Pasta with Sausage and Spinach

I love discovering kid-friendly, husband-pleasing workhorse recipes like this one! I've made this a LOT this fall and have doubled and tripled it on a couple of occasions. It works well straight from the pot (without being baked), but it also travels well in a 13x9-inch pan and reheats in the oven like a casserole. One of my go to recipes now when I bring food to people (as in the picture above), this is now in our permanent repertoire. It reminds me of the Mock Ravioli casserole I grew up eating. I've tweaked it just slightly from the original recipe over at Budget Bytes. She also has some terrific pictures of her method if you need the step-by-step type of directions (and you can print her recipe easily). So hop on over there and check it out. I'm posting it here partly so I can have it more readily available (although I nearly have it memorized). Oh--it also freezes well!

Pasta with Sausage and Spinach
~Budget Bytes

• 1 (12-16-oz.) box chunky cut pasta (rotini, penne, macaroni, whole wheat, veggie, ...)
• 12-oz. Italian sausage, squeezed out of casings and crumbed 
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 (28-oz.) can diced tomatoes (or two 14.5-oz cans), undrained
• 1 (6-oz.) can tomato paste
• 1 t. basil
• 3/4 t. salt
• pepper to taste
• 1/2 T. brown sugar
• 8-oz. frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
• 2-oz. crumbled feta cheese

1. Cook pasta according to package directions and drain.
2. Brown sausage with garlic and onions in a large skillet (use a big soup pot if you're doubling or tripling). Drain and return meat mixture to skillet.
3. Add tomato products and seasonings, stirring to incorporate. Bring to a slight simmer.
4. Add in drained noodles and spinach. Stir well.
5. Add in feta cheese and stir.
6. Pasta dish may be eaten as is or spooned into a baking pan for reheating in the over later.

~Serves 6-8

Chicken Bog

My husband and I have talked about Chicken Bog ever since we first ate it around 8 years ago. Why did we never search for it in the grand cyber space of recipes?? Mmmm.... This recipe is cheap, simple, delicious, and freezes well. It's soupy, salty, and satisfying. What more can you want in a recipe? Oh--it's kid-friendly and a crowd pleaser.

~Recipe adapted slightly from Paula Deen

• 1 whole chicken, 3-5 pounds, rinsed and cut into several pieces
• 1 pound smoked sausage, sliced into 1/2-inch pieces
• 3 bay leaves
• 2 t. Lawry's seasoned salt
• 2 t. House seasoning (see below)
• 1 t. black pepper
• 1 t. crushed red pepper
• 1/4-1/2 c. butter
• 8 c. water
• 3 c. white rice

1. Combine chicken, sausage, and seasonings in large stockpot. Pour water over. Bring to a boil, cover, and boil gently for 40 minutes.
2. Remove chicken pieces and let cool enough to handle. 
3. Add rice to stock mixture. Bring to boil and boil gently 10 minutes. Cover and simmer for 10 more minutes.
4. Meanwhile, strip chicken meat from bones. Discard bones and skin. 
5. When rice is done, add chicken meat back to pot and stir. 

~Serves 8-10

House Seasoning: (I use this on all kinds of things--roasted sweet potatoes, ordinary rice, eggs, whatever...)
1 cup salt
1/4 cup black pepper
1/4 cup garlic powder
~optional: add some onion powder--few teaspoons or so
Mix ingredients together and store in an airtight container for up to 6 months.

Make Ahead Twice-Baked Potatoes

I first made these several years ago--they are wonderful to have on hand in the freezer for a simple side dish. You can double or triple the recipe if you want. Feel free to customize these. I like that the recipe is more diet-friendly than most twice-baked potatoes yet still tastes great. (I sometimes freeze them without the cheese since I usually have some grated cheese I on hand that I can sprinkle on last minute--hence the cheese-less potatoes in the picture!)

