Freezer Cooking - Third Time's a Charm!

This freezer cooking thing just keeps enticing me to do more.  I currently have 32 meals in my freezer and I've been holding off doing any more because I am hoping to have some venison and maybe some turkey to add to my freezer this fall.  But, I have been scoping out deals on meats at the local grocery stores and also have some great produce to use, so I decided I'd do a "small" session and make just 8 more meals.

First step:

Find & Organize your Recipes.

I found some more great recipes through facebook, pinterest, the Pioneer Woman, and various other blogs & sites I scoured for freezer recipes.

Here are the recipes and my shopping list for this smaller venture:

Recipes:  click here

Shopping List:  click here

Second Step:

SHOP!

As usual, I start in my own cabinets because who knows what I've accumulated on sale that would work for some of the recipes!  I especially like to be able to check off the seasonings and canned goods.  I pick up canned items that I use a lot at discount stores for CHEAP prices whenever I see something useful.  

So, after checking out my own cabinets, I headed to a few local stores to score sale prices and had to end up going to Meijer for a few cuts of meat that I couldn't find cheaply locally.  Total cost of these shopping trips was $71.77.  I used 8 recipes and got 10 meals so that comes to $7.18 per meal.  For my family of 4 (sometimes 5 if my stepson is over) that comes out to $1.79 per person! 

Here's the haul:

All the goods! :)

Third Step:

Prep it!

I printed the recipes and chopped them apart to tape onto the freezer bags.  I liked this better last time than hand-writing everything onto the ziplock bags with a sharpie that can rub off or smudge.    Label everything before you start!

Again, I double-bagged everything to prevent freezer burn.  And if I had a casserole-type of dish, I'm using my new freezer trays!

The labeling!  And trying out my new Glad OvenWare!

Prepping the Enchiladas involves cooking the roast so it can be shredded.  The author of the recipe puts the roast in while she's sleeping and then in the morning it's ready to go for her meal prepping.  That's a good idea!  

Fourth Step:

Load up the Freezer & Clean Up!

Now I have 42 meals ready to go in my freezer!  I'm hoping these will last us until at least a break at school or a long weekend so that I will have energy to make more meals.  I know that once the school year starts, I will have NO energy or time to cook like a crazy person! :) 

Packed, messy freezer!  I need to reorganize once all is frozen!

Now, I just need to organize my freezer and put some easy-to-read labels on them all so we can get to them quickly!  Any tips on that would be greatly appreciated!

Salad in a Jar

I tried an idea I saw on Pinterest.  I made some layered salads in glass jars.

The original plan called for wide mouth mason jars, but I used some spaghetti jars that I had on hand and they are working out great.

The idea is to have dressing on the bottom, cheese and solid items next, the the lettuce on the top.  Lettuce can't touch the dressing or else it will wilt.  They original post also used a scrap of paper towel at the top to wick away any condensation that may accumulate.

I made these on a Thursday and they are still fresh & crispy on Monday, 4 days after making them.

The idea is that I could make these on Sunday and have lunch for the work week!  Love it!

Freezer Cooking - TAKE TWO!

I completed my first foray in freezer cooking on Sunday night and I just couldn't get it out of my head.  :)  I have some serious obsessive issues and once I get my mind hooked on something, I have a hard time shutting it off.  

That being said, Monday morning, I found 15 more recipes to try and made a 2nd shopping list.  The kiddos had been wanting to go see "Despicable Me 2" and I thought that if we were heading to the movies, it'd be a perfect time to stock up on my groceries!

First Step:
Find & Organize Your Recipes.

Again, I started by going through my own recipes and also scoured Pinterest for some new and easy ones! 

Here are the recipes and my shopping list for this venture:
Recipes:  click here
Shopping List:  click here

Second Step:
Shopping.

Again, I started out by looking through my own cabinets and fridge / freezer.  Part of why I wanted to do another cooking session so quickly was because I had bought onions, potatoes, carrots, and some other fresh ingredients that I didn't use all of.  My goal was to use those up quickly so that they wouldn't go bad.

