Freezer cooking, or bulk cooking, can be a great way to economize on time, money, and resources. And the kids can help cook!

As I mentioned last week, I’m on a mission to make my boys a little more independent in the kitchen. So, it only made sense to include them in the freezer cooking this month. Heaven help me!

Instead of asking each guy what he wanted to make, I let them choose from a variety of cooking plans that I created for The Cookbook (coming later this year). I figured this was an easier way to choose meals as well as have the grocery list and cooking plan already to go.

Providentially, the plan that they chose, the one with the most meat, of course, also featured cuts of meats that were on sale this week at my local stores. Yeah! Shopping, however, involved trips to three four different stores. In recent years it’s not been unusual for me to shop at six different stores in a week, but lately, I’ve not been that crazy in my shopping. This freezer cooking gig required me to stretch a bit.

Note: I could have shopped at probably just one or two, but I would have spent a lot more money. As it is, I believe my grocery total for these meals hovered around $200.

some freezer meal groceries + extras

(Peek in at Good Cheap Eats tomorrow to see how that shopping broke down and what a month’s worth of dinners looks like in groceries as well as dollars and cents.)

Here’s the cooking plan as it looked before we started cooking:

Sorry, no links for most of these. I guess you’ll have to wait to buy The Cookbook.

• Mediterranean Style Steak
• Seasoned Steak with Gorgonzola-Herb Butter
• Mexican Beef Tortas
• Spicy Shrimp and Tomatoes
• Tortilla Soup with Shrimp
• Fish Chowder with Red Potatoes and Corn
• Quick and Spicy Marinara Sauce
• Jamie’s Spice Mix
• Teriyaki Chicken Skewers
• Herb Butter Chicken Tenders
• Caribbean Pork Tenderloin
• Herb-Crusted Pork Roast
• Soy-Ginger Pork Tenderloin
• Cozy Cheese and Potato Casserole

Preorders should start in a month or so. Wait for it….

I gathered all my plastic ware. The Glad plastic boxes and Pyrex or Ziploc glass dishes with plastic lids are my favorites.

I also decided to jot down notes from each day to see how it all worked out, freezer cooking with kids — or how it didn’t.

Thoughts the night before:

Quite honestly, I’m not sure how this will go. I’m hoping that I can assign big boys to different prep tasks and go back and forth from their stations, offering advice and helping. But, the three littles may either help or hinder this process. It’s anybody’s game.

In the past, I’ve told the boys they were “helping” me, but then that didn’t really happen. So, I’m a little skeptical that this will work. I still have some shopping to do in the morning and then a fairly ambitious list to work through.

And there’s always the risk that someone will make a mistake and we’ll have a bulk batch of Oops! But, then again, I’ve been known to do that on my own — without any help.

It should be interesting.

And here’s how it panned out.

Successes on cooking day:

Be my own prep chef – One of the keys to a productive batch cooking day is to do all the prep work in advance. I often neglect to do that, I’m so eager to get cooking. But, this time I made a point to prep everything before I started assembling the meals. This entailed chopping vegetables, cooking potatoes, and grating cheese and lime zest. The result really streamlined the experience. The meals came together super quickly that I surprised even myself, creating 25+ meals in about 5 hours.

Tasty recipes – Our house was filled with good scents all day long. And everything we tasted was delicious! I did veer a little from my original plan, subbing in a pulled pork recipe for the Soy-Ginger Tenderloin and making a chili instead of the Tortilla Soup. Many of these are fairly low maintenance to pull together: marinated meats, soups, slow cooker meals. It’s all a matter of coordinating the different tools in your kitchen.

Cooperative children – My boys were (mostly) great about their kitchen experience. One particular person dragged his feet a little bit, that one who likes to push buttons, so really his behavior was par for the course. He warmed up pretty quickly, though, since he wants to be a chef someday.

I asked each of the bigger boys (14, 11, and 9) to choose two recipes to prepare. Then when I got to one dude’s recipe in the cooking plan’s order, I called him over to walk him through the recipe. It was pretty much a private cooking lesson at that point as I explained what was supposed to happen and what he needed to watch for, add, etc. I tried to let them do the work, with me supervising.

Lots of (labeled) meals for February – We were able to make everything on the list in about 5 to 6 hours, resulting in over 25 meals for the coming month. I also made a point to label everything. The pantry challenge showed me some of my recent laziness. No more mysteries!

