Thursday, January 10, 2008

Stocking My Freezer - Day Two

Here is the next installment in what I did yesterday to stock my freezer!

Made Chocolate Chip Cookies to freeze the dough - I can take out a few at a time and bake them!
Made one pan Mexican Lasagna:
Cooked a bunch of chicken breasts to cut up for casseroles I will make today.

I've gotten some great comments and e-mails from you on this topic! Here are a few links worth sharing:

Simple Family Supper (I am not a subscriber, but it looks like a neat idea!)
A Year of Crock Potting (This fellow blogger is resolving to use her Crock Pot every day in 2008 - check out her recipes and honest reviews of the recipes she has tried!
Another blog of interest is: The Freezer Chicks
Mrs. Pear also has a great section on her blog about meals for the freezer!

17 comments:

Stephanie ODea said...

Monica, thank you for the link! I'm excited to see what this year brings. My family happens to think I have lost the last of my marbles...

xoxo
steph

*carrie* said...

I'll have to check out the crock pot link--sounds fascinating!

Anonymous said...

More great meals in your freezer. I'm especially interested to check out the crockpot lady ~ I'm always on the lookout for more crockpot recipes! Thanks for calling yesterday ~ Love you, Mom

Wendi said...

Monica, I am blown away by all that you have accomplished and the week isn't over yet!

Paige said...

I came home from Wednesday night supper at Church with all the leftovers from the local Mexian restaraunt. I certainly don't want to eat all that food before it goes bad so I decided to make a "mexican catchall" casserole and put it in the freezer. I layered salsa, tortilla chips, refried beans, rice, beef, shredded chicken until I had a big dish full to the top. I topped it with some mexi-shredded cheese I already had, covered it tightly with foil and two layers of press'n'seal and labelled it. Now I've got ONE go to meal for when Scott is home. My goal is a bit more modest. I want to make 1 or 2 meals each week in duplicate, putting the second in the freezer for when Scott is here and on leave. That will leave us more time to catch up on cuddles and less time working in the kitchen.I like the cookie idea a lot, wouldn't work here though because I LOVE raw cookie dough, and frozen is the best! Any breakfast ideas?

Anonymous said...

Thank you for the great links. I have saved them. I am thinking that it would not hurt to have a few freezer meal on hand just for those day's that get a little crazy. They do happen when you have 5 children going all different way's. Your meals look great by the way. Love the idea of freezing the dough for cookies.

Anonymous said...

Can I just offer a freezer tip for freezing things like casseroles, lasagna, enchiladas... anything that needs to hold its form? What I do is take my 8x8 pan and line it with foil (enough to be able to cover the casserole), and then a layer of plastic wrap. Assemble your casserole, lasagna, etc. and let it cool in the pan. Then cover the top with the plastic wrap, squeezing out as much air as possible. Then fold over the foil. Then "flash freeze" it by putting the whole thing in the freezer for a couple hours. Then just pop the casserole out, put it in a freezer bag and label w/ cooking instructions and put it back in the freezer. I never seem to have the foil pans on hand so I do this a lot. Your meals all sound yummy BTW!

Anonymous said...

Great links to great sites.

I think the freezer cooking bug has really hit. It seems like everybody is freezer cooking lately. :D

More than Survival said...

Thanks for posting the link to www.simplefamilysupper.com (my website)
It is my heart to reduce stress from the "what is for supper" part of our every day! It is so important to eat meals together as a family... such a wonderful time to connect, bond and pass on our values. I love my freezer and I love my crock pot (I call it my secret weapon!)
You are doing a great job preparing ahead with the freezer... you will be so blessed down the road!!!! Keep it up!
Heather

~Babychaser~ said...

I am sooooo excited to have found you! Tamara over at Pondered in my Heart (http://ponderedinmyheart.blogspot.com/) told me about you in response to one of my recent posts. I'm due March 9th and am looking at stocking my freezer between now and then! Your recipes are looking great and your example of actually doing it is an inspiration! When are you due??

I look forward to visiting lots... and to trying those yummy looking recipes (makes it hard to wait until March to eat them... we may have to double them and eat half now.) :)

Monica Wilkinson said...

Paige - there are lots of ideas for breads/muffins you could freeze. Pick any of your favorite recipes and just make extra popping them in the freezer. You can also make pancakes, waffles and french toast ahead and freeze it, pulling out what you need and popping them in the toaster!

Um, I love cookie dough too - I have been refraining from eating any - but, it may be a dangerous thing to have around!

Thanks for the tip Carol!

babychaser - I'm thrilled you can use this info too! Happy cooking! I'm due Feb. 19th but will likely deliver before the end of January.

Alycia said...

These look wonderful!!! I am truly amazed at how well organized you are ~ great job! And, thank you for the links to the recipes sites as well. I will enjoy looking through them!

Marsha said...

About those cookies...how big do you make the scoops? They look really big in your picture - does that reflect reality? I need to do this, too. Chocolate chip cookies are my husband's favorites but I never seem to have time to make them. Having some available to bake quickly sure would help.

Edi said...

Great idea on the frozen unbaked cookies...now would I eat less of them b/c I could just bake a few at a time...or would I eat more b/c there would always be some waiting to be popped into the oven??? :)

By the way - I'm tagging you - if you'd like to participate - in this meme.

Monica Wilkinson said...

Marsha - I use a medium size scoop (from Pampered Chef) to scoop these out quickly and easily. I'm guessing it about 2 Tbsp. of dough. They are a bit bigger than what I would do without the scoop - but it saves time and makes them all nice and neat for storing!

~Babychaser~ said...

Re: cookie size... I use the small scoop from Pampered Chef and find that it is a nice bite size cookie... and therefore makes more. :) I started doing it years ago and never went back! I justify having more cookies with less guilt! :)

Mrs. Pear said...

Thank you for the link!