Freezer Cooking - My First Shot at This!


What are these you ask?  My first attempt at freezer cooking, that's what!

Those, my friends, are three pork stir fry packets, meat on top and then veggies.  All frozen and ready to cook up on our stir fry pan for a quick easy meal with some rice and fruit.

Now that school is in full swing for all 4 of us, life is officially Busy (yes, with a capital B!).  And since John is doing the cooking 3 nights a week now, I wanted to make it easy on him, since he's working 40+ hours a week (usually it's 50+) and taking 3 classes this semester!  So I decided we needed some things that we can just pull out of the freezer and cook.

Now, I don't care much for 'freezer' foods - casseroles, meatloaf and things like that are just not typically on the menu. Oh, they're okay once in a while, but not on a daily basis.  Also, I really dislike the texture of bread that has been frozen, so baking my bread in advance is out (though that would have saved me a LOT of time!). 

So what's a girl to do? 

Here's the game plan:

  • Three packets of pork stir fry mix (meat and veggies) Done! (pictured above!)

  • Four packs of chicken stir fry mix (meat and veggies)

  • Two packets of beef stir fry mix (meat and veggies)

  • Two packets of shrimp stir fry mix (shrimp and veggies)

  • Leftover veggies into veggie stir fry packets (number to come...)

  • 3 whole pizzas to freeze (half cheese and half veggie/chicken)

  • 4 small cheese pizzas

  • 4 BBQ chicken, broccoli and onion calzones

  • 4 veggie calzones

  • chicken broth

  • 16 bean soup with ham stock

  • 6 packets diced grilled chicken (for salads and such)

  • tomato sauce (in the crock pot)

  • granola

  • 4 packets oatmeal muffin mix

  • 4 packets baking powder biscuit mix

  • 2 packets cornbread mix

  • 3 packets pancake mix

  • Oatmeal M&M Cookies
A very ambitious list I do realize.  I think it's manageable. 

Why?
The stir fry packets only require cutting and bagging, not actual cooking. 
Similarly, the pizzas and calzones require making the dough, cutting the toppings and assembling, not actual cooking. 
The dry mixes just require bagging and adding a typed card (which I already have) with the remainder of the recipe on it. 
The broth, soup and tomato sauce are done in the crock pot (and I can let that run overnight if I need to). 
And I actually like making the granola - and it's easy, something that is easy to mix, just long to cook.

The cookies are the only real 'cooking' I have to do and they really aren't for the freezer - just a nice treat for the kids and John for lunch next week.

My plan is to work on this little bit by little bit over the next week in my snippets of time (and after I buy another 2 5lb bags of flour and hit the farmer's market for some more veggies).  I'll update at the end of the week so you can see what all got done!

Are you trying out or an old pro at freezer cooking?  You can share your Freezer Cooking Plan at Money Saving Mom!

Popular posts from this blog

Frugal Friday - The End of 2016

Image
Another spectacular sunrise - we were so very spoiled by these this year!  I enjoyed every one of them! Nothing like completely forgetting I had a blog for month, right?  I didn't forget about everyone - I promise.   December ended up being ridiculously busy and very spare moment was spent with family and friends and on grading, as the term ended not that long ago.    My parents were visiting for 3 weeks (they returned home to sunny and slightly warmer Texas yesterday) and the children had their Sunday school program, their school Christmas program, and a school fun-day to end the term and John had 3 funerals and two graveside burials.  Then there's always the rush of Christmas and all the services that comes with being a Pastor's family.  I am very, very ready for a quiet start to the new year! I have some New Year's posts already planned and partially written, so look for those next week.  In the meantime, here are som...
Read more

Menu Plan Monday - Week of January 17, 2021

Image
Peas from my garden last summer.  We are cold and snowy with a lot of ice right now!  Not my favorite weather.  So, to cheer myself up I am starting to plan my garden for next summer!  I am hoping that I will be able to grow at least enough tomatoes and cutting flowers for both my parents (who are moving 1 1/2 blocks away from us in about 2 months - hurray!) and our house as well.   I am so grateful that we have 1/5 acre lot for our home that we can grow vegetables flowers and (currently) a single tree.  It makes me so happy and provides some very fresh produce for our family.  I love the physical act of gardening, both flowers and vegetables, and I love the taste of vegetables fresh from the garden.  A win-win in my book for sure! The name of the game this week is to eat up as much of the fresh stuff as we can so it's easy to move the refrigerator downstairs for our remodel.  They start knocking out walls and cutting holes in the outsid...
Read more

Menu Plan Monday and a Little Shopping

Image
Our CSA boxes have looked pretty much like this the last two weeks - though in varying amounts and this last week we got green onions too.  Here we have in the front row: Broccoli, raspberries, green & purple beans, and peas.  Back Row: Lettuce, cucumbers, cauliflower, a mutant cross between a zucchini and a patty pan squash, green and purple kohlrabi and a clove of garlic.  We'll see what we get this week!  I blanched and froze the peas since we have a ton of those and we can't seem to eat through them fast enough.  I have a whole head of cabbage leftover from a few weeks ago in the crisper drawer too.  Two weeks ago we got 5lbs of cherries - they're all gone now (I was hoping to freeze some) having been eaten by my parents and my children!  I can't eat cherries so I was okay with that! I went to the store this weekend with a gift card and spend $22 on milk, peaches, apples, carrots (those aren't ready yet in the garden) and some fr...
Read more