Freezer Cooking

The husband recently started a normal work schedule which means that he will actually be eating breakfast everyday (some days he actually only ate one meal a day). That of course means one thing - that I have to cook breakfast for him everyday (hush up all you feminists!). But seeing as how I do not want (nor am able) to get out of bed early every morning to make him breakfast, he has to rely on what he can grab from the freezer.

I have blogged about freezer cooking in the past and have set aside days just for that purpose. But as I have said before,  that doesn't work for me most of the time. So I just fit it in where I can. Here is what I have made in the past two weeks to freeze as far as breakfasts go:

• 4 1/2 dozen giant breakfast cookies (I did make some small ones for the kid)
• 2 dozen peach oatmeal muffins
• 4 breakfast sandwiches
• 5 cinnamon glazed scones

One night after dinner as I was clearing the table I got out all my ingredients for the cookies and muffins and got to work. Food was baked and bagged before bedtime.

And as for the breakfast sandwiches? One Saturday morning I had four leftover biscuits from breakfast and two leftover sausage patties. So I made two sausage biscuits. I then fried two eggs and put those on the last two biscuits with a slice of cheddar cheese. I then wrapped them in foil (I labeled on the bottom which one was which but I'm sure the husband really couldn't have cared less) and stuck those in baggies. 

One day last week I made cinnamon glazed scones for breakfast, only baking enough for the kid and me for breakfast. The rest of the uncooked scones got flash frozen and bagged for future breakfasts. 

Breakfast is not the only meal I have been thinking about, though. Here are the meal components I have in the freezer for quick dinners:

• 4 jars of cooked white beans
• 2 jars of cooked black beans
• 8 black bean burgers
• pint jar of marinara sauce
• 2 meals worth of shredded chicken
• 15 cups chicken stock
• 2 meals worth of browned ground beef
• 2 raw hamburger patties

When I cooked white beans for spinach balls I had some left over, so I put those in jars in 1 1/2 cup portions and froze them, too. I did the same with leftover black beans. 

Then when I browned ground beef for dinner one night, I only used what I needed for that meal and froze the rest for quick meals. One dirty pan and a few minutes worth of work resulted in three meals. All I did for that was put the cooked meat in a container and place in the freezer once it was cooled. 

Earlier this week I cooked a whole chicken in the crockpot so I would have chicken to make sandwiches out of. I then shredded the rest of the meat (I used the breasts for sandwiches) and made stock with the bones and skin. 

The marinara sauce and black beans burgers were a result of making a double batch of dinner. I quickly made the burger patties while cooking tacos one night, using the other half of the pound of ground beef I thawed for the tacos. 

It didn't take me much effort to get all this done but I sure am glad I have these foods in the freezer! They will save me much needed time and money. This just goes to show you that you do not have to have a lot of time to get ahead in the kitchen.