Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Food For The Freezer

Back during our courtship days, if I mentioned that I was "cooking for the freezer", Andy would always chuckle and ask what my freezer liked to eat. Smarty-pants.

"Cooking for the freezer" may still sound funny to some, but it's a lifesaver for me these days!

I had allowed my freezer cooking ways to go by the wayside the past few months. The result? Lots of ingredients and nothing to eat in a pinch.

Since I make the majority of our food from scratch, it takes a bit more effort to keep foods at the ready. After all, if I don't make it we don't have it to eat!

I spent some time last weekend preparing foods  to freeze so that we would have extra stuff to grab through the week.

Friday night, I made a double batch of dinner rolls and froze half.

On Saturday, I spent most of the day in the kitchen and accomplished this list. No picture since we were heading out the door for a church event as soon as I finished  cooking!

--5 loaves whole wheat bread
--1 batch (8) pita pockets
--1 batch peanut butter granola
--2 dozen pumpkin muffins and 2 small loaves pumpkin bread
--1 dozen hard-boiled eggs
--1 pan baked brown rice

Obviously, I didn't freeze the eggs! But they are nice to have in the fridge for easy breakfasts and snacks.

I made the rice for a dish I was taking on Sunday, then I found out we were doing picnic lunches that day so we ended up using the rice for a couple meals this week and freezing two bags of rice for future use.

 Tonight for supper, I planned to make beef sausage to go with scrambled eggs and toast. Instead of making just enough for one meal, I used three pounds of ground beef instead and made 6 meals worth! It only took a few more minutes to make a big batch than a single meal and now I have 5 extra meals of sausage in the freezer ready to be used.

It feels good to be getting a little ahead of the game again by having some foods prepared and ready in the freezer! It's so great to have food to grab when we're in a hurry or on the go!

I'm hoping to get back into the habit of keeping my freezer and pantry well-stocked!

3 comments:

Nikki said...

I love a good freezer post! They are always inspirational. I was intrigued at the hard-boiled egg part until I read you don't freeze them. lol They are great to have ready in the fridge. I think I'll boil up a dozen today. And I already had dinner rolls and pumpkin muffins on the agenda for the freezer today. :)

gail said...

i can't wait to get into my own place and do a freezer cooking day =) you inspire me!

DarcyLee said...

I haven't been doing much baking lately but I have been making double recipes of meals like 2 pork tenderloins-one for now one for later, and making lots of beans for salads and other recipes. I love having my freezer stocked, it makes putting together a meal so much easier.