~from food.com

• 5 pounds baking potatoes
• 1/2 c. butter, melted
• 1 c. skim milk (or low fat), approximate
• 3 ounces fat free or low fat cream cheese
• 2 t. salt
• 1 t. pepper
• 4 ounces shredded cheddar cheese (1 cup)

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Wash potatoes and pat dry.
2. Place potatoes, not touching, on a large baking sheet. You may need 2 sheets.
3. Spray potatoes generously with non-stick cooking spray and sprinkle outsides with a little salt if desired (I don't always do this). I also prick them a few times with a fork.
4. Bake 1 to 1-1/2 hours or until potatoes "give" when gently squeezed, indicating they are done.
5. In large mixing bowl, add butter, cream cheese, salt and pepper and mix well.
6. With a serrated knife, cut baked potatoes in half lengthwise, being careful to leave skins unbroken.
7. With large spoon, scoop out the inside of potatoes, leaving a thin layer of potato attached to the inside of the skin.Place potato skin shells, skin side down, on the baking sheet used to bake the potatoes.
8. Put scooped out potato in mixing bowl as you remove it and mix to combine with butter mixture, adding skim milk as needed to make potatoes the consistency of slightly stiff mashed potatoes. You may need a little more or less milk to get the final desired consistency.
9. Using the palm of your hand to support the potato shell while filling, spoon and press potato mixture into each half potato shell. Return filled shell to the baking sheet. Sprinkle tops with shredded cheese and pat cheese to make it adhere to the potatoes.
10. TO SERVE IMMEDIATELY: Return baking pan of potatoes to oven and bake about 15-25 minutes until potatoes are hot and cheese is melted.
11. TO FREEZE FOR LATER USE: Cover potatoes with plastic wrap and place baking sheet in freezer, leaving several hours until potatoes are completely frozen.
12. Remove potatoes from freezer and wrap each potato in a resealable plastic sandwich bag.
13. Place wrapped potatoes into one or more gallon resealable freezer bags. Store in freezer for up to 3 months.
15. TO COOK FROZEN POTATOES: Preheat oven to 350°F.
16. Place potatoes on baking sheet and loosely cover with aluminum foil. Bake about 45 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 15 minutes or more until potatoes are hot. Do not over bake. This method helps keep the potato skins firm and crisp.
17. If time is short, place potatoes in microwave and cook on high about 10 minutes. Remove and then place in 350°F oven to finish cooking.
18. IN A BIG HURRY: These potatoes can be completely heated from frozen state in the microwave, heating them just until they are hot. Potato skins will be softer than if cooked in the oven.
19. OR, they can be defrosted in the microwave and reheated, uncovered, in a 350°F oven for 15-20 minutes or until hot.


 

Penne with Chicken and Broccoli

My kids love "dry" pasta dishes; ones with meat, broccoli, and noodles are always a winner. This one is very mild; I added extra adobo seasoning to it after it was done. This is a light meal--serve with raw veggies and fruit for a nice, healthy meal!

~From Better Homes and Gardens Eat Well and Lose Weight

• 8 ounces dried whole wheat or multigrain penne pasta (about 2 1/2 cups)
• 3 c. broccoli florets
• 1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
• 1 t. adobo seasoning*
• 2 T. olive oil
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/4 c. light mayonnaise or salad dressing
• 1/8 t. black pepper
• 2 T. shaved Parmesan

1. Cook pasta according to package directions, adding broccoli for last 5 minutes. Drain well. Return to hot pot.
2. In a medium bowl, combine chicken and adobo seasoning; toss to coat. In a large skillet heat oil over medium-high heat. Add garlic; cook and stir for 30 seconds. Add chicken; cook for 3 to 4 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink, stirring occasionally.
3. Add chicken to drained pasta and broccoli in large pot. Stir in mayo and pepper. Cook over low heat until heated through, stirring occasionally. 
4. To serve, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

~Serves 4-6

*you can make your own adobo seasoning easily.

To freeze: cut chicken and season and place in small ziploc bag; attach to bag of frozen broccoli and bag of pasta--either raw or cooked. Thaw overnight and proceed with recipe!

Quick Breads for a Month

Quick breads are so easy to crank out, loaf after loaf. Because they require no rising time (or kneading), they are easier than yeast breads to make in bulk. If you're looking for a way to get a jump on "from scratch" cooking, this is a great way to start.

Quick breads vary from Whole Wheat Bread (texture like cornbread, not yeast bread), cornbread, and banana breads to biscuits, scones, and muffins. All of these can be made ahead of time and frozen; thaw overnight and toast briefly to warm up. 

