Freezer Cooking Continued...

As a continuation of yesterdays freezer cooking post, I have come up with an example menu for a week. For some of us, this may be a little expensive, but still doable. I hope to begin making videos about some of the freezer cooking I plan to do soon, so you can all see exactly how I do my freezer cooking, but for now, just use your imagination and please ask any questions you need to if you don't understand something!


This is just one weeks worth of a menu. I usually plan menus for one month at a time so I know what the month is going to be like. For this week, you could do all your purchasing and prep work the Friday or Saturday before, and then you have the week to just sit back!


If you go to right of the screen and find my freezer meals tab, you can find some recipes. Some of those recipes are for the meals below. Namely Rubber Chicken. Doesn't sound like a very appealing name, I know, I didn't name it, I just got it from someone years ago. Rubber chicken makes three meals: Roasted chicken, hearty chicken noodle soup and chicken enchiladas.


Since you are doing all the prep before hand, and the roasted chicken is the first meal, you have some options here: 1-keep the whole chicken in the fridge until Monday and cook it fresh, or 2-cook it on Saturday with everything else and pull it off the bones and keep meat in fridge to reheat on Monday, whichever is easier or more appealing to you. DON'T FORGET to save those bones and the chicken drippings to make chicken stock for later! This would work great with your chicken noodle soup!

Example menus

Monday           roasted chicken, garlic potatoes, broccoli

 

Tuesday           chili verde tostadas, Mexican rice

 

Wednesday     hamburger stroganoff, green beans

 

Thursday         hearty chicken noodle soup, rolls

 

Friday              BBQ pork sandwiches, homemade fries, carrot and celery sticks

 

Saturday          chicken enchilada, Mexican rice, green salad

 

Sunday            lasagna, garlic bread, green salad

 

 

 Imagine with me that you decided to make these meals for the week. You pull out your cookbook and find the recipes. The next step is to make a list of all the ingredients for each recipe:!

Ingredients for rubber chicken:

4 fryer chickens
Garlic - 16 cloves
Thyme - 4 tsp.
Rosemary - 8 TBS
Salt - 8 tsp.
Black pepper - 4 tsp.
Olive oil 10 TBS (1/2 cup + 2 TBS)

Ingredients for rest of meals:

Boneless pork roast – 2 to 3
Chicken bouillon
Butter – 1 cup + 2 TBS
Garlic salt
Flour – ¼ cup
Mild green chilies – 2 cans
Refried beans – 1 can
Flour tortillas – 2 bags (10-12 count)
Cheese
Oil
Ground beef – 3 lbs
Onions – 4
Mushrooms – 6 canned or 1 lb fresh
Cream of mushroom soup - 6
Milk – 3 1/2 cups
Sour cream – 16+ oz
Carrots – 2 cups
Celery – 2 cups
Green onion - 1
Cream of chicken soup – 4 cans
Fettuccine noodles
BBQ sauce – 2 bottles
Cheddar/jack cheese
Lasagna noodles
Spaghetti sauce
Cottage cheese – 2 cups
Eggs
Mozzarella cheese – 16 oz
Freezer bags
Foil lasagna pans

To have on hand to serve with:

Tomatoes
Olives
Sour cream
Tortillas
Rice side dishes
Mexican rice
Carrots
Celery
Green beans
Hamburger buns
Green salad
Dressing
Garlic bread
Grated cheese
Potatoes
Broccoli – fresh or frozen


 As you can see, there is a lot of ingredients! That's ok! If you happen to have food storage, you probably have most of this on hand already or can substitute some of the ingredients, like onions for dried onions, etc.


Now go through the list of ingredients and take off all the ones that you already have. This should look like a much more manageable list. The list of things to have on hand are the items that will be sides and toppings.


I would make an easier list to read to take to the store, one that is broken down by type of item, like meats, dairy, fresh and frozen. Then you aren't wandering back and forth in the store, you can get all fresh items at one time, all dairy at one time, etc.


Add any other items you might need, like milk, eggs, laundry soap, etc, to minimize trips to the store. Get any coupons that might help you at the store and then go do your shopping!