4 Weeks to Fill Your Freezer

4 Weeks to Fill Your Freezer: Week #1 Breakfast Freezer Foods Plan + Shopping List

by Crystal on May 01, 2012

Are you ready to get busy filling your freezer? My goal with this challenge is to erase your fears of freezer cooking and to show you that — no matter what stage or season in life you’re in — you can find a way to make it work for you.

In the process, I hope you fall in love with freezer cooking, if you haven’t already. It’s been a huge sanity-saver to me so I can’t help but be a big advocate of it. :)

Here’s this week’s list of Breakfast Foods I’ll be making to stick in the freezer along with a grocery list (let me know if you see any mistakes on amounts needed):

Freezer-Friendly Breakfast Recipes

Tuesday — 2 loaves of Our Family’s Favorite Banana Bread
Wednesday — 2 dozen Cinnamon Rolls (I’m using this bread dough recipe and this filling/topping recipe.)
Thursday — Triple batch of Whole-Wheat Waffles
Friday — Double batch of Freezer-Friendly Baked Oatmeal
Monday –  One batch of Homemade Baking Mix

Grocery List

(I rounded up on the amounts needed, just to be safe. You probably have many of these items already on hand. You’ll want to double-check that you have the correct amounts, though.)

1 dozen eggs
6-8 ripe bananas
One package of butter (4 sticks)
20 cups of freshly-ground flour or two 5-lb. bags of whole wheat, all-purpose, or a mixture of both flours
1 package of brown sugar or raw sugar
1 bag of sugar (You’ll need at least three cups — can substitute raw sugar)
1 bag or box of powdered sugar
Cream of tarter
Powdered milk (you’ll need 1 1/4 cups)
1 canister oats (regular or quick oats)
Oil (any kind — you’ll need at least one cup)
Coconut oil (you’ll need around 2 1/2 cups)
Milk (you’ll need at least 2 cups)
Baking soda
Baking powder (make sure you have at least 1 cup)
Salt
Vanilla
Cinnamon

Freezer Storage Items Needed

Foil
Plastic Wrap
10-12 large ziptop freezer bags
2-4 glass or aluminum pans (to freeze Freezer-Friendly Baked Oatmeal in)
1 airtight lidded tub (to store Homemade Baking Mix in, if you don’t want to use freezer bags)
Something to label packages with (marker to write on bags, labels, and/or tape)

Click on the “Print This” tab at the top of the list to generate a printer-friendly list. (If you’re reading via email or a feed reader, you may need to click through to the post to print the list.)

Before you head to the store, make sure to clean out and organize your freezer and check that you have enough storage space for these items in it.

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4 Weeks to Fill Your Freezer: Banana Bread (Day 1)

by Crystal on May 01, 2012

Did you get something made for your freezer today? I did — but just barely.

Today was one of those days… where I felt behind, tired, cranky, and just plain unmotivated. And truthfully, if it wasn’t for the fact that I knew you all were also baking, I would likely have not gotten anything made. So thank you for doing this challenge with me to help keep me on track even when I’m really tempted to jump ship! :)

Silas helped me whip up the banana bread while I was making stirfry for dinner tonight.

Being silly. :)

We decided to mix things up a bit and add chocolate chips to the top of one loaf. Yum!

After the bread cooled, I sliced one loaf, wrapped it in plastic wrap and then in foil.

I left the second loaf whole because I’m thinking I may end up giving it away to a friend. So I made sure to seal it really well with plastic wrap and then covered tightly with foil and labeled it.

Freezer-Friendly Banana Bread

Makes 2 loaves

  • 4 cups flour (all-purpose, whole-wheat, or a mixture of both)
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup oil (I used melted coconut oil.)
  • 2 cups sugar (I used turbinado.)
  • 4 eggs, beaten
  • 6-8 bananas, mashed
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 6 Tablespoons milk

Stir together dry ingredients. Beat together remaining ingredients. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and blend until just combined. Pour into greased loaf pans and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the bread comes out clean.

Cool in pan for 10 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack. Cool completely.

To freeze: Slice loaf, if desired, and covered in plastic wrap, then in foil (or in a ziptop bag).

To serve: thaw on the countertop for a few hours or defrost an individual piece in the microwave for 20-45 seconds. We love to serve ours warm with butter.

Did you do any freezer cooking today? If so, I’d love to see the results of your efforts! Link up your blog posts below or tell us about your success in the comments.

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4 Weeks to Fill Your Freezer: Cinnamon Rolls (Day 2)

by Crystal on May 02, 2012

Today was a much better day than yesterday — and I’m so thankful for that!

