Freezer Cooking

Yes..I said it…Freezer Cooking. Don’t ask how I stumbled upon the concept but somewhere in all of my recipe researching I found the Freezer Cooking, OAMC, Frozen Asset concept. The concept is cooking up a whole bunch of meals and freezing them to use throughout the month. Why it appealed to me you ask? I love a challenge, it is said to save money, it saves time, and can even be done in groups. So at first I thought I had gone crazy but with some encouraging from friends and the boy I decided it was worth my effort to cook up  a couple of meals one Saturday to freeze in preparation for the upcoming week. So I searched sale papers, read lots of recipes and suggestions, dug thru my freezer and explored my cabinets in search for good meals to make in large quanities that would freeze well. I settled on King Ranch Chicken Casserole, Chicken and Spinach Enchilidas, and foil packs with chicken, salsa, corn and black beans. All Mexican and all chicken (chicken breast was the cheapest protein in the ads this week). So I picked up some square foil pans, the few ingredients I didn’t have and prepared myself to take it on. Saturday after hanging out in Granbury and before the Halloween party I whipped out enough dinners for 6 nights! One recipe of enchilidas and one of the casserole gets divided in to two seperate pans (which we can eat on two nights) and I made 4 foil packs. The foil packs were the easiest and a definite hit. We had the King Ranch Chicken on Monday and it worked wonderfully. I thawed it during the day, had Steve put it in the oven for 30 minutes, and dinner was ready when I got home. Microwave some rice, cut up an avocado and you’re ready to eat! First attepmt at my version of Freezer Cooking was a huge success. By cooking with the same meat and like ingredients I used fewer dishes, bought fewer products, and spent less time in prep work and clean up than I would have if I would have cooked the seperately. This weekend I’m taking on Italian dishes with beef. I’ve also told quite a few of the girls about it and they have all been really excited. A co-op cooking party might be in the works for after the holidays. More details of that to come