Sunday, September 02, 2012

Trying to Save a Little Time

Freezer cooking...I had researched (read about on the internet) this concept in the past but like many of my grand ideas, I never followed through with it.  A couple off weeks ago I happened across a website that had done all the hard work (picking the recipes, making the grocery list) and had everything spelled out and ready to go.  So I printed a menu plan, headed to the grocery store and spent about 4 hours of my Saturday preparing five meals to put in the freezer.  This was a "mini" menu unlike the real once a month cookers who cook up as many as 30 meals at a time to use later.  I knew that would overwhelm me so I started small.

The menu included meatloaf (I made 2 - one to eat that day and one for the freezer), ham and cheese pinwheels (which the kids took for their lunches last week), honey teriyaki chicken, ranch Parmesan chicken, and Mexican shepherds pie (the last 3 are still in the freezer waiting for their taste test).  I had a few store bought marinades as well that I mixed up and put on some chicken and froze as well.

I have to admit it was nice to be able to pull something out of the freezer in the evening and have it ready to cook the next night.  And now that Brian gets home before I do, supper is usually waiting when I walk in the door.  I can say it is much easier for me to clean the kitchen as well, if I didn't have to cook too.  So this is working out well so far.

So since that all worked out so well, I decided this week to stockpile some breakfast burritos.  Getting the kids out of bed of a morning, dressed and out the door with a decent breakfast can be time consuming, so I figured we could make up a bunch of breakfast burritos that could be popped in the microwave and heated in just a few minutes.  Skylar and I hit the kitchen early and prepared all of the fixings.  When all was said and done we had 31 breakfast burritos in the freezer.  I hope they are a big hit.


2 comments:

Jettie said...

I'd like the link to those recipes. I think it would be much easier to prepare this way, especially when one person wants one thing, and another wants something else at mealtime.

Kim said...

I didn't link to the page where I got the recipes b/c just a few days after I discovered this great free site, I am sad to say it became a subscription site. I think you can still get to the recipes but I am not sure how much longer they will be available. It was great b/c she had done all the work of creating an entire meal plan, grocery list and cooking instructions. I understand why she feels she needs to charge - it must be incredibly time consuming, however I am just not willing to pay the price she is asking. The site is www.onceamonthmom.com and the menu I used was the January 2012 mini menu.