Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Simplifying Mealtime
One of the easiest ways we have found to simplify mealtimes is by having meals (or parts of meals) already prepared and in the freezer. I know this is a no-brainer, but over the summer I have not been consistently "refilling" my freezer with prepared meals and now that our homeschool football season has started I am really starting to miss it. My plan at the moment is to spend the latter part of the week taking inventory of my freezer and pantry to see what's there and then take at least one day to prepare a few meals for the freezer. I already know that I will be making pancakes, bread, applesauce muffins, taco soup, chili, pulled pork, bar-b-que chicken chunks, mashed potatoes, broccoli & rice casserole, cheeseburger meatloaf, meatballs, seasoned beans, and lentil soup. Some of these things I will cook before freezing (either in the crockpot or on the stove) and some of them I will prepare and freeze to cook later. Even though it's a lot of work at the time, it is well worth the savings in time and money later. We are not as tempted to eat out and can also better meet the needs of our family members with food sensitivities. I am really looking forward to having my freezer full of meals again!
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The easiest way I have found to prepare foods for the freezer is to cook large amounts of one thing at a time. I bake two chickens. We eat one, freeze one and I also freeze the drippings. I cook two roasts and freeze one. I make a huge pot of sweet and sour chicken...we eat dinner and I freeze the rest. I also freeze smaller amounts for my mom. Today I made a large batch of seasoned pinto beans on the stove and a batch of beef and bean chili in the crockpot. Several meals there!! If I could just find a good sale on pork loin I could make a big batch of BBQ. Yummy! We also make more than we need at one meal of pancakes, biscuits and muffins so we can pull them out of the freezer on other days. I also do large batches of bread and freeze them...cakes and cookies too!! I made 3 gallons of granola the other day that should last us about 6 weeks...I hope!
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