Freezer Cooking

I have had several comments on previous posts mentioning Freezer Cooking.  I am NO expert.  But since some of you have asked, I will explain to you exactly how I have gone about it.  You can take from it whatever nuggets of wisdom may be found and I am sure, plenty of things you may not want to try at all.

1) Find a cooking buddy. 

 If you strongly-dislike cooking as much as I do, find a dear friend to make it more fun.  It's like exercising.  It's always more fun when someone else is in the trenches with you!  And a buddy makes you push through when you have already been standing in the hot, messy kitchen for 9 hours and there are 4 more recipes stuck on the fridge.

2) Plan a date to shop and a date to cook.

Be mindful that it takes a serious shopping trip with a firm list in hand.  Then it will take ALL day to cook.  Maybe multiple days if you are attempting to double, triple or quadruple a dozen or so recipes.  The first time my buddy and I cooked, it took 3-4 half days/evenings.  Last time, it took us 11 straight hours!  Each time, we were making 12-13 recipes for each of our families.  

3) Pick your recipes.

It is especially helpful to have a cooking buddy with similar tastes and family size when it comes to this, but compromises are easily found.  We have perused several freezer-specific cookbooks for this (like the one above), but we've also just used family favorite recipes. We do a handful of marinades alone each time.  Those are easy: raw meat, marinade, baggie.  

4) Print out your recipes.

Not in the single batch amounts, but in the doubled/tripled/quadrupled amounts you will be cooking for.  Make copies for your cooking buddy and the refrigerator, too.

5) Compose your shopping list based on all your recipes.

My buddy and I divide this task.  We each figure out certain recipes then combine our lists into one before shopping.  Be sure to consider items you already have, like oils and spices.  My buddy and I don't typically buy those items if they are only needed in small amounts.  Be generous with things you already have when little bits here and there are called for.  Also, be sure to decide what type of container you will be freezing each recipe in.  Write it on all the recipes and add those baggies, pans and foil to your list.  Also, I have extra storage space, so I keep unused/non-perishable shared items for us for future cooking.

6) Shop.

My buddy and I have chosen to do this together.  We start at the butcher counter where we figure out all the meats we need and how we need them cut.  Take a sharpie with you and write on the package how you want the butcher to cut it.  Most butchers will take a pre-packaged pack of chicken and cut it fajita style for you, for example.  And you can laugh your socks off as you load 10 lb tubes of ground beef into your carts!  We are always a sight!  When checking out, we calculate the total into half and divide it equally onto our individual cards/cash.  I would assume most stores will do that, too, but if only one person shops, you can certainly square it all away later.

7) Prep and Cook.

Go through all the recipes and chop all the onions at the same time, same for other overlapping ingredients that have to be chopped up and such.  Get cooking!  We have always cooked at my buddy's house next door because she has more kitchen gadgets to use and she has an extra fridge where we keep our groceries.  She preps her house and kitchen by cleaning it, having out two trash cans and putting all the recipes up on her fridge where we can see them easily.  I am a clean-as-I-cook kind of person, so I fill a sink with hot soapy water so we can easily clean prep bowls and tools as we go.  We also line up all our dry/non-refrigerated ingredients and spices up on her breakfast bar where we can see them and grab them as we go.

8) Freezing.

Have a sharpie handy so you can label everything right away.  Baggies are easy and need no explanation.  Other than baggies, we use aluminum throwaway pans.  With pans, we've found it's best to layer saran/press-n-seal on top first, then foil.  Let stuff cool before sealing and putting it in the freezer to minimize ice crystals/freezer burn.  

9) Eat and Enjoy!

I had friends several years ago who did this together and I loved the idea.  I just never got around to making it happen until now and really, my cooking buddy, Melanie, gets the credit for this new endeavor.  She gets an idea in her brain and makes it happen right away!  I will say, I did learn years back to do this in small bits when cooking certain things.  Pastas are an easy place to start.  If you are a small family who doesn't eat a 9x13 pan of baked penne in one sitting, make the whole recipe but put half in your glass 8x8 for tonight and put the other half into a throwaway 8x8 and freeze it!  If you are a family who eats even less, divide the recipe into meatloaf sized pans and get 4 meals out of one recipe.  

Hopefully that answers some of the questions you've been pondering about freezer cooking.  Again, I am quite the novice, but this has been a good system for us so far.  If you freezer cook, comment with tips of your own or favorite freezer cookbooks!