Unplanned Freezer Cooking 10-19-10

Unplanned Freezer Cooking is becoming a normal thing for me!  I'm sure that somewhere in another Freezer Cooking post way back when I probably suggested that it's best to start a Freezer Cooking Day with a well thought out plan.  Recipes together, an ingredients list and shopping trip plus lots of free time.  Well that just isn't happening around here lately!  Instead my freezer cooking is becoming much more impromtu.

I made a trip to Jungle Jim's yesterday just for fruits and veggies. That's it ... that's all I was going to buy.  But I couldn't possibly pass up ground beef marked down to $1.59/lb.  Especially since I had just commented to my hubby that while our freezer is full ... it's full of lots of the same things and is lacking variety.

So today ... not a day with much free time ... I prepared all 10 lbs of ground beef to go into the freezer for future dinners.  In two hours time I was able to add 12 hamburgers, 2 bags of taco meat and 4 bags of meat mix (ground beef with onions and peppers) to my freezer.  The burgers and taco meat will be enough for 2 dinners each.  The meat mix I'll use in spaghetti sauce or beef vegetable soup or whatever else I need ground beef in.  That's 8 dinners in all that will be a few steps easier when they end up on my menu plan!

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A Spin on Freezer Cooking Plus Cookies!!!!

I've really been wanting to do a whole day full of freezer cooking.  Somehow my time plus the sales plus my budget haven't made it happen.  I have a really busy week with the normal routine plus a coupon class and a few other extras ... so I knew it wouldn't happen this week ... or so I thought!

(I know this picture isn't so appetizing! How do you get a good picture of marinading chicken?) 

I made my Menu Plan on Saturday.  What I didn't plan on though was taking that plan a step further.  Instead of freezer cooking with lots of meals for the weeks to come, I ended up doing some prep work for this coming week's meals.  It all started with browning the ground beef I'd bought on Friday.  I added some onions, divided it up in half and put 2 bags of "meat mix" in the freezer.  One is ready for our Beef Vegetable Soup later this week and the other will be there for another dinner.  Next I thought about the 3 packages of chicken breasts in the fridge.  6 chicken breasts went into our smoker.  They are now diced and ready for tonight's baked potato bar and tomorrow's chicken salad sandwiches. I cut the third package of chicken breasts into pieces and made the marinade for  Quick Weeknight Pineapple Sesame Chicken.  Now it's in the freezer and Thursday night's dinner will be 2 steps easier!

I recently saw this Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe that I wanted to try.  If you know me personally then you probably saw my Facebook post a few weeks ago asking why my Chocolate Chip Cookies always come out flat.  Well this recipe was slightly different, the picture looked good plus it won an awesome prize!  Saturday night was "Family Movie Night" here which of course means some kind of special snack.  I was on a roll with the freezing cooking thing and decided to make a double batch of cookies.  I baked up enough for a day or two and then flash froze the rest of the dough.  Now there are 4 dozen cookie dough balls in my freezer.  YUM!  Oh and the cookies ... they were as good as I had hoped!!  I forgot to take a picture of the baked cookies and of course they are gone now.

Now that I had the coming week's meals planned and started, it was time to prepare Saturday night's dinner.  Homemade Pizza!  As I measured the yeast into my mixing bowl for the pizza dough, I thought why not double it too?  I've never tried freezing pizza dough but I've heard that it works.  After mixing all the ingredients but the flour I wondered if my stand mixer mixing bowl would hold enough flour for a double batch.   The good news is that it was big enough!  I put 6 pizzas worth of dough (or 3 dinners worth) into the freezer.  I'll let you know later how it works out.

Wow!  A freezer cooking day with a twist.  Just a menu plan.  This may become a new routine!

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Freezer Cooking Results 8/2

I spent some time in the kitchen Tuesday afternoon.  It wasn't as ambitious as previous freezer cooking days but nonetheless I have 6 dinners worth of chicken in my freezer!

