I promise I’ve been baking and cooking all week long. I promise I have some wonderful foods in my freezer all ready for healthy convenience on busy days coming up. I even took pictures to show you. But, the pictures were uploaded into my computer and my computer is acting like it’s dying and I can’t get to the pictures. (I’m on a borrowed computer right now, thanks to a great friend!)
My stomach hurts about the whole dying computer thing. But I’m trying to keep a good perspective on this situation. It’s just a “thing” and I can get a new “thing” if I need to. (cha-ching) My stomach hurts. Okay…it’s okay. It’ll all be okay. Really.
I’ll keep giving myself this pep talk, and in the meantime I’m sure you’d like to hear about the food I made for the freezer this week. (Just picture these dishes in your head and you won’t be nearly as bored.)
Our family LOVED every recipe I tried from Once a Month Mom. Here’s what I made:
- Baked Chicken and Artichoke Penne with Sundried Tomatoes – I doubled this dish, we ate one and I froze one. Not that I was trying to deceive my kids, but I figured if I told them there were artichokes on their plates, they wouldn’t eat it. Instead, I threw the artichokes in my food processor to grind up and they never knew they were in this dish. They scarfed up their servings and had seconds and thirds. Sweet!
- Tacos in a Sleeping Bag (using my yogurt pizza dough instead of the crescent dough called for in the recipe) – I haven’t let my family eat these yet even though they looked and smelled incredible. They are in the freezer and will taste incredible (and convenient) next week sometime!
- Ham Broccoli and Cheddar Roll (again using my yogurt pizza dough) – I can’t say this made it into our freezer. :) I baked this before we left for a soccer game and we came home and ate the entire roll (which I had doubled). This was SO delicious!
- Homemade Cheesy Rice – I’m going to be making this today – I can’t wait. I may even throw some leftover chicken in to complete the meal!
- Strawberry Orange Smoothie – I have made this smoothie recipe not once, not twice, but three times since Monday!! To say that this recipe was a hit is an understatement. We’ve had some shocking 100 degree days this week and this smoothie has been so refreshing!
So, did you picture all of that in your head? Was it lovely? Oh good.
What all were you able to accomplish this week to get ahead in the kitchen? Here is a review of the “rules” for our Freezer Cooking Challenge:
- Pick a recipe (or more) from Once a Month Mom or from here at Heavenly Homemakers.
- Find some time this week to make the recipe(s) for your freezer.
- Blog about your cooking experience, if you have a blog, so that you can come link up with us here on Friday when we’ll all report back to share how our freezer cooking went. If you don’t have a blog, you’ll be given the opportunity to share about your freezer cooking in the comments section of our round up post, so please join the fun whether you have a blog or not!
- Each person who links up or leaves a comment on the Friday Freezer Cooking Round Up post will be eligible to win a free recipe ebook of choice ($7.95 or less) from the Heavenly Homemakers Shop.
- The more recipes you make and share with us, the more chances you have to win! (But don’t over-do…we would like to keep this fun. Please, we don’t want any reports that women across the world fainted from Freezer Cooking Exhaustion.)
Share what you accomplished! Any link or comment (that follows the rules above) will be included in a drawing for a free recipe ebook in the Heavenly Homemakers Shop. I’ll draw a winner Monday, May 16! Can’t wait to hear what you’ve been up to this week!
Debbie says
Thanks for hosting this “Freezer Cooking Challenge” Laura! My family loves your hashbrown recipe! It is such a comfort knowing there’s food ready to eat in the freezer. I truly am grateful for all your wonderful ideas and inspiration that you share on this site. Thanks again!
Debbie @ http://delightsncouponing.blogspot.com/
Tiffani says
By Friday, do you mean tomorrow? Or do we get a whole week? Because if it’s tomorrow, I have to get to work! Lol
Danielle says
I was able to get a few things done this week. I made a batch of your mini crustless mini quiches and my daughter loves them. Half of the batch made it to the freezer for later. I also tried the Strawberry-Orange smoothie and got half of that in the freezer. Another keeper for sure. I made some of your pizza pockets and took your idea to try the tacos in a sleeping bag with the same dough. Some of the pizza pockets and all of the tacos in a sleeping bag are in the freezer for quick lunches and dinners next week. I also made a double batch of your cream cheese salsa dip today to have for snacking on over the weekend. We are in the height of the baseball/softball season so any quick and easy (and the healthier the better) snacks and meals are wonderful to have on hand. Thanks for the extra incentive to get a few things done ahead!