Before I headed out to Aldi, the health food store, and Dillon’s with Kaitlynn (more on those shopping trips tomorrow!), I threw one batch of dough in the bread machine.

When I got back home, the dough was ready to be rolled out (have I mentioned how much I love my bread machine?!).

Once again, Silas helped me out.

He has the makings of being a really great chef!

We’ll see if his interest in cooking continues, but at the rate he’s going, he’ll soon be quite skilled in the kitchen — which I couldn’t be happier about!

Silas intently working on his “cinnamon rolls.” Notice how he rolled them up? It was so cute to see him try to do exactly what I did!

 

Freezer-Friendly Bread Machine Cinnamon Rolls

Makes 10-12 cinnamon rolls

Dough:

  • 1 cup plus 1 Tablespoon warm water
  • 1 Tablespoon coconut oil
  • 1 Tablespoon other oil (olive, canola, etc.)
  • 2 Tablespoons honey
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 3 cups white whole wheat flour (or any combination of bread flour/whole wheat flour)
  • 1 scant Tablespoon of instant active dry yeast

Filling:

  • 1/4 cup butter, melted
  • 3/4 brown sugar or raw sugar + 1-2 teaspoons cinnamon

Icing (I usually just eyeball this, so feel free to adjust measurements. You can also omit the butter and add more milk if you want to lower the fat content — or make the icing a bit more frugal!):

  • 1 teaspoon milk
  • 1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
  • 4 tablespoons (or less) butter, softened
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla

Put ingredients in bread machine in the order recommended by your bread machine model. Run the short dough cycle (45 minutes).
When dough is done, roll out into a rectangle and brush with melted butter. Sprinkle cinnamon/sugar mixture on top and spread around evenly.

Roll dough up and slice into cinnamon rolls.

To freeze: Put uncooked cinnamon rolls on a baking sheet and stick in the freezer for 1-2 hours.When rolls are frozen solid, remove from baking sheet and put in an airtight freezer bag.

To thaw: Place the desired number of frozen cinnamon rolls on a baking sheet and thaw overnight on the countertop. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes or until lightly browned. Spread with icing as soon as the rolls come out of the oven.

You can also bake the rolls, cool, and freeze.

Dough recipe from Feel Good About Dinner. Freezing instructions adapted from Good Cheap Eats.

Did you do any freezer cooking today? If so, I’d love to see the results of your efforts! Link up your blog posts below or tell us about your success in the comments.

 

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4 Weeks to Fill Your Freezer: Waffles (Day 3)

by Crystal on May 03, 2012

I whipped up a triple batch of waffles before dinner tonight.

While I know that some people like pancakes and waffles fresh, I’ve found it’s so much more convenient to make a big batch of waffles and then freeze them for breakfasts later in the month.

And it’s so much cheaper than paying for frozen waffles!

Plus, while the waffle iron is baking one waffle, you can be doing other things in the kitchen — cleaning, baking something else, or even getting some blogging done, like I did today! Waffles are a great multi-tasking project since you have about 1.5 minutes in between each waffle to get something else done.

{Yes, can you tell I’m Type A that I think like this? My apologies to those of you who are Type Z and don’t get excited over the long list of possibilities you can dream up to accomplish while baking waffles! :) }

 

Here’s our favorite whole-wheat waffle recipe, adapted from the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook – a cookbook I think every woman should own!

Homemade Freezer-Friendly Waffles

Makes 6 Belgian waffles

  • 1 3/4 cups flour (whole-wheat, white, or a mixture of both)
  • 2 Tablespoons sugar (or raw sugar)
  • 1 Tablespoon baking powder
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 3/4 cup milk (You can use half milk/half water, if you prefer.)
  • 1/2 cup oil or melted butter
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix together dry ingredients in one bowl. Lightly beat together wet ingredients in another. Add egg mixture to dry ingredients and stir just until moistened. Pour batter onto lightly-oiled or buttered waffle iron and bake until done.

To freeze: Let cool and stick 4-6 waffles in a freezer bag. Remove air and seal.

To thaw: Pull desired number of waffles out of the freezer and heat in the microwave, in a toaster oven, or in the oven.

Did you do any freezer cooking today? If so, I’d love to see the results of your efforts! Link up your blog posts below or tell us about your success in the comments.

 

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4 Weeks to Fill Your Freezer: Baked Oatmeal (Day 4)

by Crystal on May 05, 2012

We made it to Joplin at a little after 10 p.m. tonight. I can’t believe how much has been rebuilt since the tornado last year. The last time we were here, it was a heart-wrenching zone of destruction. It’s so encouraging and heart-warming to see the new buildings in place of what was ruins and wrecked parts of buildings.

