asking him to pick up dinner on the way home from work. He can cook and will if I ask him. The biggest problem with that scenario is that he gets home kind of late and if we had to wait to eat until he gets home to cook then dinner would be around 9:00 p.m. Plus since I have planned the meals and bought groceries to go along with what I planned, what I plan isn't always something he knows how to cook.

Kip has joked ever since we were first married that I don't buy food. I buy ingredients. I think that's cute, but very true and even more so since we started to eat more whole foods.

I have been canning soups, chili and spaghetti sauce so that I have quick, healthier options. I like as much as possible to be in jars, because I only have the freezer on my refrigerator so I am limited by space and if the power goes out then there goes all my hard work. Since not all foods can be safely canned at home, I do want some quick meals or partial meals in the freezer too. 

Tonight I made a Chive Gnocchi. I made enough for dinner tomorrow night and the rest are going into the freezer in meal size portions.

These are ready to pop into the freezer. I will freeze them on this pan until they are firm enough to put into freezer bags. 

The recipe is from the My Spice Sage blog and the link can be found above. I have been ordering from them for several months now and have been very happy with the service, quality and selection that they have. In fact, I got a package from them today!

So now instead of relying on fast food so often, I have enough food options in jars or in the freezer that I can get a quick healthy dinner on the table in a matter of minutes. If it is a really bad day and I need Kip to cook, there are options that he can do quickly too so that if we can still have dinner before it gets too late.