Freezer Cooking
“What’s for dinner?”
The question that strikes fear into the hearts of many parents, especially working parents, during the week.
“Must you have dinner every night? We just had it last night”, is not the proper answer.
Don’t ask me how I know.
The obvious answer is to plan your evening meals ahead of time, and, things won’t be so stressful after work during the “arsenic hour“, but, at least for me, that’s not always how it works.
I need to get better about meal planning, and, there’s a couple of things I’ve been considering. They both involve cooking and freezing meals ahead of time, I think I just need to get on the stick, and, do it.
The 30 Day Gourmet is a popular “freezer cooking” site that many people swear by. It has steps to freezer cooking, shopping lists, and, more.
There’s some great ideas there. It’s a matter of doing a lot of planning, shopping, cooking, and, storing, but, it seems like it’d be worth it in the end not to have to whip up dinner from some old lunch meat, a bottle of barbecue sauce, frozen rolls, and, bread crumbs at 6:30pm.
Another popular solution is cooking ahead at meal assembly stores like Dream Dinners, where you can make several meals to freeze, without having to do the preparation or the clean-up.
Dream Dinners also has a cookbook full of assemble-and-freeze meals to help you get dinner on the table, and, spend more time with your family.
Has anyone tried any of these freezer cooking methods? How’d it work out?
Tags: 30-Day-Gourmet, Career and Kids, Dream-Dinners, freezer-cookingRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Cooking
6 opinions for Freezer Cooking
Char
May 10, 2007 at 8:36 am
I have gotten to the point where I can not make it through the week with out a menu plan. It is pretty easy to do and I get the whole family involved.
http://casualkeystrokes.com/category/menu-plan-mondays/
I have also tried Dream Dinners and really liked the whole experience. While I don’t think I’ll do it every month, it was a great way to try some new recipes, learn a few freeze ahead techniques, and it was fun.
mom2fur
May 11, 2007 at 5:00 am
I’ve been making some freeze-ahead meals lately. I looked up ‘Once a Month Cooking’ and found some recipes to try. I don’t want to do that cook-30-meals-in-one-day thing, but it’s nice to have a few backup dishes in the freezer. I recently made the best roast beef I’ve ever had, and it was just a matter of remembering to take it from the freezer a day or so ahead of time so it could thaw. One really easy thing to do, Elizabeth (are you a Betty or a Liz?), is to put a steak in a baggie, dump your favorite marinade on top, and put it in the freezer. The trick with all of this is remembering to take it out in time to thaw–I, for one, don’t like thawing meat in the microwave unless absolutely necessary.
Anyhoo, Google “OAMC” and you’ll be surprised at the recipes you find. You’ll also find out what doesn’t freeze–I don’t think, for instance, you can put mayo in the freezer.
Have fun!
JayMonster
May 11, 2007 at 12:25 pm
We didn’t take particularly well to the full scale methods. However, especially on Sundays (which I have more time to cook and such), it is not uncommon for me to say throw Some chicken breasts on the grill along with whatever I am cooking that night.
When I make things like Tomato Sauce, I make a lot and freeze them in separate smaller (enough for one family dinner) containers. Pasta is never more than 10 minutes away while you defrost the sauce. If I had a particularly good Sunday the previous week (or two), I may even have some meatballs ready in the freezer.
This makes dinner a bit more flexible than the rigidity that some of the longer term planning things provide.
Certain things like Chicken Cutlets though, I will often make large batches of, since they can be quickly thawed and used for lunch or dinner (and keep extremely well).
Career and Kids in Action
May 25, 2007 at 7:42 am
[…] contemplating freezer cooking, but, has a small freezer. Any […]
Allison
Nov 8, 2007 at 11:29 am
I love the idea of having a few stand by’s to fall back on, but I’m not a big fan of spending hours in the kitchen prepping freezer meals.
What I’ve found to work for me is to double my batches as I prepare them. One for now, one for later.
You certainly won’t stock your freezer overnight, but I say slow and steady wins the race for me in this department.
Christi
Jan 7, 2008 at 10:21 am
I have the 30 Day Gourmet cookbook and love it. I also have a number of other OAMC and freezer cooking cookbooks and love most of them just as well.
I love the concept and plan on doing a lot more freezer cooking the next couple of months. I received a bunch of the cookbooks 2 years ago for Christmas because I really wanted to do this and have spent the last few months really reading them and researching the internet for recipes and we are planning on doing a bunch of cooking the next few weekends and trying a bunch of the recipes.
Have an opinion? Leave a comment: