The Spoils of War

I've been reading a blog, Life as Mom, for a year now and have always wanted to try her freezer cooking techniques. In the past, I've sporatically made a double batch of whatever I was cooking and froze the other half of a casserole for use on another night, but this project is a modest undertaking for a woman in my condition.

Picking 6 of our families favorite dinners I consulted the recipes and made a list of all the ingredients and quantities needed.  I was slightly discussed when I tallied 12 pounds of beef total, but that yeilds oh so much in the end.

Armed with my recipes. I went to work! Browning meat in 2 pound batches and putting them in the stock pot, the largest vessel I own. I worked on assembling the meals while browning the next batch so there was no down time.

In only 4 hours I made all this! While the kids were home! They asked, "Why is the counter covered in food?"

 2 taco kits, 2 pizza casserole, 1 lasagna, 2 sloppy joe kits, 4 turkey noodle soups, 2 our favorite casseroles, 2 lbs of meat for supper nachos and 1 turkey/ham noodle casserole. 16 meals in all.

I found these disposable trays on clearance at Aldi for .25 a piece.   I know, I know, they are not green! But I will reuse them!  I think its much greener than lining your baking dish with foil, waiting for the food to freeze, removing it, wrapping it in more foil and putting it back in the freezer! They didn't come with covers so I went to the recycle bin and picked out some cardboard and made a template.

Viola!  Stackable containers!

This being my largest freezer cooking to date I learned a couple things.

1. A scale is your friend.  Weighing meat and cheese was super easy.
2. Buy in Bulk.  I got a Costco membership for Christmas, thanks Diana! Not only was the price per oz. cheaper for cheese, eggs and bacon, I only had to open one container and there was little waste from packaging!
3. A food processor rocks!  I normally don't like the texture of onions when they are cut in the Cuisinart , but it sure beats chopping 5 lbs. of onion by hand!
4. Have something easy for dinner.  I had just sat down when Daddy came home and was ready for dinner.  Baked fish and Fries are easy but I still had to get up and cook what I had taken out of the freezer that morning.
5. Write instructions on the top of containers if possible.  While I'm in the hospital, Daddy might need a little guidance.

Good luck with your freezer cooking!