I have missed out on participating in the last two Freezer Cooking Days that Money Saving Mom and Life as Mom do monthly. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t done anything!
Early in the summer, I purchased multiple pounds of ground beef and chicken breasts on sale. I had great intentions to cook them up like I usually do, but with summer and swimming and baseball playoffs, I found myself with what had been a great deal . . . threatening to turn into a big waste of money if I didn’t get it cooked up fast.
So, I dumped the ground beef, ALL of it (which I believe was around 7 lbs.) in the crockpot. I let it cook for the entire day and stirred it whenever I thought about it. I don’t recommend this method if you can do it another way, but in a pinch, it works. After about three hours, I turned the crockpot on high because I couldn’t tell at all that it was cooking, likely because of the huge amount of meat. It’s possible that this is a big no-no in the food safety world, but we’ve been eating it all summer, and so far, everyone’s alive.
(Just a note, if you have a blog about being a slob and you haven’t told your Mother-in-Law, don’t let hubby show her vacation photos on your digital camera until you’ve taken all blog-related pictures off. It’s a little hard to explain the shots of raw meat and dirty-laundry-piles.)
I also frantically trimmed up chicken breasts and put them in the oven to bake. Getting creative wasn’t an option, I just had to get it done.
And it worked! We’ve used the ground beef and chicken to make quick and easy meals all summer long, saving us from the temptation to grab something on the way home from the pool.
Now that another Freezer Cooking Days session is here, I’m looking forward to stocking up the freezer in preparation for school. My goal is to use involve my kids as much as possible. I hope that it will be a fun/educational/memory-making day for them. Forget bathroom cleaning, let’s make some oatmeal!
First, we need to make more breakfast pockets. I think that each child will be able to be involved in these, as the older ones can make the dough and the younger can participate in the assembly.
Second, I’ve always wanted to try Baked Oatmeal. I found this crazy-good-looking recipe over at 5 Dollar Dinners. I have one child who LOVES oatmeal, so I think this will be a good recipe for him to tackle, as it will allow for him to make some decisions about what kinds of goodies to put in it. (Decisions . . . very important to middle children.) I read through the comments on the recipe and it sounds like it will work to bake it, cool it, and slice it into individual squares to freeze.
I’m also planning to put my omelet-lover to work making muffin-tin-omelets. I know I’ve seen these in the blogosphere, but I’m having trouble finding a recipe. If you know of one, please share! I’m willing to experiment, but would love to have some guidelines.
Last, and yes, least . . . I’d like to make some banana bread. I’m willing to nix that idea if time gets away from us, but I have some bananas that will be ready, and I’d love to use them.
Stay tuned for a report on how all of this goes, and to see if my recipes were as kid-helper-friendly as I thought!
Check out more Freezer Cooking Plans at Money Saving Mom.
This isn't what you asked, but here is my baked oatmeal recipe which the 3YO and I have been eating the heck out of all summer. I don't cut it into squares (although maybe you could?) but I scrape it out with a spoon and eat it like cereal with milk. I add strawberries and blueberries to mine and am in heaven! (Eating it right now, actually…) Haven't tried freezing it because the 3YO and I can eat through it within 3 days. :>)
Oooh! A girl after my own heart! I put 80 meals in our freezer in July, and wrote a four part series of articles on this very subject. If you want to check out some of my recipes, I have been putting them into a .pdf format on my blog. Come visit and see if any of them look good to you!
Those breakfast pockets look DELISH, I am off to check out your recipe!
A tip for explaining weird blog-related photos…"Oh, I let (insert name of youngest kid here) take some pictures to keep her entertained while I was sorting laundry/cooking/trying to see, for research purposes only, what my house would look like if I had been robbed."
Raw meat wouldn't make my mother-in-law bat an eyelash — she's seen some of the other pics I've taken just for fun, so nothing phases her now. Well… except maybe the pics of the dirty dishes! 😉