The Secret is Out
I have to confess: I have found a new love. Now before those of you who know me freak out, Mr. Doug is sitting snuggly next to me on the couch as I type. The new love in my life is freezer cooking! With six kids, a hubby on the mend from a car accident, and multiple appointments nearly every day of the week, we were bringing home take-out or eating frozen pizza several nights a week. It was taking a toll on our budget, not to mention it wasn’t very healthy. Now that I’m freezer cooking, we’re eating delicious, home-cooked meals every night of the week and it only takes a few minutes a day. Before you tune out because you think I’m talking about the kind of freezer cooking where you spend an entire day cooking for the whole month and you absolutely don’t have that kind of time or freezer space, hear me out. You can absolutely become a freezer cook without even adding too much time to your schedule. And who knows that when you’re a busy mom, you don’t need to put a whole bunch more on your plate!
Now before I get into the time saving processes, I am going to tell you about a few items that I have found to be absolutely essential in my kitchen. I keep these in my pantry at all times.
1.
Slow cooker: When a friend recently posed the question on her Facebook page what item I absolutely had to have in my kitchen, my first answer was my coffee pot. I have six kids…I couldn’t do it without coffee! When she said that didn’t count, my second answer was my slow cooker. It is the one absolutely essential item that makes many of my home-cooked meals possible. There are even slow cooker liners you can buy to make clean up quick and easy as well.
2.
Plastic freezer bags: I always have a supply of both quart and gallon size on hand.
3.
A sharpie: I realize that most of you already have this, but I want to explain why this is so essential. First, once your food is frozen, many things look very similar. You are going to want to know what you are pulling out of the freezer, and more importantly, you are going to want to know when you put it IN the freezer. If you don’t put a date on your food you may end up with two year old mystery meat. Yuck!
4.
Disposable foil pans: Depending on how much space you have and exactly what you want to freeze, you may not need these, but I like using them so I don’t have to tie up my regular casserole dishes and pans in the freezer. I bought a 30 pack of pans and lids at Sam’s Club for $13.
5.
Chicken and beef stock: I think this one is pretty self-explanatory!
When I first started doing freezer cooking I started out small. This is what I would recommend if you don’t have the time or the space to do a whole bunch of meals at once. You can actually put together some really great meals fairly quickly when you have the components ready to go. Last weekend I assembled lasagna in 15 minutes. I used already cooked, defrosted ground beef; frozen chopped onions and green peppers; pre-sliced, fresh mushrooms I bought on sale; canned tomato sauce; shredded mozzarella and parmesan cheese; and no boil noodles. I briefly sautéed the veggies, added the meat and sauce, and threw the lasagna together in the time it took to preheat the oven. I’m not judging if you currently buy the frozen type. I’ve been there, but believe me, this tasted MUCH better.
These are my favorite “components” to have on hand. You can, of course, modify this list to suit your family’s taste and usage.
1.
Ground beef or turkey: I purchase the family packs, and I cook the whole pack all at once. It usually only takes a few extra minutes to do this. I remove what I want to use for that evening’s dinner, and the rest goes into the freezer in quart sized bags in amounts roughly equal to what I would use in most recipes.
2.
Chopped veggies: I like to use onions and green peppers in a lot of my cooking, so these are something I always have around. When I have an extra 30 minutes, I’ll grab a bag of onions (which I always have on hand) and dice up a whole bunch all at once. If you are super motivated you can freeze the onions on baking sheets so they don’t stick together. I usually throw them into quart sized freezer bags and bang them on the counter until I break off the amount I want to use. If you don’t want your freezer to smell like onion, you might want to double bag! You can also buy these pre-cut and frozen, but I prefer to save the extra money and do it myself. You might be tempted to use a bigger bag, but I don’t recommend it. You’ll be getting it in and out of the freezer, and if you have a lot in the bag they will form a lot of ice crystals by the time you use it up.
3.
Shredded chicken: This one takes a little longer to do, but I use it so often it is worth it to me to put in the extra effort. I boiled about 10 pounds of chicken all at once and shredded it up while I watched a movie with the kids. There is a lot you can do with shredded chicken. I use chicken breast to make it a little healthier, but I have to admit that shredding up the whole chicken is tastier! If you want to skip the cooking part, I have also purchased rotisserie chicken and shredded it.
4.
Roasts: OK this might be a no brainer, but roasts can be pretty versatile. I buy them on sale and freeze them for later. Today for dinner I cooked a thawed pork roast in my slow cooker on low for 6 hours and then shredded it, added barbecue, and served pulled pork sandwiches. You could also dump in a bag of fresh veggies and have roast with veggies.