Kari says
I browned an extra pound of ground beef tonight and froze that. (Baby steps.) Sorry to hear about your computer. I think it’s OK to pray that you can get your stuff off it before it goes up in smoke.
Your nephew just walked by and would like to say, “when is your birthday? When is your kids’ birthday? Why aren’t your birthdays today? Why don’t you send some pictures to us and send some mail to us? And when I grow up I want to have my own games on my own computer and have my own pictures and have my own house and have my own stuff.”
amy@twobgardening says
Well, Blogger.com is still done, so no link up. Any way, I made the pizza dough from Once A Month Mom. The instructions said to let it rest for 2 hours at room temp, yeah, 8 hours later I remembered it. The kitchen was so busy yesterday. I had two batches of banana bread going, making homemade strawberry jam from our recent trip to the strawberry patch. Oh, and snapping the green beans and cooking them. So, needless to say I forgot about the pizza dough until 9pm last night. It turned out beautiful and yummy. I’m going to post about it on my blog, if they ever get it up and working.
Christie says
I made the strawberry chocolate scones last night using my homemade chocolate chips and they turned out pretty good! I have never made scones before, but I was very happy with how these turned out. I will keep this recipe and try it with other fruits. Thanks for all the recipes and tips you share, I really enjoy visiting your site!
April says
I didn’t get as much made as I wanted to, but I think I did pretty good for my first try! Blogger is down right now, but as soon as it’s back up I’ll post what I made.
Debbie says
Sorry! Blogger is still down and now they have “temporarily” deleted all posts from May 13 to present! So if you try to link to my freezer cooking post – it’s gone! Hopefully, they will be up and running soon.
Debbie @ http://delightsncouponing.blogspot.com/
Adrienne says
I made your whole wheat chocolate chip cookies last night and they were a hit! My soon to be one year old was chasing his Daddy around the living room for more of his cookies! Suprisingly, that recipe made 54(!) cookies. I baked 10 and froze the rest. Later today I’m going to try my hand at your mini apple pie pockets, sloppy corn muffins, and OAMM’s ham, brocoli, and cheese rolls.
Greta says
I made the Strawberry Banana Breakfast Popsicles from Once a Month Cooking and they were delicious! I substituted kefir for the milk and my 2 year old daughter loved them!
I also made a batch of Heavenly Homemaker’s Poptarts and Giant Breakfast Cookies. I froze those for quick breakfasts.
Melissa says
I have looked at the oamc website and was a bit overwhelmed. Thanks for hosting this challenge and for sharing 5 recipes. I can take in 5.
I wish you well on retrieving your “stuff” off your computer.
We definitely store a lot on them.
I always say, technology is great, until it doesn’t work.
Olivia says
Hey! Okay, so here soon I will be making this to go in my freezer… I make these often!
Use your favorite pizza crust recipe (I just use my bread recipe…)
3 pkgs yeast
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup honey
3 cups warm water
1/3 cup oil
1 1/2 tsp. sea salt
About 9 cups flour (I use mostly whole wheat)
So… make your dough, let it rise, roll it out into pizza crusts on your cookie sheets (the above recipe does about 5 crusts)… then poke holes with a fork all throughout and bake the crusts until just done (about 12 min or so on 350 degrees). Then, I leave some just as crusts for quick garlic butter bread, and then I top the rest after they cool with some of these ideas (but leave off the cheese, b/c in my opinion the cheese gets crusty in the freezer, so I just top with cheese when I’m ready to bake them out of the freezer)…
-BBQ Chicken Pizza topper: BBQ sauce, italian dressing and cooked chicken chunks
-Taco Pizza topper: Refried beans mixed with salsa and sour cream and cooked taco meat
-Chicken Alfredo Topper: my homemade alfredo sauce, and cooked chicken chunks
-Classic Pizza: my canned spaghetti/pizza sauce from our garden and our favorite toppings!!!
Hope someone enjoys this… we love having these “healthier” pizzas around!!!!
Olivia says
Oh ya, and when I freeze them, I freeze them on the cookie sheet so the
toppings get set, then I use plastic wrap/foil to wrap and label them!!!
