Since Christmas, I’ve been trying smaller cooking days timed to take advantage of sales. For example, last week bone-in chicken breasts were on sale. I bought 10 lbs of breasts, brought them home and simmered them for a couple of hours with vegetables, then deboned and chopped the meat while watching my favorite tv show. I ended up with 13 cups of cooked chopped chicken and a couple of quarts of savory broth, with very little time invested.

The next day, I made chicken pot pie filling (needs only to be put in a casserole dish, topped with a store-bought crust and baked), chicken broccoli crepes with swiss cheese sauce, chicken broccoli rice casserole (broccoli was also on sale!), chicken noodle casserole, and pesto chicken florentine with penne. All of these serve at least 6-8, so I now have several meals on hand. It took only about 4 hours to put it all together since I had cooked the chicken the night before.

I’ve also started doubling almost every recipe and freezing half. Last night I made a huge batch of beef barley and lentil soup (recipe on allrecipes.com), so one cooking time gave me a big meal plus leftovers, plus more in the freezer.

I am love, love, loving this system of cooking!!! I like taking advantage of the sales, and I really like having something in the freezer ready to heat and eat! I work nights and sleep during the day. Coordinating my schedule with my family can be very difficult. This way, I can take something out of the freezer when I get home at 7am, and leave simple heating instructions for my husband or children to do in the evening.

Thank you for inspiring me to try freezer cooking!

Becky

One suggestion to save time AND improve taste..don’t boil your chicken! Place pieces on a cookie sheet and bake for 30-45 min at 350 if boneless, 400 if bone in.

Barefoot contessa taught me this and she was RIGHT ON. Plus it warms up your kitchen!

I made cookies using a box of white cake mix I had: added two eggs and 1/2 cup of oil. You roll them up into small balls, place on a cookie sheet and cook at 350 degrees for 5-10 minutes. The first ones I made were small so I made the rest of the batches by rolling up about a two inch cube, flattening them with my hands to be the size and shape I want. The small ones have disappeared so they must be very good!! I am sure these could be frozen but they are quick and easy for anytime you want a treat. Makes about 2-3 dozen depending on the size.

The next idea I had was to use up butterscotch morsels I found in the cabinet. I again used a recipe from allrecipes.com: Butterscotch Cookie Bars. You mix 1 cup butterscotch chips with 1 stick of butter in a glass bowl. Melt carefully in the microwave (mine took about 1 minute 30 secs.). Let cool. Grease a 9X13 pan and turn on the oven to 350 F. Mix 3/4 cup flour, 1 tsp. baking powder, and 3/4 tsp. salt together. Beat 2 eggs and 1/2 tsp. vanilla into the butterscotch mixture. Add the flour mix until beaten together. Add 1 cup brown sugar. After completely mixing together add things such as 1 cup chocolate chips, 1 cup nuts, or 1 cup raisins. I used the chocolate chips. This was so easy I doubled the recipe to make two casserole pans.

The last recipe I am going to do today is to die for!! I can’t keep this in the house. It is a Peanut Butter Pie:
1 8 oz. cream cheese
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 cup powdered sugar
2 Tablespoons milk
1 6-8 oz whipped topping
1 regular pie crust or use a graham cracker one or a chocolate one (our favorite!)

Mix all the ingredients together ( I don’t use all the whipped topping). Pour into the pie shell. Top with chocolate syrup drizzles, nuts, or chocolate magic shell topping drizzled on. Freeze. When ready to serve,
let it stand for a few minutes. You will only want to eat a small slice as this is very rich!!

So I am ending up with an “Eating out of the Pantry” cooking day!

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2008/06/crash-hot-potatoes/

(I haven’t thought to ask The Pioneer Woman if these are freezable – maybe I will shoot her the same question.)

Anyway, I was dropping by to say that I came up with a variation on the Super Power Muffin’s that Karyn S. posted on a blog post (http://moneysavingmom.com/2009/03/baking-day-pumpkin-waffles-and-cranberry-orange-muffins.html) a while back.

substitute:
1 banana for 2 tbs espresso ground (fine powder) coffee
peanut butter for nutella
applesauce NOT optional

OR
1 banana for 1/2 cup? double-strength coffee
peanut butter for nutella

I tried the first one, with chocolate chips, but think the 2nd would work if you don’t want to mix apple with coffee. I used Mott’s Natural (i think that means plain, but it had extra vitamin C) and I could only taste the rest.

I call it Hazelnut Mocha Muffins. The absence of banana may make it lose some nutritional value, but I think these are still rather healthy because of coffee’s own health benefits. It’s probably more fit for an adult setting, such as a women’s brunch, than for the kiddos.