Reflecting from my last post :: I’ll focus more on the domestic side, and pause the serenity for a bit? Hmm…
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Each August there’s always time spent preparing for the season ahead.
Laid-back summer days are being left behind and our family’s fullest time of year is almost upon us. From September to mid-November we could find ourselves scurrying, super-stressed, and feeling extremely overwhelmed (and sometimes that happens!), but overall…
…we’ve learned to make a plan to prepare. For me, reducing the need to make nightly meals becomes important once again. I don’t know why, but I really enjoy daily summertime cooking, especially if I keep the meals simple. Simple is good.
Simple during the fall months though means that meals need to be stacked up in the freezer. With the addition of more structure in our school days, lessons & classes for the kiddos, and a husband who travels often during these months — well, you get the picture!
Mealtime needs to be a little bit easier for Mama to handle.
Usually I’ve spent whole days cooking away meals for a month or two. That worked, but it really required so much prep, abundant energy for long sessions in the kitchen, and huge blocks of time. I’m short on all three these days!
I needed a new plan.
Inspired by Crystal’s freezer cooking in an hour sessions, I’ve decided to adopt this idea with some adjustments. I’m calling it ‘Freezer Cooking Express’ simply because I like to name things!
Each week or two, I’ll whip up foods, not necessarily whole meals, that will aid in future prep. Breakfast and dinner are the two needing attention, lunch is usually leftovers or a sandwich. I’ll build around what’s on sale or what I have on hand and try to accomplish as much as possible in an hour or two.
Freezer cooking — fast style!
So last week I had an abundance of eggs, english muffins were on serious sale as well as ground turkey, and we had lots of oatmeal on hand. The plan was made…
I limited myself to an hour and made sure I had all ingredients on hand. Good plan.
I did not wait until the toddler was napping. Bad plan. Really bad plan. Lesson learned. Ahem.
All in all, it was successful still! Here’s what made it to the freezer:
2 meals worth of cooked & seasoned taco meat (not pictured)
2 pans of freezer-friendly baked oatmeal
a dozen regular sized blueberry muffins
6 jumbo blueberry muffins
12 breakfast sandwiches (for my husband & daughter, similar to McDonald’s Egg McMuffin w/o the bacon)
The breakfast sandwiches did require flash freezing for an hour before wrapping them up. While I did clean-up some as I went along, there was also time at the end to restore the kitchen to order. The food was made within the hour.
edited to add this tip: The oatmeal I froze in foil containers, but once rock solid, I popped them out and put two ‘blocks’ of oatmeal into one gallon sized ziplock bag. To thaw & cook, I’ll just pop the frozen block back into the foil container!
I love this plan! This week I’m working on the rest of that ground turkey and some chicken. And the toddler-in-the-house will most definitely be napping.
Whatever’s on your menu…happy cooking!
