Stocking the Freezer

The other kid will be here any day now so I have been in super fast mode trying to get everything that I want cooked or prepped and frozen. I want things to be as easy as possible on those taking care of us and especially on the husband. I also want to ensure that we are still eating as much as possible like normal, i.e. real foods.

I have had a few meals prepped and ready in the freezer for a while now (and I always keep stuff in the freezer for quick meals anyway), but the other week as the kid was running around in the yard playing, I sat on the porch and made a nice long list of what I wanted to accomplish in the kitchen. I showed it to the husband and he thought I was being a little ambitious, but I just want to ensure that we have lots of yummy food to eat, no matter what time of the day.

My list is divided into breakfasts, bread products, main dishes, and desserts (did you not expect me to have desserts?). 

Here is what I wrote on my list:

• waffles
• french toast
• banana muffins
• biscuits
• apple scones
• pancake and sausage muffins
• cinnamon rolls

• individual pizzas (12)
• red sauce drops for Mari's Magic Frozen Meals (the husband thought he was cute giving them this name)
• white sauce drops for Mari's Magic Frozen Meals
• cabbage casserole
• enchiladas (2)
• meatloaf
• orange dump chicken
• meatballs

• tortillas
• dinner rolls

• slice and bake cookies
• chocolate chip cookie dough
• oatmeal cookie dough

I am crossing off what I have accomplished already and will continue to do so. My list may look long and involved, but I assure you that it is not taking too long at all! If there are not recipes posted or linked, I will work to get them all posted. I am super excited to have so much real and tasty food going into my freezer!

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. 

Garlic-Onion Muffins

I decided about an hour before I needed to have dinner on the table that I wanted bread to go with it. An hour doesn't really leave enough time to do anything with yeast so I decided that some kind of muffin might work. So I set out in search of a "dinner muffin" and landed on this. It looked easy enough to whip up and I had everything on hand (having basic baking supplies stocked comes in handy!) I made a few changes but they turned out delicious. So good that I had to stop myself from eating more...I froze half of them in a plastic bag just so I wouldn't devour them all (see freezer cooking can be easy!). The only change I would make next time is to omit the sugar or at least cut it in half (why I didn't do this anyway since I never use the full amount is beyond me). This and the changes I made are reflected below.

image credit

Garlic-Onion Muffins

2 cups flour

3 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp sugar (optional)

 2 tsp onion powder 

1 egg, beaten

1 cup milk

1/4 cup melted butter

2 garlic cloves, minced

1. Heat oven to 400°F.
2. In a large bowl, mix flour, baking powder, salt, onion powder, and sugar.
3. In a small bowl, mix together egg, milk,and garlic.
4. Make a well in the center of dry ingredients and pour in the egg mixture and melted butter.
5. Mix together using as few strokes as possible.
6. DO NOT OVER BEAT--the batter should have small lumps in it.
7. Pour into 12 paper-lined muffins tins, filling about 2/3 full.
8. Bake 20 minutes or until muffins begin to turn golden on top.

This is a thick batter but do not worry, they do spread out a little and bake up light and fluffy!

August Freezer Cooking Day

I said just the other day that I needed to get some food in the freezer, so I decided I was going to participate in the Freezer Cooking Day hosted at MoneySavingMom. Only this time I am keeping my list short - and attacking it 15-minute style over the next few days. Here's what I plan to make:

• tortillas (x 2 or 3 hopefully!)
• blueberry muffins (will share recipe later)
• several meal's worth of cooked, shredded chicken
• simple soaked pancakes
• meatloaf (will share recipe later)
• pizza dough (will share recipe later)
• soaked granola bars

It isn't much, but every little bit helps! Hopefully I can add more to it as I can fit tasks in my day.Actually, the pancakes and pizza dough are already done. I soaked my flour for the pancakes last night then mixed them up this afternoon and cooked them when I had a little time. The pizza dough was a result of me making two crusts worth of dough tonight and wrapping half up for another week. It was no more trouble at all!

Banana Muffins

This is another recipe I made to put in the freezer. I used my mom's banana bread recipe as a base (I ONLY use this recipe as I don't like how any other turns out right to me...maybe it is the proportions??) but changed it so it was healthier and with 100% whole grains, as we don't use white flour in our house. I tripled the recipe and made two loaves of bread and a dozen muffins.

Banana Bread

2 eggs*
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup applesauce
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 very ripe bananas**
1 1/2 cups ww flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

1. Mix wet ingredients.
2. Add dry ingredients and mix just until moistened.
3. Pour in prepared pans and bake at 350 for 60-65 minutes for loaves, 25-30 for muffins.

*I actually used 1 egg per recipe and 1 tbsp flax seed + 3 tbsp water per recipe.
**I used bananas that I had stashed in my freezer. I just took them out and stuck them in the fridge (on a plate!!) the night before.

If you like super sweet muffins, this isn't the recipe for you. But the small amount of sugar (for muffins, anyway) add just the right amount of sweetness to these moist muffins that make great on-the-go snacks and quick breakfasts with a piece of fruit. When these cooled, I cut up one of the loaves into 12 slices, and froze those and the muffins (what was left...) in a big container so I could just grab what I wanted. The second loaf I wrapped separately to thaw altogether at a later time.

Since this recipe uses whole grains, I am submitting it to LifeAsMom Ultimate Recipe Swap: Whole Grains.

Freezer Cooking

In order to make save much needed time during their busy days, many moms do something called Once A Month Cooking, or OAMC. This means that they will spend one (long!) day making as many meals for the rest of the month as they can before sticking it all in the freezer to pull out as needed. This is a nice concept. Except not everything I want to eat can be frozen. Nor do I have enough time to do that. Enter MoneySavingMom and FishMama. They team up once a month to host a virtual Freezer Cooking Day. They come into the day with a list of foods they want to prepare, but their list is not made up of 37 different casseroles like you expect. Sometimes those foods are casseroles, sometimes soups, and sometimes meal components (such as shredded chicken or marinated beef) to make a fresh cooked meal go faster. They also usually include breakfasts and snacks, too. I usually like to participate to some extent, but this time I am prepared with a plan (or at least a list of foods):

Breakfasts

breakfast cookies done

banana muffins done

bagels (egg & cheese on some)

instant oatmeal

mini apple pies

pancakes done

breakfast burritos done

mini egg frittatas

Snacks

cookie dough done

pretzels

granola done

Lunches/Dinners

shredded chicken done

tortillas

bean burritos

pizza pockets

brown rice done

lentils

beans done

This list does look a little long and ambitious, but I am confident in my ability to get things done. It may take a few days, but all these foods will get cooked and put away in my freezer to be pulled out during some hectic time. See, that is the beauty of freezer cooking. You pick a time (be it 3 hours or 30 minutes) that works for you, cook a little bit of food, then stash it away. You can also just make a double batch of a food you are already cooking so you can stick one in the freezer. Then when you have no time (and are this ------- close to picking up a pizza or going out to eat) to cook or just don't feel like it, you can grab something out of the freezer. Freezer cooking is also especially helpful in the mornings when the husband gets up at 4 am and needs a quick something to eat before rushing to the gym and something to eat once he gets to work. Since I am still in bed with the kid, he is able to grab something either out of freezer or something that I had put out for him on the counter the night before that was previously made.

Wanna participate too? Then go check out MSM.