What I would do differently:

Communicate my goals to the kids - Things didn’t go exactly as I planned. I think I envisioned a little more enthusiasm on the part of my kids. But, since I didn’t explain that to them ahead of time, they had no idea that I really wanted them to embrace the experience. Everyone did what was asked of him. But, no one went overboard. hehe.

Multi-task more - Next time, I’ll multi-task a little more, getting more than one child going on his task at a time and then “hopefully” roam the kitchen, helping and advising. I definitely could have had more than one cook in the kitchen.

Well, we’ll see next time.

Related Reading:

Here are some of my favorite posts that will help you get started in Freezer Cooking:

• A Quick Start Guide to Freezer Cooking
• How to Create a Freezer Cooking Plan
• Freezer Cooking Recipes You Can Count On
• Freezer Cooking Q & A
• Storage Length and Methods of Packaging

How did freezer cooking go for you?

February Freezer Cooking (With Kids) is a post from: Life As Mom. © Jessica Getskow Fisher - All rights reserved.

I love my freezer! I’m not ashamed to say it.

I remember years ago my younger sister turned up her nose at the idea of making food ahead of time and freezing it. Truth be told, I think she just had bad memories from our childhood when our parents or grandmothers stockpiled food that didn’t see the light of day for months, years, decades.

Quite honestly, it was kinda creepy that Gramma had canning jars full of stuff in her basement that were so old, the dust was growing thick on their tops.

Probably one of the problems of the prosperity that most Americans experience (in comparison to the rest of the globe) is that we have excess.

Typically, we have more than we need, we buy more than we need, and we don’t always use what we have. I have been guilty of this many times over.

This month I’m hosting a Pantry Challenge over on my food blog, Good Cheap Eats. I was stunned to see so many comments and folks signing up to participate on these posts:

• Join Me for a Pantry Challenge
• January Meal Planning and the Pantry Challenge
• Goals for the Pantry Challenge
• Daily Log – Pantry Challenge 2012

Clearly, I’m not the only one with a little excess in the cupboards, fridge, and freezer. So, we’re shopping our kitchens before we go shopping elsewhere.

This is a wonderful opportunity to use what you have, rotate your stock, and make sure things don’t go to waste. In fact, I found a good handful of freezer meals to use up this month, like Soy-Balsamic Burgers and Turkey Tortilla Soup, Carnitas Tacos, homemade barbecue sauce and Chicken Tamales. Obviously, freezer cooking helps me year in and year out. We’re reaping the benefits of work I put it weeks ago!

Freezer cooking is helping me take time off this month. Without the scary food experiences that haunt my kid sister.

Try the Make Ahead and Freeze Method

If you don’t already practice freezer cooking, I encourage you to give it a go. Not only does it help you save money through bulk cooking, but it will help you save time and put your feet up more often.

Not sure where to start? Here are some of my favorite posts that will help you join the Freezer Cooking Craze:

• A Quick Start Guide to Freezer Cooking
• How to Create a Freezer Cooking Plan
• Freezer Cooking Recipes You Can Count On
• Freezer Cooking Q & A
• Storage Length and Methods of Packaging

Did you do any freezer cooking this past month?

We’d love to hear about it. Tell us in the comments, or if you posted it on your blog, share the link below.

Join the Freezer Cooking Craze! is a post from: Life As Mom. © Jessica Getskow Fisher - All rights reserved.

December can be a FULL month. Make it easy on yourself by filling your freezer with meals to help you during the dinnertime rush.

Now is the perfect time to load up your freezer with some ready-to-go meals. Anytime is a perfect time, but December is especially chaotic with all the extra festivities that we cram into our schedules at the year’s end. And an hour or two in the kitchen — or even a full day, if you can swing it — can do wonders for your dinnertimes this month.

Last weekend I spent some going through what I had on hand, running through Costco for a few staples, and then did some quick cooking. I actually did it all in a few short sprints that I started on Sunday and have peppered my week. I’ve just had so much going on, that it worked best to spread it out throughout the week.

The Plan

Here’s the literal snapshot of my cooking plan and how I’ve bought myself some time this month.

Granola - Oats, Sugar, and Spices combined into a double batch of Cranberry Orange Granola. I didn’t have oranges, but I had some lemons fresh from my dad’s tree which worked just as well.

