Our Adventures with Freezer Cooking

Anyone heard of freezer cooking?  Anyone successful with it?  I have heard of it and have dabbled here and there but nothing stuck.

I was reading Crystal's blog and came across a post about freezer cooking.  She linked to with the website, Who Needs A Cape, where the authors of this website did a major freezer cooking haul.  40 meals in 4 hours- wow.  It had my attention.  I spent Saturday evening after the boys went to bed and wrote my massive grocery list.  And on Sunday, spent 4 hours at several grocery stores.

The massive amount of meats and some of the veggies

Michael and I spent 2 hours Sunday evening cutting, chopping and packaging our many meals.  We don't have all 40 prepped just yet.  Found out that Save A Lot is having a 3 day sale this weekend.  So, I will be purchasing the rest of the ingredients then.

Here is the outcome of our freezer cooking prep evening:

Freezer full of all kinds of delicious packets all ready to just dump in the crockpot, walk away and let it do it thing- LOVE IT :)

Cooking to stock my freezer finale:)

Well, I didn't a chance to finish filling my freezer as soon as I would like.  But I did do little by little when I had the time and now I have a full freezer.  Full of all kinds of goodies to make my life just a little bit easier:)

Today was a great day.  I had the chance to finally cut, wrap and bag the ground beef into dinner size portions. Now, all I have to do is grab a section, unwrap the foil and defrost in the microwave and use it in whatever dish I have planned for that evening.  I was able to bag up the huge can of tomato sauce into 3 (4) cup portions and 1 (2) cup portion.  And I finally got the opportunity to freeze equal amounts of beans and rice into zip baggies for bean and rice taco nights.  Didn't get a chance to make extra tortillas to freeze but had some in the refrigerator for tonight's dinner.

Here is what I did today:

Tonight dinner was a breeze.  I took out a baggie of beans and rice from the freezer and defrosted it in the microwave for a few minutes.  I cooked the frozen corn on the stove.  Once the beans and rice were unfrozen, I stirred in some taco seasoning.  Within 20 minutes, dinner was fully cooked and on the plates ready to eat.  Nice and easy- love it.

Having premade breakfasts have been so helpful this week, as yesterday was the first day of school.  And as I mentioned, dinner was fast and yummy.  I had time to help Nathan with his homework while dinner was cooking:)

How did you do with your freezer cooking days?

Cooking for my freezer Day 3

Today was a great day- no where to go.  Just able to stay at home and get some things done around here as well as spend time with the boys.

Today, we were supposed to make Banana Bread muffins but we changed things up just a tad and made Oatmeal Banana muffins instead.  I am so glad we did~ they were so tasty.

Here is what we made today:

Super yummy oatmeal banana muffins.  I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about oatmeal and bananas but they were really good.  I wanted to make oatmeal raisin muffins but suddenly remembered my hubby doesn't like raisins.  I'm such a good wife:)  I will make oatmeal raisin muffins next week when he is away:)

I was on a roll today, after baking the muffins I:

peeled and sliced carrots and cucumbers (the cucumbers are from the garden and so delish).  I cut up the red and green peppers.  Also cut up and made Parm Zucchini slices-  oh my these are so good.

I even made some homemade yogurt- Chris was super thrilled- he loves my yogurt and even strained the whey out to make it thicker.

I was on a roll.  I am so pleased with all I got accomplished:)

How did you do with your freezer cooking for today?

Come back tomorrow to see how day 4 goes for us.

Cooking to stock my freezer Day 2

Day 2 went a little smoother than day 1.  For some unknown reason, I was up before every one else.  I decided to take advantage of the peace and quiet and get some cooking done- YEA!!!!

Here is what I did this morning:

Ohhhh so warm and yummy:)

I put some in ziploc bags for the freezer:

Here is what is left after my family devoured this delicious yummy pancakes.  As well as the leftover double recipe of syrup I made.  This should last for a few days- LOL- just kidding.  It better last us for a while.

How did you do with your freezer cooking today?

