Last week I had the JOY of taking a week off from my crazy job and actually got to plan some things that I WANTED to do instead of HAVE to do. It was nice. And time flew. But before it was over I got to spend a whole day cooking! I was in heaven! I haven't planned a day of freezer cooking since the beginning of last year and I desperately needed to due to being tired when getting home from work most nights. And nothing better than finding and trying recipes that have so far turned out to be awesome and also the ones that I chose were great to cook in the same day due to ingredients, which made the day flow very well.
Here are the links to the recipes that I made and the number of meals that each turned out for my family of 2:
http://www.skinnytaste.com/2010/05/turkey-burgers-with-zucchini.html (2 dinners with dh eating 2 burgers each night, and me having 1- well I ate one the first night and took my other one for lunch the next day. Recipe says it makes ~5 burgers and I got 6. Yay!)
http://www.skinnytaste.com/2010/02/spinach-lasagna-rolls.html (1 dinner for 4 adults, plus 2 extra since I got 10 out of the recipe. Would have been 2 dinners + a lunch if it was just us.)
http://www.amandathevirtuouswife.com/2012/02/orange-chicken-freezer-meal.html (I had a big thing of chicken so I doubled the recipe equaling 2 full dinners and 2 extra packets of just sauce.)
http://www.amandathevirtuouswife.com/2012/05/cajun-red-beans-and-rice-tutorial.html (~3+ dinners w/leftovers.)
http://www.amandathevirtuouswife.com/2012/02/stuffed-bell-peppers-freezer-meal.html (2 dinners, 2 lunches...Also, I subsituted turkey burger - bought large container of burger and used other half for turkey patties above.)
http://www.amandathevirtuouswife.com/2012/10/chicken-quesadillas-tutorial-freezer.html (1 dinner w/dh having 4, me 2, and then 1 for a couple of lunches....Also, I subsituted shredded pork which was still awesome.)
And I was going to make up "Beef Roast Packets" (put a roast with cut up veggies so all I have to do is put the "packet" in the crock-pot and turn it on!), but I ran out of time.
So I ended up getting over 12 dinners and several lunches.
Here is what I did, from the best of my memory:
1. Night before, soaked beans for the Cajun Red Beans crock-pot meal so I could get it on first thing in the morning. After I poured everything in the pot and cut up the sausage. Done! That was our dinner at the end of my day of cooking :-)
2. Get noodles for Spinach Lasagna Rolls boiling. (When done boiling I laid them out on paper towels to dry.)
3. Get pork for the quesadillas in the oven right after step 2.
4. Get red onion diced up for recipes. (I used red onion wherever onion was called for and just guessed on amounts since I cut up a very large one.) And to save time with mincing garlic, I just used jarred garlic from the store!
5. Assemble Spinach Lasagna Rolls, wrap and freeze. Done!
6. Get sauce made up for the Orange Chicken. (One can of orange concentrate makes 4 packets of sauce.)
7. Shred pork and make up mixture for quesadillas, put in fridge until later.
8. Finish up Orange Chicken by cutting chicken into pieces with scissors, assemble bags. Done!
9. Assemble and put quesadillas in oven. Get peppers prepared so I could cook meat and mixture for stuffed peppers (used same pan as quesadilla mixture).
10. Quesadillas were done and cooling while I cooked, assembled, and wrapped the Stuffed Bell Peppers. Done!
11. Wrapped quesadillas. Done!
12. I ended up making the Turkey Burgers w/Zucchini the next morning and finished cleaning up the kitchen. It wasn't too messy though because I was able to reuse pans and cookie sheets.
Let me know if you have any freezer cooking recipes and/or tips! Or questions!
