Back into Freezer Cooking: Paleo Style: Part 1- Find What Works and Plan It!

I'm hoping to make this an infinitely numbered series as I progress in my Paleo freezer cooking adventures.

This year we're focusing on becoming a more financially aware and responsible family.  Part of that, for me, means getting back into freezer cooking to stretch our monthly food budget.  It also means lots and lots of receipts and being on top of tracking where our money is going.  None of the worksheets I found online really impressed me, so I made my own:

Totally awesome and professional, right?

Anyway, it's a work in progress.  Hopefully along with the freezer cooking series I can update our financial plan progress as well.

Now, to the meat of this post.  I started with Pinterest (duh).  Freezer cooking is old hat to me, but, since we've been eliminating grains, sugars, and starches as much as possible, we got away from it for a long time and I needed a refresher.  I found Mark's Daily Apple, Robb Wolf, and Life as a Plate to be the most helpful.  Poke around, they have great stuff!

Keeping what we have stocked in our freezer and what I know my family will eat in mind, I added recipes I'd like to try to a list as I followed various links through the interwebs, including the main ingredients for each dish:

Are you in awe yet?

From that list, I chose a few meals that had similar ingredients (i.e. crazy cabbage, beanless chili, and meaty marinara all share ground meat, canned tomatoes, and bell peppers while roast chicken, bone broth, stew, and pot roast need carrots, celery, onions, and various other root veggies).

From there it's checking your spice supply, seeing where the best deals on meat and produce are for the week, and making your shopping list!
 
Check back to see what I bought, spent, and cooked in Part 2!