Crystal at Money Saving Mom is hosting another Freezer Cooking Day where she and other mom’s take one day to cook several meals or parts of meals for their freezer.
Frankly, cooking all day long overwhelms me–I don’t care how long it keeps me out of the kitchen! I prefer to do freezer cooking over time. So what does that look like?
Freezer Cooking Over Time (FCOT) has several components:
BULK BUYING
I watch weekly sale prices and purchase meat and other ingredients in bulk when they hit the lowest price. For example, in my area boneless skinless chicken breasts go on sale for $1.99/lb regularly. When I see them for $1.78 or less, I buy as much as I can afford, usually several months worth.
I also find over ripe bananas for as little as $.25 cents a pound. We eat as many as we can and freeze the rest in zipper bags for later use in smoothies. My children will even eat them straight from the freezer like popsicles!
PRE COOKING
Rather than stick all the meat into the freezer immediately, I precook it so that it is ready for quick meals. I boil or bake chicken breasts, shred them and place them in freezer zipper bags for quick enchiladas, chicken casseroles and chicken salad. I also precook brown rice, ground beef and beans.
DOUBLING RECIPES
Another quick way to fill your freezer is to double time consuming recipes like lasagna. It takes only a few minutes to make another casserole when I already have the ingredients out. I then have an easy meal for later.
USING LEFTOVERS
I also place leftovers in the freezer such as leftover roast chicken, vegetables or chili. I place them in single servings so that we can have a quick lunch for my husband or I combine ingredients to make soup.
Freezer Cooking Over Time saves me money and sanity! It also provides variety in our diet when we have one of those “Oh no, chicken again!” weeks.