It happens to everyone. After a nerve-wracking day at the office (or at home!) those very organized dinner plans you made at the beginning of the week are magically forgotten, and you end up dialing up that friendly pizza place once again. At one time, I was throwing so much money away ordering pizza, that the guy actually knew what I was going to order before I did! That’s when I decided that my occasional “splurge” had really gotten out of hand.
If you are getting a take-out because you are really craving that chicken Chow Mein or that cheese pizza with anchovies, well, who can say? Maybe a little indulgence will fend off a more expensive impulse, like going to the mall and spending a fortune on doo-dads. However, most people end up ordering take-away because they are simply too tired to cook or are just not sure what to eat. However, if you always have something available in the freezer, you never have to resort to spending the money on cartons of stuff that will take an incredibly long time to reach your door. The freezer is the frugal family’s best friend, and it saves a lot of time, hassle and money in the short and the long run.
So, how do you stock your freezer? Do you have to spend afternoons or evenings simply preparing food for the future? I got this secret from a great woman named Nechama Greisman, of blessed memory: Don’t cook twice when you can cook once. That means that, when you are making a great soup, your secret recipe spaghetti sauce, or even lasagna, make two meal’s worth instead of one, and freeze the second portion. You will always have something in the freezer available to thaw out and heat up. When you order pizza, do you hear a chorus of “YAYs!” from the kids? Chances are, some of your own dishes can also elicit similar accolades, so prepare your kids’ favorite chicken pot pie or casserole and freeze it!