Food and Budget: Four days, 25 Meals

The Cookbook:  Fix, Freeze, Feast

The menu:  Mozzarella Meatballs, Chicken a la King, Basic Red Sauce (Large recipe), Mango-Cranberry Chicken

Friday:  Buy 10lbs lean ground beef, two whole chickens, eight mangoes, and tomato products for red sauce, plus extra ingredients not in pantry or freezer already.  Cut mozzarella sticks for meatballs, and freeze as per recipe.

Saturday:  Mix Red Sauce, pack and freeze or can.  Make own mango chutney and can per the Ball Blue Book of Canning.

Sunday:   Mix meatball mixture.  Stuff and roll meatballs to fill two cookie sheets and bake. Package half the meatballs with original sauce in recipe (half batch) and half the meatballs with extra red sauce from Saturday.  Slow-cook chickens and refrigerate separate from its broth.

Monday:  Pick meat off chickens and skim fat from broth.  Make Chicken a la King; package, label and freeze.   Make Mango Cranberry Chicken using homemade chutney and pre-purchased craisins; package, label and freeze. Take a nap.

Technically there are probably more than 25 meals in this recipe plan.  I ended up with six quarts and eight pints of red sauce.  The quarts are for big batches of spaghetti and lasagna, the pints are for pizzas and small batches of spaghetti.  I also tend to package meals smaller than called for in recipes since there are only three of us.