Freezer Cooking - Part Five - Resources

This is my 5th and final article on my series on Freezer Cooking. Check out the last 4 articles HERE. This week I'd like to talk about Resources.

So you are all jazzed about freezer cooking...where do you get the recipes?

1. Swagbucks or Google it! You'd be amazed at how many links will come up!


2. Frozen Assets: how to cook for a day and eat for a month by Deborah Taylor-Hough (check the I Recommend section in my sidebar)


3. The Freezer Cooking Manual from 30 Day Gourmet – A Month of Meals Made Easy by Nanci Slagle (check the I Recommend section in my sidebar) I LOVE this book!!!!!


4. The 30 Day Gourmet Website


5. Dinner's In the Freezer

What about you? Where do you get your Freezer Cooking recipes?

I hope you enjoyed this series on Freezer Cooking as much as I enjoy doing it!

-Michelle

Freezer Meals - Part Four - Other Modifications

This is part four in my blog series on Freezer Cooking. Read the rest of the series HERE.

This week I am sharing some ideas about what you can and can't freeze and other modifications you should make when considering freezer cooking.

1. Walk up and down the frozen food aisle and you can see most things can be frozen! Don’t be afraid to try new things. Chances are many of the recipes that you currently make can be frozen!

2. Mayonnaise, sour cream, cream cheese, gravies, and other sauces alone will change consistency. They can be mixed with other ingredients with great success.

3. Cooked potatoes don’t freeze well in soups – although I have frozen twice baked potatoes and potato skins with great success. YUM!

4. Remember you can make more than just main dishes – freeze muffins, biscuits, waffles, pancakes, breakfast burritos for breakfast. You can also freeze cookie dough, cakes, cookies, or other desserts. Just don't freeze cakes that are already frosted, the frosting gets wierd.

What other modifications should I make with freezer meals?

1. Pasta should be undercooked before freezing. If you don’t do this, it can end up being overcooked in the thawing/heating process. I don't know about you, but I am not a fan of soggy noodles!

2. When making foods you would normally bake (i.e. lasagna, casserole, etc.) prepare them up to the point that you would put them in the oven, then freeze– this way they taste fresh when you are ready to cook them.

3. When freezing individual items like cookie dough balls, muffins, twice baked potatoes, or bananas put onto a cookie sheet and freeze then put in a freezer bag. This prevents the items from sticking together and being difficult to remove when ready to use. I love doing this with cookie dough! When I taught this class at church, one of the attendees said that she froze Grands biscuits this way - these can be found for almost nothing from time to time, so that was a great tip!

4. You can take meals from freezer to oven, just increase your cooking time by about ½ and do not put glass dishes directly into the oven.

How about you? Any great tips on Freezer Cooking? Don't forget to come back next week for part 5!

-Michelle

Freezer Meals - Part Three - Packaging Methods

This is part 3 in my blog series on Freezer cooking. Check out my other posts here and here.

What is the best way to package freezer meals?

Let's just say it isn't going to be a super frugal way to cooking if you are going out and buying all new dishes to package the stuff, so try to use what you already have. With that in mind, here are the basics...

++The enemy to frozen food is air. Package your foods so there is minimal air.

++You can purchase disposable tin pans. I do not do this because of the unnecessary expense. They are also difficult to reuse and are flimsy to wash. These do work great for meals that you give away. You can usually pick these up at the dollar store.

++Freezer bags (in various ways)

++Foil (line a casserole dish with foil, put your casserole into it, freeze, then wrap in foil. On baking day place back into the casserole dish and bake.) This doesn’t work great for tomato based meals, the acid wears holes in the foil. I picked this one up from Gayle over at The Grocery Cart Challenge. Check out her post HERE. It works GREAT!

++Glad or Ziploc reusable containers.

++Glass Pyrex dishes with lids (no they don't break).

++Don’t forget to label, label, label! Will you know the difference between spaghetti sauce and taco soup if it isn't labeled? I'm just saying.

Come back next week to find out more about freezer cooking and what you can or can't freeze!

Enjoy!

-Michelle

Freezer Meals - Part Two - Methods

This is the 2nd of a 5-part series on Freezer Cooking. Read part 1 here.

This week I will share some of the methods for freezer cooking. The reality is that there is not one perfect method for freezer cooking. It all depends on your life and your preferences. Don't get overwhelmed! Do what works best for you.

Here are some of the options:

Cook for one day solid and fill up your freezer for the entire month. This usually entails selecting 10-12 recipes and make doubles or triples.

Join (or start) a freezer cooking group where everyone is assigned one or more recipes. The person assigned brings the ingredients to make those dishes, then everyone gets together to prepare the dishes then trades. Everyone pays an equal share based on the number of servings per family.

Join (or start) a freezer cooking group where everyone is assigned a few recipes and brings the prepared/packaged recipes to exchange with others in the group. In other words, they do the cooking at home and bring the packaged labeled meals and everyone exchanges. Again, everyone pays an equal share based on the number of servings per family.

The casual freezer cooker or mini sessions. This is how I do it. When I have time I make several of one item and throw it in the freezer. If I am making a casserole, I make two or three and put one in the freezer. If I find a great sale, I buy a lot and cook like crazy.

Watch the sales on meat – then buy a lot of it and make several meals with that type of meat.

Precook your meat - I love to buy a family pack of ground beef, chicken, Italian sausage, pork or beef roast (shred and freeze) and cook all of it then portion it into freezer bags in the amount I would use for a meal. Check here and here for some ideas on how to use your precooked meat.

There is no right or wrong way to do freezer cooking, just do it!

Come back next week to learn about how to package your freezer meals on a budget.

-Michelle

Freezer Meals - Part One - Why?

I have been casually doing freezer cooking since I first got married. I LOVE being able to grab something out of the freezer and quickly cook it on busy days or days I just don't feel like cooking. Freezer cooking is also a way to be able to save money and share with others.

This is the first part of a 5-part series on Freezer Cooking and how it can work for you. I hope you enjoy!

WHY should you do freezer cooking?

Saves time – I call this preparing things when you have time to save time when you don’t have time. Pull a meal out of the freezer to thaw in the morning, pop it in a dish, make some sides and you are done with dinner. There are even some great meals that you can prepare, freeze, thaw overnight and throw in your crockpot. Quick, easy, and delicious.

Saves money – prevents the temptation for grabbing fast food or frozen dinners from the store. Allows you to portion meals appropriate for your family for minimal waste. One of the best ways to save money on your grocery budget is to buy as much as you can/will use at the lowest possible price. You can buy food in bulk at the lowest possible price and prepare meals from it and freeze them for later.

Allows you to share meals with others without notice or extra work (i.e. extra shopping trips for an ingredient) on your part. Wouldn’t you love to bring a home cooked meal to a friend who had a particularly hard day without dirtying any dishes in your house?

It is healthy - You know exactly what is going into your meals. You will eat less convenience food because you will already have home cooked meals in your freezer!

It can help in any life situation - Single, Newlywed, or Empty Nester? Make meals portioned just for you or the two of you! Taking care of an elderly family member? Fill their freezer with freezer meals! Hate to cook? Cook for one full day and fill your freezer with meals for the month!

This is just the beginning...come back next week to find out some of the methods for freezer cooking. It can work for you!

-Michelle