My tips and tricks

There are things I do to make my life easier. They don't all involve convenience food products. Some are just simple things that take a short amount of time up front, but can save you time later.

I like to buy my meat in bulk. If it's fresh, I do as much prep as I can before freezing.

If I buy fresh chicken, I repackage it in 1 lb portions, generally what's needed for a recipe. I will cut up about half the chicken into bite sized pieces since many of my recipes call for that. It's much easier to quick thaw (or microwave thaw) chicken if it's already cut. And, also, many times chicken can be cooked from frozen.

If I buy ground beef, I set aside at least one package of 2 lbs of meat for meatloaf down the road. I've never yet premade a meat loaf. I've discussed this with someone who does freezer cooking and she's never gotten that bit down yet. I'll also brown a lot of it, and portion out 1 lb packages of the browned ground beef. This seriously speeds up weeknight dinners, and is a fast way to pep up jarred spaghetti sauce.

Buy veggies in season if you can, and learn what can and can't be frozen. I like to buy lots of peppers at the farmer's market during the summer, or when I see them on sale at the grocery store. I'll clean and slice up the peppers and freeze them. Add to chopped onions, chicken, taco seasoning and chili powder and voila.....fajitas!

I will add more tricks as I think of them!