The Hahns

The Hahns

Saturday, January 07, 2012

Once a Month Freezer Cooking

Well, I decided to try something new that I stumbled on while looking at Pinterest (that website can be very addicting :)).  I used two blogs for ideas.  One from Mama and Baby Love: http://mamaandbabylove.blogspot.com/ and the other from Freezer Friendz: http://freezerfriendz.blogspot.com/ .  On Mama and Baby Love, the author talks about cooking one day to make meals for the month.  But then I needed some freezable recipes so I headed over to Freezer Friendz.  On Thursday this past week, I took the kids to the grocery store with my list for 12 meals.  After 2 hours (they were wonderful shoppers) and $215 later, we were headed home.  Then today I put all of the recipes together.  It took 2 1/2 hours; with the help of one little friend and one bigger one! :)  Matt was really helpful in browning 3 lbs. of ground beef and cleaning up/recycling things. 
I hope this will really help in preparing meals so at 5:00 each night, we don't look at each other and say, "What's for dinner?"  I wrote down each meal on the calendar so I know what to get out of the freezer each night.  I figured on 12 meals for the rest of Jan. because on Wed. we eat at church and there should be leftovers. 
Here is my list of recipes I made:
Pepsi Pot Roast
Mexican Dinner Dip
Thai Beef with Noodles (switched sesame oil-$6.99 a bottle!- for olive oil)
Angel Chicken
Um Um Skillet
Pasta and Fagioli Soup (1/2 recipe)
Tangy Pineapple Chicken
Chicken Tortilla Roll-ups
Stubb's Chicken
Pesto Chicken
Tasty Pork Tenderloin
Ravioli and Cheese Bake
All of the recipes came from Freezer Friendz and they are all new, which I am a little nervous about.  Thankfully Matt is not picky at all, Emerson isn't either.  Landon on the other hand won't eat much of anything.  So I guess, I may be the best critic! :)  I tried to choose a variety of recipes and those that didn't take a lot of preparation.  It didn't make a lot of dishes because I mixed/measured everything straight into th freezer bag.
Our first meal is Pepsi Pot Roast (if i can remember to get the 2 more cans of cream of mushroom soup I forgot to buy).  I'll update to let you know how the plan is working!

4 comments:

  1. This is so awesome! I bet it will be great!! Please update and let us know which ones are good...so we can make them :)

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  2. I agree with Jess! Let me know what you like and how well it works out for you!

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  3. Jana...9:18 PM

    I've done a smaller scale of this for years. i plan meals on the calendar. That, in itself, is a huge time saver. I plan in pencil, and try to stay about two weeks ahead so I can keep up with the grocery list. On Saturdays I make big batches of dishes and get 2-4 meals out of them. My stand-bys are meatloaf, stroganoff, cabbage rolls, mashed potatoes, chicken breasts many different ways, spaghetti sauce, and pot pie. I'm a big fan of putting something frozen in the oven in the morning and using the "time bake" setting. Sometimes the working mom thing was overwhelming. This became a little way to help.

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  4. way to go alicia! i love the idea! i want to know what's good too!

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