Taco Meat - I took spices from the cupboard and mixed up a big batch of Taco Seasoning. Then, I cooked up a big pot (3 pounds’ worth) of seasoned taco meat and divided it into meal sized portions for tacos, burritos, and chili throughout the month.

Marinated Chicken - Chicken was on sale at a local store, so I bought a ton. Or close to. I mixed up these different marinades and bagged meal-sized portions in the marinade for quick stirfries and grilled meals later.

Seasoned Pinto Beans - I read an article about the badness (is that a word?) of BPA in our canned foods, and was reminded how EASY it is to cook my own beans. So, I set pintos to soak and cooked them overnight for Seasoned Pinto Beans. We’ll enjoy these in burritos, taco bowls, and chili this month.

Butternut Squash Puree - I had a huge butternut squash from a produce box from earlier in November that needed to be used up. I peeled and cubed it, drizzled it with olive oil and seasoned it with salt and pepper. It roasted in the oven while I worked on other things. I pureed it to sneak into other things and froze them in 1-cup containers.

Thankfully, I tasted it before I’d pureed it all. It was so yummy just cubed! So, I added it to my salad with a bunch of other yummy things, like bleu cheese and pomegranate arils that night. It was amazing! That butternut squash’s big brother arrived this week, so I’ll be doing a repeat again soon.

Homemade Pizza - Pizza Kits are an easy way to pull homemade pizza together in a flash. I cooked up a big pot of sauce and divvied up five pounds of shredded mozzarella so that I just need to pull out a bag of sauce and a bag of cheese come pizza night. (There’s already a stockpile of pepperoni in the freezer from a recent sale, so we’re good.)

Tamales - Tamales are on the list for today. We’ve got friends in town to help make them. (Not sure if that was their plan, but it is mine!) Tamales are a regular thing at our house during December. I’ll freeze a bunch of them and we’ll enjoy them for snacks as well as on Christmas Eve.

I didn’t get to the Breakfast Cookies, but we’re planning a big baking brouhaha in the next week or two where I will attempt to allow my children more freedom in the kitchen, whether or not we get a dozen kinds of cookies prepared.

How did YOUR freezer cooking go?

Are you a regular in filling your freezer? Just starting out? Wondering why you would want to anyway? Tell us in the comments.

Freezer Cooking Daze – December 2011 is a post from: Life As Mom. © Jessica Getskow Fisher - All rights reserved.

Freezer cooking has been a way of life for me for quite some time. My friend Jessika and I first tackled “once a month cooking” when I was 8 months pregnant with the first FishKid almost fifteen years ago.

Yeah, I’m old.

And there were seasons in my early years of motherhood when it wasn’t really a habit. I might do a cooking session one month and wait six months before I did another. Now it’s a way of life.

For the last few months, I’ve used shorter, power cooking sessions to get the job done. But, now that the busier fall days are upon us, I realized last weekend that I just needed to suck it up and do a Big Un. I planned the entire month’s worth of breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, and then I set to work to make ahead as much as I could.

If I’m going to keep up with all that’s on my plate, I want dinnertime to be easy, tasty, and budget-friendly. “Make ahead and freeze” is my answer to that.

veggie patties from the freezer – yum!

The Plan

I went into this month’s cooking session knowing that most of the dinners I’d planned for the month would more than likely be cooked the day of or taken from my existing freezer stash. I already have marinated chicken and tri-tip stashed in the freezer and enough red sauce to feed a small nation. All the suppers on November’s meal plan feature the crockpot, the grill, the pasta pot, or the pizza pan. Easy, right?

So, I wasn’t as worried about dinner as I was the rest of the day. I planned a breakfast bar as well as a regular lunch rotation. These are very flexible meals that can be varied based on the seasonal fruits and vegetables that we work into the mix.

Since dinners were already done, I focused on a freezer cooking plan to handle breakfast and lunch. Here it is:

November Freezer Cooking Plan

Cranberry Orange Granola

Instant Oatmeal Packets

Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes bread dough (stored in the fridge)

Mix and Match Muffin Mix

Pancake Mix

cooked and frozen Pancakes

Waffle Mix

cooked and frozen waffles

Biscuit Mix

Cornbread Mix

Cinnamon Crumb Coffeecake Mix (recipe coming)

Frozen Burritos

Seasoned Pinto Beans

Let’s Get Cooking

I spent about three or four hours puttering in my kitchen last weekend. FishChick3 was up before the sun. Therefore, I was as well. So, I started on a batch of granola. This recipe is a surefire way to get your house smelling divine. It also makes a great gift.

