Freezer cooking. Have you tried it? A few months ago I decided I would give it a go and see what it's all about. I had read about it on sites such as Money Saving Mom and Once a Month Mom, and was intrigued. You mean I can prepare and/or cook a bunch of meals in one day and then throw them in the freezer for later? Then on a busy weeknight just throw something in the oven and be done? I'm in.
I actually didn't even go overboard on this project - shocker I know. I decided that I would buy a cookbook and look online, pick out a few recipes, then prepare enough meals for a week's worth of dinners. I did a bit of research and found Don't Panic, Dinner's in the Freezer on Amazon, used some Amazon gift cards I got from Swagbucks, and poof! it was at my door in a couple of days. Have I mentioned lately that I love Amazon? Anyway...As soon as I received the book I was going through and making lists; tons of great recipes that even my kids would eat. Cheesy Chicken Bundles? Done. Hawaiian Chicken in the Crockpot? You betcha. There's even a recipe for Teriyaki Sauce that looks good, but I still need to make.
So I did my shopping, hit Sam's Club for the huge trays of ground beef and chicken breasts, the regular grocery store for the fill-in ingredients and I was ready. I temporarily misplaced my camera, so I didn't get any pictures, but here's a list of what I prepared:
2 pounds of taco meat (browned ground beef with taco seasoning)
2 loaves of Cheeseburger Meatloaf (check "Recipes" page for details)
1 Hawaiian Chicken Crockpot dish - just need to thaw it and throw it in the crockpot - done!
8 or 10 (I forget) Cheesy Chicken Bundles - probably enough for 2 meals, the way the kids eat
About 2 dozen meatballs - and I LOVE meatballs, so this will just be enough for one meal
All in all, I have about 8 meals ready and waiting in my freezer, and I did this all on a Sunday afternoon. There was very little cooking involved, thankfully - really the only cooking I did was the ground beef for tacos. Everything else I just prepared, packaged, and tossed in the freezer. Love it! Now all I have to do is figure out what we're having when, take it out of the freezer to thaw, then pop it in the oven. Dinner's ready! I love making taco filling ahead of time; all I have to do is warm up the meat, set up the taco toppings, and dinner's ready in about 5 minutes. Perfect.
If you're new to Freezer Cooking, or Once a Month or Week Cooking, I highly recommend Don't Panic, Dinner's in the Freezer. There are lots of other books out there on the subject, and excellent blogs and ideas online, but this is the book I used. They explain in great detail the best way to package the meals for the freezer, and all of the recipes sound yummy.
I'll post the recipe for the Cheeseburger Meatloaf right after this one. Its SO yum. You'll love it.
In my research for this post, I also found Daily Dish Recipes, and am totally in love. I'll be doing lots of recipe-printing in a few minutes!
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