Costco and Cooking

I've had some fun with the cooking blog this week. Looking for ways to stretch the budget and still get some healthy cooking in. Lunches are a bit easier now that Don's not on the road every day, but also means we need to stock the fridge a little better. I compiled some recipe groupings of items that we can prep ahead of time and freeze in individual lunch servings.

It took me three attempts but I finally successfully made my weekly trip to Costco. Tried to go on Saturday afternoon (Valentines Day) but it was so crazy I couldn't even find a parking spot and gave up. Then I went again this morning directly after church only to discover that I had left my Costco Card and Debit Card in my sweatshirt pocket that I was wearing yesterday. Good thing we don't live to far away, so back I went home to get the cards. At least I was able to gas up on my first trip out there.

Anyway, I picked up some chicken thighs and flank steak. I also bought a giant bag of chocolate chips. Figured lit would be good to have cookie ingredients on hand to keep us from splurging on desserts and other snacks. They also make a tasty but economical contribution to the potluck style dinners we're always having among friends. Also stocked up on coffee filters so we are good on those for the next year. But the real treat of the day was the splurge on the 12 pack of Costco chocolate muffins I picked up. I thought about getting the variety pack with the poppy seed and blueberry ones also, but why bother when all you really want is the chocolate. Don was so excited when I got home that he immediately went to work individually saran wrapping and repackaging each of them to preserve maximum freshness. We put the majority in the freezer. I'm thinking they'll make for a nice breakfast option or late night snack. I guess it's the little pleasures in life that keep us going. :)

So I've been busy all day doing kitchen prep work for the week. I started with a big batch of chocolate chip cookies. There was just enough dough to for two full cookie sheets with a tiny sample left over to toss in the freezer for an emergency craving. I also did all the prep work for Meal Plan #1 recently published on the Cooking Kama Sutras Blog. I prepared the Brunswick Stew and Braised Chicken Thighs according to the recipes and then boxed them up and stuck in the freezer for lunches. After the ones we ate for dinner tonight, we got 9 additional servings out of them. I also made two batches of the Asian Barbecue Chicken Marinade and tossed in the freezer to pull out when needed. I even had one small packet of chicken thighs left which I froze separately for a yet to be determined future use. Tomorrow I will tackle the flank steak according to Meal Plan #3. And then we will have a very pleasantly stocked freezer and easy week ahead of us.

So there's definitely more work and prep involved but I kind of enjoy the process. I'm looking forward to assembling some more meal plans so keep an eye out on the cooking blog.