I consider it quite fortuitous that Money Saving Mom is hosting another Freezer Cooking Day at the exact same time that I need to do some freezer-cooking anyway.
I was almost completely out of meat , and today was very happy to find that both boneless/skinless chicken breasts and 93% lean ground beef were on sale at my buy-price of 1.99/lb.
Tonight I plan to brown all 12 lbs of ground beef. If you read this post where I explain my method (or madness) you’ll see how I often also pre-cook some patties, but for time’s sake, I will just brown it this time. This will make it possible to have lots of easy meals in the future.
Tomorrow I plan to trim and separate into dinner sized portions all 14 lbs of chicken breasts. I’ll cook enough for supper tomorrow night and at least two more meals worth to freeze for quick and easy suppers. If we have already grilled chicken breasts in the freezer, I can make a quick side and have supper ready in minutes so we can get to all the baseball practices and games coming up next month.
I also plan to cook a crock-pot full of beans. We’ll have them tomorrow night with our supper and then I’ll freeze the rest in quart sized freezer bags to add to taco soup or other meals in the future.
For breakfasts, I’ll slice up some more bananas to freeze and bag portions of my “ready-to-go” smoothies that I posted about yesterday.
I also recently made another batch of 30 ham-egg-and-cheese breakfast pockets. I used ham this time instead of bacon, since it was on sale. They turned out quite ugly since I forgot to flour the surface when I rolled out the dough, but according to hubby they’re perfectly fine. He has really been enjoying having them for breakfasts. As he says, “They’re power-packed.”
As the weather is warming up, I can feel myself relaxing as I anticipate the glorious freedom of summertime. Of course, in this journey to get my home under control, I do fear that the lack of routine in the summer will undo some of the progress I’ve made. But I’m thinking a lot about how I can adjust and keep the progress going. I’ll be sharing some of my ideas soon.
One thing I know from experience is that the best way to combat chaos in the kitchen is to have pre-cooked chicken and beef ready to go in the freezer, making supper-prep so much easier and excuse-proof.
Go check out more freezer cooking plans at Money Saving Mom.
I soooo want to try a freezer cooking/prep day, but I am scared. Isn't that silly? It just seems so overwhelming to me.
Nony, I live for the summers with my kids! Make yourself a daily schedule. Mine is hour by hour. If you do tasks on a certain day every week, incorporate the kids in whatever capacity you can. My kids know that they have to help with the housework, but then I will concentrate on them and we will have fun. They are so used to the schedule, there are no complaints. I buy some extras that make their tasks easier (scrub brushes and dusters with long handles, etc. And, I'm working right along side them, so we are doing it together. I don't ask a thing of them that I'm not willing to do myself. We have a lot of fun. You can do it!!
I keep forgetting to mention that I love the new look! I also have been meaning to ask about your shoe shelves – how do you synch that with wet, muddy shoes? (I've been wondering since winter, just not remembering to ask.) :>)
Lenetta, thanks so much! I'm loving the new layout too. SOOOO glad blogger provided a few new options. About the shoes, we generally leave them in the garage, or maybe the tiled entryway, if they're wet. I've never really thought much about it. We don't have a lot of snow around here, so it's not too bad. When we did have a lot of snow, the entryway was filled with rubber boots drying. Not exactly a plan.
Anon, I'm working on some ideas for doing better in the summer. We just tend to have so much fun that staying consistent with any kind of cleaning schedule never happens. Of course, I've never had a very consistent cleaning schedule anyway, so hopefully this year will be much better!
Mama Hen, as you can see, I don't do anything fancy for freezer cooking. I just try to cook my meats ahead and that makes supper prep so much quicker and easier, and still allows for me to be spontaneous. I remember my MIL assuming that I meant casseroles when I said I had cooked ahead and frozen stuff before baby #2 came. YOu might just try cooking a double portion of some of your favorite meals that you think would freeze well. That's pretty much how I got started. I doubled a recipe of our favorite soup, Tortilla Soup, and then I realized how much I loved having it ready to go on a night when I didn't feel like cooking.