Come back tomorrow to see how cooking for my freezer day 3 goes:)

Cooking to stock my freezer Day 1

Today was my first official day of cooking for my freezer.  Today was the day I was going to make 3 loaves of banana bread- one to eat for breakfast and 2 for the freezer to pull out later.  Was I able to make all 3 loaves today??

Why yes I did.  YEA!!!!  The zip bag at the bottom left is all that is left from the first loaf.  My family kind of devoured it.  It really is super yummy:) Recipe coming soon.

I am so glad I made all 3 loaves this morning as Kevin and Nathan both had eye doctor appointments.  Little did I know, we wouldn't get back until almost 5pm.  It was a long exhausting afternoon.  Luckily, for us both boys need glasses. 

Kevin found a pair of frames he loved.  Unfortunately, I did not fall in love with the price tag- oh my.  When did glasses take a giant leap up in price.  My glasses didn't cost that much and I have both scratch resistant lenses and the anti glare.  Which now, just the anti glare is $110.  I couldn't believe how much just the frames were.  Nathan found a nice looking pair of frames that were $110- really $110 for just the frames for an 8 year old??  Our insurance of course doesn't cover frames- lucky us:)

And we have no clue what kind of glasses Nathan needs.  Poor little guy failed his eye exam really well.  I really don't know the words to describe it.  The optometrist said that she could tell that Nathan was highly intelligent because his poor eyes were working against him.  First his hearing and now his eyes.  He is being referred to a pediatric ophthalmologist to get a better look at Nathan's eyes and they are booked up until September.  The wonderful optometrist told us today that surgery was not necessary- I was very happy to hear that.  So, we really aren't going to know much about Nathan's vision until September- I will keep everyone updated. 

Oops- that has nothing to do with freezer cooking.  Sometimes I get going and just don't know how to stop- darn ADHD:)

Were you able to get your day 1 freezer cooking accomplished?

Come back tomorrow to see how we do with cooking to stock my freezer day 2:)  Have a great night:)

Cooking to stock my freezer:)

School is almost here.  Chris is excited to start the new school year since this is his senior year.  Kevin and I are both excited about beginning his homeschool journey through his high school years.  Nathan is going back and forth- he wants to be homeschooled and seems to enjoy and excel with homeschool but on the other hand he wants to ride the bus and see his friends at school.  We are allowing him to make the decision which he would like to do.  He has decided to wait and see who his teacher is going to be and who is in his class before making the decision whether or not he wants to go back to public school- so we should know later this week:)

The start of school is always a busy time for us.  We are usually in a rush to get things together before the bus gets here in the morning.  If we packed lunch the night before, we are doing good but that doesn't always happen.  Things don't always happen the way we would like for them to or the way we had hoped.  And now, we are introducing homeschool, I have a funny feeling, things are going to be hectic for a little bit until we get into a routine.

To make things easier, I have looked at my menu for the month and looked to see if we could make anything ahead of time.  We don't have a whole lot we can make ahead, but we have some things that would make our lives easier if they were already prepared.

This week, I am going to be making some things specifically to have in our freezer.  That way, we can just pull it out of the freezer and WHA-LAH it is ready to go with little prep.

If you would like to join us in our freezer cooking journey, come on, lets go.  Look at your menu for this month and write down your freezer cooking possibilities.  Each day, I am going to be making something different for our freezer.  Here is my plan of attack for this week:

Tuesday- 2 loaves of Banana Bread for the freezer
Wednesday- Pancakes for the freezer and extra syrup for the fridge
Thursday- Oatmeal Banana muffins for the freezer
Friday- Homemade Tortillas** and dividing up the ground beef for the freezer
Saturday- Beans and rice for the freezer for our bean and rice tacos

Just by having some breakfast items and a few dinner items in the freezer will help out tremendously with our busy hectic schedule.

Want to join me in my small freezer cooking adventure?

**Want to learn how to make your very own super easy, super yummy tortillas from scratch?
Click here to visit Laura Coppinger @ Heavenly Homemakers.  You can purchase your very own copy of her fabulous Totally Tortillas ebook.