Tomorrow and Wednesday of this week (December 1-2, 2009), FishMama from LifeAsMom
and I are hosting another a Freezer Cooking Day. We'll be live-blogging our progress and sharing
tips and recipes along the way on both of our blogs.
If you'd like to
join in the fun, you can sign up at the Facebook Event page here, follow along (and participate!) on twitter with the #oamc hashtag, or just check our blogs for updates, pictures, and more! We'd love it if you'd like to blog about any baking or cooking you do and share your links here. I'll post a Mr. Linky up tomorrow so you can post your plans and recipe lists. In addition, I'll have a Mr. Linky up on Wednesday evening for you to post what you accomplished.
I tried splitting up my cooking between two days last time around and I ended up exhausted, with a very messy house and cranky children. It is so worth it to have most of the cooking and baking for the month done in one big swoop, but I realized I needed a different plan of action this time.
So I'm going to do my shopping and prep work tomorrow afternoon and I'll be doing the actual cooking and baking on Wednesday. My mom is willingly taking the girls for most of the day on Wednesday so I can focus on cooking and baking. And unlike last time, I plan to do nothing else besides feed and take care of my little guy, cook and bake, clean up the kitchen, and blog and tweet about my progress. We'll see if things go a little smoother this time!
Here's my Proposed Freezer Cooking Plan:
Breakfasts:
Pumpkin Pancakes x 3
Muffin Mixes (for gifts, breakfasts, and dinners)
Main Dishes:
Tuna Noodle Casserole x 2 (haven't decided whether I'm going to use turkey or tuna!)
Ham and Cheese Breakfast Casserole (using leftover Thanksgiving ham!)
Marinated Chicken
Barbecue Chicken
Stromboli x 4
Turkey Shepherd's Pie
Snacks/Desserts:
Brown Sugar Biscuit Twists
Banana Bread
World's Easiest Christmas Candy
Sugar Cookie Dough
Hot Cocoa Mix
Slab Apple Pie
A few of the items I'm making to give me a head start on Christmas gifts and to have in the freezer if I need a quick snack or dessert to take to the many gatherings which always happen around this time of year. I did this last year and it was a huge help! The rest are just things to help fill out our weekly menus for the month of December. We already have some meals left in the freezer from last month's Freezer Cooking Day so we should be all set after the cooking and baking I do this week.
I'll be posting a detailed and ordered list of my plan tomorrow and also a picture of the groceries I'm purchasing to pull this off. And then the real work begins Wednesday!
FishMama has her post up here of everything she's planning on cooking and baking tomorrow. I'm trying not to feel like a loser when I compare my list to hers especially considering she has twice as many children as me and she's not bringing in recruits to help with them. But I'm not superwoman so I just have to do what I can do! 🙂
Hi,
I’m new to your sight and found you when searching for freezer recipes. I do freezer cooking once a month with my sister and law and we each double 8 dine recipes so that at the end of the day we end up with 16 diners. And of course none of this would get done with the kids around so our husbands take all the kids for the day until we’re done. It’s a lot of hard work but a blast when you’re working with someone and have good Christian tunes playing. It’s soooo rewarding!
I have started freezer cooking as well. I make about 5 meals at a time but also put on 2 crockpots (a double batch) of 2 kinds of soup while I am putting together the meals. This really lasts us a long time by the time. Thanks for your inspiration..
Now, I’m no expert and I am 9 months pregnant, so those two things change everything. However, what I’ve found works for me right now (key to mommying) is to just make large batches when I do cook or bake. The all day cooking is a little too much for me, so I make about 1 new meal a week, and the rest are pulled from the freezer. I’m sure this won’t change how you do things, but I thought I’d share just in case.
try this for the sugar cookie recipe
http://www.dominosugar.com/Recipe.aspx?id=785
I can’t get the link to the sugar cookie dough! It brings me to a page that says web site not found!
I can’t get the sugar cookie dough to come up. Can I get this recipe somewhere else?
Thanks
I was really wondering about how you freeze the stromboli???? I know everyone else asked that but I really want to know! 🙂
I’m starting today, and hoping to finish up tomorrow. I’ve got a good list of items I need/want to eat this month, and decided to add on my own version of Life As Mom’s chicken enchilada casserole.
Here’s my list of what I’m doing:
My Freezer Cooking Day
http://savingmoneyplan.com/freezer-cooking-day/
Pics and Videos to come!
I agree—you ARE a Superwoman, too, Crystal!!!!
We all get SO much help for our famliies from you and your family, day in and day out!! Can’t even BEGIN to tell you how grateful we are!!!!!!!
Praying for Freezer Cooking Day to go as you want and need it to. 🙂
I, too, was wondering about the stromboli– do you freeze before cooking, or bake and then freeze? It looks really yummy!
So, will you be posting recipes for things that you are cooking that don’t have a link? Like the meatballs and chicken? And those brown sugar twists sound yummy. Also, I’m new at freezing and cooking in bulk, so if you could also share at what stage to freeze items and how you store them (cheap or disposable pans, etc) that would be a big help.
I’m working on my recipes now!
That stromboli looks AMAZING…I’m done with my cooking for the month, but may need to add that one in somewhere.
I’m curious are you going to use brownulated sugar in the cocoa mix or just plain brown sugar? Also what’s your plan for packaging your cocoa mix and muffin mix as presents? Do you know where to get instant milk for a good price? Wal-Mart?
I’ve also used the pancake mix and cookie mix from nestle.com for gifts.
I was wondering how does the stromboli freeze and reheat? I’ve never tried this kind of stromboli before. We make one with pizza toppings and cheese and it freezes very well. Do the veggies get watery?
I can’t wait to see the end result of all your hard work. One quick question…how do you package the stromboli for freezing? Thanks! 🙂
Great ideas…I need to do this too.
When you make this stuff to freeze…at what point do you freeze? Do you just get everything ready and then freeze? Pull it out and cook? Or do you cook it first and then freeze?
This may sound silly, but I’m really curious. 🙂
Have a wonderful day. I”ll be following you all day.
You are too a superwoman!! You inspire me every day. I love that you put it out there for us to see. The freezer cooking has made a big difference at our house. I’m not as ambitious though. I do a little here and a little there. Cooking 3-4 meals at a time and freezing some. It really adds up fast! Thanks for all you do.
I’ve been baking Amish Friendship Bread (they know how to make the starters) every 10 days. It’s a big help to have some in the freezer already for when kids come home from school for a snack or when they need somethin quick for breakfast!
Amazing! I’m happy to get 2-3 meals in the freezer. Need to work on more! By the way…thanks for the link to the mac and cheese recipe. You posted it before, and I love, love it!
I am no where close to participating, BUT LOVE that you post this. I aspire to do it someday and I love all the recipes! i will be watching – GOOD LUCK!
I love the idea of making your sgar cookie dough up NOW to have ready to go! I’ve never done that before; that would be a huge help to me. Now, to find room in the freezer; maybe between the 9 turkeys I still have left . . . (I cooked 3 in the last 2 weeks).
Good luck! You inspire me!