| (If you're just joining this start with Jan. 12th and work back.)
Okay, now if you’ve been following along this is where we actually start to plan what will work for you and your family. You’ll want to gather this weeks’ sales ads from the newspaper or online store website and some of your favorite recipes. The other thing you’ll need to know is how much you can or want to spend on your freezer cooking.
Part of how much you’ll spend is how many meals you want to make ahead. Many of you have probably heard of, “once a month” freezer cooking. You can do that but there are other options as well. Since that is probably the most familiar concept let’s start there and define what we’re talking about.
Once a Month Cooking- This is where you literally plan out your ingredients for 30 days of meals and pre-cook them all in one day. The advantage to this method is that you pretty much don’t have to cook at all (if you don’t want to) for about a month! When I have done this I find I do more baking, making side dishes ahead etc… just because I have the extra time and maybe I actually miss cooking a little. I really do ENJOY cooking most of the time! The first disadvantages to this method is that you have a really LONG day and may swear you’ll never do this again after that day. Secondly, it can be quite costly to make 30 meals at once.
Sale cooking (2 week cooking for me)- This is where you take advantage of sale pricing and make your meals accordingly. For us this is every two weeks when my husband gets paid. I take advantage of “lost leader” type sales and cook 10-15 meals with whatever was the best sale that week. For instance if pork steak or pork roast is on sale for .99 cents a pound I’ll buy 15-20 pounds and make multiples of several pork recipes. The advantage to this method is that your costs and time are often much lower, however, the disadvantage can be that you feel like you are eating the same type, for instance all pork dishes, for two weeks straight.
Plan Over Cooking- Sometimes the can be the easiest method to start with or do one or two nights in between your main cooking sessions. With this you simply “plan” to have left over’s (thus, the name plan over) by making double or triple (or more) batches of your meal. For instance, have one meatloaf for dinner that night and freeze the other two for later. You still save the clean-up time and most of the time it only takes you a few more minutes to make double or triple.
Co-op cooking- This is something you may want to try once you’ve decided you like this method of doing your meals. There are many variations but basically you find one or more friends with similar size families and you all cook but exchange your meals so instead of having say 5 lasagnas in the freezer you trade 4 of your lasagnas for four other dishes from your friends, maybe a pan of enchiladas, Salisbury steak, Ziti, and beef and broccoli. Advantages to this method are that you get a really good variety of meals but the disadvantages can be that they are not all cooked exactly how your family likes them. If you are a little unsure this method can be fun because you can cook with a friend but that can also take much more coordination. This method can be done either cooking in your own kitchens or meeting together at a central location to do the actual cooking.
What method appeals to you? If you want to work hard, money is not a big issue and you want a lot of satisfaction when you’re done the once a month method might be a good choice. I’m guessing for many however, the sale shopping might be the way to go. This method is very flexible and could cover 10-30 meals depending on how much you want to spend and what is on sale. If you’re short on time, not sure of your commitment to this and have never every tried any of this before the plan over’s might be the best way to start.
Chose your method.
Doesn’t matter which method you chose your next step in to go through your ads and recipes and make your shopping list. I always try to take advantage of sale prices. If ground beef is on sale you’ll want to take a look at your favorite ground beef recipes. Here’s some of our favorite dishes that use ground beef; Taco soup, Chimichungas, Salisbury Steak, Beef Stroganoff, Tetrazzini, Enchiladas, Pizza burgers and Mushroom burgers. If chicken’s on sale I might make; Chicken Chili, Chicken spaghetti, Cheesy chicken, Italian baked chicken, chicken and dumplings, Moroccan chicken stew or cheesy chicken sandwiches. Hope that gives you a few ideas. There’s also weeks when cases of Bacon are on sale, or bulk Italian sausage or ham… But probably the most common sale items are Beef and Chicken.
Just keep in mind as you consider your recipes that there are a few that just don’t freeze well. Most do but things heavy in sour cream type sauces may not come out with the same consistency or some soups may do better to have the noodles added on cooking day or they will be mushy. We’ll talk a little more on this when we talk about packaging. For your first time try to pick things like I suggested in the paragraph above and you’ll do well.
Now make your menu based on your sale items and recipes. I recommend make at least double batches of each recipe (if not more.) For instance, if ground beef is on sale my shopping list might look like this;
Enchilada (3) Salisbury (3) Taco Chili (3) Tetrazzini (3) totals
3lb gr. Beef 5lb gr. Beef 3lb. gr beef 3lb gr beef 14lb gr. Beef
3 can tom. Soup 3 cup br. crumbs 3 can blk. beans 3lb broccoli
3 jars salsa 3 cans corn
I don’t include things on my list like onions, seasonings, cream soups (I make my own) and stock (make that too) but if you need to include those things on your list go right ahead. In this example the only totals I had were the ground beef but sometimes I’ll have recipes that use the same ingredients and so I’ll total those too. I save this list for when I start cooking as well so I can remember how many of each recipe I planned for (that’s my # in parenthesis by the recipe title.) The plan above then would give us 12 meals. This plan is just a sample I put here. I would do it just like this if I already had some meals left from past freezer cooking or this might be half my shopping if I'm doing a 30 day. The other half would be 12-14 chicken or maybe 6 pork and 6 chicken recipes.
So now it’s your turn…make your list!
Any questions? Leave me a comment.
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