I Think I Might Have Been Successful!

Today is certainly, as they say, "one for the books". So naturally I gotta add the details to this 'book', so to speak.
I've been bombarding social media the past few days with my curious endeavor to try making freezer meals for the crock pot. I say curious because as a kitchen noob, it's interesting that I suddenly found myself motivated and determined to take on the monumental task. On top of a long, long list of "To-Do's". But one of our New Year's Resolutions/Goals is to be better about our budgeting and for starters, our grocery bill. I'm blessed with a goddess for a mother and so pulling random tidbits together from the fridge and pantry is not a foreign concept, but keeping the fridge and pantry well stocked is another matter altogether. Dunno if I'll ever have that down.
But in any case, earlier this week I sat down to try and hash out the How of meal planning. I knew I wanted to go to Winco and Fry's for the bulk of stuff, Farmer's Market for the produce (never turn back) and so it was a simple matter of deciding what exactly to make.
SIMPLE MY BOOTY.
Hours later I was frustrated, anxiety-ridden, and completely worn out with still not a clue as to how I was going to do this. Mark told me to perhaps start with just taking on a couple recipes, find what's on sale and go with that.
So the next day I went shopping, my dear mum coming with me and falling in love with the charm of Winco as we sauntered through the store, lamenting the lack of chicken feed. It was a bizarre experience and an awakening moment when we wheeled both our carts from the store, and then parted ways with "Bye! Love you!" Costco trips were a common occurrence between my mother and I and for a pathetic minute I stood in the parking lot thinking, "Wait a minute...Mommy! MAHM HALP." And then she drove by as I was putting the bags into my truck and gave me a mini donut and all was well.
That night however, we had dinner plans with friends and so the food would just have to wait.
And now finally today! Today I started the actual meal prep and bagging and chopping and discovering to my consternation and simultaneous delight that I had not just purchased chicken breasts, I had hoarded a large quantity of effing GODZILLA breasts. Trust me, dey huge. So we have an actual butt-ton of chicken now, which is great, but also more work for me to figure out. Currently the plan is chicken salad because all I'll hafta buy is celery and green onion and I want more fruit anyways. My morning oatmeal needs berries!
Anyway, so I pulled everything out.

My caption on Instagram was much more detailed, but for some reason the app decided I needed a bit of censoring and didn't include everything. Rude. But basically my trip to Winco was a total of $40 and some change thanks to the six or so coupons I had printed out. But many of those things went to storage or were in large amounts and so could be divided into many different meals so really it was less than that. Honestly, if these recipes turn out as tasty as I hope they will, this very well may be happening a lot more often. Not to mention I got so many tips and suggestions from my various posts, now I have lots to try! Thank you everyone who was kind enough to comment :)

But before any of this happened today, I had my 16 week appointment with my OB and asked a couple timid questions and got totally comforting answers in response. And then I got to hear the wooshwoosh of the doppler and that was all the comfort I needed. I just wanna feel the kicks, goshdangit!
While I was out and about, I stopped by autozone to have Mark's car battery tested and my fem pride hurt a little to ask the guy inside to help me carry the hunk of dirty car life juice. The urge was so strong to babble on about how "I would normally totally carry this because I can I'm not weak but I'm just pregnant and my doctor JUST recommended that I don't lift or push much more than ten pounds like literally I was JUST there and omg the heartbeat was so cute..." but thankfully I kept my tongue in check. Plus I know it's silly to think that way.
During the meal process I had a new load of dishes whirring in the washer and two loads of Mark's shirts thrumming in the laundry room. If only I could keep this up all the time.
Don't for a second think I did all this without a glorious nap on the couch, though.

So all in all, I have decently high hopes that this freezer meal endeavor will not be in vain and that we will be able to eat semi-cheaply as well as mostly healthily.

And now I need a nap.