Freezer Cooking and Meal Planning

I absolutely love to cook. What I do not like however, is coming home at 5 pm, opening my fridge and wondering what to make and then spending the subsequent hour in my kitchen preparing dinner. I’m moody anyways and I’m not always in the mood to cook. Menu planning and freezer cooking, also called Once a Month Cooking (OAMC) or batch cooking, has really revolutionized my grocery budget and the way I make meals.

I first came across this idea six to eight months ago while browsing blogs. Jessica at Life As Mom has many fantastic resources for learning how to meal plan and freezer cook. I don’t do a marathon weekend of cooking partially because it’s exhausting and partially because I don’t have a chest freezer, just the freezer above my fridge. 

When the freezer starts to get low or when we run out of marina sauce I will start cooking whenever I have time and am in the mood. I might make a big pot of pasta sauce one night and that's it. After it's cooled off, I pour two cup portions into quart sized freezer bags and freeze flat. Once they're frozen I stack them vertically like books. I've found this to be very space efficient. Another helpful and time saving practice is to buy ground beef in the big packages when on sale ($1.99/lb is my buy price) and cook it all up at once. I will do two pounds of plain, 2 pounds of taco meat and 1 pound of sloppy joes.

You don’t have to love casseroles (I don’t) or eat processed, canned food to prepare simple, frugal and healthy meals for your family. Here are some things currently in my freezer. Granted there’s only two of us (David eats for three though)

I haven't quite finished up from this weekend's cooking. The muffin tin has sloppy joes that need to go into a bag. The pyrex dishes contain lasagna casseroles that need to be moved to a bag as well. 

• mariana sauce with meat
• marina sauce
• diced onions
• cooked brown rice
• spanish brown rice
• season taco meat
• lasagna
• lasagna casserole
• shredded chicken meat
• plain cooked ground beef
• enchiladas
• sloppy Joes
• chicken breast in marinade

In the coming weeks, I will begin posting recipes for these dinners and more. Thanks for reading my first post!