Beginner Freezer Cooking

We meal plan and budget our groceries every week. We, also, like to cook at home and limit our eating out. It doesn't always work like it should, especially when we get busy. So... since our schedule is about to get even crazier than usual, I thought I'd give freezer cooking a try. I spent all day Saturday shopping and cooking and freezing meals. I posted pictures as I went and some of my Facebook & Instagram friends asked how I did it, so here's a little breakdown of how I went about it!

I started researching Friday night by going on PW's blog post about this. I had watched her Freezer Cooking episode the other day and that is what really got me thinking about trying this! I, also, looked on Pinterest and jotted down ideas of what I wanted to make! I narrowed down the list and wrote out my final list. (As you can see, I'm old school and prefer to make my lists with real paper & pens. Ha!)

I made out my grocery list and set a budget of $200. First thing Saturday morning, Em and I went to Wal-Mart and loaded up! I spent $200.26!

Here's what I bought:

About 10 lbs of 85/15 ground beef
3 lb. boneless pork loin
3 lb. cube steak
2 pkg. of smoked sausage (1 turkey sausage/ 1 reg)
2 whole chickens
2 pkg. frozen chicken breasts
1 lb. breakfast sausage
1 pkg. turkey bacon
1 pkg. frozen peas
2- 4 c. pkg. of shredded cheddar cheese
1- 16 oz. container of hvy whipping cream
2- 2 pk. premade rolled pie crust
18 ct. organic eggs
2- 24 oz. jars of salsa
1 box whole wheat spaghetti
2 cans of diced tomatoes
5 green bell peppers
1 pkg. of tri-color bell peppers
1 lb. zucchini
1 lb. yellow squash
1 pkg. celery hearts
1 pkg. whole carrots
6 lbs. yellow onions
3- 10 ct. whole wheat tortillas
1 pkg. corn tortillas
3- 49.5 oz. cans of chicken broth
2 cans of Rotel
4 cans of Cream of Mushroom soup
2- 2 pk. loaf pans
2- 2 pk. 9x13 cake pans
1- 3 pk. round pie pans
1 gallon freezer Ziplocks
1 pint freezer Ziplocks
1 Saran wrap
1 75 ft. foil

I didn't buy any season or sauces because I already had everything!

After unloading everything, I put the two chickens in the oven to roast right away. I didn't even bother seasoning them! I, also, cooked the bacon in the oven, since it was already on! Then I got to work chopping. I chopped all the onions, peppers, and celery by hand, but I used my food processor for the carrots & squash. (I did not use ALL the celery & carrots!) Since the pepper steak called for sliced peppers & onions, not chopped, I went ahead and put those in the labeled bags, also.

 
Once all the prep was done, I measured out the veg for the gumbo (doubled my usual recipe) and put that aside. Then I sauteed the rest in the THREE biggest skillets I have. I seasoned them with S&P and garlic pwd. while they were cooking. When everything was softened, I pulled out some to cool for the meatloaf mix, and set aside some for the chicken pot pie & chicken spaghetti. I, then, added 7 lbs. of the HB meat to the veggies, seasoned it, and browned it all. One of the skillets, I designated as the enchilada meat and added chili pwd. & cumin. Unfortunately, I did almost everything by eye, so I can't help you with measurements!

I, then, left it all to cool, while I mixed up my meatloafs. I placed them in the loaf pans, wrapped with foil, labeled, then wrapped with plastic wrap. (I did not put any sauce on the meatloafs, I will put that on before baking!) Then I went ahead and made up my crockpot "packets"! Sliced up the cube steak, added that and seasoning to the 3 bags of sliced peppers for the Pepper Steak. Recipe HERE. Added chicken breasts, salsa, chili pwd., & cumin to 3 bags for shredded chicken. Mixed up the marinade & sliced the pork loin into 2 for the Spicy Pulled Pork, added to two labeled bags (PW's first cookbook, can't find the recipe online right now!) This is about the time I ran my first load of dishes in the DW!

