I have a super simple addition to the freezer today: ice cream!
But really, we have a birthday boy tomorrow and that means a full family day eating and playing however my 4 year old wants!
I spent yesterday afternoon naptime working in the kitchen. I’m getting ready to do my monthly grocery shopping trip this weekend and see what else I wanted to be cooking up for Fill Your Freezer February.
In order to do both I need to inventory the pantry, look through the freezer, and clean out the fridge.
Cleaning out the fridge is an easy way to add to the freezer!
Here are 3 ways I do this:
1. Fruits and Vegetables.
Bananas going brown? Broccoli going limp? Moving these items to the freezer will both save you money and save you time in the future.
One downfall of monthly grocery shopping – true monthly grocery shopping without mid month grocery runs- means you either run out of the fresh fruits and vegetables OR it means that well meant, new dish you had planned doesn’t sound so good but you bought the extra ingredients.
But that is how Fill Your Freezer challenge is helpful! By having a system that slowly adds to the freezer, even months where your shopping doesn’t completely cover all 90+ meals a month comes in handy!
2. Leftovers.
Remember the chili I made and froze? Normally I would have kept that in fridge and had it for another meal, but I put it in the freezer.
It doesn’t even need to be a big batch either. Lately I have been also putting single servings of a meal into a freezer friendly container for future lunches portions.
3. Abundance.
Apple’s turning brown? I’ll add them to the crockpot with some cinnamon and turn it into applesauce- which can be eaten right away or frozen.
Extra cheese? I’ll freeze it! I do this for portion control (we are mostly dairy free here).
Those extra leeks I had bought because I wanted to make potato leek soup and never got to – added them to my freezer stash of scraps to make broth!
Filling your freezer isn’t always about a sprint to get your freezer filled, but rather a skill to learn as an ongoing part of your kitchen routine and serve your (future) self.
I didn’t manage to do much cooking at all over the weekend; I came down with some 24 hour sickness. Thankfully my husband is good at managing in the kitchen.
Today I felt better and baked some banana oatmeal muffins! I’m trying to tweak my Grandma Dee’s Recipe but this batch, although good, didn’t rise well.
Another favorite I’ve talked about here before, but we still eat it regularly: Baked Oatmeal!
I think one of the reasons we still enjoy it, is because it is so easy to change up the flavor! I got the original recipe from MoneySavingMom.
Baked Oatmeal freezes amazing, but more often I make it up the night before and let it sit in the fridge and pop it into the oven in the morning!
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I made my kids happy today— I mixed up some pizza dough — now I can add pizza night to my menu plan! Happy kids, happy life.
This is my tried and true pizza dough recipe, and if I’m feeling really fancy we do stuffed crust! You can spilt the dough up after it rises from the freezer if you want to make stromboli, homemade hot pockets, or personal sized pizzas.
(more…)Today was a super easy freezer cooking day – I just seasoned some extra chicken, and popped it into the oven alongside dinner.
I let it cool while we ate and then shredded for the freezer! Using this method of freezer cooking makes life just that much easier!
(more…)Are you having fun filling your freezer? I’m enjoying mine fill up with ready to bake food and today I have another one for you!
I used my pizza dough recipe to make some homemade pigs and in a blanket. Let the dough rise, them roll out and cut into strips.
I used a package of smoked sausage instead of hot dogs here, but feel free to use what you have/what is on sale.
Wrap the dough strips around, and place seam side down on a parchment lined cookie sheet.
Place into the freezer for an hour to flash freeze and then place into a labeled gallon freezer bag (or freezer friendly container).
If baking right away I like to brush with a little oil (or an egg) to get a golden brown crust and a little sprinkle of garlic salt. Bake at 375 degrees F for 20 minutes or golden brown.
Happy Freezer Cooking!
My intentions were high for the weekend; I had planned on being in the kitchen most of the day on Saturday to work on Fill Your Freezer February (new? Read the intro here).
Unfortunately we had a death in the family and I was not in the mood to dance around the kitchen cooking.
I did manage two things to add to the freezer while doing my normal cooking:
Another day, another soup for Fill Your freezer February series!
I was inspired by the Toscano Soup we enjoy, but used up other vegetables we had in the fridge – carrots and a daikon radish (which has a potato type texture when cooked).
We had a soup and sandwich lunch and put the rest to the freezer!
I’ll be back on Monday to share what I was able to tuck away in the freezer over the weekend. What is your favorite freezer friendly soup?
Today I made Pulled Pork to fill my freezer!
It takes a few minutes to prep, but then it cooks slow and low in the oven and ends up being perfect tender and multiple ways to use it!
Of course I doubled it! One for dinner and one to freezer. Doing things this way while trying to fill your freezer is a big time saver and sanity saver since there isn’t “extra” work – in the sense of having to set aside specific ingredients or extra time throughout our busy days.
