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May 1, 2012 | Crystal Paine

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

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.

163 Comments
May 1, 2012 | Crystal Paine

Freezer-Friendly Banana Bread

freezer-friendly banana bread

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. He’s so silly!

This is our tried and true banana bread recipe. Sometimes we decide to mix things up and add chocolate chips. Feel free to experiment with various mix-ins!

This recipe is perfect for freezing! 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? I’d love to hear about it in the comments!

125 Comments
May 2, 2012 | Crystal Paine

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

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.

 


141 Comments
May 3, 2012 | Crystal Paine

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

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.

 

111 Comments
May 5, 2012 | Crystal Paine

Freezer-Friendly Baked Oatmeal

Freezer-Friendly-Baked-Oatmeal

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

Freezer Friendly Baked Oatmeal

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.

70 Comments
May 7, 2012 | Crystal Paine

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

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.)

73 Comments