 I started with 2 Chicken Fajita Packets.  Very easy and basic but oh so nice when it comes time for dinner!  The chicken breasts, pepper and onions are cut up in strips and in separate baggies.  I put all three in a larger bag with a packet of fajita seasoning.  When this goes on a Menu Plan I'll just have to add flour tortillas and cheese.

I love how the fresh ingredients for the Spicy Southwest marinade look in my blender!

Next I made 2 marinades .... Asian and Spicy Southwest.  Both are fresh, tasty marinades.  I trimmed chicken breasts and put them in bags with the marinades.  I have 2 of each in the freezer.  I had hoped to have 6 meals worth total but I underestimated how much chicken I would need for each.  I keep forgetting that my boys appetites are growing.  What used to be plenty is now sometimes not enough.  I have a bottle of the Spicy Southwest marinade in the fridge (made too much.)  It's going to go on a Pork Tenderloin for one of next week's dinners. 

It feels so good to have meals and parts of meals in the freezer!  What do you prepare ahead of time and freeze??

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Kroger Trip and Freezer Cooking Day

Some grocery trips are more impressive than others.  And sometimes stockpiling means spending a little more one week and saving another.  Okay sorry, that was for my benefit more than yours.  I left Kroger last night a little upset that I'd spent more than I planned but it's okay ... right?

Since Kroger's sale week ended yesterday and a new ad started today, I won't post the breakdown of this trip.  I went mostly for the Speed Stick Deodorant that was FREE ... yes all 20 of them!  And for the chicken priced at $1.99/lb (which is priced the same at Meijer this week.)  I spent $59.19 and saved $60.81 .... that's 50% saved!  Nothing to complain about but, when added to my Meijer trip on Saturday, over my budget for the week.

My plan is to put 8 dinners worth of chicken in the freezer tomorrow.  Tuesday's are my busy days so my plan does not include anything that requires cooking.  All will make future dinners easier though!  I'm going to put together 2 Chicken Fajita Packets, 2 bags of Asian marinaded chicken and 4 bags of Spicy Southwest marinaded chicken.  Nothing daring.  All things I've made and froze before.  All things that my family really liked the first time.

I'll post my results tomorrow.  I'm sure you will see these chicken dinners on  Menu Plan Mondays in the near future!

What things do you do with Chicken for freezer meals??

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Freezer Cooking Results

What a day!  I have to give a big round of applause to anyone who does a once a month freezer cooking.  I'm thrilled with my results and it was a very long day.  Before I scare anyone away from doing a Freezer Cooking Day, let me tell you that it would have been smart for me to postpone my plans.  I have a cold? allergies? whatever that has left me feeling pretty yucky for a few days.  Then I woke up yesterday (and still today) with no voice.  So my first tip, if you are thinking about planning a Freezer Cooking Day is ... don't do it on a day that you're not feeling 100%.  I guess that should have been obvious but I was excited, had my plans ready and my grocery shopping done.  See below for more tips.

Here are a few pictures of my results.  I ended up with more meals than I thought I would!!

Three loaves of Chewy Italian Bread.  I'll use it for garlic bread and maybe Baked French Toast. I made a double batch of Zucchini Bread Muffins.  I'd still love any input on what happened to them.  They aren't bad but I'd say they were the least successful part of my day.

I had to share this picture!  I really enjoyed this pile of colorful produce on my counter all day.  So much so that I waited until the end of the day to use most of it.  I didn't use the avocados yet but will when I make the Tomato and Avocado Salad to go with the Chicken, Black Bean and Spinach Enchiladas.

And this the final results picture! 

I now have 11 meals or main ingredients for meals in my freezers.

1 & 2 -- I made 2 large and 1 small pan of Chicken, Black Bean and Spinach Enchiladas.  The 2 large ones are in the freezer and the small on is in the fridge to eat soon.  If the tastes I had today while making them are any indication of the end result, I can't wait to eat them!

3 & 4 -- 2 meals worth of Lasagna.

