***Give Away Alert! I will be giving away four copies of my freezer cooking cookbooks The What’s for Dinner Solution A winner everyday Tuesday through Friday. PLUS – a Freezer Cooking Prize Pack including The What’s for Dinner Solution and $25 Amazon Gift Card to buy all the Ziploc bags and 8×8 pans you need to get started! Just leave a comment on the blog sometime this week and I will pick four book winners and one grand prize winner – the more comments, the more chances to win! (One comment per person, per day, please!) ***
All this week, I will be giving you step by step instructions on how to have great, tasty meals for you and your family, every night. To make sure you don’t miss a post, subscribe to the blog!
OK – Now we get down to the nitty gritty. I know you all know how to cook, so I am going to just put down some of my Best Practices when it come to Freezer Cooking and preparing all those meals.
- Think Assembly Line When you have four recipes that called for chopped onions, get your food processor (or the food processor that you borrowed from your friend at church) and chop all those bad boys at once. (Another little trick that works well with onions: Light a wooden match and then blow it out. Hold the wooden part in your teeth while chopping onions to keep from crying. I don’t know why it works, but it does.)
Here is another tip on onions from Kelly www.bittybowsboutique.com :
“I despise chopping onions. I use my food processor on “Pulse”, to chop onions to keep in my freezer, freezing them flat in 1 gallon freez
er bags. Whether I need 1 Tablespoon or 2 Cups, I can break off just enough to add to my recipes. It is also a great way to use up a large bag of Costco onions…which is about the same price as a tiny bag from Safeway.”
- Play mix and match – marinade style. When it comes to my marinades, I don’t discriminate on the types of meats I use – If I buy a ½ gallon of Yoshida Sauce (and you all should – it is YUMMY) I will line up my Ziploc bags each filled with a different meat (Chicken Breasts, Flank Steaks, Pork Roast, Pork Chops) and just pour the marinades over the meats. Instantly, I have four different kinds of meals – now all I have to do is come up with side dishes, and that is where I will get a little creative. (For example, with the chicken, I might chop it up after cooking and make rice and mixed Asian veggies for rice bowls. For the pork, I could serve it with veggie kabobs and grilled pineapple.)
Pictured here – Giant Pork Loins that I chop into thirds and get six family-sized meals out of each. For smaller families, your could get up to 12 meals out of these two pork loins.
- Pasta Preparation When I am doing a pasta casserole, I just use up any small pasta I have around – I don’t care if it is penne, macaroni or egg noodle. All of it works. Also, when preparing pasta for freezing, make sure it is al dente so that it doesn’t get mushy in the freezing/cooking process.
- Beg or Borrow Things that will Make Your Life Easier There is no need to chop peppers by hand when your neighbor has a Food Processor that she uses 4x a year. Ask if you can borrow it – and when you bring it back, present her with one of your home cooked meals as a thank you. For years we were frying ground beef and turkey in a stove top pan until I finally invested in a Presto 16” Electric Skillet. Any step that saves me time (and keeps me encouraged to keep on Freezer Cooking) is worth weighing the costs on!
- Play Lots of Loud, Upbeat Music While Cooking
- Do Categories at Once I usually shop and prepare the marinades on Friday, and then leave the rest of the assembly (casseroles, chilis, soups, etc.) for Saturday.
Label EVERYTHING as it Goes into the Freezer No mysteries allowed. That defeats the whole purpose.
For today’s free download, go to my Facebook Page this week (through September 1. 2013) and get our our 50 Dinner Ideas.
Tell me below – What is you favorite thing to freeze? You could win a copy of The What’s for Dinner Solution or the grand prize of The What’s for Dinner Solution and a $25 Amazon Gift Card.
Want more freezer recipes? Did you know you can get a free ecopy of Six Chicks Freeze and Fix: How to Start a Freezer Meal Co-op just by liking my Facebook Page. Once you hit “Like” just go to the tabs and download the booklet. It’s that easy. Over 20 great family-pleasing recipes!
We’ll have a free freezer download every day this week. Stay tuned!
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I’m such a fan of this idea! As a full time worker and mom, it’s such a relief to have a meal-or 3 or 4 already made for the week. Like others, I typically make 2 of whatever I’m making and freeze one. I’d love to get others to meal swap! I’ve done it once and organized it but feel I could do a better job the next time with some pointers 🙂
I have been attempting to do this type of thing for years. I would love to be able to provide a fresh meal for my family every night whether I am there or not. I work 12.5 hrs day/nights. This past summer, I have worked both day and night shift. It is hard to stay motivated to cook a good meal for your family when you haven’t slept a solid 8 hrs straight in 4 days. I really need to do this for my family and for my sanity! My favorite thing to freeze is dessert!
Getting low on my first batch of freezer meals! Time to start another batch! Can’t wait 🙂
I find freezing meat that is marinated and ready for the grill is the easiest and best meals!
haven’t been a good “freezer cook” so far but I get really excited when I have enough left-overs from a main dish to freeze for a future last-minute meal
Soups, stews, and beans! So easy to double the recipe and freeze half!
Need this cookbook bad! Just started a job where I work in the afternoons and don’t have time to prepare in the evening!
We love freezing spaghetti sauce. We are a family of 7, and love having people over. So I make a huge pot of sauce that simmers for a few hours and then we divide it into the large peanut butter jars from Costco. One jar will feed our family twice or once if we have another family over for dinner. It’s great.
I love to freeze casseroles that I can grab and bake. Don’t get this accomplished near to the extent I would like.
I love to freeze blueberries and raspberries. They are my favorite fruits and taste so good with yogurt and granola, or in muffins!
I like to freeze tomato paste. In the past, a recipe calls for 1 tablespoon and I put the rest in the refrigerator and then it goes bad before I need another tablespoon. So I learned a tip from America’s Test Kitchen – put 1 tablespoon balls of tomato paste on wax paper and once it’s frozen, put all the tomato paste balls in a Ziploc bag. No more waste! And ready when you need it!
I just found you yesterday and I’m so excited!!
I like to freeze cookies or cookie dough: these make quick treats.
My favorite thing to freeze is any main dish recipe that I’ve doubled…there is nothing like knowing that I can be 30 minutes from having dinner on the table without needing ingredients or prep time. Chili, casserole, stew, soup…I love it all!
In the fall I love to buy at least a few pumpkins, cook them up, and freeze them in ice trays or muffin tins and transfer them to Zip-locks. Then I can use whatever amounts I need not just for pies or breads. Pumpkin picks up whatever flavor you add it to, so this is great to throw a cup or so into casseroles for a little extra vitamin C and A as well as making the dish “fuller”. I also really like to do this with zucchini.
I love to freeze breakfast meals or pieces. When I wake up in the morning, I just don’t have time to make a from scratch breakfast for my 7 member family. What I do instead is make up a double batch of muffins and then freeze them, a big batch of waffles or pancakes, breakfast burritos or even breakfast bars. They are all generally from scratch but I will make this on the weekend or an afternoon with some free time. It makes our mornings smoother and a mom that isn’t stressed out over all the time it took and how behind we are.
Ripe bananas to go into banana bread or to use in smoothies!
I like to put bone-in chicken breasts in the crockpot, freeze the shredded meat in two cup packages for other meals, then use the bones and skin to make chicken stock in the crockpot then freeze that too.
My favorite way to brown ground beef the night before cooking day is all at once in my slow-cooker. It cooks evenly (once you break it up a bit) and then you can easily divide it among the dishes that you have it designated for.