So, my lovely husband agreed (or at least didn't put up a huge fuss) to make another trip to Aldi's and we made it out of there for $127.65.  I did have to stop at Meijer to get a few meats and a bag of frozen veggies that weren't available at Aldi.  In total, it was probably close to $140.00 which works out to be $9.33 per meal or $2.33 per person, per meal.  A bit more than my first trip, but I had to buy more meats this time since I had used up some of my stuff in the last cooking venture.  Still at $2.33 per person, we are eating very inexpensively and we are eating healthier than what we may have ended up doing at the last minute.

Here's the haul!

Super Shoppers!

I should probably add that I am not a health-nut.  My main goal in cooking is to know what goes into our food and to have a few simple ingredients.  I do rely on "cream" soups and I know some people have mixed feelings (or flat-out hatred) for these soups, but they work for me.  I have seen an alternative recipe on Pinterest though that I may try sometime.  (Does anyone have experience with it or other alternatives?)  So, if you think some of my recipes are horribly unhealthy, feel free to keep that comment to yourself.  :-)

Third Step:
Prep It!

This time I printed out the recipes and used packaging tape to attach them to the freezer bags.  I was worried that some of the marker might come off and then poor hubby won't know what to do to cook the food.  I did this right away before I got started chopping or mixing anything.

Printed recipe taped on bags.

Again, I double-bagged everything.  I also tried a method of using foil which I read on another blog:  Put foil inside of a baking dish, fill with the casserole, cover, and then put in the freezer for about 30 minutes to solidify a bit. At that point, you can take the foil-wrapped casserole out of the pan and put it in a ziploc, so you aren't leaving a pan in the freezer. Double wrapping also helps prevent freezer burn. Then, to bake, you can just put the whole foil wrapped package inside the pan.

I also found another idea for freezing casseroles.  I bought some of these little trays and will give them a try next time.  Check them out here!  These little trays can be frozen and then can go right into the oven.  Right now, I have things in bags and they will have to be poured into a baking dish.  Skipping a step for hubby will make him happy!

The other thing I did differently this time was to boil a big stock pot of water and boil chicken in it while I worked on other recipes.  This way I had home-made chicken stock and also had cooked chicken to work with rather than raw chicken which made me much happier.  I also convinced Nick to brown all of the ground beef for me while I worked on other recipes.  This made assembly faster for me, too.  


So, I chopped, mixed, measured, and added ingredients to bags and foils and prepped another set of 15 recipes.  Some of the recipes even made double batches, which was even more exciting to me! :)

I'm super excited to eat some of these meals.  They were really smelling good when I was prepping them.  The chicken spaghetti recipe is adapted from the Pioneer Woman recipe.  It was DELICIOUS!


Fourth Step:
Load up the Freezer & Clean up!

So, at this point it was around 3 am and I was just loading up the freezer.  I was so tired, but so very happy.  We now have 32 meals waiting for us when life gets busy (which is always these days!).  I have really enjoyed the process of making a bunch of recipes at a time and making meals ahead.  I hope that throughout the school year I will be able to do this a few times, also, to keep us on the right track.  

New recipes on top, last 15 at very bottom.

My sister let me know about a magazine she saw at the drugstore.  I picked it up while I was at the grocery store, too!  I've already read through it and have some ideas for next time!  There are also some good guidelines for freezing and lengths of time to keep things frozen.  It will be a handy resource to me in the future!

Yum!

My First Adventure in Freezer Cooking

Yesterday I made a batch of 15 freezer meals.  This has been about 1 year in the making.  It was one of those things that sounded really great, but I hadn't found the energy, time, and organization to make it happen. 

I had been "pinning" things on Pinterest for quite some time about freezer cooking, but often times the recipes didn't seem like anything my family would eat.  With a 2 and a 4 year old, we aren't too adventurous.  They eat pretty well and try everything I give them, but many of the posts I found on Pinterest were for soups and things like that which my little kids have a hard time eating.  So, this past week, something spurred me to finally get my behind in gear and get this done!

Step 1:

Find recipes and create a shopping list.

For me, I was getting very tired of the recipes we use typically, so I went to Pinterest again and looked through recipes I had "pinned" and then also looked through my recipe book for things I haven't made in a while.  I ended up with 15 recipes that I thought my kids would eat and enjoy.  