And can I just take a moment to say a word about this new pan? It rocks! I bought a boxed set (half-sheet with lid, rack, and quarter-sheet) at Costco and I love them. The half-sheet holds my silpat mat just perfectly. I’m going back for more. No more warps-and-wiggles-in-the-oven-kind-of-pans for me!

Then, I assembled the pancake mixes and prepped a double batch to cook for breakfast. Whoever was awake before the pancakes were all cooked and cooled enjoyed pancakes for breakfast. I wrapped the cooled pancakes in stacks of eight in plastic wrap and then placed the stacks in a gallon size freezer bag. While they aren’t as tasty as freshly baked, they will make for quick breakfasts on school days.

I moved on to the waffles and did the same thing. Whoever was awake before I stashed the waffles, had waffles for breakfast. You see a trend here?

Ditto with the granola. Hubs awoke in time to eat warm granola while it cooled on the countertop. I had to hurry to have something to store!

Then I worked on the rest of the mixes until I ran out of sugar. Hit pause until I can run to the store.

Later that day I finished off the baking mixes and assigned jobs to my able-bodied children. FishBoy9 stirred the bread dough while FishBoy10 sorted the beans.

Once the bread dough was done with its first rising, I stashed that in the fridge.

The beans soaked overnight and cooked the next day in the crockpot. Beans are rather independent creatures. They don’t need much fuss.

Once they were done, I quickly assembled two dozen burritos, portioned out the rest of the beans in freezer containers, and called it quits. This really does not take much time at all, especially if you buy the cheese pregrated or use a food processor. These were bean and cheese burritos making them super quick to fix. Watch the video if you’re not sure how to fold a burrito.

Breakfast and a few lunches are handled for the next month! (See our meal plan if you don’t believe me.) Here are some of our goods for the next month. I’ll supplement them with fresh fruit, hard cooked eggs, yogurt and the link. Head here to read about our breakfast bar.

Going forward, I’ll be looking at this month’s sales with a mind toward December’s freezer cooking. Basically, I’m planning, buying, and cooking a month in advance. Our November meal plan is set, so as sales come through this month, I’ll be thinking toward what to do with those items next month.

Freezer Cooking Day

Freezer Cooking Day is evolving once again. I’ll be posting on the first Saturday of each month, specifically about freezer cooking. Join me and share your freezer cooking adventures, link up your own freezer cooking post or recipe, ask questions in the comments section, and otherwise share with us what works well for you and your family to have homecooked meals without a ton of work.

The Cookbook is entering some of the final stages of production. I’ve got another round of edits later this month. I’m so excited to share it with you! There are over 100 new recipes that you’ve never seen. And I’m almost afraid to tease you with them since it will still be a short while before you can go buy the book. I hope you will! I think you’re gonna love it!

Well, that’s all I got. I can’t wait to see how you’re using freezer cooking to help your “life as mom.”

Freezer Cooking: November is a post from: Life As Mom. © Jessica Getskow Fisher - All rights reserved.

I told you on Friday about my recent, and albeit, ambitious plan for freezer cooking. It all started with a trip to Costco in which I bought more than my refrigerator could hold. Apparently, my cup runneth over. It was a rather impromptu plan that I put together on my return home.

Once I had cleaned the kitchen and donned the apron, I got the main components ready, namely the spice mixes I would be using for the taco meat and the pulled pork. I buy spices in bulk and that makes it easy and economical to mix up my own blends.

I got the pork cooking in the crockpot and started some of the ground beef to cook for taco meat. On a whim, I mixed the rest of the ground beef into meatballs. I had found several containers of gravy in the freezer when I inventoried, so I knew that would be a good way to add variety to our meals this month without a lot of extra work.

I also enlisted some help. FishBoy9 helped me form the meatballs which was nice on the work end, but also nice for the companionship. He wants to be a chef when he grows up, so I am looking forward to more help in meal prep.

