I am going to ATTEMPT to put it all down for you how I do my freezer cooking. It is important to recognize that everyone will do it a little differently, but maybe you will have a few AHA moments as you read how I do mine.
I attempted to take pictures of the process and did pretty well for the first few recipes and then...I just get on a roll. If you have questions, please post them and I will do my best to answer them or find the answer.
The first thing I do is clear out my refrigerator and my freezer. I take out EVERYTHING in the refrigerator and wash all the shelves, get rid of any leftovers; you don't have to do that, but it feels better to me to have it clean and organized (but I have been called OCDish before.) I also go through my freezer and make sure that we have eaten most of the meals that were part of the last Cooking Day. Whatever I have left, I put together so we can eat those first.
Here is my refrigerator ready before all the groceries enter the house for Cooking Day(s).
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| Refrigerator ready |
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| Freezer Ready (the 2nd shelf were meals we worked on eating during the time I cooked like a crazy person.) |
At this point, I have determined my meals I will be cooking and recipes and grocery lists have been printed. I normally pick about 20-25 meals that I want to make; often I end up doing a swap with friends, too...more on that some other time. Plus I make breakfast foods, too- the kiddos (and well the parents, too) have gotten quite spoiled now; we rarely eat cereal. Don't mistake that for breakfast takes a long time now- NOPE- same amount of time in the morning as a bowl of cereal!
NOW LET'S GROCERY SHOP. For Freezer Cooking I found it pretty much a necessity to go WITHOUT kids; I have to be able to think, plus it is A LOT of groceries. Normally, it is around 50 pounds of chicken, 20 pounds of ground turkey, plus whatever other meat is on the list. Most often, I go very early in the morning (at Sam's Club EARLY) or in the evening after the kids are settled in for the evening. That's what works best for my wonderful husband and I.
Here are pictures of my 'fridge and pantry ready to cook after grocery shopping. I put everything away and in its place before I start- some people don't. Because I work at it for several days, it would seem too chaotic for me to leave things out, but that's just ME!
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| The tricky part is trying to work out of this refrigerator as the cooking begins. |
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| The pantry- canned goods/non perishables go here until ready to be pulled for the recipes. |
All of the groceries are in and I need to organize the recipes I am using. I absolutely can NOT say enough about the
30 Meals in One Day program! If you are seriously going to freezer cook, this is something you won't regret.
I pull out all of the recipes that I have printed for my Cooking Day and sort them according to meat/dish type. Chicken,Ground turkey, pork, pasta, etc...
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| Piles of recipes sorted into meat/dish type |
After that, I decide which type to tackle first. Because chicken is the bulk of what we eat, this is where I normally start. I then divide those meals into how they are prepared. Will I need it precooked- shredded or cubed- or left uncooked for the recipe?
Then it is time to get the crockpots going (I have three.) I add chicken breasts to the crockpot, a little liquid and season with garlic pepper and onion. I turn the crockpot on low and let it cook- most of the time this is what I do the evening that I grocery shop and then let it cook all night long. (If I do it during the day, it cooks on high.)
In the morning, I removed it from the crockpot, allowed to cool slightly, and shredded, sliced, and cubed the amount of meat that I needed for my recipes. I poured all of the juices into 1 crockpot and put it into the refrigerator to allow it to cool, so that I could skim the fat off the top and have chicken broth for the recipes. (I later freezed whatever broth was left for another time!)
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My BIG Tupperware bowl filled to the brim with shredded chicken- ready to get the cooking going. (I forgot to take a picture of the cubed chicken and sliced chicken...cooked the same way and cubed or sliced for recipes.)
Now it is time to get down to assembling some recipes. I normally have 2-3 recipes going at once, I do one for the stove top- Bourbon(less) chicken, one for the crockpot-Teriyaki Chicken, and one that just needs assembled- Chicken Tortillas. That way while I am assembling one, the other 2 are cooking.