Making quick breads in bulk is also a great way to use up seldom-used ingredients. Buttermilk, wheat or oat bran, specialty flours, and various dried fruits or nuts come to mind. They're also a great way to use up fresh produce that you have an overabundance of (zucchini, apples, carrots, and bananas are the most common here). 

Finally, if you've never done much baking, quick breads are much easier to start with than yeasted breads. They're straightforward, widely varied, and can be used for any meal of the day. I make up a batch of muffins for lunch one day and we eat the leftovers for breakfast the next, for instance. 

For my family, I made up 4 batches of cornbread, 4 loaves of Quick Honey Whole Wheat Bread, and a couple batches of biscuits one Satuday afternoon. This took me about 3 hours (but I did other things in the middle of that time, like writing this post!). I now have a wheat-based bread, a "pan" of cornbread, and a batch of biscuits for each week for the next 4 weeks. Pretty nice, eh? We'll eat the breads with soup or beans and rice at night, eat the leftovers toasted the next morning, and eat the biscuits on Sunday mornings. Mmmmm.... Stay tuned this week for some of the recipes (although my favorite biscuit recipe is here; check the bread index for more ideas).

Happy Cooking!

Bulk Cooking Line Up #3

My friend Bridgette and I did another round of bulk cooking on the spur of the moment (well, we planned it the day before, went shopping the morning of, and didn't have child care!!!). We are speaking at her MOPS Group later this week about bulk cooking for the freezer, so we did a run through. We'll be posting all of these recipes (unless they're already on here). Here's our line up (we ended up canceling a couple of things--this is what we ended up with):

Chicken Tucson (1 recipe per person/family)
Chicken Pot Pie (2 recipes per)
Cheeseburger Meatloaf (2 recipes per)
Best Scones Ever (1 recipe per)
Apple Dumplings (1 recipe per)
Stuffed Braided Bread (1 recipe per)
Fish in Parchment (1 recipe per)
Spaghetti Sauce (lots!)
Creamy Peanut Chicken (1-2 recipes per)
Slow Cooker Chicken Fajitas (1 recipe per)
Maple Honey Mustard Pork Chops (1 recipe per)
Tater Tot Casserole (1-2 recipes per)

We'd planned on Twice-Baked Potatoes and Herb-Roasted Chicken and left them off the list partly for time, partly because we forgot some ingredients! Also, we took some shortcuts with the above list that are worth noting: we made sauce only for Creamy Peanut Chicken since that's the easiest to store in the freezer and the rest is simple to prepare on the day you eat it. We browned the beef and onions and grated the cheese for the Tater Tot Casserole and will assemble the casserole the day we eat it.

We learned: to make this truly efficient/effective, you really should have child care!!! Even if there are two of you to handle the kiddos, child care would have helped us out significantly! Also, if you are doing this with two people, it would be worth it to make up task lists the day before or at the beginning of the cooking day. We spent lots of time during our cooking day trying to figure out what we should be doing next and who should be doing what. It went pretty smoothly and we had a great time of fellowship, but we wasted some valuable time not knowing some of those little details in advance. And finally, if you have a lot of recipes that use chopped cooked chicken, do that the day before! That was the biggest time waster in our opinion. We took some funny pictures of our kids running around together and of the chaos in the kitchen--someday, maybe I'll post them!

Happy Cooking!

More Freezer Meal Tips and Plans!

This thread is part of a forum at Recipezaar on Once-a-Month-Cooking (OAMC). People have posted their meal plans, strategies, recipes, etc. Enjoy! (Please note that I haven't tried any of these recipes--but there is much helpful information and lots of freezer-friendly recipes you might consider trying.)

There is also a fantabulous Recipezaar article on OAMC in general, including lots of links to freezer-friendly recipes for all sorts of things.

Bulk Cooking Line Up #2

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!!)

Cooking Day Lineup: Meals for my Freezer, round 1

Part of the Meals for a Month series.

So, on my first big batch cooking day, what did I cook? I thought some of you might be interested to see my line-up. I'll post recipes when I can of the more interesting specimens. (This is from memory--I feel like I'm leaving something out.)