That first day I did cooking which resulted in at least ten meals for the freezer. A few years ago this might have been 30 meals. But, it would appear that my family’s appetites have grown. I’m going to need to step things up a bit.

That night I went to bed contented that there was a growing stockpile in the freezer that I would add to the next day. However, I was awoken at 5 am by a piercing beep. The freezer alarm. Apparently things were getting warm in the deep freeze. Bleary eyed, I crammed the most valuable frozen foods into the side-by-side refrigerator freezer and hoped for the best.

We think that someone placed a box of muffins too close to the top of the freezer, preventing it from sealing completely and allowing warm air in (or cold air out). As you can imagine, I was a little gunshy to tackle more freezer cooking and have it go to waste. So, we’ve been slowly eating what we already had in the refrigerator as well as researching our options for a replacement freezer. It is still running, and the alarm has gone off once or twice, only after the door was opened. So, we think the alarm just might be really sensitive.

I’ve been freezer shopping and quite frankly disappointed in the price points. I know, Craigslist, but I don’t want to do used and then end up in the same boat, with an older freezer on its way out. Our current Frigidaire is 12 years old and certainly served our family well. Not counting electricity costs, it has averaged now about $15 a year. I’d like to know how my $400 investment would pencil out.

You can be sure that I’ll update you on what I decide! In the meantime, this is how my cooking session ended:

My plan v. my results:

• Aunt Sandy’s Broccoli and Cauliflower Soup – didn’t happen until Soup Night a few days later.
• Chicken Enchiladas – never happened
• Taco Meat - 3 dinners worth
• Taco Seasoning - big batch with some leftover
• Brats to repackage from a bulk package – 3 dinners worth
• Pulled Pork - 3 dinners worth
• Applesauce - never happened
• Apple Pies - never happened
• Muffins - one batch of Zucchini-Cranberry muffins
• Eggplant-Squash Casserole – never happened
• Baking mixes - never happened
• Pumpkin custards – baked these a few days later
• Crumb-topped cod kits – never happened
• Added: Meatballs
• Added: homemade BBQ Sauce
• Added: sauteed vegetables to add to soups and stews

How did YOUR freezer cooking go?

Freezer Cooking and an Unfinished List is a post from: Life As Mom. © Jessica Getskow Fisher - All rights reserved.

The following is a guest post from Liz of Wonder Woman I’m Not:

As a working mother with older children, the opportunities for family dinners are somewhat limited in our household.

Between the kids’ work hours and extracurricular activities we have anywhere from 3 – 4 days per week maximum to eat together. That’s assuming that there aren’t any surprises like band concerts or business dinners thrown in. To top it off, the only exercise class that I absolutely love and that works for me is on two of those family dinner nights.

Over the years the husband and kids have been very good about helping to put dinner on the table. If I pull something out of the freezer before I leave for work they will pop it in the oven for me. Of course there are the phone calls that start about 4pm asking what time they should put the food on, what else I was planning on serving, what time should the bread go in the oven, etc.

Pretty stressful for me as I’m trying to wrap up the day and most likely have someone in my office. Plus, when I got home at the end of my busy day I still needed to do the finishing touches.

What’s a mother to do?

Get creative of course! I thought about what the problems were with getting dinner on the table during the week and came up with four:

• If I get home from exercise class at 6pm we had to eat immediately, no time for me to cook.
• No one else in the household knew what my dinner plan was. They knew they were to cook meatloaf, but weren’t sure what else I wanted to serve with it.
• The sides I planned to serve weren’t always available. I forgot to buy mashed potatoes, the carrots I planned to use were eaten at the last meal – you get the picture.
• The 4pm calls from home asking for direction were stressing me out.

My solution was to create ‘a meal in a bag’.

Now, when I do my freezer cooking, I put everything in a grocery bag with detailed directions. Since I tend to cook a lot of the same things, I can have copies of the directions for the main dish and handwrite any other directions for the husband or kids.

A typical bag consists of:

• A meat dish
• Bread
• Frozen vegetable
• Potato or rice

In addition we typically serve applesauce and/or salad that would just be thrown on the table at the last minute. If I’m planning on serving a dried good from the pantry (like the rice or boxed potatoes) I’ve been throwing that in the freezer too, so far without any quality problems.

Because of lack of space, I typically would only do this for the next week or two. However, since we’ve bought a new chest freezer for the basement I’m be able to go crazy and really stock up!

