We just returned from dinner out, and I saw that Money Saving Mom has her link-up posted for Freezer Cooking Day.
Honestly, it doesn’t feel like I spent much time cooking, but I did everything on my list. I think I’m a great example of how you can use “freezer cooking” to make your life easier without devoting an entire day to it.
Wednesday night I browned all 12 lbs. of the ground beef that I had purchased that day. I did it while I would be cooking supper anyway. I then used a pound or so of it to make tacos.
Thursday night I trimmed the 14 lbs. of chicken breasts and divided them into ziploc bags for the freezer. This way, they’ll be easy to pop into the crockpot or thaw to do whatever with them, since they’ve already had all the nasty stuff cut off. And I put the “nasty stuff” in a skillet and cooked it for our dog. She loves it, I don’t feel like I’m wasting it, and it keeps us from having raw chicken scraps that stink up the trash.
After trimming the chicken, I made a Chinese Chicken Stir-fry (recipe w/pics coming soon on that). I initially seasoned it with only garlic and onion so that I could do double what we needed and have some to freeze. Seasoned that way, it can go into tortilla soup, on top of spinach artichoke pizza, or used to make another stir-fry in minutes.
I also started a crock-pot of 2 lbs. of beans yesterday afternoon. I put it on low, and it wasn’t done until lunchtime today. I was a little surprised that it took so long, but they turned out fine. Once they fully cooled, I divided them into quart sized freezer bags and put them in the freezer.
Although I have done some more intensive freezer cooking projects, this is generally how I do things. I use a normal supper-cooking time, somewhat extended, to do some extra work that will make it easy to throw future meals together in minutes.
Check out more freezer cooking posts at Money Saving Mom.
That's exactly how I like to freezer cook, too. Works great! If I actually have to brown a package of hamburger for a meal, it feels like I'm tripling my work. :>)
I do the cook one and freeze two or three method instead of one big day. I made lemon bars and Swedish Pancakes yesterday. Yum!
Love your list!
Great ideas. I have no idea why I don't do this. I plan my meals but never precook the meat and with a family of six I should be!
Love the new blog design.
I do that too, except that I put the food in jars and can it. If I have enough for two canners full, then I feel like I have really accomplished something! One meal to eat and 14 quart jars of fast food.
Pre-cooking meat is a great idea. I’m not a germaphobe, but I’m really, really disturbed by raw meat. I often tell my mom and sister that I’m going to be a half-vegetarian when I live alone. 🙂 Maybe making one germy mess to cover several meals would be better than dealing with it each time.
I bought 10 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breast on sale the other day. I trimmed it all, boiled half for your various shredded chicken meals and cooked the other half on the gas grill with Penzey’s Galena Street rub (Penzey’s has great spices – for reasonable prices if you buy them in larger quantities in bags and just refill your own jars.) After it was cooked, I cut it all up into serving size portions, bagged it in cheap bags which I then put all together into good freezer bags labelled with a marker. And it didn’t take that long. And I have stuff for quick meals now that will actually be healthy. And it’s all because of you and your blog.