Ground Beef (since I hit a big sale; we don't usually eat much red meat)

• 3 Beef and Potato Pies (not shepherd's pie--this one is a little different)
• 2 Mexican Pizzas
• 2 Ginormous Meatloaves
• 2 recipes Cincinnati Chili

Chicken Dishes

• 2 Chicken Tucsons (Mexican "lasagna" sort of)
• 2 White and Green Lasagnas (split up into smaller pans)
• 3 Chicken on Cornbread recipes (similar to chicken pot pie, but on cornbread)
  
• 3 Creamy Peanut Chicken recipes
  
• 2 Fragrant Sticky Chicken recipes (marinade)
• 3 Citrus Glazed Chicken recipes (marinade)
• 1 Sticky Roast Chicken (marinade)

Pork Chops (3 pairs of pork chops in honey/mustard sauce)
Fish (3 recipes Thai Fish on Rice)

Meatless Dishes

• Many Bean Chili (2 recipes split up into 4 meals' worth)
• Black Bean Lasagna (2 recipes split up into 4 meals' worth)

I'll post my potential line-up for the next go 'round as I get closer. I know I'll be doing Mediterranean Salmon Cakes, Chipotle Cheddar Chicken Cakes, and Skinny Chimichangas (to be posted soon)--all great recipes for those of you who don't have a whole day to devote to freezer cooking and would like to just double or triple recipes here and there. I'll post the complete list at some point--I'm trying to think of things that will be in season in a couple of months...which reminds me... our favorite soup freezes wonderfully. You'll have to wait and see what that's like! In the meantime, I'm going to make up a big batch of the incredibly easy Tomato Basil Soup to use up some of my basil. Another item in season this fall will be apples and I've been told my mother-in-law's AMAZING apple dumplings freeze well. Mmmmmm.....

Happy Cooking!

Enjoyable and Hospitable: benefits of cooking for your freezer

Part of the "Meals for a Month" series.

We really enjoy practicing hospitality at our house, but with three small children, that enjoyment sometimes is eclipsed by stress. When I have a freezer full of meals, hospitality is so much easier and more fun! We have friends coming in town twice this month to stay with us. I made sure I had a couple of full-sized lasagnas, a big meatloaf, and lots of marinated chicken to grill as part of my cooking day line-up. Entertaining will be easy, kid-friendly (one couple has twin 5-year-old girls), and I won't be spending the whole time in the kitchen.

Having my freezer full also enables me to take a meal to someone who's sick or just had a baby without adding a huge ordeal to my day. Again, with three small children, it's often hard for me to whip something up at the spur of the moment (and NO trip to the store is quick with them).

I really enjoy cooking. When I got to spend a whole day (or two) on just cooking, it was so much fun! I really had a good time. It was kind of a rush getting to fix so many great-looking meals without worrying about an immediate deadline (that night for instance) or dealing with sibling squabbles while trying to throw something together.

*Since writing this originally, we have hosted the couple with the twin girls. I made one meal while they were here and used a great meatloaf from the freezer for the other--it was a huge success and I didn't have to spend much time cooking!

Money Saver: a benefit of cooking for your freezer

Part of the "Meals for a Month" series.

Cooking a big batch of meals for your freezer can save you money in several ways. It usually requires a big initial expenditure on the cooking day itself, but you won't have to buy as much food the rest of the month. How does it save you money?

1. Buying in bulk quantities: If you are tripling a recipe or simply cooking several recipes that use the same types of ingredients, then you can buy a giant jar of spaghetti sauce, a 10 pound tube of ground beef, or a huge bag of onions at your local warehouse club. This is especially effective with products that might spoil normally in that quantity (like cottage cheese).

2. Weird/exotic ingredients: There are several recipes we like which might use 1/2 cup of coconut milk or 6 sheets phyllo dough...the remainder of those ingredients frequently dies a slow death in the back of my fridge. Tripling a recipe that uses the coconut milk enables me to use up the entire can at once. I can pick several recipes which use phyllo dough and make them all the same day to freeze.

3. Taking advantage of sales: This is especially true of meat which might go on a serious sale. Sometimes dairy products are on a big sale; make up lots of baked pasta dishes for your freezer that week if you have time.