– Liz writes at Wonder Woman I’m Not. She works full time outside the home as a director of analytics for a paper company. When she’s not spending time with her family or working, she enjoys baking, gardening, geneology and reading.

How do YOU problem solve the dinner time scramble?

Make a Meal in a Bag (Guest Post) is a post from: Life As Mom. © Jessica Getskow Fisher - All rights reserved.

At the end of last week I found that I had accumulated a lot of food. Fellow grocery geeks will remember the co-op haul that I brought home. Talk about being rich in rice cakes!

Then, because we were out of dairy, I ran to Costco to get milk and cheese on Saturday morning. Yes, crazy on more than one count. One thing led to another and before I knew it, my refrigerator was bursting from the seams.

Apparently, it’s time to cook for the freezer, me thinks.

I really didn’t want to put uncooked foods in the freezer, though I totally could have done that. I wanted things to be easier on the other side. So, I got to work.

Here was my plan of attack:

1. Inventory the freezer.

I am really bad about keeping track of what we already have in the freezer. Every once in awhile I go dig it all out — and find such great treasure. Look at all this! Apparently, I don’t need to make red sauce anytime soon.

2. Develop a cooking plan.

Next, I made up a list of the meals to prepare, based on what I already had in the fridge and cupboard. (Note the clever use of recycled artwork. I’m so fancy.)

My plan:

• Aunt Sandy’s Broccoli and Cauliflower Soup
• Chicken Enchiladas
• Taco Meat
• Taco Seasoning
• Brats to repackage from a bulk package
• Pulled Pork
• Applesauce
• Apple Pies
• Muffins
• Eggplant-Squash Casserole
• Baking mixes
• Pumpkin custards
• Crumb-topped cod kits

3. Clean the kitchen.

Since I had just gotten home from Costco, evidence of such was everywhere. I know from experience that starting a cooking session with a clean kitchen makes the process so much more enjoyable.

4. Don the apron and get cooking.

I cook better with an apron. I worry less about my clothes which helps me relax more, and therefore, enjoy my cooking.

The weekend was not without it’s excitement. I’ll tell you more on Monday. Share your cooking plan below and be sure to come back on Monday to see my progress and to share yours.  For more information about freezer cooking days, go here.

What’s your cooking plan?

October Freezer Cooking: The Plan is a post from: Life As Mom. © Jessica Getskow Fisher - All rights reserved.

Can I give you some tips when it comes to freezer cooking and/or cooking in general?

1. Don’t plan on a lot of cooking for the freezer on the day of your daughter’s birthday when you’ve promised her a beautiful fairy cake and a dress shopping trip. You will only stress yourself out because there are too many things on your plate, and it’s your fault that it’s like that.

2. Don’t make a list so long that no human being could do it on their own, let alone one who has help, aged 2 to 4. Moderation is good in all things, even freezer cooking.

3. Never ever bake an eggless chocolate cake with extra virgin olive oil. It won’t work. Trust me on that one.

I did all three things on my last freezer cooking day. And while the day started out all fine and dandy, I started to feel anxious right around lunchtime. Luckily, I was holding my list “loosely” and felt okay not to get it all done.

Recent Freezer Experiments Experiences

Stew Starters - I saw on Pinterest the idea of putting uncooked slowcooker stews in freezer bags and freezing them that way. The examples I saw included a lot of vegetables that I thought might be too vulnerable for freezing without blanching them first. So, I opted not to take that exact route. But, I did do some experiments by creating three different stew starters: bags filled with meats,seasonings, and aromatics that can be dumped in the slow cooker. I am excited to try these out this month.

Freezing Co-op Produce – We recently joined an organic produce co-op. Since I didn’t want to feel stressed about using everything up in a short amount of time, I made a point of processing the corn and beans to freeze. This was great because now we’ll have the tastes of summer a month or two down the road. Capturing summer in the freezer – who knew?

Baked Oatmeal Unbaked – I’m testing out my Raspberry Baked Oatmeal for the freezer. This time I used blueberries instead of raspberries and I froze the casseroles before baking.

My Overly Ambitious List

I don’t know what I was thinking! I ended up taking shortcuts, delegating things to kids, and changing plans midstream. The things that are crossed out are the things that actually happened.