Then I pulled all the chicken from the whole roasted chickens. I started the chicken & sausage gumbo (adapted from Prejean's recipe) and the chicken pot pie (PW's recipe!) at the same time. When those were done and cooling, I bagged up all the extra HB meat in 2 c. bags., it made 6! I overshot my planned amount, but it'll get used! Then I made the enchiladas in 2 of the foil cake pans (minus the sauce, which will be added before cooking), wrapped in foil, labeled, then wrapped in plastic. Then I mixed up the chicken spaghetti (PW's recipe, but I used Rotel instead of pimentos!), and repeated the wrapping process with the last 2 foil cake pans. Meanwhile, my wonderful hubby grilled up a whole package of chicken breasts for me! We just seasoned this with an all purpose seasoning. I bagged them up 2 breasts to a bag, it made 4 bags. I divided the chicken pot pie filling into the 3 round pans. The pans came with cardboard lids. I used the lid to cut around on my pie crust. Placed the crust, cut vents, added the lids, labeled, and wrapped in plastic! THEN, I dished out the gumbo in 3 gallon bags! BE SURE TO LABEL YOUR BAGS FIRST! I had a little bit of sauteed veggies left, so I bagged them, too! Then I ran ANOTHER load of dishes.

With everything in the extra freezer in the garage (Clinton cleaned it out for me!), I cooked up some crumbled breakfast sausage and 12 scrambled eggs. I wrapped up the breakfast burritos, 5 with sausage & 5 with the turkey bacon I had cooked earlier. I had leftover of both meats. I could have just cooked up more eggs, but I was SO done by then. I just bagged up the meat for later use. The burritos were wrapped individually in plastic wrapped and labeled. Then I placed them all in a gallon bag.

Then I ran the 3rd load of dishes. Cleaned the kitchen. Unloaded and loaded the 4th load of dishes and finally, I was done!

End product-
Ready for oven/reheat dishes-
2 meatloafs
2 beef enchiladas
2 chicken spaghettis
3 chicken pot pies
3 chicken & sausage gumbos
10 breakfast burritos
Ready for crockpot-
2 PW's pulled pork
3 shredded chicken
3 pepper steak
Extras-
6 bags of cooked HB (for spaghetti, tacos, etc)
4 bags of grilled chicken (for salad, quesadillas, etc)
1 bag of extra sautéed vegetables.

That adds up to 20 dinners, 10 breakfasts, & 11 partial meal prep items! I am super proud of myself, but honestly, I will not attempt to do so many at one time again. I think I'd rather split it into two days instead. I was SO TIRED!

Disclaimer- I have not tasted any of the finished dishes POST-FREEZER yet, so if they don't turn out, don't blame me! ;)
Disclaimer #2- Em pretty much had free reign on the house during all of this, and yup, she DESTROYED it!

I'm back... in the kitchen.

So apparently I took a summer break from the blog. As usual, I've been blogging mentally, just not literally. Sorry about that, you missed some good ones! Ha! But if you follow me on Instagram (@kaylacheatwood) or on Twitter (@kaylacheatwood),  you know that I've been playing "little miss homemaker" lately.

Trying to cook/ eat healthier...

Crockpot Lemon Rosemary Chicken & Balsamic Pasta Salad with Spinach

Spinach & Red Pepper Fritatta- Breakfast for Dinner

Packing cutesy little lunches for Emma (I'm really loving this, its so fun!)

Photobombed!

And family movie theme nights, as a means of counting down to our next cruise. Six weeks, woot woot!

Peter Pan- Pirate Ship Pizza

Peter Pan- fruit swords

Tangled- Pulled Pork & Gouda Braid & Frying Pan cake!

I'll be posting tomorrow about my big marathon freezer cooking session from yesterday! See you then!

Blueberries for Sal, um I mean, Em and a muffin recipe, too!

Ahhh, I love kids books. Em has Blueberries for Sal. She got it FR-EE. In the mail. Isn't that great! Anyway, on to the point of this post!

We went blueberry picking! There is a really great farm not far from here, and I had NEVER heard of it. Lived in this area my whole life. Love making new discoveries! My friend, Cassidy, told me about it! Thanks, Cassidy!

I was so excited to go, thought Em would LOVE it. And she did for about five minutes. We didn't know it, but our friends, the Moss's, were there when we got there! Ha! So Em was super excited to see her besties, and pick berries, but when they had to leave a few minutes later.... then she realized it was HOT. If fact, she said repeatedly, "It's HOOOOOOT!" "I'm done picking berries." "That's enough, let's go home." So my dreams of a fun activity for the family resulting in buckets of berries to use throughout the year didn't quite come true. We came home with 4 pounds. Fail.

Haydon (acting silly!), Em, & Payton

She how happy she was...

Can we go now??

Today we made muffins from our berries. She was much happier.

As a family, we've been trying to make "healthy choices". I'm so not into depriving myself, so it can be hard to diet. So instead, we've been adding the things our diet has been missing. If it's good for you, you don't have to feel bad about eating it, right? Maybe not in the quantities I sometimes want. Ha!

