Freezer Cooking

March and April are ridiculously busy months for me. I am traveling non stop and just running around like a crazy person in general So when I had some time this past weekend I decided to do some freezer cooking to try to stay on top of my food choices so I don't feel temped to pick up convenience foods.

So I ended up making 2 personal pizzas (4 meals total for me)


And 1 small beef lasagna which will last 2-3 meals.


I also made some Jasmine rice and chicken curry (3 servings) for the freezer but forgot to take a picture! I am far from being fully covered but I am hoping these will fill in some gaps when I would otherwise decide to eat out!

Freezer Cooking: Finished!

So, I haven't quite gotten to everything on my list but I'm calling it quits for this weekend. I'm pooped and I think my kitchen deserves a little break!

I ended up making the BBQ chicken which I am pretty excited about. I love this stuff! I store it in 1 cup portions just like the rest of the shredded chicken. Between all this shredded chicken I have enough for about 16 meals - not counting the Italian marinated chicken strips I made! So I should be all set for the month.
I also made chocolate chip pumpkin muffins which I haven't had in a few months so I am definitely looking forward to these.

I didn't make the pretzels but I might end up making them next weekend. I think these would be a fun snack for work so I'd like to give them a shot.

So in total I have in the freezer as a result of this weekend:
30 pumpkin chocolate chip muffins
1 loaf banana bread split into thirds
6 chocolate chip pancakes
10 regular pancakes
8 meals worth of plain shredded chicken
8 meals worth of BBQ chicken
a bunch of italian marinated chicken - definitely a few meals worth depending on what I am eating.
a ton of peanut sauce - this should last 2-3 months
7 servings of cheese pizza - probably 2 months worth
Brownies
Granola Bars

The cool thing is - I did a lot of work this weekend but I split it up enough that I didn't feel overwhelmed!

Freezer Cooking Day 2: Morning Update

Well the morning is off to a great start! After enjoying some much needed "lounging" this morning, I got right back into the freezer cooking and made a decent dent in my remaining list.

This morning I made a pan of brownies (and yes there is a piece missing - gotta sample it!) and 4 personal sized pizzas. The 4 pizzas should be 8 meals for me (well 7, since I ate half of one for lunch) and fear not - these should last me more than 1 month. No need to eat pizza more than once per week!Here are 2 of my pizzas on my messy counter. I really should take a picture of the before/after kitchen disaster that arises during freezer cooking. It is a whole separate job to clean up! My dishwasher is definitely getting a workout this weekend.

I am taking a cooking break to spend time with some friends but I hope to finish off the list this evening. I think this is totally doable since I really don't have too much left to do!

BBQ Chicken (?)
Muffins (flavor TBD)
Pizza (4 personal size)
Some sort of dessert...maybe brownies?
Homemade Soft Pretzels
Chop peppers for freezer

Freezer Cooking Update 2

I think I am done for the day. I am very pleased with what I've accomplished and I don't think it is unreasonable to get everything else done tomorrow.

While waiting for the banana bread to finish cooking I started with some cleaning - laundry, vacuuming, etc and got a bit of cleaning done too. Now I am pooped and ready to have some fun for the rest of the day!

Here is my beautiful loaf of banana bread. The hardest thing with banana bread is not eating it all before it makes it to the freezer!

I also chopped some onions in the food processor. I love onions but I am EXTREMELY sensitive to them. I can't even be in the kitchen if someone else is chopping them. Anyway, so I like to have a bag full of chopped onions on hand so that I don't have to torture myself too often. Even with the food processor I had tears running down my face!


And here is the lovely bag of chopped onions. This should lase me for a while.

So I am pretty pleased with what I was able to cross off the list. I think tomorrow is going to be another productive day!

Goals for Freezer Cooking Day 2:
BBQ Chicken (?)
Muffins (flavor TBD)
Pizza (4 personal size)
Some sort of dessert...maybe brownies?
Homemade Soft Pretzels
Chop peppers for freezer

Freezer Cooking Update 1

So far freezer cooking has been going very well. I am pretty pleased with what I've managed to accomplish this morning!

