I decided to see how well I could do my bulk cooking this time around by spreading it over the course of one week instead of 2 full days of cooking. The last round got me 7 weeks' worth of meals (dinner entrees)! We consider 4 servings to be a meal, so some recipes automatically made 2 meals' worth before they were doubled. I also was able to give some away to needy families and had a ready made church potluck dish. This time, I had a broader range to fill (some breakfast stuff for my husband, a birthday cake, some fall desserts for company coming, and general weeknight fare). I also was going to attempt this with my children running around... well, really using their naptime. How did it go? Hmmm... It's definitely easier to devote an entire, kid-free day to this sort of thing, but I managed to get a lot done in one week. I also did some meal starters instead of whole entrees.... This will get us to around Thanksgiving! Not bad for a week or two's worth of work. I will definitely be posting the recipes for most of these things. Some of them are our family's favorite, favorite, favorite things to eat.
Key:
SS=Space Saver (fits in a ziploc bag instead of a casserole shape)
SSS=Super Space Saver (fits in a quart-sized ziploc bag!)
MS=Meal Starter (as opposed to finished entree; needs veggies and/or pasta/rice/etc.)
TS=Time Saver on Bulk Cooking Day (pretty much just dump ingredients into ziploc bag)
*Recipes I'm going to make this coming week--easy ones that don't have to be cooked before being frozen...
Chicken Dishes:
Red-Roasted Whole Chicken (prepped the chicken--we'll see how this goes!) TS
Herb-Roasted Whole Chicken (prepped the chicken)
Herb-Roasted Chicken Pieces (2 recipes) SS
Italian dressing marinated chicken (self-explanatory) SSS, TS
Chicken for Stir-Fry (in its marinade) MS, SSS, TS
Cherry Chipotle Chicken (3 recipes) SSS, TS
Pork Dishes:
Lemon Pepper Pork Roast (basically prepped it for cooking later) SS, TS
Prepped Pork Chops (packs of 3, trimmed, etc.) SSS, TS
Pork for Broccoli with Meat and Noodles (2 recipes) MS, SSS, TS
Beef/Combo Dishes:
Apple Meatloaf (2 recipes) SS
Easy Bierrocks (1/2 recipe) SS
Soups/Stews/Chilis:
Tomato Basil Soup (5 recipes) SSS
White Chicken Chili (2 recipes) SS
Black Bean Chili (2 recipes) SS
Butternut Squash Soup (3 recipes) SS* (our family's all-time favorite soup!!!)
Breakfast Treats:
Egg McMuffins (16) SS
Sausage Scones (16) SS
Breakfast Burritos (12) SS*
Desserts:
Baby Food Cake (2 recipes=4 loaf cakes) SS
Pumpkin Cake (1 recipe=2 loaf cakes) SS
Ingredients now on hand/in freezer/pantry (this means the ingredients can keep for a few weeks or longer--these don't need to be made this next week):
Red Beans and Rice
Famous Chili
Chicken Korma (sauce in pantry)
Pad Thai (sauce and noodles in pantry)
Pork Dumplings (Chinese dish)
Spanokopita* (a Greek spinach pie with phyllo dough)
Chipotle Cheddar Chicken Cakes*
Salmon Cakes*
Apple Dumplings* (actually, I'm making these for company this weekend and will just double the recipe to freeze half)
Tuna Sandwiches (for when we run out of Lean Cuisines!)
Chicken Tucson*
Black Bean and Rice Salad (yes, all the ingredients can be frozen!!)
3 comments:
I'm so inspired!
Way to go! Do you have a deep freezer? I randomly think about getting one...but haven't fully convinced myself!
Yes, I do have a deep freezer--it was worth every penny! It stocked a lot of baby food for us last year when I was into that mode. Then, it held all the milk we could get on sale (yes, milk freezes) since I was making yogurt and such. Now, we go through too much milk for me to freeze much, so I've moved on to dinners, breakfasts, and bread. And, of course, the bonus buys I get on bread, veggies, meat, etc. all go into my big baby.
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