If you are frequently on Pinterest, you’ve probably seen tons of posts about freezer cooking. I love my freezer, but I’ve never prepared a ton of meals at one time to store in it.
But dinner time has become very hectic for our family this year. My oldest daughter is on a competitive swim team that practices on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Both my daughter’s take a recreational gymnastics class at the YMCA on Thursday night and they have Girl Scouts two Tuesdays a month. So yeah, by our own choosing, weeknights are crazy.
To bring order to dinner hour, I thought I would give the freezer cooking a try. I scoured Pinterest for recipe ideas, but I ended up preparing eight of my own recipes that I know my family loves.
I discussed my strategy with my husband and he was on board. His motto is “happy wife, happy life.”
I knew I’d need a lot of time, so I used this last weekend where we had very little scheduled in the calendar and planned my first freezer cooking session. As I was putting together my shopping list, I wondered if I was over doing it, but on Friday afternoon I headed to the grocery store with my very detailed list in hand.
I started the cooking and prepping as soon as I got home. One of my meals was turkey burgers, so I asked my husband to throw some of them on the grill for dinner on Friday. He happily obliged when he walked into the kitchen and saw my mess.
And for some insane reason I decided to head to the local apple orchard on Saturday for apples to make my sugar free applesauce that I store in the freezer.
By late Saturday afternoon, I was elbow deep in apples when my family let me know that dinner was looming, so my oldest daughter offered to put together some chicken enchiladas for our dinner. I LOVE this girl! …and the kitchen is still a mess.
I plan on putting together a more comprehensive post where I’ll share the recipes and other tips that I learned, but today, I’m still recovering from a weekend spent in the kitchen.
But the good news is that my kitchen is back to normal. However I just saw a splatter of applesauce on my ceiling…
It was a great feeling this morning to put one of my new freezer meals in the crock pot and as I type this my kitchen smells divine and I plan on a stress free dinner hour–YAY for me!
Do you cook for your freezer? What are your favorite recipes for freezer cooking? Please share them (and links) in the comments.
I really want to do this, I’m just working on the organization of it. What I’d really like to do is have a group of friends get together to do it. And hire a sitter to entertain the kids (and cut her in on the meals too!)
Rabia @TheLiebers recently posted…#TuesdayTen: Can You Fall The Love?
Rabia, that’s a great idea!
Good for you! Freezer cooking is a lot of work, but well worth it. My favorite thing to cook is poppy seed chicken, as well as cooked hamburger and chicken to use in a jiffy. I did an entire series on freezer cooking last year with my favorite tried and true recipes here – http://www.joyfullythriving.com/category/my-life/cooking/31-days-of-freezer-cooking/.
Kristen @ Joyfully Thriving recently posted…Pampers: 30 New Points
Thanks, Kristen. I’ll have to check out your series for some ideas.
I’m so proud you that you took the plunge, Kristia! It is such hard work, but it feels wonderful knowing that you have lots of meals in the freezer. I am looking forward to your future posts on what you made. I do this occasionally, but my new favorite method is the “cook once, eat twice” method. Instead of making one pan of enchiladas for dinner, I will make an extra for the freezer. I also do this with pot pie, cookie dough, hamburger buns, etc. It doesn’t net in a freezer full of meals, but it does add a little and save a lot of time.
Heather @ My Overflowing Cup recently posted…Light Up The Sky
Heather, it is an awesome feeling knowing that I have meals in the freezer ready for the crock pot. I don’t know if I will take on so many different meals at one time again. However I want to start the “cook once, eat twice” method–that seems much easier to handle.