Stocking your freezer using leftovers or foodstuff that you buy in bulk on sale can really save you quite a bit of money. If you have the freezer and the room, I highly recommend doing some freezer cooking. It will give you the opportunity to have low cost meals handy and avoid eating out, and it will also give you the opportunity to eat food that you might have otherwise thrown away. These are free meals, as I like to call them.
With panic in the economy, it makes so much sense to cut expenses and pay down as much debt as possible. Here is one freezer cooking idea that can be adapted to many different types of leftovers or bulk ingredients–the “hot pocket.”
Hot pockets are those things that you can buy in your freezer section of the store (although the concept has been around for a long time). They are usually little pastry or bread logs that contain different fillings. The store bought pockets are tiny and usually contain even tinier fillings, and frankly, I don’t care for them myself. But homemade versions can be made so easily and adapted to your family’s personal taste.
I usually start out with homemade pizza dough–enough to make one large thick crust pizza or two thin crust ones. I divide this dough into about ten pieces (you can divide it into eight if you want larger pockets). Each dough section gets rolled into a ball and made into a round (like a pizza crust). Then I add a heaping spoon of filling to the middle of each round. One end gets folded over the other, so you are left with something resembling a calzone. Make sure to pinch the ends down to keep the filling inside.
Check back later today, when I continue with the hot pockets. I’ll tell you how to prepare them for immediate cooking or for freezing. I’ll also share my ideas for good filling combinations. Don’t miss it!
Mary Ann Romans writes about everything related to saving money in the Frugal Blog, creating a home in the Home Blog, caring for little ones in the Baby Blog and now relationships in the Marriage Blog. You can read more of her articles by clicking here or subscribe to the blog using the subscription box on the right.
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