Baking For the Freezer

 Saturday I spent the day bulk cooking with a friend. We made crock-pot freezer meals, which I have planned to use mostly for noon meals. That way I can just dump the bag into the crock-pot early in the morning, and we have a nice hot meal ready in the middle of the day...no matter how busy it's been!

This fantastic idea made me realize that it would be easy to solve the other problem spot in our day- breakfast. So, I decided to bake up a storm and fill my freezer! We also made a couple of non-breakfast items that will help out with menu planning.

Here's what we made:

Pumpkin Butterscotch Muffins

Dinner Rolls

French Breakfast Puffs

Whole Wheat Breakfast Bars

Apple Breakfast Bars

Granola

Pizza Dough

I've already gotten a lot of requests for recipes from posting about this on Facebook- I'll try to get the other recipes up very soon!

It was a great feeling to get so much accomplished. I'm also truly thankful for the world's greatest sous chef!

To store my baked goods, I wrapped them in a double layer of plastic wrap, and then a tight layer of aluminum foil. I also labeled them with the contents and date. 

There's really two ways I defrost them. If I'm not in a hurry, I'll pull out what I need the day before and just let it thaw out overnight. Then I can just reheat. But, if I need something right away, I do use the microwave. Surprisingly it tastes just as fresh as it did when first baked! 

                   

I'm sure I'll be doing much more of this in the future. I'm so thankful for these little tools to keep my home running smoothly!

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Crock-pot Freezer Cooking with a Friend

 My friend Christephi and I got together this Saturday to put together crock-pot freezer meals for our families. I hadn't heard of this concept until recently, and I was quite eager to give it a try! I've found myself getting busier and busier as the children are getting older, and as schooling takes up more and more of my time. I knew that the crock-pot was about to become my new best friend- but this idea makes it even more efficient!

The idea is rather simple. You assemble all of the ingredients for the recipe into a freezer bag. That's it. For the recipes Christephi had chosen there was no precooking involved. We simply chopped and diced all of the vegetables, and then placed all of the ingredients into a labeled freezer bag.

Here's what we made:

Healthy BBQ Chicken
Goulash
Chicken Curry
Teriyaki Chicken
Savory Chicken
Busy Day Stew
Sweet & Tangy Meatballs
Savory Vegetable Beef Soup
Cilantro Lime Chicken with black beans and corn

Shopping by the ingredient list for the recipes, the total cost was right at $200, or about $10 a meal. This is more than I'd typical spend for something like this, but now that I've seen how the recipes go together, I think I could do it again for much less.

Now that I've learned all about this idea, I'm excited to see what else I can do with it. This is something I'll definitely be doing more of in the future! 

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Bulk cooking is definitely more fun with a friend! It was such a blessing to be able to put away so many meals for our families. Be sure to check out my friend's blog where she will be sharing links to the recipes that we used!

Pax Christi,

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