And I’m looking forward to getting to meet some of the wonderful people who live here (and in nearby towns) at the workshop tomorrow!

Before we left to head out of town, I got a double batch of Baked Oatmeal made for the freezer.

 

I divided the recipe in thirds and put them in pie pans.{And yes, those of you with larger families and/or older children can laugh at the fact that one pie pan of Baked Oatmeal will feed our family. This stuff is much more filling than regular oatmeal and it seems like when you add milk, a little bit goes a long way — or at least it does at our house!}

In less than 20 minutes, I had three pans of Baked Oatmeal ready to go in the freezer. By the way, I don’t recommend wrapping these just in foil unless you’re planning to use them within the next few weeks. If you think it might be longer than 3-4 weeks before you’ll use the Baked Oatmeal, I’d recommend sticking it in a freezer bag instead to prevent freezer burn.

Freezer-Friendly Baked Oatmeal

  • 1/3 cup butter, melted
  • 2 large eggs
  • 3/4 cup raw sugar (or brown sugar)
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons milk
  • 3 cups oats (regular or quick oats)

Beat eggs, sugar and butter together. Mix in baking powder, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt.

Stir in milk and oats. Pour into a greased 9×13 foil pan or baking dish and cover well. (Can use a Ziploc freezer bag, if freezing). Freeze.

To serve: Thaw overnight in the refrigerator. In the morning, bake at 350 degrees for 35-45 minutes, until set in the middle. Serve warm with milk. (We like to sprinkle sugar on top before pouring the milk on.)

If you want to serve it without freezing it first, let it sit in the refrigerator overnight and then bake it at 350 degrees for 35-45 minutes in the morning.

Serves 6-8.

Adapted from Food.com

Did you do any freezer cooking today? If so, I’d love to see the results of your efforts! Link up your blog posts below or tell us about your success in the comments.

 

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4 Weeks to Fill Your Freezer: Week #2 Freezer-Friendly Lunch Recipes + Shopping List

by Crystal on May 07, 2012

Are you ready for another week of filling your freezer? This week, we’re tackling lunches.

Here’s my plan for making Freezer-Friendly Lunches this week. Remember that you are more than welcome to change any or all of the recipes as it fits best with your budget and family’s preferences:

Freezer-Friendly Lunch Recipes

Tuesday — Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwiches {Yes, these freeze really well and it’s nice to have some on hand for when you need to fix a sack lunch really quickly.}
Wednesday — Brown Bag Burritos
Thursday — Pizza Pockets
Friday — Ham & Cheese Pockets
Monday – Southwest Rollups

Grocery List

(I rounded up on the amounts needed, just to be safe. You probably have many of these items already on hand. You’ll want to double-check that you have the correct amounts, though.)

3 pounds ground beef
Ham (you’ll need enough for 3 cups chopped ham)
Chicken (you’ll need 2-4 cups chopped cooked chicken)
4 cans refried beans (you can also make your own Refried Beans with this recipe)
2 cans enchilada sauce
1 jar pizza or pasta sauce
1/2 cup salsa
1-2 loaves of bread
1 jar of peanut butter
1 jar of jelly
36 flour tortillas (If you prefer, you can make your own Homemade Tortillas with this recipe)
1/3 cup minced or dried onion
12 cups flour (whole-wheat, white, and/or a mixture of both)
2 eggs
1/2 cup butter
16-oz. block of mozzarella cheese (or 3 cups pre-shredded)
2 16-oz. blocks of cheddar cheese (or 8 cups pre-shredded)

Staple Ingredients/Spices:

chili powder
garlic powder
salt
oregano
yeast
olive oil
Italian seasoning
sugar
milk
honey

Optional Ingredients (for Pizza Pockets)

Parmesan cheese, optional
1/2 onion, optional
1/2 green pepper, optional
1/2 c. sliced or chopped mushrooms, optional
4 oz. pepperoni, optional

Freezer Storage Items Needed

Foil
Paper Towels (for wrapping burritos)
Plastic Wrap
15 large ziptop freezer bags
Plastic sandwich baggies (for PB&J sandwiches, if you prefer to store them individually to pull out for separate lunches.)
Something to label packages with (marker to write on bags, labels, and/or tape)

Click on the “Print This” tab at the top of the list to generate a printer-friendly list. (If you’re reading via email or a feed reader, you may need to click through to the post to print the list.)

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4 Weeks to Fill Your Freezer: Homemade Baking Mix (Day 5)

by Crystal on May 07, 2012

After a busy weekend, I seemed to take forever to get going this morning — even though I got up early.

I finally got the Homemade Baking Mix made tonight at 7:45 p.m.

{Notice anything wrong with this picture? Maybe that I somehow am a month behind?! I noticed that after I’d taken the picture! :) }

And tomorrow we move onto freezer-friendly lunches. I think those are going to be a bit more time-intensive to make, but they are going to be so nice to have in the freezer that it will be every bit worth it!

Homemade Baking Mix

  • 10 cups flour
  • 8 Tablespoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon cream of tartar (I didn’t have any of this so I just left it out. We’ll see if it works okay without it!)
  • 1 1/4 cup powdered milk
  • 1 Tablespoon salt
  • 1/4 cup sugar or raw sugar
  • 2 1/4 cup coconut oil or shortening

Mix all dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Cut in shortening or cold coconut oil until you have fine crumbs.

To freeze: Store in an airtight container or freezer bags in the freezer for up to two months.

To use: Use the Homemade Baking Mix straight from the freezer in place of Bisquick. Or, use this to make our family’s favorite Cinnamon Roll Biscuits. For other recipe ideas, check out a similar Homemade Baking Mix recipe from Kitchen Simplicity.

Homemade Cinnamon Roll Biscuits  — you can whip these up in a matter of minutes using the Homemade Baking Mix!

Did you do any freezer cooking today? If so, I’d love to see the results of your efforts! Link up your blog posts below or tell us about your success in the comments.

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4 Weeks to Fill Your Freezer: Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwiches (Day 6)

by Crystal on May 08, 2012

So, I’ve shared lots of really simple, no-brainer tips here over the years, but I think this might qualify as just about the most basic of ideas I’ve ever shared.

In fact, I doubt I even need to do a post about it, since I could probably just put a picture and say, “I made peanut butter & jelly sandwiches for the freezer today. The end.”

And that would about sum it up. But that would also probably be the most boring post I’ve ever written, too. So I’ll try to expand a bit on this basic of basic ideas, for those who would like a few more details. :)

I first happened upon the idea of freezing peanut butter and jelly sandwiches when Jesse was in law school and we were eating a LOT of PB&J. I usually packed one or two sandwiches in his lunch each day and since he often had to leave for school early in the morning, I’d try to have as much stuff prepped ahead of time so that I could just take 20 seconds to pull it all out and put it in the lunch pail.

While it doesn’t really take long to make PB&J, when your time is really crunched in the morning, it can help speed things up a little bit. Plus, I’ve also found it’s so nice to have sandwiches at the ready if you end up needing to leave to go somewhere unexpectedly and no one has eaten any lunch yet.

I listened to The Little Big Things today while making PB&J in an assembly-line fashion. {The audiobook has some good things in it, but the crass language is driving me batty! Honestly, that’s a “little big thing” to me!}

I ended up having to break out a new jar of jelly and peanut butter about halfway through. And Jesse got home about this time and he sat at the kitchen table and told me about his day while I finished up the sandwiches. Multi-tasking at its finest! :)

The end result: A big pile of sandwiches! I cut the sandwiches in halves, put them in individual baggies, and then put the baggies in large ziptop bags.

Freezer-Friendly Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwiches

  • Bread
  • Peanut Butter
  • Jelly

Make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

To freeze: Cut and put in baggies (if desired) and store in airtight freezer ziptop bags in the freezer for 4-6 weeks.

To thaw: Stick frozen sandwiches in sack lunches in the morning and they will be thawed by lunch time. Or, you can be weird like me and eat them straight from the freezer. :) You can also warm them in the oven or microwave if you like your sandwiches warmed.

Did you do any freezer cooking today? If so, I’d love to see the results of your efforts! Link up your blog posts below or tell us about your success in the comments.

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4 Weeks to Fill Your Freezer: Brown Bag Burritos (Day 7)

by Crystal on May 09, 2012

If your family loves burritos, you need to try this recipe. It’s one of my husband’s favorite grab-and-go foods!

We’ve made it time and again since I first discovered it on Amy’s blog.

What I like best about this recipe is that, not only is it filling, but it’s also fast. You can have a piping hot burrito in less than two minutes — straight from the freezer. It’s perfect for those times when my husband wants a late-night snack or some hot for lunch on the weekends.

These are little too much on the spicy side for my liking (keep in mind that I’m also the girl who likes extra mild salsa!), but my husband loves these. In fact, he was so excited I was making them again this week.