These are the things I use a lot in my cooking, but other suggestions I’ve seen in my research were grilled chicken, sliced/diced chicken, frozen hamburger patties, or just about anything you use a lot and can cook in larger quantities as you make dinner and throw in the freezer when you get done.
Now if you want to go ahead and put together a bunch of complete meals, great! I actually did do this with the help of a couple of other people one Saturday, and it took us several hours, but when we got done cooking I had nearly 20 meals safely tucked away. I am going to share some of the recipes that I have used, but if you have the time to do the research, there are a lot of great recipes online.
1.
Tacos: When I make tacos I cook a family size ground beef, add enough taco seasoning for multiple batches (we usually use about a pound of meat in tacos or taco salad, so if I have 5 lbs of meat I use enough seasoning for 5 batches of tacos) and I add several cans of black beans to the mix as well. Remove enough for dinner and then put the rest into quart or gallon freezer bags depending on how much you want for one batch. I defrost in the refrigerator overnight and reheat in the microwave.
2.
Chicken tacos: When I cooked the shredded chicken, I took out enough for chicken tacos, added chili powder, lime juice, and chicken broth to taste. I also defrost this in the fridge and microwave to heat.
3.
Tater Tot Casserole: Again, using extra ground beef I assembled in a bowl roughly a pound of beef, 1 bag of frozen peas, and about a half cup of frozen onions. You can change the veggies to suit your taste. Freeze in a gallon size bag. When you’re ready to eat, defrost the night before, mix together with two cans of cream of chicken or cream of mushroom soup (we prefer cream of chicken) and top with frozen tater tots. Bake at 400 until hot and bubbly (about 30 minutes.)
4.
Chicken chili: Dice 1 lb raw chicken and throw in a bag with one diced onion, two cans great northern beans, and about 1 cup of frozen or canned corn. Freeze in a gallon sized bag. Defrost the night before using and dump into the slow cooker with a quart of chicken stock, lime juice to taste, and fresh cilantro to taste. I usually cook on high about 4 hours.
5.
Chicken tortilla soup: Dice 1 lb raw chicken and throw in a gallon size bag with one diced onion, one can Roteltomatoes (or plain diced tomatoes if you don’t like spice), two cans black beans, and one cup of frozen corn. Defrost the night before and dump into the slow cooker with 1 quart of chicken stock and taco seasoning to taste. I cook on high about 4 hours.
6.
Chili: When you make chili, double it up and put the other half in a gallon bag (or bags depending on the size of your family). Defrost in the fridge and heat on the stove or in the slow cooker.
7.
Casseroles: I am not going to actually give any casserole recipes, but I wanted to include a few tips for freezing them. First, if you are making a casserole, double it and put one in the freezer for later. Make sure when you cover it you write what it is on the top. I also always write cooking instructions on the top so I don’t have to look it up later. Make sure that if you are cooking it from frozen you adjust your cooking times accordingly or thaw it in the refrigerator before cooking.
Finally, here are a few more helpful tips I have found. Make sure you let your food come to room temperature in the refrigerator before putting it into the freezer. Also, if you are using freezer bags, you can save a lot of space by freezing everything flat rather than letting the bags sit up. If you need larger quantities of something, like chili, use more than one bag rather than overfilling one bag. Keep an inventory of what you have so you know what fresh ingredients you need to have for them and you know what you can throw together quickly or what will take more time based on your next day’s schedule. I’ve heard that potatoes don’t freeze well unless you blanch them first. Since that defeats the time-saving point for me, I don’t usually freeze them. Just be aware that if you do, you should look into safe freezer handling practices. If you are using pasta in any of your freezer cooking, make sure you cook it to just under al dente as you will be cooking them again in the oven to reheat. You don’t want mushy noodles. Freezer cooking will require some trial and error on your part. For example, a lot of recipes I saw called for carrots. Our family has found that we don’t like frozen carrots plain (like cooked with a roast), but we do like them in things (like beef stew). It’s a texture thing. Don’t make up a bunch of one thing until you try it in case you don’t like the way it comes out.
These are the things I do regularly to keep my freezer stocked, and now when we eat take-out it is because we want to, not because we don’t have any food in the house that can be assembled in twenty minutes or less. It took a while of double cooking and cooking in batches, but it is very satisfying to be able to feed my family great tasting, home-cooked food every night, even when I don’t get home from appointments until the time we are normally sitting down to eat or the baby cried all day long and I couldn’t put him down or all six kids were home from school for the fifth day straight because of weather or…well, you get the picture. You’re all busy too!