5, 6 & 7 -- 3 meals worth of marinaded chicken.  The chicken breasts I had were really big so I decided to stretch them into 3 meals instead of 2 like I planned. 2 Bags have the Asian Marinade and one has the Spicy Southwest Marinade.  They're both new to me and smell wonderful.  I'm most excited about the Spicy Southwest.  Seeing the tomato, onion, jalapeno and cilantro in my blender was one of the hightlights of my day!

8, 9, 10 & 11 -- 4 meals worth of pork chops.  I only planned for 2.  I guess I underestimated how many pork chops I would get from the pork loin I had cut at the meat counter.  There were 20!!  I have one bag of pork chops in a Maple Garlic Marinade and one in the Spicy Southwest marinade.  The other 2 bags are just plain pork chops.  Who knows how I'll decide to use them but wanted to keep my options open.

So I said above that tip #1 is do your freezer cooking on a day when you feel good! Here are some other tips.

Tip # 2 - Take time to plan your day.  Check your stockpile shelves and freezer.  What do you already have on hand to make a freezer meal?  Check the sales ads.  What's on sale this week to add to your stockpile items for those meals?  After you know what you're going to cook, plan the steps you'll take throughout the day.  Like my enchilada chicken went in the crock pot first thing, then I made bread dough since it had to rise.  You get the idea.

Tip # 3 -- Get a shower, coffee (if you're a coffee drinker) and a good breakfast before you get started. Wear comfy clothes and shoes.

Tip# 4 -- Turn on your favorite music and sing along while you work!

As I read over this post I'd still say that it was a long day BUT well worth it.  Now the only problem is that I want to hoard keep the meals in the freezer.  I love knowing that they are there.  Yes I'm sure you'll see them on Menu Plan Mondays to come!

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Freezer Cooking Update

Just an update on my Freezer Cooking plans for tomorrow.

The Grocery Shopping is done.  I usually post pictures of my shopping trips.  I didn't today since most of my purchases were for ingredients I need for tomorrow, not exciting deals.  I went to Meijer for pork loin and a few other things and then to Jungle Jim's for veggies. 

My fridge is cleaned out.  It appears that the benefits of Freezer Cooking go beyond having meals and pieces of meals in the freezer.  I'm embarrassed but not too proud to admit that there were a few "science experiments" growing in the back of the fridge.  They've been disposed of!  I also found more than enough for a dinner of leftovers on Wednesday.  We're going to have the Chicken, Black Bean and Spinach Enchiladas on Thursday. That means that I can put 2 dinners worth of Pork Chops in the freezer instead of just one. Yay!

My dishwasher is full and running.  It wasn't full until I cleaned out the fridge.  Now I know why the kitchen drawer where I store my plastic containers seemed empty.

Frozen ingredients have been pulled from the freezer.  They are in the cleaned out fridge thawing for tomorrow.  Shredded zucchini, ground beef and black beans will all be ready tomorrow morning.

Hopefully it will be productive and easy day.  What am I forgetting?? 

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Freezer Cooking Plans

Wednesday's the day for Freezer Cooking!  I've put together plans so that by the end of the afternoon ... or hopefully earlier ... I'll have 6 dinners, 3 loaves of bread, cookies and muffins in the freezer plus Wednesday night's dinner done. Oh and Thursday night's pork chops will be marinading also.  I would like to have more than 6 dinners in the freezer but that's what my time, budget and stockpile will allow this week.

Here's what I'm going to make ...