4. Far away stores: There are lots of stores which might have a slightly cheaper price on certain things but which I don't frequent because they're not as close as my normal grocery store (or I just don't enjoy shopping there as much). The best example for me in this category is Wal-Mart (hate going there!). But, if I know I'm planning a big batch cooking day and only have to go there 1 time in order to buy ingredients for 30 different meals, it's both more worth it to drive a bit further and I can grin and bear it one time instead of many. I can take advantage of their cheaper prices on some things, buy the large quantity I might need, and then content myself with Kroger on the off weeks (frankly, I can frequently do as well at Kroger when the items I need are on sale). But I digress. We'll save my irritation with Wal-Mart for another time!

5. Eating at home v. eating out: Obviously, you will save money by eating at home more often than eating out at restaurants--even the fast food variety. Having your freezer stocked makes it that much easier to eat in. You'll be less tempted to call for pizza or Chinese takeout or head to the nearest burger joint at the end of a long day.

Happy Cooking!

Time Saver: a benefit of cooking for your freezer

Part of the "Meals for a Month" series.

We love efficiency here in America. Henry Ford would be so proud of this assembly-line method of cooking!

That's a large part of what cooking a lot of meals in one day is all about. You prep all the meals assembly-line style. This saves you time in the chopping (get out that big food processor and let it go to work), the steps in a recipe (brown a bunch of ground beef and onions at once, then divide it up for different recipes), and the clean-up (cleaning the pan you cooked a giant box of pasta in and the colander it all drained in one time instead of each night for several different occasions).

Another time-saving benefit that most people forget about is this: if you do a huge grocery run for your ingredients for the big cooking day, then your grocery trips for the remainder of the month will be greatly reduced or shortened. Add to that one big shopping trip the non-dinner related items you'll need (peanut butter and jelly, deodorant, whatever), and you will be able to zip in once a week for a few items of produce, some bread, and a gallon of milk. Easy! In and out! You'll use a good bit of that grocery budget up front, but your weekly expenditures should be greatly reduced.

Happy Cooking!

Less Stress: a benefit of cooking for your freezer

Part of the "Meals for a Month" series.

Anyone with young children knows that dinner time is usually the most stressful time of the day. The mom or dad is frantically trying to get something on the table which the kids will eat, and the children are whining because they are hungry. Or, perhaps both adults work. With or without children, that scenario is stressful. When both arrive home tired from a long day's work, often the last thing they would like to be doing is cooking up a nice, healthy meal from scratch.

Enter cooking one day a month and stocking your freezer: the rest of the month, you can simply pull out something the night before and it's ready to go at dinner time the next night. Steam some broccoli, throw in some sweet potatoes to bake while the entree reheats, and dinner is ready with minimal thought or effort! I wish I'd tried this more when I was working--it would have been worth taking out a Saturday once a month or so to cook. If you're cooking for an entire family, you will obviously have to prepare more meals than someone cooking for one or two people. However, as I'll point out in a later post, you can double or triple meals easily enough, simplifying your cooking day.

Another stress reducer is fewer/shorter trips to the grocery store. Especially if you have to lug small children along or do your grocery shopping on the way home from work (or both!), fewer and shorter trips to the grocery will only be a blessing. Once your entrees are pretty much taken care of, you can simply run in, grab the dairy products for the week, pick up the produce on sale--or whatever you're in the mood for, grab some bread, and hit the express lane! This is also an easy list for hubby to pick up on his way home from work if you're home with the aforementioned small children and want to avoid the grocery at all costs.

Happy Cooking!

Tricks of the Trade: tips for cooking for your freezer

Part of the "Meals for a Month" series.

I'll keep discussing the many benefits of cooking a big batch of meals for your freezer, but for those of you already motivated enough to consider it, here are some tricks of the trade, so to speak:

1. Assortment of methods: Pick recipes which include a variety of preparation techniques. You don't want to have to cook 10 casseroles or lasagnas on the same day. Instead, pick a couple of casseroles, some marinated meat recipes (for which you simply need to mix up a marinade), some stove top recipes, and a soup or two. There are also crock pot recipes you might consider--you will need to assemble ingredients, but not have to do much else.

