Freezer Cook

Hello Pinteresters and welcome!
I seem to be getting a ton of traffic to this post via Pinterest so I thought I would spruce it up a bit for you! Below is my blog post about a giant freezer meal prep I did just before I had baby number two. I have included all of my planning and prep work (for the freezer meal prep) as well as links to all the recipes!




As promised here is the post about my giant, pre-baby, freezer meal cook. I wanted to have a ton of meals ready for when baby arrives so that I don't have much to worry about in terms of dinner. Hubby often works late and the question of him cooking even if he were home is a funny thought (unless you consider KD and eggs an acceptable meal). So my plan was to have crockpot and "one-dish" meals prepped and frozen so that I have at least a few weeks of easy dinners. Turns out I will probably have close to 2 months worth of food but there is nothing wrong with that! I did a few meals over a few days and then did the bulk of the meals last Thursday with C. It is a pretty intense process but if you are well prepared it usually goes well. So how to begin you ask?  Here is how I tackled this project.

Step 1. Recipe Selection
Back in January we picked out all the recipes we wanted to make. As mentioned above I stuck to crockpot meals, one-dish meals and I also did soups. Where to get the recipes? Well I use some of my own family recipes such as lasagna or Ham & Cheese Buns, I use my casserole and crockpot cookbooks (or any cookbooks for that matter), I use the internet for inspiration (specifically the Kraft website) and lastly Pinterest! For this round I chose to stick to recipes that are tried and true so that we don't end up with a dinner that no one likes. Once we have our list of recipes compiled it's onto the next step.

Step 2. Planning
Once you have your recipes chosen it's time to compile your lists! List #1 consists of ingredients. I wrote/typed out every ingredient required for each recipe. This will help you start a tally chart for your grocery list. Using your ingredient list you can tally up all the different ingredients you will need to purchase. That brings us to List #2 the grocery list. Using your tally chart of ingredients you can compile a master grocery list. Since I was cooking so much food I decided to get a few things at Costco to cut cost. If I didn't have baby brain I would have done the rest of my shopping on 15% Tuesday at Save On but sadly I thought of that after I had bought all my groceries. Sigh, next time. Once you have your grocery list ready you are good to go!

This is part of my master Grocery list,
I wrote out a list of each meal I wanted to prep and numbered them 1 - 30. I then pulled out the recipe for each meal and wrote out the ingredients with corresponding number to the meal list (this step is pictured above). I then used this list to do a tally chart of each ingredient, pictured below. 

Once you have compiled your tally chart of each ingredient (for example 10 cans of chicken broth, 15 large potatoes) you can then decide how and where to grocery shop. From all of the meals I had planned to prep I tallied out that I would need 15cans of broth. From there I decided it would be best to purchase it in bulk so I assigned that particular item (chicken broth) to a particular grocery store (Costco). Once you've finished your tally chart, go ahead and total each item (pictured above) and then assign a grocery store to each item. For example, dollar store for tinfoil pans, Costco for chicken breasts and local grocery store for bell peppers.
Lastly compile a master grocery list for each store! And to be extra organized write out your store lists in order of grocery store departments (ex. all dairy items together, all produce together) that way you won't forget anything on shopping day!
A reader also mentioned a website called zip list to help get organized with your lists! I haven't tried it out yet but I thought I would post a link incase you want to give it a try!

Step 3. Grocery Shopping
Buy in bulk to save some money, use coupons and take advantage of "discount days". I needed 50 chicken breasts for all my meals so I definitely utilized my Costco card. Once you've done a few freezer meal cooks you get the hang of the grocery shopping step and definitely figure out ways to make your dinners as cost effective as possible! I think I kept my meals around $8.00 a dinner. Not too bad, but like I said I could have done it better.

Step 4. Label and Plan
Now that you have everything it is time to label your freezer bags. Each bag will need to be labeled with the name of the meal, the cooking and serving instructions. Lasagna may look like this:

Lasagna

Thaw. Cook at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Sprinkle with parmesan and serve

Where as Italian Crockpot Chicken might look like this:

Italian Crockpot Chicken
Thaw
Place in crockpot on high for 3 hours
Drain liquid and serve

Once you've labeled all your bags you can put each recipe card with the corresponding bag. Lastly I lay out my non-parishable ingredients in front of each bag so that my groceries are divided and ready to go.

Step 5. Cook

Oh the best part of it all. You are about to cook a million dinners all at once, and when it feels like the chopping, frying and grating will never end, just remember you will get a whole week/month/or however many days off of cooking. Now that is a glorious thought! When prepping your crockpot meals you will chop and mix according to recipe but instead of placing items in the slow cooker you will stuff them in your freezer bag. I usually try to pick one step recipes to make the process much easier. Then you simply seal and lay flat to freeze. Laying flat is important because once you have 10 or more you can stack or store them much easier than if they are a giant frozen ball of food. As for one-dish meals you prep the meal up to the point of putting it in the oven. Instead of baking it you will simply insert your meal into the freezer bag and freeze. I chose to make my one-dish meals in disposable tinfoil pans (easy cook, easy cleanup). And the square size (8x8 i think it is) fits perfectly into freezer bags. The tinfoil pie pans fit nicely as well just FYI. Lastly for soup I cook the soup fully, allow to completely cool and then divide into freezer bags and lay flat to freeze. 
Ive also been told you can find tinfoil pans cheap cheap at the dollar store. You can also buy various sizes there so if you are only cooking for one, you can still prep all the meals the same just divide them into the smaller pans before you freeze so that you have smaller portion sizes when it comes time to cook! Super convenient. 

Here are some of the recipes I prepped:

Crockpot

TexMex Chicken

Chicken Bolognese

Scalloped Potatoes & Ham

Italian Crockpot Chicken on Rice

Healthy Mama BBQ Chicken

Cheesy Chicken Spaghetti

Italian Chicken

Broccoli Cheese Soup

Potato Soup

Chicken Noodle Soup

Easy Cheesy Chicken

Turkey Chili

One Dish Meals

Million Dollar Spaghetti

Chicken Veggie Potato Pan

Baked Ravioli

Cheddar & Cracker Chicken

Creamy Chicken Lasagna

Beef Lasagna

Sheperds Pie

Cheese Ham & Egg Buns

Sloppy Joes

Hashbrown Pizza

Macaroni Jumble

Hamburger Pie

Turkey Pot Pie

Mini Turkey Pot Pies

Salsa Chicken

Soups

Cheesy Ham & Turkey Soup

Cheesy Vegetable Chowder

Cheeseburger Soup

Ham Chowder

** I should mention that for the soup recipes listed above I cooked each soup fully, allowed to cool and then bagged or put in containers. They will be a thaw a reheat meal on the day of, no cooking required 

Each of the meals listed above contains a link to the recipe so feel free to click on it and you will be directed to a source containing the recipe! 

Everything except the soups!

With the tiny bit of room that is left over in my freezer I have also packed in the following frozen baked goods (which should hold us over until I am up to the task of baking again):

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

Chocolate Cream Cheese Muffins

M&M cookies

Energy Bites

Homemade Granola Bars

Peanut Butter Cookies

Chocolate Chip Cookies

** I should also mention that for the baked goods recipes listed above I baked them fully, allowed to cool and then bagged or put in containers. They thaw perfectly and are ready to enjoy!