Thrifty Thursday: Preparation for the coming weeks!

I decided that I would try to get some things done today and see how much I could do while doing laundry and a million other things on my to do list.  I had some biscuits planned for next week as well as some Shake n Bake Pork Chops so I had to make the biscuit mix and homemade Shake n Bake.  Chicken broth is always helpful especially with the holidays coming up with my turkey and rice soup that I have planned.  Since we had a whole chicken the other night, it seemed right that I do that while I was working on other things on the list.  I also had some ham in the fridge that I needed to dice and freeze.

I started with mixing the biscuit mix ingredients.  I mixed the powdered milk, flour, baking powder, and salt.  I forgot until I got about half way through the recipe that I was out of shortening.  Ooops!!!  All mixed minus the shortening.  Note to self:  Get shortening at the store to mix in.  Original post on making Biscuit Mix.

Chicken broth was the next thing on my list to make.  I dumped the leftover chicken bones from last night's dinner.  I took the drippings from the pan and kept those in the fridge.  I scraped off the top layer of fat and added the concentrated broth to the pot.  Added 8 cups of water, bay leaves, minced garlic, and rosemary.  I started to boil and of course added more water because I boiled over when I went to the basement to put the laundry in the dryer.  Then turned on low to simmer for 3-5 hours.  I used the fine mesh strainer and put the broth in a container and put it in the fridge.  The next day, I skim off the fat and strain again into 2 cup portioned freezer bags.

I made my first attempt at Homemade Shake n Bake and wrote up the post.  Check it out here.

I got ham steak at Super Doubles for free (normally $3.99).  I already have five of them in the freezer so I opted to do something different with these two. 

I saw the diced ham in section by the deli meat but it was priced at $5.49 so it would not have been free.  I decided that I should take these two packages and dice them.  First, I cut in one direction for the whole piece of ham.

Then, I cut in the other directions to dice up the whole ham steak.

I bagged up all 16 oz of diced ham and put it in the freezer.

Now here is the weird thing... I don't like ham!  I know that my husband does like ham and so does my dad so this seems like something great to fix up for breakfast but I don't know what to use this ham in.  Does anyone have any recipe ideas on what I can make for other meals that my husband and father will eat??  My only idea so far is fried rice so any ideas would be great :)

Spending an hour or two of time to prepare for the coming weeks, help you save time and money in the coming weeks.  Do you have anything that you do to save time ahead of time for your meal prep?  Is there anything you can do to make the dinner rush less of a rush?  I hope that I can help you show how to cut out a few steps and save you time through spending a little time preparing ahead!!  Stay tuned to more tips and let me know if you have any to share :)