Today is Day 10 and your assignment: Plan a Freezer Cooking Session
What is a Freezer Cooking Session?
Freezer cooking is wildly popular right now and it involves prepping meals to be stored in the freezer. I bit the bullet and had my very first freezer cooking session a few years ago. It was a huge success, both with time and money.
We are in a very busy season of life right now with my kids’ activities and running a business. Dinner hour is often more like 15 minutes of scarfing down food before we have to leave for some kind of practice or meeting. Meals need to be easy to prepare and tasty to eat and that is where freezer cooking can swoop in to save the day.
How Freezer Cooking Save you Money and Time:
There is some time involved upfront with grocery shopping and prepping the meals for the freezer, but it saves considerable time when you are planning your weekly menu and the night that you are serving the freezer meal. Many of my favorite freezer recipes simply involve dumping the dinner ingredients into a slow cooker, or just placing a pan in the oven. All of the chopping, cleaning, and sauteing is done at one time, so there is just one major clean up.
A freezer full of meals makes weekly meal planning a breeze. I don’t agonize over dinner ideas, I just open up my freezer to see what’s available. It also prevents me from making impulsive trips to the grocery store or calling for take out. The freezer is full of dinners, so I can’t complain that there is nothing to eat. Freezer cooking also allows me to take advantage of a really great discount on meat. When I find chicken thighs and drumsticks at a ridiculous price, I buy several packs and make batches of our favorite Asian Orange Chicken.
Still not convinced?
I admit that freezer cooking is not for the faint of heart and you need to plan your session, but I have done some work for you.
Check out my Favorite 8 Freezer Meal Ideas. This post includes an excel spreadsheet to organize your grocery trip, along with freezer cooking tips to make your session run smoothly.
These 8 meal ideas are very different recipes, so you won’t get bored. There will be some up front cooking involved and truthfully, my kitchen was a mess when I finished my session….just keepin’ it real!
BUT, I had doubled and tripled most of the recipes and ended up with 13 freezer bags, 18 turkey burgers, 10 enchiladas, and 10 breakfast burritos. For my family of 4, each freezer bag equaled one dinner and leftovers, 18 burgers equals 4 meals, 10 enchiladas equals 2 meals, and 10 burritos equals 2 meals. Those several hours in the kitchen rewarded me with 19 dinners, plus breakfast for 2 mornings.
You don’t need to tackle all 8 recipes at once. I was very ambitious to get quite a bit done in one evening. If you are just starting out, make 4 meals at once, instead of 8. If you need even more ideas, follow me on Pinterest where I regularly pin Freezer Meal Ideas.
What are your favorite freezer cooking recipes? Let us know in the comments. Also if you have any questions, please leave them in the comments and I will respond.
Follow along daily on Facebook where I share the posts and pictures from my own challenge.
Also bookmark the 31 Days to Slash Your Grocery Spending category page so you can check in daily.