A Month of Meals: Freezer Cooking Day

We have our menu, our recipes, and have done our shopping. Now it is time for food prep. What I love about this particular menu is that the food prep is so incredibly easy. Most of the items are already frozen. All you have to do is put the ingredients in the bag and you are ready to go. I did my freezer cooking in just under 2 hours from beginning till the last hand washed dish was dried.The first thing you will want to do if you are following my menu is cook your ground meat. This is the only actual cooking involved in our freezer cooking day. You will want to drain it and also let it cool before putting it into the bags. While you are waiting for the meat to cook start writing up your bags. I label them with their name, special instructions like adding water or what to serve it over, the date, and cooking instructions.

Once you are ready to put the food in the bags you want to do two things. First puff up the bag and zip it shut. gently squeeze to make sure there are no holes in the bag. We had a major mess on my mom's white table cloth because half a bottle of BBQ sauce gushed out of a hole in one of our bags. You live and you learn, right. Second flip the zip top out. This helps the bag to stand on it's own and hold the mouth of the bag open.

Now it is just a matter of tossing the ingredients in the bags. This menu is well designed for freezing. With just a bit of work you will have those quick and easy frozen meals we all love the convenience of using. In this 2 hours you will have 26 meals done for the month, just heat and serve. Okay, some of them will be served on rice or pasta, but that is quick and easy to whip up.

Now is the time for your questions! Ask in the comments or where ever you have seen this series. Tomorrow I will answer all your questions and link back to all the posts in case you missed one. See you then!

You can find the rest of the series here.

Easy Cooking

Freezer cooking, it is all the rage in homemaking right now! I only have 1 small freezer to work with so I don't have space for pre-made pans and typical pop it in the oven packages. We did store away 16 meals and some pancakes in the last week though and I am looking forward to having less prep in the kitchen in November. Here is a shot of my little stash...

I will start at the top left:

Veggie Soup
Pre-chopped cabbage, onion, carrots, and potato. This will go in the crock pot for 6-8 hours on low with a large can of tomato sauce and water to top it off, seasonings too.

Pork Stir fry
Pre-chopped carrot, cabbage, and onion and a baggie of cut and cooked pork. This one will get stir fried and go on rice.

Broccoli Beef Pasta
Chopped broccoli and cooked and cut beef in another baggie. This one is tossed with pasta when cooked.

Creamy Chicken Potato Soup
Cut potatoes and chicken. This will go in the crock pot for 6-8 hours with 2 cans of cream of chicken and water to top it off, seasonings too.

Then there are freezie pops, great for winter fevers, and about a dozen packets of pancakes for Adam to take with him to work on those 5 am days.

Honestly, We are winging it! I came up with an idea for what to put in each bag and we did it. Will it urn out? Who knows! We have fun experimenting in our kitchen and have really gotten a knack for cooking with whatever we happen have available. What do you like to pre make?