The Last Supper

Just so you know, I cooked up our last Saving Dinner freezer meal December 20th. Twenty-two meals for two people turned into almost exactly two months of dinners and left-over lunches. Based on James' school schedule (Mondays not coming home until late) and my work schedule (Fridays being fed a big breakfast and not being hungry for lunch) and our church schedule (Sundays having a fellowship meal together and often meeting Sunday evenings to share finger-food and snacks), even though we didn't eat out (James grabbed an occasional lunch) or order pizza the entire two months, we still ended up using an average of 3 meals a week.

I have to say that although some meals I was excited about pulling out (the "Chicken Scaloppini" with basil and pine nuts or the "Lasagna"), and some I was not quite so excited about cooking up (the fish meals mostly!), every single meal was delicious! Some had recipes for perfect complimentary side dishes. Some, spread well over several days as we added noodles or rice to extend our leftovers further. If I had materials to make a fresh salad, yum. If not, a can of corn or microwave steamed veggies from the freezer would do fine. Over all, it was a very easy way of keeping healthy food on the table.

As far as saving money, it's very hard to tell how much I actually did save not shopping for dinner ingredients every week, because I replaced that spending buying baking, gift, and holiday grocery items. Oh well, I am thankful that I did not need to buy dinner items too! Next time, I will be more focused on the cost effectiveness of the meals, get a better cost estimate, and try to cut out unnecessary expensive ingredients as possible without destroying the integrity of the recipes.

I would be very happy to cook up the whole batch of 22 meals again, but I bought a second month of recipes which I will try next. I can't wait! First, however, I think we are going to try to do something with that ham . . .