Freezing day!

Now that I got my fancy new deep freeze freezer I have started putting it to use. I made broccoli, cauliflower and carrot purees and I started on my frozen dinners.

I made a double batch of stuffed pasta shells the other day and I have to say, for some reason (I can think of a few actually, but you know what I mean) my food never tastes as good when I double it. I think from now on instead of doubling the recipe I will just make it "as is" and freeze half of it once I assemble it or cook it. That way I won't be throwing out leftovers we couldn't eat. Most recipes serve 6-8 people. Since there are only 2.5 of us eating real food (I count Devon as the .5 because he eats so little) there are many occasions when I throw out food because we couldn't eat the whole thing over the course of 3 days. I will also freeze lunch portions in bags for easy, go to meals.

Joe is not too excited about my foray into freezing food. He said, "I don't want fresh food. I want REALLY fresh food." That's why he has a garden. The idea that I would take perfectly good food and freeze it doesn't appeal to him. He wants to pick it off the vine and eat it, so to speak. To that I say ... times have changed!! I want to give my family quality attention and play with them as well as make healthy food. It's impossible to play when I am trying to make mushroom stuffed pork tenderloin en croute ;)I know that I can cook and play, and on most days that's what I do, but a girl needs a break from time to time ;)

Devon slept for 3.5 hours yesterday and I was able to make chicken pot pie and meat loaf with herbed potatoes. I doubled the both recipes and it was a PAIN!!! I'm not sure if it's worth the aggravation of simultaneously trying to cook two meals at the same time with a 7 week old strapped in a pouch so I can cook and nurse her (talk about multi-tasking!), but only time will tell.

On the plus side, now I don't have to cook AT ALL today and that means no dishes or evening kitchen clean up and all of that sounds pretty good right now. Is one day of cooking/cleaning aggravation worth one day of none? I guess, it's really 2 days of cooking/clean up because I made 2 meals. This is sounding better and better ;) At the end of cooking Day 1 I have pot pie for tonight, froze one pot pie, 2 pot pie lunches and 3 meat loaf lunches.

OK, I take that "no cooking" part back, but it's easy cooking. Cooking Day 2 is just cooking chicken, shredding it and freezing it for enchiladas. The meat part of a recipe is usually the most time consuming and I think frozen, shredded chicken will taste fine fresh or otherwise. I may make up a whole batch to see if it's OK.