Monday, October 18, 2010

My Freezer Cooking Results

From my original plans, here is what I ended up accomplishing this weekend:
  • Biscuit Mix x 4 (for the dry ingredient mixes that I made up, I just wrote the directions and other ingredients needed on 1 bag of each type of mix to save some time, the others I did mark clearly what type of mix they were, but I am planning to use the mix with the directions last and use it for reference when making the others)  I found that it worked really well when making these different mixes up, that I laid out all the recipes and added all the same ingredients to them at the same time- First I started with flour, added the called for to each mix-then moved on to sugar, ect. This seemed to make it go faster.
  • Pancake Mix x 4
  • Cornbread Mix x 4
  • I got my taco seasoning mix re-stocked (recipe x 5)
  • Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins x 2.  This ended up making 28 muffins for me.  I was not terribly impressed with this recipe, however- next time I will just make my favorite pumpkin bread recipe up into muffins.
  • 2 bags of apples sliced up and seasoned for apple pies- now they will just have to be dumped into a pie crust and have a streusel topping made up to go on top (to make a Dutch-Style apple pie).  I also went ahead and made up another whole apple pie and baked it-which is almost gone now :)
 
  • Chicken Pot pie- I was planning on making this recipe x 2 but I ended up getting carried away and made up 4 Chicken pot pies- 3 for the freezer and we already cooked up and ate another.
  • Chicken and Noodles- I ended up making my recipe x 3 which will make 4 meals for my family of 3.  I figured that for the work that went into making this (with homemade noodles and all) that I may as well make more for only a little additional work.  I am hoping this will freeze and re-cook well, as I have never tried freezing this before.
  • I also got lots and lots of yogurt put into Smoothie size servings in plastic bags and into the freezer to be added to Smoothies over the next month or so (not all are pictured).  I was really worried that this wouldn't come out of the baggies very easily, but I tested a couple and they seem like they will come out of the bags alright.  I made sure to put the yogurt in one corner/side of the bag to make it easier to come out (instead of spread evenly through the whole bag)  I also tried to keep them from getting wrinkled to aid in getting them out later.  The only thing that I don't like about freezing this yogurt for Smoothies, is that I think some or all of the live cultures will be killed by the freezing.  At least we will still be able to benefit from the protein and potassium present in the yogurt if this is the case.  (I was actually thinking about calling Yoplait about this and asking- because I'm really curious if it will kill the cultures or just make them dormant?)
Things I didn't get around to:
  • Making up fresh salsa from the last of the peppers and tomatoes from my garden- maybe I will do this later today or tomorrow.
  • Chicken Burritos- After I made up more chicken pot pie and chicken and noodles - I didn't end up having any more cooked chicken to use.  When we cook up chicken breasts for dinner later this week, I will cook up a couple extra and make up my burritos then- I am planning on wrapping each up in aluminum foil so that I can take individual ones out of the freezer and put them straight in the oven to heat up.
Even though I did not accomplish all I had planned, I think what I did finish will really make my dinner prep a lot easier for the next couple weeks.  I have not made many dry ingredient mixes in the past before- if these work well for me, I am going to make a lot more next time as well as several different types. 

My original freezer cooking plans have most of the recipes that I used linked to them here.

7 comments:

  1. I'm sorry to hear that you didn't like your Pumpkin Choc Chip muffins - I have a recipe from Money Saving Mom which I have tweaked quite a bit and its our family's favorite. I find myself making 30 muffins a week sometimes (and there's only 4 of us). If you want to know what I've done (if that's the recipe you've used) feel free to email me on aussietasker @ gmail . com and I'll let you know!

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  2. I actually used a recipe that I found on Allrecipes.com. I will have to look up Money Saving Mom's recipe again and maybe give it a try next time!

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  3. I have done freezer cooking on a Sunday a couple times. And I always get less made than what I plan for. It always makes for a long day when I do this. I get home so late at night that my hubbie does all the cooking, so sometimes I feel like I should do something to help him out. So freezer cooking is my way to help him out. I also have him trained to make 2 of something so he can freeze one and we have the other that night for dinner. Sometimes I forget what we have frozen since we are adding to it continually. Love your posts!!!

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  4. That is a great way to do some freezer cooking when you don't have a long stretch of time. I honestly think I will be doing it like that in the future- making 2-3 meals of something at a time. It does not require all that much extra work to multiply a recipe, and it is not as exhasting as doing a whole freezer cooking day. I didn't get started until around 2 in the afternoon and I was still cooking at 9:30 pm- I just wanted to go to bed, but I had to wait for stuff to cool in order to put it into containers to put away.

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  5. Freezing yogurt does NOT kill the live cultures. Make a new batch with some of the frozen as your starter and you will see!!!

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  6. You got a lot made. I need to make up a big batch of taco seasoning. We use it a lot.

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  7. Thanks for that info anonymous! I am so happy to hear that freezing doesn't kill the cultures- that was the only drawback that I worried about with freezing it! WE need all the good bacteria we can get with the cold and flu season coming up!

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