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Alright everyone…are you ready for Freezer cooking week?!? I am a strong believer that if you do freezer cooking that you have to do it in a way that works for your family. With that said, I’d like to introduce you to my friend Alyssa who is going to share her freezer cooking experience with us…
After years of dreding the holidays, I decided to make December my easiest month this year. When Jennie started her Countdown to Christmas post, I was a little bah humbug. You see, December in general is our craziest month as we have 3 birthdays in our house the week before Christmas. So with a little prayer and lots of grace, God gave me some great ideas and a nudge to get started.
I decided that unless I am having fun cooking for the holidays, I am not cooking in December. Seem a little extreme? Well, this is my first attempt at freezer cooking. Spending a day or so cooking like crazy has never been that appealing to me. I decided that this month I am going to make our favorite recipes (that I think will freeze well) and double them, freeze them and heat them up in December. Thanks to a great stockpile, not only is this super easy (so far) but it really hasn’t cost that much. I pretty much have everything done for 2 months of meals, hopefully saving us more money in the coming months that will help us to pay for our Christmas!
Here are some great ideas and recipes to help you get your freezer stocked up for the holidays!
1. I bought disposable casserole dishes 2 for $1 at the Dollar Store to use for freezing because I don’t have that many casserole dishes.
2. Find easy to freeze recipes that either make a very big batch or are easy to double. Here are some of my favorites that I know freeze well:
Baked Pasta Dish
BBQ Turkey Meatballs
Spaghetti Sauce
3. Freeze some healthy/yummy things that can be used for breakfast or as part of a homemade gift. It’s nice to have some healthy options on hand instead of just the holiday
cookies and treats.
Morning Glory Muffins
Zucchini Bread
4. Make a list of the recipes that you plan to make and all of the ingredients, that way you can see what you need and your shopping list will be ready.
5. Try to get as many non-perishable items as you can (on sale of course!) that way you can pick and choose which meals you will make for that week.
6. Harvesting is pretty much over for the year, but if you find good deals on produce consider freezing some of it. This was the first year that I went farming ;), I dragged my favorite 4 boys (DH, 2 DS and Dad, God bless them!) around with me picking produce at Miller Farms last month. I was able to get all of the produce washed, cut, cooked, frozen, and ready for meals. After that I didn’t have much produce left to buy. Here are some tips on freezing some of the vegetables:
7. Obviously, you will need to consider your freezer space while doing all of this. We just purchased a chest freezer and hadn’t really filled it up that much, so this part wasn’t an issue for us, but I know it would have been a year ago. Here are some freezer storage tips:
Freeze soups and stews in gallon zip lock bags (maybe even doubled
up) that way you can freeze them flat.If you buy meat in bulk and freeze it try freezing it flat too make it
easier to stack.Try to get as much air out of bags as you can.
Clearly label everything!
So there you have it! I challenge you all to find out how freezer cooking and benifit your family this holiday season. Large or small…any amount of prep that you can do now will help tremendously in the long run! Do you have meal freezing advice, tips or a recipe to share?
Stephanie says
I need to get back into doing this so thank you so much for this post!!
One thing that I found handy was to write the cooking/baking information on the package…i.e. 350 degrees for 45 minutes, etc etc. I would write it on the alum. foil or on the plastic bag. I did this when I had just had my second child and it was helpful to the family who came to stay. No need to search for the original recipe. 🙂
Kristin says
It can be fun to try freezer cooking w/ a group of gals…I just finished up recipes on computer software for my group. We only make about 8 meals each time b/c we aren’t into taking til 10pm on our cooking night to finish…but we split up the duties, like doing the recipes/shopping list, shopping for the food, prepping some stuff ahead of time. It’s nice to get together once a month and it doesn’t take us long to get all the meals done and ready to pack into everyone’s freezers…some of us don’t have as much space as others, so 8-10 meals is about right, although other groups we know do 10 meals doubled.
Thanks Jessica for the muffin recipe and how to freeze the dough..never thought of that, but I’m going to try it!
hannah says
I just have the small freezer in the top of my fridge to work with, but I find by getting creative with packaging its possible to fit a lot into that small space!
For one, we don’t freeze anything in ziploc containers or casserrole dishes since those take up way too much room.
I’ve also started freezing meat in meal size portions, not only does this make the packaging more compact, but I don’t have leftover meat going to waste. Bulk hamburger meat gets divided in 1 lb portions in ziploc bags, flattened, and frozen stacked. When its flat it also thaws a lot faster!
Bacon is frozen in small breakfast sized batches.
Instead of throwing ripe bananas in my freezer whole, I peel and slice them, and put 3 bananas to a ziploc bag – just the right quantity for banana muffins. Frozen banana slices also work well in smoothies!
My dream is to get a larger freezer next year and really be able to freezer cook as well as stockpiile and freeze bigger sized meals.
As it is, these small steps just make meals that much more convenient to prepare.
Meghan says
I despise cooking! I do a monthly cooking day where my au pair helps me by browning meat- hamburger, sausage and chicken mainly. I assemble the casseroles- it makes it a lot easier if you do multiple dishes at the same time. Thursday I had off from work and prepared (all before lunch): 4 Tater tot casseroles, 2 manicotti, 2 lasagnas, 4 chicken casseroles, 2 really large pots of chili, 3 pies, 2 batches of cookies, macaroni and cheese and bierocks. There is nothing I hate more than coming home, not knowing what to do for dinner, standing in front of the pantry deciding if I feel like cooking, what I can prepare that fits into: 1) fast 2) easy and 3) good category. By using my mass cooking day all I have to do is set out the casserole the day before and throw it in the oven for 45 minutes! Love it!
Jennie says
Wow Meghan~ You are one busy girl! That is awesome that you were able to get all of that done in one day! Way to go!
Jessica says
I love freezer cooking, but do it like Steph…just cook extra and freeze for later. One of my fav things to do is make muffins and put the dough in the muffin cups and freeze them in the pan (uncooked). Then, after frozen, I take them out of the pan and put the frozen cups into a freezer bag. You can just pop the frozen cups directly in the oven and bake! I swear it works! Perfect for company. And, you HAVE to try this recipe. https://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Banana-Crumb-Muffins/Detail.aspx
Jennie says
Awesome Jessica! I am so trying them!
Steph says
I love cooking extra for my freezer! I tried the “cooking like crazy for a day” method once, and it wasn’t for me. I use this same idea year round. If I make chili, I fill my stock pot all the way full and freeze the extra. Same with pea soup, pasta dishes, kraut burgers/pasties, pies, cinnamon rolls, etc. I have 2 up-right freezers in my garage now, so I have plenty of space. Next on my list is to make some bread dough and freeze it in loaves and rolls that are ready to rise and bake whenever I need them this holiday season!
Jennie says
You DO have a lot of space Steph! Very nice! 🙂
nic says
I love this Idea I started doing this also