1. 2 Pans of Lasagna - I don't have a recipe for this.  It'll just be whatever comes to me. (That's how I cook most of the time.) 
2. 2 Batches of Chicken, Black Bean and Spinach Enchiladas (one for dinner and one for the freezer)
3. 1 Bag of Asian Marinated Chicken Breasts
4. 1 Bag of Spicy Southwest Chicken Breasts
5. 2 Bags of Maple Garlic Pork Chops (one for Thursday night's dinner and one for the freezer)  This recipe calls for Pork Tenderloin.  I'm going to use a Pork Loin cut into chops instead though since that is what is on sale for $1.69/lb at Meijer this week.
6. Double Batch of Mini Zucchini Muffins - Zucchini Bread Batter in mini muffin tins
7. Oatmeal Butterscotch Cookies - I'm making these on Monday or Tuesday using the recipe on the Nestle Toll House Butterscotch Morsels bag.  They are my homework for the Market Research Focus Group I'm participating in on Thursday.
8. 3 Loaves of Italian Chewy Bread - I'm dividing one batch of dough into 3 loaves instead of 2.  I'll use it for garlic bread with the Lasagna and maybe Baked French Toast too!

I just recently tried freezing both chicken and salmon in freezer bags with marinades.  They both were very good and so easy to use for dinner.  Marinades often use many of the same ingredients so while I have those things out I'm going to make several.  Life as a Mom just recently did a post about Chicken Marinades and that's where both that I'm going to try came from.

I'm a little nervous because four of the recipes I'm using are ones that I've not made ... or tasted ... before.  They all sound good though so I'm taking a risk!  I'll let you know what we think as we eat them.

I've gone through my fridge, pantry, cabinets and stockpile for needed ingredients.  My grocery lists are done.  I'm going shopping tomorrow afternoon.  I'll clean my kitchen, run and unload my dishwasher before going to bed on Tuesday night so that I'm ready for Wednesday morning.

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Homemade Bread Crumbs

I've read ... and used .... lots of Works for Me Wednesday tips.  I'm so excited to share my first one!!

Lately, the blog world (or should I say the world of blogs I read) seems to be filled with posts about freezer cooking, time saving tips in the kitchen and money saving tips too.  I spent last Friday filling my freezer with chicken cooked in a few different ways that will make 7 dinners steps easier when it's time to prepare them.  Money Saving Mom has a series of posts about the freezer cooking she did this week.  Maybe some day I'll be as organized as she is!!  Lots of bloggers have linked up their freezer cooking day results here.

I have a time saving/money saving tip that I wanted to share with you.  I got this tip online somewhere few years ago but don't remember where one so I apologize for not properly citing my source.

What does your family do with the end or heels of a loaf of bread?  Eat them or throw them out?  I admit we're picky and only eat them as a last resort (ie if there is no other bread is in the house.)  When that's all that is left in the bread bag ... into the trash can the bag plus the ends would go.  Not anymore.

Do you buy bread crumbs?  Or do you make them yourself each time you need them?  I don't do either.

Now each time we finish a loaf of bread I add the heels from that loaf to a bread bag in my freezer.  Every so often ... whenever the bag is full or we are low on bread crumbs ... I toast the bread heels in the oven and use my food processor to make bread crumbs.  I keep them in a container in my kitchen cabinet.  I can add my own seasonings and herbs to suit what ever dish I am preparing.

As you can see ... my 5 yr old thinks adding and watching the toasted bread turn into bread crumbs is pretty cool!  I love things like this that are both fun for him and productive for me!

Check out lots of other Works for Me Wednesday Tips here.

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Time Saving Cooking

$1.68/lb Chicken Breasts at Kroger this week is about the best price I've seen. Of course that means that I bought extra to stock up. 10 lbs of chicken breasts means time to do some Time Saving Cooking (Freezer Cooking) again. So that's what I did yesterday ... in addition to making Chewy Italian Bread for Baked French Toast and a Pecan Pie for my hubby's birthday. I guess I wasn't being very realistic when I started out because I was truly surprised that I spent 5 hours in the kitchen. Even though it was a long day, it felt good to see all that I'd accomplished! I now have 7 dinners or part of dinners in the freezer.

Here's what I did .....

First I put 5 Chicken Breasts, a jar of salsa, a bag of black beans (from the freezer) a couple of handfuls of diced bell peppers and a can of corn in the crock pot. Later I shredded the chicken and mixed it back in the crock pot with everything else. I added some sour cream and let it all cook a little longer. I divided it into 3 containers. We'll use it for Tacos, Nachos, Quesidillas or whatever.

