As we get closer and closer to officially having one more mouth to feed, we're starting to think more and more about how to better handle our food budget and plan our meals a bit ahead of time. We've tried to be better about meals in the past, but it's usually only lasted for a week or so. This time we're following the freezer meal plan from the book Don't Panic - Dinner's in the Freezer. I'm sure the idea is nothing revolutionary to some, but it's kind of changed the way we think about meal planning. The book is filled with freezer-safe recipes that you can make in large quantities, wrap up in meal-sized portions, and store in the freezer until you're ready to eat them.

A couple of weeks ago, for example, I prepared five pans of chicken cilantro enchiladas over the span of a couple hours on a Sunday afternoon. The recipe was really simple and we were able to get most of the ingredients we needed at Aldi. All told, the five meals probably cost us around $30 to make.

After our weekend in Chicago, we decided that today was a good time to bust one of these dinners out and see how they saved. It really was as simple as pulling a package out of the freezer in the morning, unwrapping it, and letting it thaw in a 9x13 pan until I was done with work. Then half an hour in the oven, and we were ready to sit down to dinner. Some of the edges of the outer enchiladas were a little dry, but overall the meal was really good, and incredibly easy to cook.

In the time since putting together this first batch of enchiladas, we've also done a round of spinach lasagnas and we're getting ready to take a stab at frozen pizzas. With all this food, there is one component that has become a bit of a necessity: A chest freezer. Fortunately, just a few weeks ago I was able to find a really old, but fully functional, chest freezer that a friend of a friend was giving away. It needed a little minor electrical work, but it's been patched up and is humming along just great out in the garage, ready to get filled up more meals.

It can be a bit of a time investment, but if you can block off a couple of hours once a week you'll find that it's a big time saver once you get things rolling. And if you do the shopping right, I think it will save a lot on your food budget as well.