Freezer Meals

I finally did it. I spent a day putting together a dozen or so freezer meals! This was actually about 3 weeks ago, just before the month got REALLY busy. Steve thought I was crazy, that I didn't have time to mess with it. But between 2 birthdays, one party, an anniversary, 2 trips to Disneyland (gotta get in on that B-day deal!) and Super Saturday... I thought, I can't afford not to! He has since changed his mind. Especially on cooking day, when he came home to a smorgasbord of dinners cooling on the counter! (I've never seen a man so happy to be my official taster :)

I did my Sam's Club run several days before, mostly to buy meat. Then I worked on my "Game Plan". There's a ton of books to choose from, but "Once a Month Cooking" by Mary Beth Lagerborg was only $10, spiral bound, at Sam's. The book has several different meal plans to choose from, & is a great resource. Since I cook for picky eaters, I revised one of her 15-day plans. The main dishes I chose: 1 crock-pot stew, pasta sauce, chili, 2 easy soups & one chicken dish. These were coked, cooled, then frozen. Then there a few that were assemble only, then frozen & to be cooked later. Some of them I divided, making 2 dinners out of 1 recipe. Sounds like a lot, but it surprisingly wasn't that bad!

The hardest but most important part was planning out the recipes so that I was using things that I already had, that my family liked, & were fairly EASY to prepare. There's things you do to make this all possible. For example: do major shopping & cook the chicken the day before; chop everything first & all at once; set out & organize your ingredients; get extra sets of bowls, measuring cups, spoons, etc.; and, make sure you have plenty of things to keep the kids happy & busy that day!

O.K., sorry this turned out to be an essay!!! Bottom line: I highly recommend it! We are still pulling meals out of our freezer 3 weeks later, & they're still pretty tasty :)