Today's the day! I've cleared my schedule, made my list, done my shopping, got a good night's rest, cleaned my kitchen, and brought in recruits (i.e. Grandma!) to help with the children. And I'm ready to hit the ground running with this cooking and baking thing.
But not before I first make another list (yes, I'm one of those Type-A list-makers–sorry, it's just the only way things seem to get done around here!). This list is my Master Plan list which tells me what to do when–in detailed order.
I've found that it's great to have a Proposed List of everything I want to accomplish, but breaking it down into bite-size pieces of the order I plan to accomplish it in helps me be much more efficient and organized.
Last night before going to bed, I grated up all the cheese I'd need today and set out the milk and ground turkey from the freezer to thaw. Prepping a few things like that the night before help give me a little jumpstart to my Freezer Cooking the next day.
Here's my Master Plan for today and tomorrow (remember, I'm planning to work from 1:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. CST since I'm fitting this in around our homeschooling schedule):
Tuesday
1) Grind flour and mix together waffle batter and begin cooking waffles
2) Boil chicken
3) Get potatoes in the crockpot for Freezer Mashed Potatoes
4) Chop chicken, boil noodles
5) Quick clean up
6) Boil rice, make homemade cream soup, chop red peppers
7) Make Chicken Tetrazinni
8) Make Chicken Broccoli Rice
9) Make Granola
10) Make Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
11) Mix together Turkey Meatballs, cook one pan for dinner, cook the rest and freeze
13) Finish Freezer Mashed Potatoes
12) Finish dinner preparations (Turkey Meatballs, Freezer Mashed Potatoes, Broccoli, Toast) and clean up
Wednesday
1) Make Slow Cooked Pepper Steak and put in crockpot
2) Make Farmhouse Chicken
3) Make Pumpkin Scones
4) Make Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
5) Finish dinner preparations (Farmhouse Chicken) and clean up kitchen
6) Be thrilled with the finished results, put my feet up, and relax knowing I don't have to do much cooking for the next month!
As you can tell, I'm planning to do the bulk of my cooking today since Grandma is here to play with the children. It also gives me a little wiggle room if I'm not able to get to everything I planned to do on Tuesday; I can always bump it to Wednesday, if need be. And if I get incredibly ambitious, finish everything on Tuesday's list, and have extra time, I can always start in on Wednesday's list!
Need more help and ideas for making a game plan for your Freezer Cooking Day? Check out FishMama's post here.
Stay tuned for live-blogging and tweeting (follow me on Twitter here) this afternoon on my real-time progress complete with pictures and recipes. Don't forget to follow FishMama on her blog and Twitter or the more that 250 other women around the country who are participating in this Freezer Cooking Day and tweeting about it with the hashtag #bakingday.
Have you posted your Baking Day plans on your blog? If so, leave your link below so others can be inspired with ideas and new recipes to try. Remember to link directly to your blog post.
Rebecca R says
hope you had fun
Michelle says
I made the pumpkin chocolate chip muffins a few weeks ago from your recipe and they were so good…thanks!
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Rachel S. says
Ok Crystal, what’s your secret to keeping your kitchen soo spotless?
But seriously,
my plan is to get done some beans, puppy biscuits and maybe a batch of waffles tonight. Tommorow, maybe pumpkin muffins, banana bread and some of your southwest rolls?
Heather says
Thanks to Crystal and FishMama! I love baking and saving time, so this is perfect. Can’t wait to see what everyone else is up to and gain some new recipes too!
Kim says
Never mind about the recipes. 🙂 I found them as I was catching up on older postings. Thanks Crystal!
Kim says
Hi Crystal. Your baking day has inspired me to get in the kitchen and do a few things myself. I am curious if you would be willing to share your crock pot mashed potatoes and pepper steak recipes with us? I have a surplus of cube steak as my husband is a dear hunter. However, the only way I know to make it is chicken fry or steak fingers. Both are time consuming and not all that healthy. So this pepper steak recipe has me intrigued. Thanks again for all you to do inspire me to be a better home economist.
Krissy says
Good Luck with all those delicious meals. I need to really start to do that because I stress everyday/week about what to make and it seems like it is always the same stuff. I am always doind crock pot meals because my husband is at school 2 nights a week, so it makes dinner prep much easier with my little one and my daughter has dance classes 3 nights a week and she sometimes has to be out of the house before I am home from work so when the husband gets home he has to throw some dinner together for her pretty quickly so, with the frozen meals, I would be able to have something ready for her easily or it could even be something that she could do herself. Thanks for all your great ideas….can’t wait to see the results!!
Tara says
That all sounds wonderful! I need to make a bunch of what you have on that list. If we only had a deepfeeze Can’t wait to see the results.
Ranee says
My sister and I get together and do a freezer cooking day every few months. Last time, we tried your chicken tetrazzini recipe and loved it! Thanks for the tips!
Susie Eckert says
My teenagers like nothing better than to walk into the house just as hot freshly baked bread comes out of the oven. So instead of having a baking day for once a freezing the bread, I grind my flour and freeze the dry yeast bread mix. I put in yeast first so that it ends up on top when you dump the bag, and I know that two hoppers of flour will make enough flour for 7 bags of mixes. I bake bread just about every day, but all I have to do is put the wet ingredients in the bread machine, upend the freezer bag and push the start button. I use the dough cycle so I can decide if we want loaves or rolls at the last minute. Letting the dough have it’s second rise on the counter also leaves me a wider window of when pop the bread into the oven so the bread is nice and warm as the kids walk in the door. Since My two teens are starving from after school practices, they consider it a treat to have warm bread and honey waiting for them and I score “thoughtful mom” points. They don’t realize I’ve just steered them away from junk food!
Janell says
I have been wanting to try to make mashed potatoes in my crock pot. I live at 7500 ft and I can only get white potatoes so they take forever to cook. Can you please let me know how you do it? I am making Thanksgiving dinner for about 25 people and this would be awesome if I could get it to work!
Thanks
Janell
http://www.savingyoudinero.com
Scarlett says
I love the lists too, great job!
Laura says
I think that your fine-tuned list of tasks for your cooking day is a brilliant idea (from one type-A to another!) Sometimes in the midst of doing so many different meals at one time, I realize that I could have started ____ but I didn’t think of it – you are wise to do the list!
Plan your work, work your plan!
http://www.tenthingsfarm.blogspot.com
Julie says
Crystal, how do you make freezer mashed potatoes? Do you just boil the potatoes and put in the freezer, then mash when needed? Then how do you get them rewarmed??
Amy says
Hello. I am new to the freezer cooking days and would love to start doing this as i work full time and have little ones… but i don’t know where to begin or what receipes to even start with.. Does anyone have any suggestions!? i am starting to feel slightly overwhelmed but excited about making my life easier!
charity says
Hope all goes well!
Saving Money Plan says
WOW! You’ve got a long list, but knowing you you can probably do it;)
Ana says
Thank you for the ideas