So after taking all the pictures and most importantly cooking all the food, I was going to immediately get on and post about my freezer cooking experience; but honestly, it wouldn't have been a positive post. It would have been me sitting here complaining to you, about how long I was in the kitchen, how I should plan each meal and what sequence to cook them in. Needless to say it wasn't my favorite moment of cooking but in the end it was soooooooo worth it!!!
Lately I have been researching Freezer Cooking more and more, for those of you who haven't heard of this "procrastinator's nightmare"; it is basically where you cook or prepare meals to go straight into the freezer for a later date. I had first heard about this idea when I was pregnant with my son, so many magazines and fellow military wives/moms told me to make meals ahead for those sleepless nights after the baby is born. That way all you have to do is reheat the meal there is no prep time. I liked the idea but my husband's schedule was so hectic the thought of even spending one full day in the kitchen, pregnant none-the-less, didn't sound appealing at all; and because of the hubby's hectic training cycle, my amazing mom was going to be around to help with dinners and any and everything we needed. So I shrugged off the idea of freezer cooking.
Flash-forward 19 months later and I wish I would of gotten into it back then because now I really have no time. :) Between toddlerhood, the hubby's training cycles and deployments, we play a lot of the "what's for dinner game". I will say however, that within the 9 months that I was pregnant, I learned to plan a couple days in advanced; and shortly after our son was born the planning extended to around two weeks sometime longer, sometime shorter depending on people coming over for dinner and whether or not we dined out.
So this past weekend was a long weekend for the hubby and the tot was at Grandma's, so we set out for the Commissary (Military Grocery Store) to do our mid month shopping. I hadn't planned to do any extreme freezer cooking but I figured I would just cook extra and freeze the left overs for some meals and then if I felt up to it, prep a few others for the upcoming chaotic week. Well I got a little overzealous and pushed myself to cooking around 15 meals for our family of three, with a few grab and go sides along with food to spare for freshly cooked meals. I spent $288 at the commissary and around $100 at Walmart for odd and ends, which flabbergasted my husband and myself (we usually spend around $400-600 a month on groceries that last well into the next pay period- Obviously we haven't gotten into the coupon-ing thing just yet).
Here are the meals that I got out of our food:
- 2- Baked Ziti
- 4- Personal Meatloaf
- 4- Personal Chicken Pot Pie
- 2- Chicken Cheese and Broccoli Sauce
- 2- Pot Roast meals
- 8- Homemade Chicken Nugget Meals (10 pcs.)
- Spaghetti Sauce
- 2lbs. of Taco Meat
- Lasagna (8x8)
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