Freezer Meals-How To

The beauty of freezer cooking is that although I might spend a couple hours putting the original prep work into our meals, we are able to enjoy the next "however-many" nights with less stress and meltdown around the dinner hours.

My meals are practically complete by the time they are placed in the freezer! All I have to do is pull out the meal that we would like, thaw and follow the VERY SIMPLE instructions I wrote on the container.

In my previous post about freezer cooking, I did an experiment, so-to-say, on freezer to crock-pot cooking. There were about 22 meals and all of the recipe's came from someone else. This time around, I've decided to play with some of my own recipes and some adapted ones from the retirement center that I work at. Here, we will walk step by step through the process, of the time saving miracle that happened in my kitchen last night! (Read the post "Step by Step" to see an example of how I did the prep for an actual meal or two).

First Item on the Agenda: CREATE A MEAL PLAN! You don't have to stick to it day by day...feel free to mix it up a little bit (you wrote down "roast" for Wednesday, but hubby REALLY wants it on Sunday after church. Okay! Just pull it out Saturday night and pick a diff. meal out of your freezer for Wednesday). It is essential though, for so many reasons, that you create a "rough draft" if you want to call it that, so that you can move to step 2 which is,

MAKE A LIST. Create your shopping list of ingredients needed. If you are a little OCD like me, I coordinate my list by grocery departments (produce, meat, dairy, dry goods). This way when I'm shopping, no time is wasted on the constant back and forth across the aisles. Now go shopping. If you bring the kids, let them help you! Play in the produce section by touching and smelling the produce! It's a great place to learn colors and texture! If you get to go alone, LUCK YOU! Just for that, you deserve to grab a cup of coffee and enjoy a rare moment alone! Then be sure to laugh (on the inside) as you express sympathy for the other mom's with screaming children, while knowing you don't have to deal with that today. PS: While shopping, don't forget your storage containers (baggies, tins, foil, etc...)

Step 3: If you have a veggie that is used in multiple meals, go ahead and get that chopped up first and stick in a bowl so that you can just grab what you need, as you go. Prep your work station. Wash your produce, chop those veggies, fry up any hamburger (used as ground beef) that is going into casseroles or taco's...any kind of meal like that.

Do one recipe at a time. Write the name of your meal, along with any further instructions on the container/baggie. Prep your meal. Try to get as much air out of you container/baggie as possible, to help prevent freezer burn. Seal. Lay flat. Freeze. DONE! Now on to the next meal.....