Too nervous to take on extra cooking? Feeling like you can’t possibly accomplish anything extra in the kitchen? Wondering how this Freezer Cooking thing works? I understand all of these hesitations, but I really want you to join me this week for my Freezer Cooking Challenge!!!
Therefore, in today’s podcast, I’m offering a nice, loving pep talk with lots of tips to encourage you to jump on board with me to get some extra food made to put into your freezer. Even if you just have a little bit of freezer space, you can put one or two extra items in there that are healthy and that will provide convenience for your busy days!
To go along with the podcast today, I have created a free, downloadable Freezer Cooking Pep Talk page for you to print off and smack onto your fridge. This is my list of freezer cooking tips that you can have at easy access in your kitchen to help keep you motivated!! C’mon…you can do this!!
Grab your Free, downloadable Freezer Cooking Pep Talk Page, full of tips and big bully encouragement from me. ;)
As mentioned in the podcast, here is my Make Ahead Meals link that you’ll want to be sure and look through. You’ll find all kinds of recipes and help in the Make Ahead Meal section of our site!
And now, I invite you to join me as I share my favorite tips for making Freezer Cooking easier!!
Thanks for the encouragement, Laura. I will be making 4 lbs of lean ground beef into meatballs and putting them in the freezer for some convenience food. I also made chicken stock today (for the freezer) and will put beef bones in my slow cooker tomorrow to fill my freezer with beef stock, which will provide several meals for my family! :) I love having a freezer full of yummy “good for you” foods!
I would love your meatball recipe…
Angela, here’s the meatball recipe: 4 lbs. lean ground beef, 2 eggs
(slightly beaten), 1 cup dry bread crumbs, 1/2 cup finely chopped onion,
1 tablespoon salt, 1 teaspoon pepper, 2 cups milk & 1/4 cup ketchup.
Combine all ingredients, mix well. Shape mixture into 1 1/2-inch balls.
Place meatballs on ungreased baking sheet (I use my silpat liners)and
bake 25 – 30 minutes, until browned. Remove immediately and drain on
paper towels. (I drain the meatballs on cooling racks with paper
towels underneath so they don’t stick to the paper). Bake at 375 degrees
Let cool, package in freezer bags, label and date. Just a couple notes
Angela: I get about 100 meatballs, using a small cookie scoop. I make
my own homemade sweet and sour sauce, tomato/veggie sauce or a cream
sauce with mushrooms and then serve over cooked rice or noodles. This
recipe is from Make-a-mix cookbook but I added the ketchup and I use a
medium whole onion. And my bread crumbs are homemade using leftover
dried bread. Enjoy! I just got done putting mine in the freezer :)
Thanks for the encouragement! I have been trying to remember to double my dinners once in a while to stick some in the freezer. One problem I have run into though is refreezing things. I have heard that it is not good to freeze something that has previously been frozen. We get the majority of our meats in bulk and already frozen, so I am wondering if you (or anyone else) has any information about using meat that was frozen, cooking it up in something, and then refreezing it. Thanks for your help and I love your site!
Laura commented on this matter once on her blog that the no no to refreezing is a myth.
Here is the post that she talks about refreezing meat. I hope this helps.
https://www.heavenlyhomemakers.com/flash-freezing-chicken-fried-steak-strips
I love having food in my freezer. My friends and I (4 total) get together every other month for a “Food Exchange”. We each invite another friend and we all make 7-8×8’s of a main dish and 7-8×8’s of a side (anything to add to a meal). We get together and exchange and viola we each end up with 14 different food items in our freezer!!!!! Love it !! This sort of thing would not work well if you were on a special diet or had picky eaters in you home, but for us it is marvelous!
I wish I could but ny freezer is FULL! Next week I have 16 loavse of my special bread coming from the bakery and I’m really going to have to work to get it in the freezer!
You have got me rolling, I have laid out 3 things of deer meat and am going to make ranch burgers, mini meatloaves and anything else that requires red meat. We have deer meat following out of our ears.
This is just the encouragement I needed. I have been wanting to do freezer cooking for a long time but we only had a tiny freezer so I could only prepare one or two meals so never bother. We have recently been blessed with a free freezer from someone who is re-vamping their kitchen but there is nothing in it yet. Will get planning to put something in it this week.