• corn to freezer
• blanch green beans
• bag mozzarella cheese
• chop bell peppers and freeze
• cook ground beef/make meatballs, changed this to: make meatsauce and hamburger patties
• freeze bananas for smoothies (delegated this to a child)
• make baked oatmeal and freeze
• zucchini bread
• zucchini cupcakes, changed this to: the fated chocolate cake with evoo
• decorate cupcakes, changed this to: decorate cake
• soak beans
• carnitas in crockpot
• instant oatmeal
• pumpkin muffins
• make stew in bags
• pesto
• roast, peel, and freeze chiles
• cook chili
• make mashed potatoes
• bake hamburger buns

Overall, I’m pretty happy with the process and our freezer looks full again.

How did your recent freezer cooking go?

Crazy Woman Freezer Cooking is a post from: Life As Mom. © Jessica Getskow Fisher - All rights reserved.

I’ve just started venturing into the world of freezer cooking (thanks to you!) and now I have a freezer that is just in complete disarray. I
want to be organized and make it easy to find things. How do you organize your freezers? (fridge as well as big deep freeze). Any helpful tips would be appreciated! Thanks.

– Lindsay

Lindsay asks a wonderful question. While having a freezer full of great things to eat is a definite boon to the home cook, it doesn’t help you if you can’t find anything!

Unfortunately, I’m not the one to answer this question. My freezers are currently in shambles. The girls and I went looking for ice cream the other night, and we had quite a time of it. Our chest freezer is one giant pit!

So, I would love to know — and so would Lisa — how do you organize your freezer? Please share your approach in the comments and make sure to tell us what kind of freezer you have: side-by-side, upright, or chest.

How do YOU organize a freezer?

Organizing the Freezer (Freezer Days Q & A) is a post from: Life As Mom. © Jessica Getskow Fisher - All rights reserved.

The following is a guest post from Tricia of Once a Month Mom:

I have found that in my years of freezer cooking that August and September are by far, the most popular months of the year for people to take up freezer meal planning and cooking. I refer to this season as the “Mom New Year“. It is a time of year when we are frantically trying to return to order, schedules, planning and cooking after a season of chaos, lazy days, grilling and general leisure. With school going back in session and fall approaching it just seems to be the time of year that every mom sees the need to instill more order in her life. And as my kids have gotten older, I couldn’t agree more.

Well I am here to tell you that there is no greater time like “back-to-school time” to take up freezer cooking. Here are some ways that freezer cooking can help you get things on track this season:

1. Make a freezer cooking plan – It is important to set aside time every two weeks to one month to really make a plan for the upcoming weeks/months. Schedule your time on your calendar and guard that planning time with your life. Perhaps even make it a family meeting time if your kids are old enough to help. Use this time to pick meals for your family. If it is too overwhelming to plan on your own, use ready to go freezer cooking plans. But whatever you do, schedule a time of the month (week) to make a plan, and guard that time carefully.
2. Involve the kids in planning – if you are freezer cooking to make lunch box assembly easier, try involving the kids. Perhaps lay out some recipes you are considering and have them go through and pick out ones that look most appealing to them. After all, they are more likely to eat their lunch if they want what they have been packed.
3. Involve the kids in the cooking/packing – again, if you are freezer cooking for lunch boxes you might try incorporating them into the cooking. I find that my kids are way more likely to eat the food I put in front of them if they have participated in the production.

Think outside the box – so many people have asked us lately what to pack for school lunches. It appears so many have hit a “lunch box assembly block” lately. If you are having trouble coming up with something other than peanut butter and jelly, here are a few lunch box ideas that you can freeze and make ahead for your kids. And if that still isn’t what you need, my advice is to go to Pinterest or Sir Google for the answer. You can also see what the Eat Well, Spend Less crowd has come up with.

Whatever you do, don’t let this time of year get to you. Take some time to do some planning so that you can have more time to be spending with your family, whether that be at athletic events, helping with homework or simply enjoying the season.

– Tricia Callahan is founder and author of Once A Month Mom. When she isn’t using her Type A personality to create once a month cooking menus, she can be found chasing after her two toddlers who also have discovered a love for cooking at an early age.

What strategies are YOU using to get school day meals in order?

Surviving Back to School Time with Freezer Cooking is a post from: Life As Mom. © Jessica Getskow Fisher - All rights reserved.