I think there's an unwritten rule that if you blog, you must blog about your freezer cooking. (That's getting a bunch of meals into the freezer for ease of meal-planning in the future, for those of you who might not follow "mommy life" blogs regularly.) Therefore, I present to you: my first blog on freezer cooking.
I've only done it seriously three times before -- November 2009, November 2010, and April 2011 -- so it's not like I'm a pro or anything. In the past, I've invited a friend over, made a master list, shopped for a huge pile of groceries, and spent 4-5 hours in the kitchen completing the master list. It's really fun (if you like to cook, as I do), and it's been especially helpful to always have my husband hanging around to watch children and pop in to wash dishes. It's also, however, a little stressful: a long half-day, a lot of things to keep track of, and the details of splitting a grocery bill, the cooked food, etc.
Occasionally I cook a double-batch of whatever's for dinner and stick half in the freezer, which works, but this week I decided to concentrate a whole week on stocking the freezer, making 1-2 dishes a day. I did what I could when I could, between naps and nursing and everything else. Here's what I've done so far (with a few things still left on my list):
Tuesday: boiled two chickens a few hours each, yielding 10 cups of cooked chicken and nearly 15 cups of broth
Wednesday: seasoned a pound of ground turkey for sausage, then combined it with some hashbrowns already in the freezer and some other ingredients to make a breakfast casserole; roasted a cut of brisket and simmered some homemade barbecue sauce for pulled sandwiches (both recipes from a cookbook); sent a batch of hamburger buns through the bread machine and oven (causing me no slight consternation when I realized I needed the buns and the brisket in the oven at the same time)
Thursday: used some of the cooked chicken to make a big pot of chicken tortilla soup, some of which we ate for dinner that night; used more cooked chicken to make chicken enchiladas (both recipes from the same cookbook)
Friday: mashed a 3-lb. bag of potatoes and put together a cottage pie using ground beef from the freezer (from a great sale at Meijer last month)
Still ahead, I hope to season more of that abundance of ground beef for taco meat (adding the same amount in lentils, to stretch it further and health-ify it), whip up an orange-teriyaki marinade, and get some freezer-friendly baked oatmeal ready to go.
The reason for the big freezer-filling push? My husband is taking the last two weeks of August off. Two whole weeks! We're not going anywhere (besides day trips), because for me, life is not relaxing if my babies are missing naps and bedtimes, and we all sleep better in our own house. We'll eat out quite a bit, but it's just plain easier to stay home. With the freezer filled, I won't have to spend my vacation cooking! (Though, to be honest, I do love to cook, and I almost don't mind if I do have to do it over vacation.)
Truthfully, I'm not sure which method -- an intensive half-day, or a bits-and-pieces week -- I prefer. It was nice to base my list off of ingredients I had on hand, without worrying about another family's budget or preferences (though, with that, too, I'm super detail-oriented and enjoy the planning part). I felt no stress over not finishing a planned list, since I gave myself plenty of time to work on little projects. On the other hand, my kitchen was a mess all day every day (until Isaac cleaned it after dinner . . . bless that man!). And, there's something to be said for the camaraderie of women in the kitchen, chatting and measuring and laughing and stirring. On my own, it was a productive and economical -- but somewhat lonely -- endeavor.
I've only done it seriously three times before -- November 2009, November 2010, and April 2011 -- so it's not like I'm a pro or anything. In the past, I've invited a friend over, made a master list, shopped for a huge pile of groceries, and spent 4-5 hours in the kitchen completing the master list. It's really fun (if you like to cook, as I do), and it's been especially helpful to always have my husband hanging around to watch children and pop in to wash dishes. It's also, however, a little stressful: a long half-day, a lot of things to keep track of, and the details of splitting a grocery bill, the cooked food, etc.
Occasionally I cook a double-batch of whatever's for dinner and stick half in the freezer, which works, but this week I decided to concentrate a whole week on stocking the freezer, making 1-2 dishes a day. I did what I could when I could, between naps and nursing and everything else. Here's what I've done so far (with a few things still left on my list):
Tuesday: boiled two chickens a few hours each, yielding 10 cups of cooked chicken and nearly 15 cups of broth
Wednesday: seasoned a pound of ground turkey for sausage, then combined it with some hashbrowns already in the freezer and some other ingredients to make a breakfast casserole; roasted a cut of brisket and simmered some homemade barbecue sauce for pulled sandwiches (both recipes from a cookbook); sent a batch of hamburger buns through the bread machine and oven (causing me no slight consternation when I realized I needed the buns and the brisket in the oven at the same time)
Thursday: used some of the cooked chicken to make a big pot of chicken tortilla soup, some of which we ate for dinner that night; used more cooked chicken to make chicken enchiladas (both recipes from the same cookbook)
Friday: mashed a 3-lb. bag of potatoes and put together a cottage pie using ground beef from the freezer (from a great sale at Meijer last month)
Still ahead, I hope to season more of that abundance of ground beef for taco meat (adding the same amount in lentils, to stretch it further and health-ify it), whip up an orange-teriyaki marinade, and get some freezer-friendly baked oatmeal ready to go.
The reason for the big freezer-filling push? My husband is taking the last two weeks of August off. Two whole weeks! We're not going anywhere (besides day trips), because for me, life is not relaxing if my babies are missing naps and bedtimes, and we all sleep better in our own house. We'll eat out quite a bit, but it's just plain easier to stay home. With the freezer filled, I won't have to spend my vacation cooking! (Though, to be honest, I do love to cook, and I almost don't mind if I do have to do it over vacation.)
Truthfully, I'm not sure which method -- an intensive half-day, or a bits-and-pieces week -- I prefer. It was nice to base my list off of ingredients I had on hand, without worrying about another family's budget or preferences (though, with that, too, I'm super detail-oriented and enjoy the planning part). I felt no stress over not finishing a planned list, since I gave myself plenty of time to work on little projects. On the other hand, my kitchen was a mess all day every day (until Isaac cleaned it after dinner . . . bless that man!). And, there's something to be said for the camaraderie of women in the kitchen, chatting and measuring and laughing and stirring. On my own, it was a productive and economical -- but somewhat lonely -- endeavor.
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