I also go for SIMPLE.  I'm not a chef by any means, so if there were crazy ingredients or steps, it was out for me.  You can see my recipes below.  On my shopping list, I put the # of the recipe behind each ingredient so I knew which recipe it went with.  I also made the list a CHECKLIST for easy check-off in the grocery store!

I don't remember all of the sites where I found the recipes.  These recipes are definitely NOT my own.  I would copy from a website, paste it into my word doc, then list out the ingredients on my other document to make my shopping list.  I do not take credit for any of these recipes!

You can click on this link and see my recipes.

You can click on this link and see my shopping list.

Step 2:

SHOP!

I had my list, I had my goal, I was ready to go!  (You will need lots of gallon size bags!  Those weren't on my list, but I picked them up.)

The first place I shopped was in my own cabinets.  I knew I had most of the seasonings and basics (which is partly why I chose these recipes) so I went through my stuff first.  This is also a great way to use up what's in your cabinets.  If you bought a crazy can of something (or if your husband did the shopping and brought home something you'll never use), try to find a recipe that will use it up!

Next, I headed to "Aldi".  I was amazed, but I was able to find everything (except cubed steak) at Aldi (plus a few other groceries) and my total bill was only $114.37.  This works out to be about $7.62 per meal or $1.90 per person per meal.  Can't beat that, even at McDonalds!!!!!!!!!!!

Aldi had a great selection of vegetables and meats.  I was very surprised!  I don't usually have that much success at Aldi, but this time was a GOLD MINE! :)

When I got home, I unloaded my spread.........

My haul!

Step 3:

BUILD UP THE COURAGE TO PREPARE IT!

Try to find a time where you won't be interrupted constantly.  It will go faster!  I started at nap-time, but had to take a break for dinner, snuggles, and swimming!  I got the most done during nap-time, without my kiddos running around!

The first thing I did (after reading many posts on Pinterest about how to do this!) was to label my gallon bags.  I double-bagged everything.  I was worried about freezer burn.  I wrote the name & cooking directions on a big gallon-sized bag and then got busy putting ingredients together!

My labeled bags and recipes, ready to go!

Step 4:

CHOP, MIX, PREP, SEAL!

I don't have any pics of this part because I'm super-anal and take forever in the kitchen, so taking pictures wouldn't have been good for me.  I had 1 cutting board & knife for veggies, 1 cutting board & knife for meats, a station for bag filling, and a station for "finished" bags to lay flat.

Again, I double bagged everything.  I also tried to be sure I got all of the air out of the bags before I sealed them.  I HATE freezer burn.  After this, I might have to invest in some sort of food sealer.  Anyone have experience with one?

I even put the amounts of chicken or beef stock in quart-size bags and added those to the meals so that I would be sure I had the ingredients I needed on the day it was cooked.  Most likely, my husband will be throwing these meals together in the crock pot, so I'm going for as easy as possible so he doesn't get frustrated!

The only thing I didn't add was the dark beer.  Mainly because I don't have any dark beer, but also because I have never frozen beer and I'm not sure how that would turn out.  I have frozen chicken stock, wine, etc., and have never had any problems so I was confident enough to freeze those.

Step #5:

Load up the Freezer & Clean Up!

Last step!!!  I have a large, upright freezer that we purchased off of Craigslist about 13 months ago, just before we moved.  We haven't actually ever used it yet, but I was excited to finally get it filled up.

I put my bagged meals on metal cookie sheets to help them freeze as flat as possible.  I wanted to try to take up as little space as possible.  Once they are frozen solid, I will reclaim my cookie sheets.

Here is my freezer with 15 meals ready to go!  I also froze some extra carrots and chopped sweet potatoes.  I figured we would use those as side dishes for some meals.  I double-bagged those, too.

Now, I'm going to start planning my next batch to make!  I'm so excited about my shopping experience at Aldi and I'm so proud of myself for actually getting this done that I can't wait to do it again!  Now, I just hope the food tastes good on the day we cook it! :)

15 meals freezing away! 

FINAL NOTE:
The very last thing I am going to do is to create a list on the outside of the freezer of all of the meals that are in the freezer.  When we eat one, I will cross it off so that we know what we have left.  Now, I just have to find something cute to make this out of!