Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Freezer cooking .... again

After some much needed nudging, I got back into doing freezer cooking. It is SUCH a lifesaver. It is so relaxing to know that if I can't get to the store or if I'm too tired to cook that I can reach into the freezer and heat up a delicious vegetable laden, ground turkey lasagna AND have leftovers to boot. I also used disposable pans (thanks for the idea Katy) so not only will I not have to cook, I won't have to do dishes either. My sister told me about a book that teaches you how to prepare 30 meals in 1 day (Dinner is ready), but I think that is too stressful for me so I decided to make a few meals every few days during the kids' naps. I did all the mise en place the night before and THAT made a huge difference is the ease of actual cooking the day of. I was surprised at how easy it was. When you make one lasagna, it's really not THAT much more time or work to make 2 more. Plus, buying food in that kind of bulk is cheaper than just buying enough to make one.

From cooking days 1 & 2 I was able to make:
2 servings of marinara sauce
2 servings of meatballs
3 lasagnas
2 servings of cooked, shredded chicken
1 Mexican casserole
1 stuffed pasta shells
1 stuffed mannicotti

So not only do I have 10 meals, I also don't have to clean my kitchen or wash dishes for 10 days and it only took about 4 hours of cooking over a two day period. How great is that?

These meals are a great supplement to cooking fresh meals as well as being able to drop one off to a friend who needs a hand or a Mom with a new baby.

2 comments:

Kate said...

man, GO YOU! I love me some freezer cooking. You can credit the dry cabin for this brilliant thinking. I think I might even try to prepare some stuff whilst in the cabin...but only a few meals. I had barbacoa today (chipotle's recipe) that I made in December...it was awesome.

big red 26 said...

ok must know this book, sounds like this could help us when school starts. love it