I took a blueberry muffin recipe and tweaked it to make it my own.

Here goes:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

1/3 c. veg oil
1 c. buttermilk (I used 2% milk with a splash of white vinegar)
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla (or more!)
1/2 c. sugar + 2 tsp. for topping (I did top them with sugar, but I don't think it is really needed!)
1/4 c. brown sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking pwd
1/2 c. oats
2 c. flour
1/4 c. flax seed
1/4 c. wheat germ
3/4 c. blueberries

Mix oil, milk, eggs, & vanilla. Add sugars, salt, soda, & pwd. Mix well. Add dry ingredients. Mix. Fold in berries. Scoop into muffin tins (I used cupcake liners), bake for 10 - 15 minutes (until toothpick comes out clean). 


Let me tell you, the batter tasted amazing! Just ask Emma. I had to stop her from putting her HEAD in my mixing bowl. She said, "But how am I gonna lick the bowl?"

Notice that there is only 23... someone stole one.

Posing with her contraband. When did she become such a poser?

Muffins are pretty good, too. I'm gonna be honest... I could do without the blueberries. I'm just not a big fan of fresh berries in baked goods. But they are healthy and Em likes them, so there you go.

Kitchen Oopsy & a Mini iPhone Dump!

I noticed that my phone didn't have too many pictures in it that I haven't already shared this week. Look at me, blogger on top of things! Woot! There are a couple I can post, but first let me tell you about my most recent kitchen failure. As in the last 10 minutes, recent. AND it's not really a failure, just an "aww, that sucks, oh well, I'll eat it anyway!"

I have a kick-butt peanut butter cookie recipe. I get it out of a Cookie Bible cookbook that is really special to me. My mom gave me the cookie book for Christmas either after I got my first apartment or after I got married (can't remember which!) What makes it so special is that she wrote me a note in it about making cookies with my little girl one day like she did with me. Tear. And make cookies with my little girl, I do!

Anyway, back to the cookies. They usually turn out Ah-Mazing and beautiful! For example, I used the recipe HERE for some Valentine's cookies! In our attempt at being healthy as possible, we've started buying "Natural" style peanut butter for Emma. And that is what I used to make the cookies. No other ingredients were changed.

I think the oilier natural peanut butter made them spread more.

And the cookie are not the fluffy goodness they normally are! Here's what the Valentine's batch looked like..

They still taste good, the texture is off. So next time, I'll definitely take into account WHICH peanut butter I'm using!

Good thing, though, I had a little helper to clean up!

No wonder she's taken to calling me "Stepmother". :/

And here's little Cinderella, herself...

And a little silliness to start the weekend!

Cooking Emma!

I think I bought Em's first cookbook before she was born. No, I'm sure I did. And one of the ones I bought for her was Paula Deen's My First Cookbook. It's been on my bookshelf with the rest of my cookbook collection.

Last night, I was making homemade biscuits. I asked Emma to grab a cookbook with Paula's picture on it (yes, we are on a first name basis with Paula in this house). She found one that had a biscuit recipe in it for me, but she, also, found her Paula cookbook! Let me tell you, she was thrilled! Kept going on and on about making things from it. I said no last night, because we were already in the middle of cooking supper!

Today, Em had a check up at the doctor, and as a bribe to get her to behave, I told her we would go shopping and get the ingredients for her to cook recipes out of her cookbook. She was so excited!

*Warning- I went a little crazy with the pictures! And they are iPhone pics so sorry about the quality!*

She picked out her menu, in the car, as soon as we left the doctor's office. She chose spinach salad, "Porcupine" meatballs, bread, and of course, cupcakes!

First up- Shopping! She caused quite a stir at the grocery store. (Or it could have been my making her stop every few minutes for a picture!)

This is when she got "tired" and had to stop and rest.

She said "My OWN credit card?" Um. No.

First thing when we got home, cupcakes!

Of course, it has butter in it!

Em had to stop and taste every step!

Sifting the dry ingredients!

More tasting!

Our ode to the cover picture of the cookbook!

Next recipe to work on was the meatballs!

Rolling the meatballs!

And last salad!

Cleaning mushrooms.

Making the vinaigrette!

Then it was time to eat!

Ta Da!

I just realized I didn't get any pictures of us making the chocolate frosting! But I let Em ice them herself. (Let? Really, I was stilling eating when she decided it was time to ice the cupcakes, so she did, by herself.)

Today, was a fun day! Love my baby girl!