Now that we have a small chest freezer, I decided to give freezer cooking a serious try. I feel pretty successful in that I was able to store away in the freezer a good selection of foods in the limited amount of time I had over the weekend. Now that I'm getting the hang of it, I want to gradually add to my stash of freezer foods.
Here is a list of what I accomplished:
2 gallon freezer bags and 1 quart bag of homemade vegetable beef soup, using our home grown tomatoes as the main ingredient
1 chicken pot pie and dressing for 3 adults
5 bags of chicken broth containing 2 cups each and 1 quart bag containing 4 cups
Italian chicken cooked and ready to reheat. I will add mozzarella cheese on top before baking.
1 bag of 20 Italian meatballs.
1 family size chicken tetrazzini
1 meatloaf mix (unbaked)
1 bag containing 2 cups of cubed baked chicken
1 pan of bbq chicken that I put in the fridge to be eaten Tuesday night.
6 individually wrapped brownies.
I made a huge pot of the vegetable beef soup and wanted to only put the amount of soup needed for a meal in one bag. These are the mugs that we like to use for soup, so I measured out how much each mug holds and then put that much in each bag. Each mug holds 3 cups, so I put 6 cups of the soup in each bag.
Some brownies for now....
And some for later in the freezer. My hubby can put a frozen brownie in his lunch bag and by lunch time it will be thawed and ready to eat.
I will use these meatballs to make spaghetti and meatballs, sweet and sour or bbq meatballs. If they taste good, I plan to make several more bags because they were easy to make and freeze well. I laid them out on a plate to freeze individually before putting them in the freezer bag.
Here the chicken tetrazzini was cooling before I put it a gallon size freezer bag. When I am ready to serve it, I will let it thaw in the fridge, then put it in a baking dish and add some cheese on top.
I also made some tomato juice for my hubby. I put some in the fridge for him to drink while it was fresh...
and these freezer containers hold more for later.
I think having some meals and meal starters in the freezer will make a huge difference in the ease of menu planning. We'll see!
This post in linked to Stone Gable's "ON THE MENU MONDAY".
16 comments:
Wow! you have been busy. did you just decide what you wanted to do, or did you use a freezer cookbook? I have a freezer cookbook, but most of the recipes don't sound like something we would like to eat. Your choices are all yummy!
Wow... did you sit down all weekend?
You're probably already doing this but if not... keep a list of what's in the freezer to remind yourself. "Expiration dates" too...
Yummy, this winter you will be well fed! I would love one of those brownies with my coffee right about now!
I'd say your first round of freezer cooking was a huge success. I love hving meals frozen ahead of time. Your freezer will pay for itself in a short time.
Oh my goodness...I am so impressed. I would LOVE to cook like this. Thank you for the inspiration and motivation...I'm definitely going to try this.
Sounds like you had a very busy weekend! I'm sure you'll love having all of that great food ready when you want it:@)
Hey Debbie,
I want to come back soon!!!!!!!!!!!
This is the kind of cooking I did
in earlier years. It is a great timesaver and a blessing on those busy days when you have no time to even think about what mightbe in store for dinner.
You are a gem.
Debbie~ Everything looks so good. We have the same type of baskets in our freezer but they are blue :) Guess I should try that type of cooking too since I also have a freezer right now it mainly holds ice cream :) :)
Great idea. Need to get organized like you.
Wow Debbie you have been a busy little bee. I love having things on hand too.
Great job.
Hugs,
Elizabeth
I'm so impressed. I've never had much already cooked food in the freezer unless I had a lot of left-overs that sometimes I froze.
Whew! What a list! But, I'll bet you feel very successful.
Hi Debbie,
Looks like you had a very busy week end. I just love having meals in the freezer all ready to go, it really helps out in busy times. Thanks for sharing and have a great week!
Miz Helen
This is what I dream of doing! I don't know where you get the energy! But you have an impressive amount of food for just cooking over the weekend!~ Thank you for joining ON THE MENU MONDAY and inspiring all of us!
Yvonne
It all looks good! :) That should really come in handy.
You did great! As you well know, I am a big fan of freezer cooking...love squirreling things away to use later!
It's a good deal of work at the time but will pay off big in the long run.
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