Freezer-Friendly Brown Bag Burritos

Makes 20 burritos

  • 2 pounds ground beef
  • 2 cans refried beans (you can make your own refried beans)
  • 2 cans enchilada sauce (you can make your own enchilada sauce)
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1/3 cup diced onion (you can also use dried or minced onion)
  • 1 taco seasoning packet (Amy’s recipe calls for 1 Tablespoon chili powder, 1 Tablespoon garlic powder, and 1 teaspoon salt. I used the taco seasoning packet instead because that’s what I already had on hand and I didn’t have any chili powder on hand.)
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 3 cups shredded cheddar cheese
  • 20 burrito-sized flour tortillas (you can make your own tortillas)

Brown ground beef with onions. Drain and add all remaining ingredients except tortillas (and cheese, if you want to sprinkle the cheese on instead).

Bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 20-30 minutes.

Spoon 1/4-cup of the meat mixture onto a tortilla, sprinkle with cheese (if you didn’t melt cheese into the mixture when you simmered it). Fold sides in and roll up tightly.

To freeze: Wrap each burrito in a paper towel and then in a foil square. (I skip the paper towel part since we don’t buy paper towels.) Put burritos in two airtight ziptop freezer bags and store in the freezer for 2-3 months.

To serve: Pull out desired number of burritos. Remove foil (you can save the foil and reuse it the next time you make brown bag burritos!) and heat a single burrito in the microwave for about a minute or leave the foil on and heat one or more burritos in a preheated 350-degree oven for 30 minutes or until heated through.

These can be eaten plain or served with lettuce, cheese, salsa, and/or sour cream.

Recipe adapted from Amy’s Finer Things. Posted with permission.

Did you do any freezer cooking today? If so, I’d love to see the results of your efforts! Link up your blog posts below or tell us about your success in the comments.

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4 Weeks to Fill Your Freezer: Homemade Pizza Pockets (Day 8)

by Crystal on May 10, 2012

These Pizza Pockets, inspired by Amy’s Finer Things and Pocket Change Gourmet, turned out beautifully today!

I doubled our family’s favorite homemade pizza dough recipe for the dough.

Then I cut the dough into pieces.

And rolled those dough pieces into balls.

Next, I flattened the balls with the rolling pin.

When I turned my back someone was making some artistic designs on my rolled-out dough. :)

Then, I dolloped a little of the filling on.

Sprinkled the filling with cheese

And sealed up the edges with my fingertips.

Ready to go into the oven.

The end result — so yummy and delicious! And my whole family agreed with me that this recipe is a definite keeper.

Freezer-Friendly Pizza Pockets

Dough:

  • 2 Tablespoons active dry yeast
  • 2 cups warm water (105 to 115 degrees F.)
  • 2 teaspoons sugar
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 4 Tablespoons oil (I used olive oil.)
  • 5 cups flour (I used unbleached, but I think half white, half whole-wheat would also work well.)

Filling:

  • 1 pound ground beef
  • 1/2 cup chopped onion
  • 1 1/2 cup pasta sauce or pizza sauce
  • 2-3 cups shredded cheese (I used mozzarella, but I think cheddar or a mixture of cheese would work well, too.)
  • Other optional filling ingredients: diced black olives, pepperoni, diced green pepper, and/or diced mushrooms

To make dough: Mix yeast into warm water until dissolved. Add sugar, salt, oil, and flour. Mix well and dump onto a floured surface and knead for 3-5 minutes.

To make filling (I browned this while mixing up the dough): Brown ground beef with onion (and green pepper, if desired). Drain. Add pasta sauce and mix together. Add other optional filling ingredients, if desired.

To make Pizza Pockets: Divide dough into 15-20 pieces. Roll pieces into balls. Flatten balls into circles with rolling pin. Dollop a few tablespoons of filling onto dough circle and sprinkle with cheese. Fold over and seal tightly.

Bake on a greased cookie sheet at 500 degrees for 10-15 minutes until browned.

To freeze: Cool completely and store in an airtight ziptop freezer bag for up to 2-3 months.

To serve: Remove desired number of pizza pockets from the freezer and warm them individually in the microwave for about two minutes or until heated throw. Or, warm on a cookie sheet in a 350-degrees oven for 20 minutes, or until heated through.

Recipe inspired by Amy’s Finer Things and Pocket Change Gourmet.

Did you do any freezer cooking today? If so, I’d love to see the results of your efforts! Link up your blog posts below or tell us about your success in the comments.

 

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