Yesterday afternoon I spent a little time putting dinners together and into my freezer. Have you ever heard of Once-a-Month-Cooking? It has been a long time since I have taken the time to do it. Most of the meals did not require any cooking, just the mixing of ingredients or marinades. With the help of my husband and children we spent about 2 hours making the following meals and putting them in the freezer:
- Meatloaf (enough for 2 dinners)
- Shake and Bake Chicken
- Meatball Sub Casserole
- Mini pizzas (enough for 2 dinners)
- Chicken Supreme
- Italian Chicken
- Stir Fry (enough for 3 dinners)
- Chicken and Dumplings
- Ham Roast
- Beef Pot Roast with Marinade
- Barbeque Chicken
- Green Chicken Enchiladas
That’s a total of 16 meals. Several of the recipes are new to us, so we chose not to double very many just yet. I also have lots of my homemade crock pot beans in the freezer, two turkeys (and one thawing to bake this week) and plenty of veggies to steam for sides. For some of the meals I will toss rice in the rice cooker that morning to be ready any time we want to eat it. For others we will simply pair it with some fruit and homemade bread. Each of the meals cooks in the oven or the crock pot. No mixing up ingredients and making a mess of the kitchen at dinner time. It’s going to be wonderful!
Have you ever done freezer cooking? Do you have a favorite recipe to share (remember, no recipes with eggs please, we’re allergic!)? Do you want me to post the recipes for any of the meals we made? Leave a comment and let me know!
7 comments:
Could you share some of your recipes? I am due w/ baby #7 this August and would love to stock pile my freezers and actually it would be nice to have them now. I still have a lot of days where I feel yucky and it would be nice to pull something from the freezer. I love your blog. Thank!
Me and another homeschool mom are doing this Saturday. I have done it alone quite a few times but it will be fun to have a partner. I am doing in prepearation for morning sickness:)
Yep, I'll share the recipes, hopefully next weekend Brandi. Congratualtions on the babies ladies!
And Julie, I think it would be a lot of fun doing it with a friend. It was interesting to do it with hubby and the kids. ;)
Do you find that you save money in freezing dinners ahead time instead of going week to week? I know it definitely saves time but I was just curious if it happened to help within your budget as well. :)
B.J. -
Yes, I do find that I can save money when cooking this way because I can buy bulk packages of ingredients, which brings the cost per ounce down. For example, I bought 10 lbs of boneless, skinless chicken breast for $1.78/lb instead of a much smaller package for $3.00/lb. And that was not even on sale, just a regular price.
Of course, even if I'm not doing freezer cooking I buy food in bulk and use my freezer, so I can often get these prices even if I'm not cooking ahead. I also watch for great sale prices on items I already buy and stock up. I shop at Aldi for a lot of food and that saves me a lot of money. For an example of stocking up that doesn't really involve freezer cooking, I bought 3 cases of pumpkin puree at Thanksgiving from Aldi for about $1.10 a can. We've never been able to get pumpkins to grow well in our garden, and we use it a few times a month in muffins. WalMart had pumpkin puree for $1.50. And once they run out it will not be stocked on the shelves again until the following October (I know, I watched all year for it to come back!)
So the long answer is yes, it saves me money and time.
I want to do more freezer cooking. :) I'm notorious for not planning ahead and then panicking at the last minute. Freezer cooking would make those days so much easier to get through!
I'm jealous of your freezer. LOL
I love, love, love freezer cooking! It's like a savings account of food :) Like food storage, but more "liquid" in that it's easy to get to and already put together. It's late, I'm probably not making sense.
Anyway, my favorite recipes are ones from Once A Month Mom (blog), and the books Fix, Freeze, Feast, and Don't Panic! Dinner's in the Freezer. Since buying those they've also both come out with a second book by the same name. I highly recommend!
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