Meal Planning, Meal Freezing

As much as I love Fall, I hate falling back an hour and that looming day when Daylight Savings ends has been a major motivator for me to simplify (like Real Simple!!!!) my weeknights at home after work. 

Eating dinner around 7:30 or 8pm when the sun is still out is one thing, but when it's already dark when I get home after a long drive, I find myself wanting to do nothing but eat ice cream from a carton and fall into bed. Not good for the weight loss efforts at all....

To prevent existing on nothing but frozen dairy or take-out alone, I've been getting serious again about weeknight meal planning ...

...and getting some dinners in the freezer. This weekend I made a big batch of spaghetti sauce, enough for two meals....

and a chicken pot pie, Dan's favorite.

Marinating in the fridge right now is a pork loin, floating in Coke Zero and brown sugar, ala Skinny Taste, that I will slow cook later in the week. There should be plenty of left overs from that to freeze some for another meal, too!

My friend Kathleen, a teacher, froze a month's worth of meals before returning back to school this Fall. A month! Maybe you Real Simple-types sneeze at this, but it blew my mind. I think it's awesome. SOOOO awesome, that I asked Kathleen to do a guest blog telling me and y'all ALL about it - what she cooked, how long it took, what are her favorite meals once thawed, what kind of freezer dishes did she use, etc - and she's going to do it soon. So, if you have your own questions that kind of freezing effort, leave in the comments and I'll pass them along to Kathleen!

Happy Planning and Happy Freezing!