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Often it is difficult to figure the cost, because you buy some stuff and you use some stuff that you already have.
Yesterday, just a smidge over $50 in ingredients and the result is 26 meals in the freezer. Roughly $2 a serving for good home cooked meals.
Naturally, costs vary a lot. This was chicken (teriyaki chicken with fried rice, chicken paprika with noodles, fried chicken with apricot glaze and mashed potatoes) which is less expensive. Three weeks ago, it was Italian dishes and just the ground beef cost close to $70.
The $50 was most of the cost. I made the teriyaki marinade and cooked the rice for the stir fry at home the day before. So that was not included in the cost. I have some leftover ingredients: mushrooms, chicken broth, some wide egg noodles, and that was not deducted from the cost. Freezer containers are about 50 cents each, but they are reusable so I don't count those in the cost.
Pretty darn economical for someone who has days when they have no time to cook but still wants to eat good food.
So boo (blowing a raspberry) at those who keep insisting that it costs no more to eat out than it does to cook at home. These meals would be closer to $20 each in a restaurant, not including tip and the wait time. Because they are packed for my son, who is a big guy and works long hard hours, they are large servings. Each container would make two meals for me.
One of my recent stand by's is crock pot pulled BBQ pork. I keep it fairly dry. Rolled up in flour tortillas with a bit of Pepperjack and a minute in the air fryer or oven to crisp the tortilla and melt the cheese. Send some vinaigrette coleslaw with them.
My goal with food is not to minimize cost, but to maximize enjoyment and health. Therefore, I prefer to eat lots of fresh food. Sure, I do freeze some stuff--mostly just meats--but I vastly prefer fresh food and I do think it has health benefits. My belief is that spending more on food pays huge dividends in health savings. Sure, I will shop sales at the store, but I will also purchase fresh blueberries or melons or apples or fish or whatever if it is in season.
I hate to cook. So when I do, I freeze the extra portions for another night. In a typical month, I end up only having to cook about 7/8 times. It does save me money on my grocery bill, but ultimately I do it because the last thing I want to do in the evening is cook.
Even before the pandemic we found most restaurant meals unsatisfying, and usually worse in terms of quality and sodium content than what we cook at home. The same for frozen prepared entrees — a salt fest. So we have settled on a routine where we cook large batches and keep the chest freezer stocked with staples like homemade chili, smoked brisket, BBQ meats, goulash, etc., and use them as the basis for meals. Yes, it does save some money, but our main objective is eating healthier food with quality ingredients.
Our friends in the retirement community all talk about missIng their XYZ restaurant haunts, but for me the only reason to go is social, certainly not for the food they serve.
As the title of this thread is economic freezer meals:
Oregon - do you remember Prairie Blossoms? Chili filled biscuits. SO asked for a batch tot ake to his three day pay date.
1 can of CHEAP refrigerated biscuits (you do not want too much dough), rolled out on cornmeal, in muffin tins
1 1/2 pounds ground beef, 1/4 chopped onion, some garlic; brown; chili powder, cayenne, 1/2 cup ketchup, teaspoon brown sugar, table spoon balsamico or cider vinegar, cup of shredded cheddar. Fill muffins. 400F in pre heated oven.
Freeze well, defrost on a dashboard if needed. Adding the cheese to the filling keeps it from becoming a crust.
Breakfast burritos are popular here.
Brown ground pork, onion, some peppers (I use whatever is ripe), salt/pepper/a bit of heat. Beaten eggs with cheese. Pour over meat and let it set. You can add some shredded cooked potatoes to the meat. Roll in flour tortillas. I let them cool and roll them into good paper towels (microwave!) and waxed paper then batch them in zip bags. 8 inch tortillas fit best! If you bake them a couple of minutes they can be microwaved or eaten on the run.
One of my recent stand by's is crock pot pulled BBQ pork. I keep it fairly dry. Rolled up in flour tortillas with a bit of Pepperjack and a minute in the air fryer or oven to crisp the tortilla and melt the cheese. Send some vinaigrette coleslaw with them.
That sounds delicious,
(not allowed to give you another reputation point, or I would)
Normally, I would just make a little extra of whatever I am cooking for dinner and maybe a couple of servings would go into the freezer. I wouldn't really know the cost of each frozen serving.
My situation is perhaps a little unusual. I'm not doing this for economy. My son gets sent all over the Western states for his work. His company will pay for motels and restaurants, but he is sick of motels and he works long hard hours and doesn't want to spend time sitting in restaurants and he doesn't like fast food. Then along comes Covid and getting meals for people with extra long work hours becomes more difficult.
On one trip home, he announced that he really missed home cooking, so we hit upon this solution. I get the recipes and the shopping list ready. He comes home and we go out and he buys the ingredients and we spend the day cooking and packaging. That's the only reason I know what each meal costs, because the ingredients are all purchased and the food is made and counted, all in the same day.
His company agreed to letting him take his camper and live in that instead of a motel so he has a little freezer and he can cook. He knows exactly how many freezer containers he can fit into his camper freezer.
Each time we cook, we try to do 3-4 dishes so that he has a good variety waiting here in my freezers and he isn't eating the same thing all the time.
This is working out for him. He gets home, tired and hungry and can zap a high quality meal, home cooked with a bit of health in mind. Made with good ingredients, good quality spices, and low salt.
Before this I wouldn't have been able to say what it cost or how much it made. If economy was the goal, I could do it cheaper, but there is a time crunch with this project so get in, get out, and only shop at one store.
A bit of a side note, my son does the dishes for this and there was some complaining this time about how much dish washing was involved. But he quickly admitted that if he wanted home cooking there were going to be dishes to wash. He wanted the meals much more than he didn't want to spend so much time doing dishes.
We were in a similar boat for a while thus my "pre-fab" dishes.
Roll inexpensive sliced bread out, cut with a biscuit cutter, use in muffin tins as crust for quiche heavy on the meat/veggie side.
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