I boiled 8 chicken breasts. When they were done, I diced 5 and shredded 3 of them. I put the diced chicken in 2 freezer bags. They will make 2 dinners one step easier. I mixed the shredded chicken with a bottle of BBQ sauce. Shredded BBQ Chicken Sandwiches will be a quick and easy dinner on a busy night.

I cut the remaining chicken breast into strips perfect for Fajitas and put them into a freezer bag.  I cut a red pepper and red onion into slices.  I put them into separate freezer bags.  All three bags ... chicken, peppers and onions ... are now in a larger bag in my freezer.  I'll need Fajita Flours, Seasoning and toppings when Fajitas are on a Menu Plan.

What kinds of things to you do to prepare meals or pieces of meals for your freezer??

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Time Saving Cooking

Several weeks ago I told you about my Time Saving Cooking/Freezer Cooking.  We eaten a lot of the meals I prepared that night but still have a few in the freezer.  Tonight's cooking was completely impromptu (last time was pretty spur of the moment too but I put more time into planning meals) after my Kroger and Meijer Trips. 

Homemade Pizza was on the Meal Plan for tonight .... and with 4 boys (2 of mine and 2 extras ... ages 9-12.  My 3rd boy was at a sleepover) to feed I knew that I needed plenty of pizza.  I wanted Buffalo Chicken Pizza and the boys wanted Sausage Pizza.  If I was going to be cooking both Chicken and Sausage anyway it made sense to cook extra of each for the freezer.  I love having meals or at least parts of meals cooked up and in the freezer.  It makes the hectic after school homework chaos so much easier!

I started with this....

 

And ended with this.....

 

Sorry for the poor picture.  It does no justice to what I accomplished in a very short time tonight!

Now in my freezer are six bags of crumbled Italian Sausage .... perfect for pizza, 3 bags of bite sized pieces of Italian Sausage .... perfect for Corn Sausage Chowder, Coq au Vin alla Italiana etc and 3 bags of diced chicken .... perfect for Chicken Tettrazini, quick chicken salad and so many other things.  While I don't have exact plans for each of these meats now .... when I'm ready to use them I'll be one step closer to having dinner ready!

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Time Saving Cooking Results

Lots of blogs I read post about cooking multiple meals in one day to freeze and make meal planning and prep easier.  I've done this to some extent before by doubling or tripling a recipe I'm making for dinner anyway and then freezing the extra meals.  I've always been interested in Gina's at Moneywise Moms way of  Cook Once, Eat 10 Times.  She focuses on recipes using the same kind of meat and plans her cooing days around what meat is on sale.  These days can be planned in advance OR, as is more common in my life, unplanned things happen too....like finding over 9 lbs of ground beef reduced and lots of reduced produce on the sale the same day that I was planning to stock up on chicken breasts.   So after shopping, putting lots of my groceries away and adding the ingredients I already had on hand, my kitchen counter looked like this...

I used the Cook Once, Eat 10 Times Chicken Edition and Winter Edition to come up with my own plan. Here's the things I did in order I did them.  Recipes will follow.

1. Diced & sliced 10 Bell Peppers and 2 onions
2. Browned about 4 lbs of ground beef and put the rest of the ground beef into a large bowl  (Meatballs were part of the plan and Gina recommended leaving the ground beef sit out of the fridge for a little while to avoid frostbite when mixing the meatball mixture with my hands....she was right!)
3. While the ground beef was browning, I put 4 chicken breasts into a baggie with a roasted red pepper marinade.  (Dinner #1)
4. Sliced 2 chicken breasts into strips just right for fajitas and put the strips in a baggie.
   