2. Assortment of ingredients: This is especially important if you are really planning to eat everything up within one month. No one wants meat loaf 8 times in one month--or even chicken every single night. We eat chicken mostly, but I threw in some beef and pork--even a fish dish! We also eat lots of vegetarian meals, so I froze two vegetarian recipes. This will provide variety.

3. Multi-task those recipes: Here's an example. We like chili, so I made up two batches of chili (one meatless, the other beef and bean). I have a great recipe for Chili-Dog Pie which calls for hot dogs and 2 cans of chili as the base (cornbread on top). I packaged some of my homemade chili into appropriate sizes for the base of this casserole and the rest in an amount that we might eat as regular chili. If you need lots of chicken stock and also need to cook lots of chicken, consider boiling the chicken and using the resulting chicken stock.

4. Space savers: What if you don't have a nice, big, stand alone freezer? There are some ways around this. If the whole dish freezes, then a portion of that same recipe should freeze. So, make the most labor intensive portion and freeze in a ziploc bag. Ideas: the fillings for lasagna, manicotti, stuffed shells, and so forth. Just cook the pasta on the day you want to serve the meal, add the thawed filling, and bake! Same thing holds for Mexican dishes: freeze the fillings for chimichangas, burritos, enchiladas, etc. On the actual day, the hard part is done and you simply assemble. You can also double or triple meals you cook on a semi-regular basis and keep a steadily rotating supply in your freezer on hand for those busy days when you can't cook.

5. Time savers: Meals you don't have to actually cook on the big "cooking day" will of course save you time that day. This includes mixing up marinades, assembling recipes you will cook later (freezing separate bags of sauces, raw meat, veggies, etc. that will all combine into one meal later), and recipes like chili or soup that don't involve many separate steps (the "dump and cook" variety).

6. Wrapping/Labels: I like to line my baking pans with foil and then pop the frozen casserole out and put the whole thing in a ziploc bag or rewrap with another layer of foil. I prefer ziploc bags for nearly everything else. Make sure you use freezer quality wrapping; use 2 layers of wrapping for best freezer burn protection. Label everything! I made up little labels with thawing/cooking directions on them and made another double set for my kitchen (computer--printed them out). Then, I can see at a glance what will be baked to reheat, what will be simmered, etc. before I head to the freezer to open that crucial door (and let all the cold air out!). I make my decision with the door closed, then open the door and quickly grab the meal of choice. One thing I learned from my sister is to package up smaller amounts in quart-sized ziploc bags (or even gallon sized if quart isn't big enough). Then, put ALL the ingredients for the meal (the extra cheese for instance) into another gallon ziploc bag. All the parts of the recipe are in one place and the larger bag acts as that crucial second layer of freezer burn protection (it's also clear so you can see what you're grabbing).

7. Don't overanalyze this: Just pick some recipes and commit. This doesn't have to be the world's most amazingly coordinated month of meals. Pick some things that interest you and don't sweat the details. The point here is not necessarily to cook the most healthy or the most economical, but to feed your family a variety of reasonably healthy and cost-effective (and tasty) meals with reduced stress and a more pleasant chef at the table :). You'll no doubt learn as you go and become better and better at big batch cooking.

8. How to save money: You can plan for a cooking day perhaps a month away, plan your recipes, and gather your shopping lists. Then, you have a month in which to watch for sales on your chosesn ingredients. You can also shop stores like warehouse clubs, but not everything is cheaper just because it's in a giant container. Add up the amounts you need (all the ounces of salsa for instance) and figure price per ounce. Is that giant 67-ounce bottle of Pace Picante really cheaper than the store brand at your local grocery store? Warehouse clubs typically have very reasonable prices on meat and cheese, especially if you're wanting to get the show on the road and don't have time to wait around for a good sale to hit your local grocery store. Know what's typically on sale during the time of year you plan to cook. My next attempt will be sometime in late summer/early fall. Apples will definitely feature into the day's list (did you know apple dumplings freeze?). If you're going to be cooking closer to Thanksgiving, plan some turkey related meals because turkey will be on sale. You should also consider the sizes typically available for your ingredients: would it be most cost effective to double or triple a recipe? If a recipe calls for 1/2 a bag of chocolate chips, then doubling it would be more effective than tripling.