For assembly dishes- ones that will go from freezer to oven, I use disposable foil pans.
Things I have to reheat or put in the crockpot, I tend to use Freezer bags for those- they lay flat in the freezer very nicely to freeze and then are easy to stack.
A HINT:
When filling up freezer ziplocs, fold the top over, and this will avoid dripping juices all down the bag and getting the "seal" all yucky...sorry, I have a toddler...here's a picture of what I mean. Plus I put it into a big glass measuring cup so that I don't drop it as I fill it....wonder how I learned that trick. ;) Cleaning up a bag of chicken noodle soup makes me want to cry....
My chicken recipes this time were:
Chicken Parmesan
Chicken Fajitas
Chicken Cordon Bleu Bake
Tortilla Chicken
Teriyaki Chicken
Chicken Squares
Chicken Chili
And a few pictures...From Top to bottom: Bourbon(less) Chicken, the makings of Tortilla Chicken- the recipe actually calls for it to be layered like a lasagna- seems like too much work to me, so I mix up the filling and roll it like burritos, Chicken Squares- 2 crescent rolls pinched together and filled with chicken mixture, Baked Chicken Nuggets ready to be frozen, and the chicken for Chicken Parm browned. YUMMINESS!
When all of that chicken was done, I had 18 meals for my freezer, because some of the recipes I made double batches. It doesn't take much longer to double a recipe. YAY! Cooking done for over 2 weeks!
All of the chicken took me 2 evenings plus the night that it cooked, but does that really count, because I slept through it all?
Then comes the ground meat...crockpot again- YES! I cook my ground meat in the crockpot, too, and I put it in during the day, because I cook it on high and watch it throughout the day. While I am finishing up the chicken recipes, I throw it in the crockpot with some garlic pepper and minced onions, add some chicken broth or water to it- maybe a half a cup. I can cook 5 to 7.5 pounds of ground turkey in my crockpot at a time. That was all the cooked ground turkey I needed this time.
Credit goes to Once a Month Mom for the amazing tip on browning meat in a crockpot, a serious AHA moment for me!
I use Jennie-O's ground turkey, but I am contemplating trying ground chicken.
As it cooks, it kind of forms into a big blob- kinda gross really- and the first time I did I thought, "this is a big mistake." Enter the Pampered Chef tool- this thing is awesome. It really breaks up the meat nicely! When you are all finished browned meat with no mess and smelly kitchen, and you can keep going with your cooking as your meat cooks.
My recipes for this meat:
Taco Meat
Chili
Taco Cups
Savory Vegetable Beef Soup
I also made meatballs that I can take out of the freezer and throw in sauce or soups and be ready to go. These recipes took me an evening after the kids went to bed to wrap up. Another week and a half done!
The other recipes that I did were:
Ham and Cheese Casseroles
BBQ Pork Roast
Almost Ravioli
Easy Pizza Pasta
Pasta and Cheese Casserole
Pasta sauce
Oatmeal Pancakes I made these with blueberries this time, but we LOVE them with chocolate chips, too!
(here is a tutorial on how I freeze pancakes)
French Toast Sticks
Bacon, Egg, and Cheese Wraps (I used Canadian bacon cut into small pieces)
Egg and Cheese Muffins
Freezer Hash Browns
Low Fat Corn Muffins
Spinach Quiche
Candied Carrots
I told you I didn't keep up with pictures! :)
All of that is DONE and I now have a freezer FULL of breakfasts and dinners that should last me about 6 weeks! This makes me feel like a Proverbs 31 girl, pretty sure that my family might praise me from the streets a few times this month. Happy Cooking!
And my Freezer at the Start:
Although there are times during the process, I think WHY???? Like when I feel like I am doing the 4,532nd load of dishes...
And when I am feeling EXACTLY like she looks....I wonder if it is worth it?????
And my Freezer at the END!!!! THEN it is totally worth it. I <3 My Freezer Cooking!
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