Angel Mama's Frugal Deli~OAMC, Bulk Buying and Lunch Menus.

Dear Friends,

I have been asked what we make my wonderful husband for lunches and dinners for his commute. Most everyone at my husbands work,tend to eat lunch and dinner out. My Dh's health couldn't swing that so I had to come up with gourmet meals and desserts,as I didn't want him to feel left out or deprived.
In order to make it work we do semi OAMC and cook a lot on the weekends etc. My freezer is full of sales right now so I am going to get new smaller freezer that is energy efficient to put just all our pre made meals in.He loves bring in homemade meals.
In the winter months I send stews, homemade soups, sauces, different Chinese entrees, burritos, Fettuccine Alfredo and more filling meals. In the summer months I tend to send more pasta salads, copy cat coleslaw, barbecue chicken, subs and lighter foods as he wants variety. I also make up bulk cheesecake brownies, cookies, bars and desserts as he loves sharing for their coffee hour and he manages the crossing over of two shifts so I have to make lots...LOL

I love experimenting in the kitchen , cooking from scratch and baking. I enjoy making mixes , and the kids love helping so we made up more of our batches this weekend for our brownies, spices etc. I buy all my spices in bulk as I need them at their freshest , so I refilled my spice bottles as well.

I have found slicing our own meat and cheeses saves me tremendously. We have our own meat slicer , seal a meal and make a production line. I buy many of my chesses such a provolone, mozzarella and even whole roasted deli turkey roast beef etc. from a restaurant supply store. Then slice and seal. We then make up subs ahead for my husband during the week and freeze those as well as packages of cheese and deli meat. When I need the packages of cheese I take out the night before and you would never know that it was frozen. I also season sirloin when I find on sale and make our own roast beef, we make our own honey roasted hams and turkeys also. With different seasonings I can make Italian roast turkey and different flavors for variety. Lately with the sales I have found it has been cheaper and easier for me to get the whole deli turkeys, hams and roast beef from the store I frequent. My price is less then half of the deli prices for thick nice slices of meat.

I make breakfast burritos, burritos, enchiladas,fettuccine Alfredo, brown rice stir fry, meatballs, tamales as well as casseroles or other meals and they freeze great.
When we have the freezer room we make about 80 meatballs , 60 burritos, 40 tamales etc over a weekend. It makes it a lot easier.

This past weekend we made our own mozzarella for fun with the kids and it turned out great. I am going to use it today to make a margarita pizza, with fresh basil and tomatoes.

Sorry I rambled ...LOL

In his endless love,

Angel Mama ():)