In The Kitchen: Saving Time and Money With Pre marinated Meats

   Besides cleaning products the biggest part of my grocery bill is meat.  Now that I have the other things down I can give a bigger part of my budget to that.  Like I have mentioned before I don't have that much room.  I did have an extra fridge out in my garage at one point that held all of the extra meat.  However, that didn't work out too well for us when the breaker decided to kick off and we had an entire freezer full of spoiled meat...in the middle of summer.  Needless to say that pretty much spoiled (pun intended) it for us.  I have come up with a way that I can still use my fridge in my house and make meal prep time even faster.
   I first started with buying the big packs of chicken, ground meat, pork chops etc. and dividing them into portions that I would need to make meals.  Then I figured I would pre marinate the meat when I packaged them to cut down my prep time later on.  When I season my meat I only use spices and dried herbs.  I will give you a list of the blends that I use and ideas for some meals.  If you're like me and plan meals for the week so I hope this helps.

CHICKEN
   Herbs De Provence, Salt and Pepper-I buy this at World Market and I use it for chicken pot pies, chicken noodle soup
   Curry powder, Salt and Pepper-Barefoot Contessa has a great recipe for curry chicken with fennel and potatoes.
   Fines Herbs, Salt & Pepper- I buy this at World Market and I use this in a standard chicken salad
   Chili powder, S & P, Cumin, Garlic powder, Oregano- Fajitas, Southwest chicken salad
BEEF/GROUND BEEF
   Steak seasoning- This mix has so many ingredients it's crazy.  You can get it in the bulk bins at Winco.  I use this to season my steaks or stew meat.  In ground meat I use this for burgers.
   BBQ Hickory flavor rub- I mix this in ground beef and make BBQ meat loaf out of it.
 
   Even if you just portion your meat out it will save you time.  If you have pre marinated the meat, as it thaws it will flavor it.  Simple, right?   Use this concept with your families favorite meals.  Just remember to use freezer bags or vacuum seal the meat so you can prevent freezer burn.  I always label and date my packages then that way as my freezer gets built up I can rotate it.  Just make sure all your meat is fresh and you don't let it set out and spoil.  Package the meat as soon as you get home from the store.