5. Put sliced peppers and onions into separate snack size baggies
6. Put the 3 baggies...chicken, peppers, and onions along with a fajita seasoning packet into a larger baggie. (Dinner #2)
7. Started a pot of boiling water with 4 chicken breasts
8. Put 3 chicken breasts in a baggie 
9. Put chopped onions and chopped peppers into separate snack size baggies
10. All 3 baggies then ...chicken, peppers and onions... went into a larger baggie along with recipe  (Dinner #3)
11. Drained ground beef
12. Sauteed lots of diced peppers and onions (Like my technical measurements? I just approximate most things without measuring)
13. Added drained ground beef to the skillet with peppers and onions to cook together for just a few minutes and set it aside to cool
14. Diced cooked chicken breasts into bite size pieces
15. Divided diced chicken into 2 baggies and added a recipe to one of the baggies (Dinners #4 & #5)
16. Put even amounts of ground beef mixture into 3 baggies (Dinners #6, #7 & #8)
17. Added about a cup each of bread crumbs and fresh grated Parmesan cheese, 4 eggs, salt, pepper and oregano to the ground beef in the large bowl
    
18. Mixed it with my hands (impressive for me because I avoid touching raw meat as much as I can)
19. Rolled 2 trays of meatballs (with my mom's help when she stopped by to play with us for the evening) ...one of mini meatballs (Dinner #9) and one of normal sized meatballs (Dinner #10)
20. Put cookie sheets of meatballs in freezer and will then put them into baggies when frozen.  I may stretch them into more than 2 meals and since they were frozen on the cookie sheets they won't stick together in the baggies
21. Add baggie of diced peppers & onions to baggie of larger sized meatballs for Dinner #10
    

I ended up with this....

Dinner #1 - Marinaded Chicken Breast to be grilled  Additional ingredients needed 2 sides

Dinner #2 - Fajitas Additional ingredients needed Cheese, fajita flours, sour cream etc

Dinner #3- "Crockpot Chicken Cacciatore—I'll take 1-2 of the chicken breasts, lay them in the crockpot with chopped onion, mushrooms, and green peppers, then top it with a jar of spaghetti sauce. Served with pasta, it's a very fast meal." (Quoted right from Money Wise Mom's Chicken Edition) Additional ingredients needed mushrooms, spaghetti sauce & pasta

Dinner #4 Stroganoff Style Chicken  See the recipe for additional ingredients needed

Dinner #5 Not sure what it will be but I use Diced Chicken in lots of recipes so this will be used.

Dinner #6 Beef Veggie Soup  with Grilled Cheese Sandwiches  I'll add 2 cans of tomatoes, a can of beef broth, a can of tomato sauce and whatever canned, fresh and/or frozen veggies I have on hand ie. corn, carrots, peas, green beans with baggie of the Ground Beef Mixture.  My friend Katie gave me the base for this recipe and I have adapted it work with whatever I have at the time.  My boys love it!

Dinner # 7 Shepherds Pie  See recipe for additional ingredients needed. I have mashed potatoes on next week's menu plan.  I'm going to make extra so I have some left over to freeze for this dinner too.

Dinner #8 Rice a Roni  This dinner was one of my favorites as a kid! Cook some ground beef (or take a bag of ground beef mixture from the freezer) Use a box of Beef Rice a Roni.  Follow the directions on the box but in a skillet instead of a sauce pan.  Add the ground beef to the rice the same time the recipe says to add the water.  Add frozen corn, peas or any veggie you want.  Cover and simmer as directed on the box.  One skillet dinner!

Dinner # 9 Meatball Soup See recipe for additional ingredients needed

Dinner #10 Spaghetti & Meatballs  Add meatballs, onions & peppers to pot of boiling spaghetti sauce.  Serve over pasta with homemade bread

Some of these dinners are things I've made before and some are ones new to me that I got from Money Wise Mom's plans. 

After only 2 1/2 hours I have the makings of 10 dinners in my freezer a lot less time than if I waited to do each of these steps at the time we're actually having the meal!

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Time Saving Cooking!

What I doing with these ingredients and a couple (hopefully only a couple) of hours? 

Check back later to find out!

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