You can see My Plan and links to online recipes here. Oh and for reference purposes - here is what my freezer looked like before - not totally empty but there is plenty of space for some goodies!Ok s0 what have I accomplished so far?!?!

Well I cheated a little bit and got a head start last night since I was just hanging around the house. I baked some chicken breasts to shred for salads, summer, rolls, and other misc. meals and shredded them up. I also made granola bars which I am very pleased with. I've tried other granola bar recipes in the past and was never really satisfied with the end result - this recipe is definitely a keeper.

Here is the chicken all shredded up. I really find it useful to have already cooked chicken on hand. I seasoned it with some salt, pepper, and italian seasoning so it is pretty simple and goes with pretty much anything.
I freeze my chicken in 1 cup portion in these snack sized bags. These bags probably aren't great for long-term storage, but I find that they work well for me. I usually manage to use it up pretty quickly. One bag works out to about 2 meals worth for me depending on what I am eating.


On to the granola bars. As I said, I am really impressed with this recipe. I made chocolate chip bars this time since I had plenty of chocolate chips around. I probably won't use so much cinnamon next time - I found it had a little too much for my taste. Also, I thought 1 cup of butter was a little much so I only used half. I didn't change anything else and I don't think it mattered.

I individually wrapped the bars in aluminum foil and stuck them all in a large freezer bag. The recipe made 18 god sized bars.

This morning I started with pancakes (plain and a few chocolate chip), italian marinated chicken, peanut sauce, and banana bread.

Here are some chocolate chip pancakes cooking on the stove. I have been in such a pancake mood recently! These should make for a few good breakfasts and possibly even a 'breakfast for dinner!"
Here is the batch of pancakes that I made. I froze them in 2 freezer bags - one for chocolate chip and one for plain.

The Thai peanut sauce has got to be one of my favorite recent recipe discoveries. This sauce goes great with Summer Rolls and I like it on chicken and salad too. It is super easy to make too which always helps. I freeze the sauce in ice cube trays and then pop all the ice cubes into a freezer bag once they are solid. I find that 1 cube is just enough for me.

I didn't take a picture of the Italian Marinated Chicken because - well it looked like a plate full of chicken. The banana bread is in the oven as I type this so I might include a picture of the finished product on my next update. I'll probably try to get a little bit more done today and then save the rest for tomorrow.

So - lets cross some things off that list!!

Plain shredded chicken
Italian marinated chicken strips
BBQ Chicken (?)
Pancakes
Muffins (flavor TBD)
Banana Bread
Peanut Sauce - frozen in ice cube tray
Pizza (4 personal size)
Some sort of dessert...maybe brownies?
Chewy Granola Bars
Homemade Soft Pretzels
Chop onions for freezer
Chop peppers for freezer

Freezer Cooking! The Plan!

Wow, I am super excited to actually be able to participate in freezer cooking at the same time as everyone else! I have a very open weekend so I am hoping to accomplish a lot. I've been doing a good job of eating what I've had stored in the freezer from earlier freezer cooking adventures so I think it is about time to replenish the supply!

Here is what I hope to make:
Plain shredded chicken
Italian marinated chicken strips
BBQ Chicken (?)
Pancakes
Muffins (flavor TBD)
Banana Bread
Peanut Sauce - frozen in ice cube tray
Pizza (4 personal size)
Some sort of dessert...maybe brownies?
Chewy Granola Bars
Homemade Soft Pretzels
Chop onions for freezer
Chop peppers for freezer

I'm still trying to put my thoughts together but this is the plan. This with my weekly CSA delivery of fresh fruits and veggies should take care of most of my food needs for the month!!

Mini Freezer Cooking

The rest of my month is going to be pretty busy so I thought I'd help myself out by doing a little freezer cooking so that I won't be tempted to grab take out.
This is what I ended up with:

Slow cooker BBQ Chicken (just as a reference, I use half the chicken but same proportion of liquid) This is the before picture. I forgot to take a picture of the shredded chicken.


Cornbread (From a box - Trader Joe's)


Pork Chops marinated in Italian Dressing (cut in half so they cover more meals). There are 2 missing from the pan because I ate one for dinner (with cornbread and steamed broccoli and cauliflower) and another is packed for lunch tomorrow.


