Once a month cooking
About This Page: This is a discussion on Once a month cooking within the The Kitchen: Food, Recipes, and Good Health, part of the PassPorter Community - Boards & Forums on Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel; It's almost August which means the countdown to school starting later in the month. With school starting, along comes cross ...
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It's almost August which means the countdown to school starting later in the month. With school starting, along comes cross country practices, summer band camp, and back to school nights, etc.
I'm hoping to get a leg up on the year by doing some make ahead cooking and freezing it. We've been pretty much cleaning out the odds and ends in the freezer to use it up. Now it's time to fill it up again!
I've been looking at a few websites that help to provide menus and strategies for bulk cooking. Last year during cross country season I cooked on Sundays for the whole week, but with activities increasing, I'd like to stretch that farther.
My DD isn't fussy about what she eats but is neurotic about freshness. I am not sure she would eat pre-made meals, although she routinely eats leftovers the next day. My son and his fiancee do a lot of advance cooking because they both have demanding scheduled (MD and lawyer).
Doesn't Rachel Ray have a program on cooking for the week?
Doesn't Rachel Ray have a program on cooking for the week?
This is what I was going to say. I don't cook ahead like that because I really enjoy cooking, so doing it almost daily is fun to me, but I also have time to do it and can understand how it would not be fun if there was no time. I don't see why you couldn't just make two weeks worth of food to freeze the same way you made one week's worth on a Sunday. I don't know many things that are ok in the freezer after a week but not after two weeks.
I don't do a lot of cook and freeze meals, but I do a lot of crockpot cooking. On Sunday's, I'll chop vegies, bag and freeze and add the meat and seasoning to it - I write on the outside of the bag the amount and type of liquid. Then the morning I need it, I plop it all in the crockpot, add liquid and cook away. Rather than eating the leftovers later that week, I will portion and freeze them as "single" meals - hubby can grab one for work, or we can have a "pot luck" night where each kiddo chooses their meal ahead of time.
I don't know many things that are ok in the freezer after a week but not after two weeks.
We have a place here called Let's Dish that is an advance meal prep site. You season and portion everything, then freeze it. You still have to cook it that night, but that's the easy part. They suggest using everything in 3 months, but we've had things that were hidden longer and they were fine.
I just googled "lets dish recipes" and found some that people had recreated after the fact.
Thanks for the help! I've got a few things already put into the freezer! I spent my Sunday cooking.
I did 8 different recipes and was pretty tired by the end of the day. I'm now convinced there's no way I could do 20-30 in a day. : At least I have a start!
I do a lot of freezer cooking because we live about a hour away from the nearest store. So I shop every 4-6 weeks. I don't do a ton in one day though, been there, tried that, didn't work for me. Instead I cook 2-3 meals each time I cook (making chili, I triple the recipe). Then I freeze the extras for future meals. Right now I'm cooking about 3 days a week and serving frozen meals 3 days a week (we go out once a week or eat leftovers). In the winter I plan to cook more nights a week and fully stock the freezer for summer (I hate cooking in the summer). We moved in December and I had to start over and didn't have much stocked up by summer.
The hard part of freezer cooking is finding things you like. It's important to find meals that freeze well so they taste fresh when you cook them again. It's not like eating leftovers, once frozen many meals taste just like fresh as you only cook parts (meats, etc.) before freezing and then "cook" the meal the day you serve it. We have found many meals that you wouldn't know were ever frozen.
I need to do this. Since I went back to work we are stretched so thin in the evening with sports and dance and homework. It's stressful. Thanks for the pinterest tip - I'm going to check it out!
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My boss cooks for a month and has been doing it for a couple years. She loves it. She usually does it over a weekend. I personally haven't tried it. My DS is super picky about food and I hate leftovers for the most part. Good luck finding recipes.
It's important to find meals that freeze well so they taste fresh when you cook them again. It's not like eating leftovers, once frozen many meals taste just like fresh as you only cook parts (meats, etc.) before freezing and then "cook" the meal the day you serve it. We have found many meals that you wouldn't know were ever frozen.
Could you share your sources, or recipes your family likes that fit into that category.
We're getting a group together at church to do meals for people who are sick or recovering from surgery and I said I'd help.
But I don't have a lot of "freezable" recipes because my family doesn't like casseroles or anything that resembles leftovers.
I don't do a lot of freezer cooking but I do some and I've found that intentionally under cooking things slightly really helps keep thing tasting like they were just made and not cooked/frozen/reheated. If the item is slightly under cooked when you start reheating it ends up being completely cooked by the time it's completely reheated instead over cooked.
Could you share your sources, or recipes your family likes that fit into that category.
We're getting a group together at church to do meals for people who are sick or recovering from surgery and I said I'd help.
But I don't have a lot of "freezable" recipes because my family doesn't like casseroles or anything that resembles leftovers.
Of course! I don't have the time right this moment to pull things, but I will come back this evening.
About This Page: This is a discussion on Once a month cooking within the The Kitchen: Food, Recipes, and Good Health, part of the PassPorter Community - Boards & Forums on Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel; It's almost August which means the countdown to school starting later in the month. With school starting, along comes cross ...
This is what I was going to say. I don't cook ahead like that because I really enjoy cooking, so doing it almost daily is fun to me, but I also have time to do it and can understand how it would not be fun if there was no time. I don't see why you couldn't just make two weeks worth of food to freeze the same way you made one week's worth on a Sunday. I don't know many things that are ok in the freezer after a week but not after two weeks.
: At least I have a start!
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