The Freezer Cook
So a while ago I said I might talk your ear off a little about my latest freezer cook. And here I am, ready to do so!
I knew our fall evenings were going to be insanely busy... and combine that with the fact that finding the time for cooking anything has been really tough for me ever since J was born-- well, I knew I needed an easy solution. I came across this idea on the interwebs and heard the heavenly angels singing. Surely I could spare two hours at some point to get this done.
I decided to use some of the meals on the list from the link above, some of my own recipes, and others I found on the internet. I didn't want to use meat for every single meal, for financial and health reasons, so I added a few meatless meals as well. I tweaked some of them to make them more healthy, and I made most of them dairy-free because of J's sensitivity. In the end I came up with 13 meals and doubled each recipe (tripled two) to come up with 28 meals to fill our freezer.
I made my list of meals and groceries, and went shopping for all of my ingredients. All told, the prep from start to finish (labeling bags, chopping, bagging ingredients, freezing everything) took me about 8 hours. I split it up over three different days of two to three hours' work at a time, so it fit nicely into baby's nap times and weekend afternoons at home.
I did this all in the first week of September and here we are, almost at the end of October, with our freezer still well-stocked. I'd estimate we have a good two to three weeks of meals left. We typically eat about three of these meals each week since they easily produce leftovers.
These are all Crockpot meals, so I just remember to take the bag out of the freezer and throw the contents in the slow cooker in the morning. Even if I do this without thawing the meal at all beforehand (i.e. put the frozen block of ice directly into the Crockpot) dinner is always ready on time. It's so great to be out and about at a day of activities and come home to the house smelling delicious and dinner ready to be served.
So here's the list of meals. I'll link to the recipes that already exist, and then follow up soon with a post containing the recipes that are my own.
Crockpot baked beans
Curried Chickpeas
Spaghetti sauce
General Tso's Chicken
Balsamic Drumsticks (I admit this one was not a favorite of mine-- not sure I would repeat it)
Monterey Beans
Pizza crust (I froze the dough with shredded cheese and kept cans of tomato sauce in the cabinet at the ready)
Cilantro Lime Chicken
BBQ Pork Spare Ribs
Broccoli Chicken Alfredo (I froze two chicken breasts and a package of frozen broccoli in this dairy-free alfredo sauce)
Chicken and Dumplings (using a cream of mushroom substitute made with almond milk and earth balance to make it dairy-free)
Pot Roast
Fish Tacos
We usually pair each meal with either a frozen veggie that is quickly microwave-able, a fresh veggie that I can roast in the oven in a few quick minutes, or a green salad.
As for the cost of this undertaking, I had wondered at first whether this would save us money on our grocery budget. The initial shop for all the ingredients cost about $200, which was decidedly less than I expected. In the past year we have been buying all of our meat from a local organic farm, but for my freezer cook I decided I would buy supermarket meat to keep the cost a little lower (choosing organic cuts where I could). The meat bill made up about $80, so it's good to know that even if I had doubled that portion of the bill by purchasing local meats, I could still do this freezer cook for under $300.
On the whole, I think our grocery budget has worked out to be about the same, what with buying lunch and breakfast staples each week. The place where we have probably saved is in the restaurant eating category, since dinner is more easily prepared and ready for us, so there are less last-minute decisions to eat out.
Thanks for reading and allowing me to keep this list for future memory! I'll be back soon with a post containing the other recipes, and I'll fill in the links here after the fact.
I knew our fall evenings were going to be insanely busy... and combine that with the fact that finding the time for cooking anything has been really tough for me ever since J was born-- well, I knew I needed an easy solution. I came across this idea on the interwebs and heard the heavenly angels singing. Surely I could spare two hours at some point to get this done.
I decided to use some of the meals on the list from the link above, some of my own recipes, and others I found on the internet. I didn't want to use meat for every single meal, for financial and health reasons, so I added a few meatless meals as well. I tweaked some of them to make them more healthy, and I made most of them dairy-free because of J's sensitivity. In the end I came up with 13 meals and doubled each recipe (tripled two) to come up with 28 meals to fill our freezer.
I made my list of meals and groceries, and went shopping for all of my ingredients. All told, the prep from start to finish (labeling bags, chopping, bagging ingredients, freezing everything) took me about 8 hours. I split it up over three different days of two to three hours' work at a time, so it fit nicely into baby's nap times and weekend afternoons at home.
I did this all in the first week of September and here we are, almost at the end of October, with our freezer still well-stocked. I'd estimate we have a good two to three weeks of meals left. We typically eat about three of these meals each week since they easily produce leftovers.
These are all Crockpot meals, so I just remember to take the bag out of the freezer and throw the contents in the slow cooker in the morning. Even if I do this without thawing the meal at all beforehand (i.e. put the frozen block of ice directly into the Crockpot) dinner is always ready on time. It's so great to be out and about at a day of activities and come home to the house smelling delicious and dinner ready to be served.
So here's the list of meals. I'll link to the recipes that already exist, and then follow up soon with a post containing the recipes that are my own.
Crockpot baked beans
Curried Chickpeas
Spaghetti sauce
General Tso's Chicken
Balsamic Drumsticks (I admit this one was not a favorite of mine-- not sure I would repeat it)
Monterey Beans
Pizza crust (I froze the dough with shredded cheese and kept cans of tomato sauce in the cabinet at the ready)
Cilantro Lime Chicken
BBQ Pork Spare Ribs
Broccoli Chicken Alfredo (I froze two chicken breasts and a package of frozen broccoli in this dairy-free alfredo sauce)
Chicken and Dumplings (using a cream of mushroom substitute made with almond milk and earth balance to make it dairy-free)
Pot Roast
Fish Tacos
We usually pair each meal with either a frozen veggie that is quickly microwave-able, a fresh veggie that I can roast in the oven in a few quick minutes, or a green salad.
As for the cost of this undertaking, I had wondered at first whether this would save us money on our grocery budget. The initial shop for all the ingredients cost about $200, which was decidedly less than I expected. In the past year we have been buying all of our meat from a local organic farm, but for my freezer cook I decided I would buy supermarket meat to keep the cost a little lower (choosing organic cuts where I could). The meat bill made up about $80, so it's good to know that even if I had doubled that portion of the bill by purchasing local meats, I could still do this freezer cook for under $300.
On the whole, I think our grocery budget has worked out to be about the same, what with buying lunch and breakfast staples each week. The place where we have probably saved is in the restaurant eating category, since dinner is more easily prepared and ready for us, so there are less last-minute decisions to eat out.
Thanks for reading and allowing me to keep this list for future memory! I'll be back soon with a post containing the other recipes, and I'll fill in the links here after the fact.
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