Brownies from scratch! I was in the mood for brownies but I was without a baking mix so I tried this recipe. I am pretty impressed. I think I cooked it a little longer than I would have preferred but overall it had a great flavor.

Oops - someone took out a slice!

I also made 2 loaves of zucchini bread at the end of last week but I didn't take a picture of it.

So not bad for very little work. I marinated the pork chops all day while I was busy sitting at the car dealership. The BBQ sauce mixes up really fast and then it was just a matter of chopping an onion and throwing it all in the crock pot for a few hours. While that was going I mixed up the cornbread and baked it at the same time as the pork. Finally, I mixed up the brownie mix and baked that while enjoying my dinner! Easy! I think I am getting the hang of this freezer cooking business!

Monkey Muffins

So I had a tube of biscuits that technically expired 2 days ago (forgot about them - whoops!). And since I just made a whole pan of rolls, I didn't want to make the biscuits alone. Soooo - I had to find something to do with them.
Enter MoneySavingMom's post on using refrigerated biscuit dough. Luckily I did not have 12 cans to use up but one was enough. I decided to make Monkey Muffins! I did not have sweetened condensed milk so I just left that part off (probably better for the waistline anyway).



Honestly, I wasn't overly impressed. Don't get me wrong, I WILL be eating them all. But I probably won't be making them again. The sweetened condensed milk probably will make them amazing but it will also add A TON of sugar. So - my vote is - great way to use up some biscuits. Probably won't be doing it too often.

Freezer Cooking Update

We could call this - Freezer Cooking - the chicken edition!

Today I crossed 2 more things off my list - curry chicken and 'generic chicken breast.'
Here is the curry chicken. I didn't make the rice because that is super easy to make with my rice cooker and doesn't take much time either. This should cover 3 meals worth of chicken curry. I have them in the freezer in individual portions.



I also marinated chicken in Italian dressing and cooked it up to put on my salads for the week.



To summarize:
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
1 lb taco meat for tacos and quesadillas (and maybe a taco salad?)
Bread Machine Rolls
Pizza (will make 2 personal size pizzas)
Curry Chicken
Chicken Breasts for whatever meals I come up with
Chopped onion to add to things (I hate chopping onions and try to do it as infrequently as possible)
Meatballs

Holy Deliciousness Batman!

As part of my freezer cooking week, I made use of my newly acquired bread machine (didn't blog about this, but also got that at the Restore - for $5!) to make some rolls using a recipe from MoneySavingMom.

Um - these are amazing. Today I ate 4.



I need tips from my faithful readers - when you make rolls do you freeze the dough or freeze the rolls after they are baked?

Freezer Cooking Update

Well my freezer cooking is off to a good start. Here is what I have accomplished so far:
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough (don't know why this is upside down...but takes too long to reupload).
Taco Meat. This should be good for about 6 meals for me.
To summarize:
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
1 lb taco meat for tacos and quesadillas (and maybe a taco salad?)
Bread Machine Rolls
Pizza (will make 2 personal size pizzas)
Curry Chicken
Chicken Breasts for whatever meals I come up with
Chopped onion to add to things (I hate chopping onions and try to do it as infrequently as possible)
Meatballs

Lots of time left this week so I am hoping to accomplish quite a bit still!

Freezer cooking!

MoneySavingMom and LifeasMom are hosting a freezer cooking day this week! Since I work full time M-F and have commitments over the weekend, I will unfortunately not be able to dedicate one full day to cooking but I think I can make some good progress by dedicating a portion of each evening to freezer cooking. The month of May is going to be very busy for me so I am thinking that the more I can have waiting for me in the freezer the better off I will be. Plus, my CSA starts this week so I will have some extra produce laying around to eat.

Here is what I hope to accomplish this week for freezer cooking.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
1 lb taco meat for tacos and quesadillas (and maybe a taco salad?)
Bread Machine Rolls
Pizza (will make 2 personal size pizzas)
Curry Chicken
Chicken Breasts for whatever meals I come up with
Chopped onion to add to things (I hate chopping onions and try to do it as infrequently as possible)
Meatballs

This is just a starting point for now - it will probably be amended as the week progresses. Wish me luck!!