9. Where do I put the hot pans? This was the quandary I found myself in after I'd baked a huge amount of chicken breasts. Every square inch of my counter top was devoted to other meal prep tasks. Thankfully, my dining room table was cleared off (wonder of wonders), so I was able to trivets out and put the pans on those. Next time, I'll make sure my tables are cleared before I start in case I run into that problem again!

10. Keep a running survey: When you pull out the meal of the day, ask spouse and/or kids what they think. Do they like it? Any requests on their part for the next round?

Happy Cooking!

Organizing the Big Day: Meals for a Month

Part of the "Meals for a Month" series. Sorry about all the weird font sizes!

I'll continue enumerating the many benefits of cooking a big batch of entrees for your freezer at one time, but if you're itching to get started, you might be interested to see these organizing tips.

1. Gather the recipes (sounds obvious, doesn't it?): This is two-fold. First, you want to make sure you're not going to stock the freezer with recipes that don't freeze well. Make sure the recipes are meals you yourself have frozen successfully or are advertised as such in the cookbook. Don't attempt to freeze something just because you're into the idea. Second, make sure you're cooking recipes your family likes and will eat!

2. Strategize: How much freezer space do you have? How much time will you have to cook? What is your budget? How much food will your family need per meal? Write all of this down if you need to!

3. Decide: Which recipes will you make given your space allotment, your time allotment, your budget allotment, and the needs of your family? Perhaps you'll need to start small due to freezer space. Pick meals that are space-friendly (marinated chicken or something that can be packed in a ziploc bag). Or, if you're limited by budget, you may want to pick more bone-in chicken recipes than those that call for boneless, skinless chicken breasts.

4. Lists, lists, more lists! Write down ALL the ingredients you will need, going meticulously over each and every recipe. Are you going to double or triple recipes? You should write down ingredients that might seem small for a single recipe (1/4 cup honey), but become much more significant in a triple quantity (3/4 cup honey). Check your pantry and freezer for what you already need to get rid of--can you make any substitutions? (especially helpful with tomato products) Make an organized shopping list--I made one for Sam's and one for the regular grocery store. Double check the list!!! Include on the list what types of freezer wrapping/containers you might need to purchase. Getting low on foil? Need more freezer quality ziploc bags? How's your Pam holding out? Planning to cook a recipe requiring parchment paper?

5. Commit: Go shopping for your ingredients. If you purchase 15 pounds of chicken, you're committing to using it!

6. Schedule the big day (or afternoon or weekend). I had the privilege of having one of my children spend the weekend with her grandparents. I've had neighbors offer to keep my kids for an afternoon in return for a meal. You never know how you can barter! Your husband will probably get into the idea after he sees the benefit and will be more eager to give up a Saturday to future cooking extravaganzas. The first one will be tricky. You may need to schedule your day before you go shopping if you'll be buying many perishable products.

7. Preparation for the big day: This is especially important if you're limited to one afternoon or similar small chunk of time. Whatever you can prepare ahead of time will help when the big day comes. This can include something as simple as grouping canned/non-perishable ingredients together for each recipe so they will be easy to locate. Or, you might pull out your food processor the night before and chop a gazillion onions and garlic cloves. Another idea is to go ahead and bag up the little extras that are sometimes frozen alongside the entree and will be used a garnish/added at the last minute (shredded cheese for pasta dishes, chopped nuts, etc.).

8. Gear up! Wear comfortable shoes, old clothes, turn on the music, and get cooking!



Happy Cooking!

Customizable Convenience: a benefit of cooking for your freezer

Part of the "Meals for a Month" series.

Who doesn't enjoy taking a night (or two, three, or four) off during the week from cooking; simply go to your freezer, pull out preferred meal, and present dinner! The frozen food industry has made this incredibly easy. Stouffer's Lasagna is yummy, warehouse clubs carry a wealth of restaurant favorites, and frozen breakfast and dessert treats abound. You can even buy frozen peanut butter and jelly sandwiches!

