As I mentioned before, I’m planning on doing a big freezer cooking week in July to help make the weeks following the baby’s arrival easier. Our small group wants to provide us with meals for the first 2 weeks (which, depending on the date of her birth, could be the entire time Craig is home), but I figure I’ll need lots of meals for down the road when I’m on my own with her. I’m really hoping I’ll have an ‘easy’ baby that doesn’t fuss too much and sleeps well through most of the night, but I’d like to be prepared in case I’m running on zero sleep and have no time for grocery shopping.
My plan for freezer week is to break the days down into manageable chunks with like items being done together. As well, certain items need to be flash frozen or frozen flat, so those items I’ll be doing earlier in the week when there is more room to work with. I’ll be doing the shopping on a sunday afternoon and completing the four days below on Monday-Thursday. I may add an extra day on the end if any of the days are overwhelming or if (being 8.5 months pregnant at that time) I need a day off. It’s probably good to not that I will likely still be working at this point, so except for the Wednesday (my appointment day) I’ll be working every day until 4:30pm. It should be an interesting week!
I’m attempting to make do with just our fridgetop freezer, but once I’m into breastfeeding full force and working on my stay at home mom skills, I’m hoping we can consider getting a chest freezer to make it easier to stock up on sale items. On that same note, if you’re living in Ontario and you see a really good deal on meats at the grocery store, let me know!
Day 1: Soups & Prep
- Cauliflower Soup
- Chicken & Rice Soup
- 6 Can Chicken Tortilla Soup
- Chili
- Prep work for coming days; chopping vegetables, precooking items, etc.
Day 2: Staples & Breakfasts
- Garlic Bread Seasoning
- Taco Seasoning Mix
- Shake & Bake mix
- Pizza Sauce
- Pizza/Breadstick dough
- Brown Bag Burritos
- Muffin Mix
- Hot Roll Mix
- Granola
- Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Buttermilk Pancakes
(Quite a few of the staples, particularly the mixes, are not freezer items, but are one’s I’m wanting to prep in advance).
Day 3: Casseroles
- PW’s Chicken Spaghetti
- Lasagna
- Tomato Mac ‘n’ Cheese
- Baked Penne with Sausage
- Shepherd’s Pie
- Taco Pie
Day 4: Meats
- Marinated beef & chicken
- Firecracker shrimp
- Coconut chicken fingers
- Southwest burgers
- Ground beef
- Cooked cubed chicken
I will include the links or instructions for the above recipes during the freezer cooking week, but I’m looking for suggestions on what else I can add to the list. I’m wondering if I should add some sides onto the list, although usually I just like a salad or roasted veggies as a side, so there’s not a lot of prep I can do for that.
Do you freezer cook? What are your favourite recipes?
2 comments:
I am going to do a bunch of freezer cooking before baby, too. Maybe I will just copy your list :)
Girl, would you believe that I have 5 tabs open about menu planning and freezer cooking? Tonight I was also beginning a list of items that I want to freeze and then it also struck me to make a list of crockpot meals to make as well. I have a cookbook that is a 5 ingredient or less crockpot book - and I think I'll be using that a lot too. Dump in the ingredients and let the machine do the work for me. My kind of cooking. :) Something else you may want to look into freezing are quick breads and muffins. When freezing muffins, I wrap each individually and place in a freezer bag - helps them stay fresh longer. Thanks for posting such a complete list of what all you are making. I love the idea of those mixes you are making! I want to put some together too!
And though I know this comment is ridiculously long - I wanted to tell you that I hope to email you back about the infant self weaning tomorrow. I actually cared for a girl who's mom did that with her. I'll share my experience with it! Really neat! Hope you're having a great night!
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