My little dishwasher has been working overtime, and every clean rag in my home is officially dirty. The last 2 days I've found ambition during Gracie's naps... and my feet are swollen to prove it. (Apparently I don't do well on them for very long). It's been a while since I've had a good cooking session, so I decided to do a little OAMC (Once a month cooking). I began experimenting with frozen meals right before Gracie's birth, because I knew it would come in handy with a small family and a tired momma. For a small family it's smart. For a single lady it's invaluable.
This cooking spree includes 8 recipes, only a few of which I doubled - but if I had a family I would double everything and freeze half for later. I found chicken and beef on sale, so I made recipes consisting of both.
I estimate a cost of about $55 in groceries - and 45 1-person meals! I doubled the meatloaf and chimichangas, and I consider my portion sizes generous. Eating out is all too easy, and the average spent per meal is $7. ...$12 for "real" food. My freezer meals come to just over $1 per meal, saving me $270-495!!!
MY MEALS: (and the recipe link to each)
Meatloaf and potatoes: I make slightly bigger meatloafs and use savory instead of sage. Freez potatoes in ice-cream scoops on a saranwrap-lined cookie sheet, then wrap both meatloaf and potatoes individually with saranwrap. I reheat both for 1-1.5 min in microwave, unwarp and they're good to go.
Red Curry and Yellow Curry over Rice. Frozen rice is a staple in my home, and I HIGHLY recommend it! I've never done it with brown rice, but jasmine and long-grain are perfect. I freeze the curry's flat, in a quart-size zip-lock freezer bag, and they reheat just like new in 3-5 minutes.
Scalloped potatoes & ham: Once well cooled, I cut into portion sized squares and freeze them on a lined cookie sheet, then wrap each individually - storing all in a large zip-lock bag. Reheat in saran wrap for 1-2 minutes.
Pasta E Fagoili Soup: DO NOT add the pasta! It will dry it out horribly in freezing and reheating. I like adding more V8 than called for. Again, freeze in zip-lock bags lying flat.
Chicken Chimichangas: I freeze these in halfs, by wrapping them once cooled, putting them in a large freezer bag and simply throwing them in the freezer. Reheat in 1.5 min with saran wrap still on.
SECRETS TO GREAT FREEZING: I freeze for convenience! Thinking ahead and thawing is not an option, so everything I make goes straight from the freezer to the microwave. To freeze I line a cookie sheet with saranwrap for easy removal of items and, once frozen, wrap each individually in saranwrap (Small meatloafs, ice-cream scoops of potatoes, chimichanga halves and portion sized squares of scalloped potatoes). When I reheat I leave the saranwrap on, at least most of the time, to ensure edges don't get dried out and crusty in reheating. Most items hot and ready in only 1-1.5 minutes, straight from the freezer. Soups, rice and "saucy" dishes are frozen in quart sized zip-lock freezer bags, which I fill 1/2 full or more and lay flat to freeze. MAKE SURE YOU LABEL EACH BAG WITH THE RECIPE & DATE MADE. To reheat I pop zip-lock bag in microwave for 2-4 minutes and ... whalla. Thawed, heated and ready to eat! I make everything a tad more juicy (soups, sauces, mashed potatoes) because in freezing and reheating they can lose a little moisture. Never refreeze frozen meats. In otherwords, don't make the chicken chimichanges out of frozen chicken and then plan to freeze them. Obviously there are more "secrets" - but if you're scared of freezing this gives you a quick, easy start.
NOW GO OUT AND CONQUER THE WORLD! ... errrrrr.... atleast one OAMC session.
9 comments:
WOW!!! If only I were ambitious! I need to do something like this.
I did this before I had Kimberly. And I totally plan on doing it before my next baby comes, too. But with a family of 5 to feed and only a small freezer, it's hard to do more than 7 days in advance.
I'm excited to try some of the recipes you posted. Plus I LOVE that the food can go straight from freezer to microwave. That saves so much time!
awesome! thanks for the tips! i did freezer meals before i had mckay, and i'm planning on doing them again in the near future...so this will come in quite handy for me! thanks!!
I'm a firm believer of freezer meals. I take Sunday nights (usually) to make and freezer dinners for my family. Especially for my husband, already in his plastic containers for his meals at work.
WAY TO GO YOU!
No kidding about the ambitious part! way to go...thanks for the tips I really should do this...at least once :)
You are amazing! What a great idea. I have a bowl of cereal for dinner about 3 times a week because I just don't feel like cooking when I get home from work. This idea is genius, I might just have give it a try! Thanks Natalie!
Wow - good for you! We should do 30 meals in a day together - I remember when I did them all by myself before I had Kate - and I LOVED it! I need to get back to that!
Im going to have to check this out in detail and try a couple of these. Also I was going to ask if you have one of those cooking pots like a crock pot for the microwave it's like any meal in 10-15 minutes. I will find out what it's called and let ya know. My friend swears by it and she works full time and has other responsibilities that keep her from cooking meal from scratch everyday. Ill let you know. love ya sis! I can't wait to try some of these!
I"m totally doing this. Thanks for the idea.
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