One of the primary benefits of cooking your own meals for the freezer is that you can have this same convenience, but customized for your family's needs. Let me illustrate. Suppose you are trying to cut back on your sodium intake. Perhaps you have a gluten allergy in the family. Are you committed to whole grain pasta and brown rice? Do your kids really, really like one vegetable and reject all others? Maybe you cook only with ground turkey or chicken and eschew ground beef. Or perhaps you live alone and are tired of buying the small range of single serve options.

When you cook your own meals for the freezer, you can tweak them to your family's specifications and serving size needs. You will end up with meals that your family likes because they're meals you've made before. You will have meals that fit your chosen health concerns. You will have a far greater abundance of choice than what you typically find in the grocery store. And, you won't have to spend forever in the frozen food aisle, reading ingredient labels to see what's in the box you're about to buy.

Happy Cooking!

Cookbook Review: Meals for a Month

Part of the "Meals for a Month" series.

Alas, it looks like this cookbook is no longer available--I can't find a picture of it because I can't find it listed anywhere! The title is Meals for a Month by Linda Larsen. It was published by Borders. There is a new book out in the "Everything" series (The Everything Book of Meals for a Month or something like that) by the same author, so perhaps it is the same book. At any rate, this is my favorite freezer cookbook.

The book is written expressly to give people recipes that work well frozen for a later date. The book is organized partially by meal (appetizer, breakfast, lunch, and dessert), partly by cooking method (slow cooker, grill, everything else), but most importantly, by meat type: all entrees that are not slow cooker or grill oriented are categorized by what type and cut of meat they feature. This is genius. It enables the reader/chef to stock up on a particular good deal for any given cut/type of meat (say, ground beef, or boneless skinless chicken breast) and then cook it up into savory entrees. In addition to its nice organization, each recipe provides ingredients in amounts for one recipe's worth (4-8 servings, depending on recipe) and for a tripled recipe's worth, in case you're cooking in bulk for your freezer.

The recipes are pretty good--definitely okay for ordinary cooking, but I don't quite have the confidence to serve them to company without having made them before. However, the main point of this book is to feed your family home-cooked meals by putting in one day a month of hard cooking and relaxing the rest of the month! Sounds good to me!

The first chapter contains a wealth of very helpful information for freezing any recipe, how to strategize and plan a list of meals to cook, and how to strategize the actual cooking day. Rather than give the reader/chef a prescripted menu for the month as some monthly cookbooks do, this book teaches the reader/chef how to intelligently pick a group of recipes, cook/assemble them, and stay organized throughout the month as the freezer gets depleted!

There's a nice variety of techniques: marinades, old-fashioned chicken pot pie and meatloaf, ethnic dishes, casseroles, vegetarian specialties, etc.

If you're interested in cooking a bunch of recipes for your family ahead of time, this cookbook is a great place to start. As with all cookbooks, it's important to try a few recipes out on your family before "committing" to it.

Meals for a Month--in the Freezer

Recently, rather on the spur of the moment and motivated by some big sales on various meat, I decided to cook a month's worth of meals for my freezer. It worked out so well that I decided to write a little series devoted to the benefits I've already seen (3 days after the big weekend) and the tips I learned in my first mass cooking extravaganza.

In a nutshell, here are some of the benefits of cooking en masse:

1. Customizable Convenience
2. Less Stress
3. Time Saver (Efficient Prep and Clean-up)
4. Money Saver (Bulk Buying and Sales)
5. Enjoyment and Hospitality
   

I'll spend a little more time on these and share some tips in the days to come. I think this method of cooking would be particularly helpful to single people, marrieds with no children, and mothers of small children (who make dinner-time a real hassle even if the food is already prepped!). For those in small 1- to 2- member households, making a casserole and then packaging it into 4 smaller portions will enable you to eat those comfort foods without committing to eating the leftovers every day for a week! For those with small children, this is a great strategy since it will then free you up during cranky dinner time (and your grocery trips are shorter since you're buying fewer items for the day to day operations).

So, what can you freeze? Where do you start? Do you have to commit an entire day to this labor of love? I'll touch on those as I have time, but for now, check out Carrie's former post: Supper's in the Freezer. She includes excellent tips for what to freeze, how long frozen food lasts, meat safety, and more.