Stephanie Z says
My family LOVES your homemade hashbrowns. I was able to get a great deal on potatoes recently and took adventage of the deal to freeze 10 pounds of potatoes as hashbrowns. Breakfast will be good tomorrow-bacon, eggs, and homemade hashbrowns! There is no going back to store boughten for our family!
Susan Alexander says
Ok, what are the symptoms of your “dying computer” – most computers can be kept alive like an old car, for not TOO much money (it does depend on which part is dying)… What is the computer doing? You can email me if you prefer. ;) (hubby and I are old-time computer trouble-shooters)
Laura says
I’m not techy enough to know/explain, but our friend who’s working on it thinks it’s gonna live!
We’re very thankful!
Susan Alexander says
Great!! Yes, in the right hands, it’s very rare that a computer can’t be resurrected. :)
Abby says
Thanks for hosting this challenge! I’m slowly gaining motivation to do some serious freezer cooking (now that we have a second freezer, praise the Lord!!)
Brooke says
Thanks for the challenge. I went out and bought a bunch of my food on Wednesday evening to do my freezer cooking. Unfortunately I felt like crud after I got home and yesterday. But I managed to get 1 of my freezer meals made yesterday. I made the Tacos in a Sleeping bag. I tried one and they were yummy. And even greater news, my 4 y.o. was so excited and wanted to try one. She scarfed it down! PTL! So that’s in my freezer. Of the course of today and tomorrow (hoping I can get most or all of it done today), I’m going to be making Laura’s sloppy joe cornbread for the freezer, OAMM pork chops May recipe, and stuffed bell peppers. And I have some chicken dishes to cook up. Yikes, I better get cooking!
Also, I wanted share with you a great resource if you want a book for Freezer cooking. I found this resource at a mom’s conference a couple years ago and this lady has been doing this and has perfected it! There’s a lot of GREAT info for beginners. Things that you might not even think of. Anyways, it’s called Freezer Cooking Manual by Nanci Slagle.
Courtney Wagner says
I checked out the OAMM website – what a lot of great recipes! I made her Breakfast Cookies and have them in the freezer. I also made a batch of red beans for the freezer and just finished making stock from a whole chicken that will go in the freezer. Also, I made your salmon patties and homemade ranch dressing (neither of which lasted long!). Today I will be making a double batch of turkey sausage for the freezer. I love the sense of accomplishment when I have food ready to use in the freezer! I hope you host another one of these Freezer Cooking weeks soon!
Blessings,
Courtney
Audrey says
I made 4 pizza crusts…. I used one of those crusts to make some pizza pockets (which I froze), one of those crusts and some bread dough to make ham and potato pockets (from OAMM site), and froze the other two for another time. I also made chicken and rice soup, cinnamon raisin bread, mocha chip muffins, and egg flower soup, plus I shredded 2 lbs of cheese and froze it.
And we had egg salad sandwiches for lunch. :D
Jaime Layton says
Thanks! I Definately need to do more of the freezer cooking thing! Can’t wait to try the Baked Chicken and Artichoke Penne with Sundried Tomatoes!
Rebecca says
I REALLY enjoyed the freezer challenge!
-Tuesday- 2 loaves of stromboli
-Thursday- 8 loaves bread, 2 9×13 pans dinner rolls, 2 dozen hamburger buns, 64 uncooked cinnamon rolls, 2 dozen giant raisin rounds. (none of HH’s recipes, but made with butter, olive oil, wheat flour (1/2 and 1/2 with white), honey, and sucanat)
-Friday- Double batch of OAMM’s Homemade Cheesy Rice, got 4 quarts for the freezer.
I don’t have a blog, so I’m going to email you a pic of Thursday’s accomplishment. :)
You should have a monthly freezer challenge!! With 2 fridges w/freezers plus two small chest freezers, I have no excuse to not ‘get ahead’! I plan to start doing it whenever I can!
Lois @ Tenderherb says
Thanks for hosting this… I want to do more of it. And be a little better at planning my meals. I keep trying, but some how it doesn’t get done. This was the motivation I needed… Now maybe I will keep it up. I agree with a previous comment, you should host this more often.
Mary says
Right on, Ladies! You are inspiring me to give this freezer cooking thing a try – still building up the energy and courage needed to do it.
Karen says
I finally got around to trying your freezer hashbrowns. We ate some, I used some in your breakfast casserole, and froze the rest. They were great just like nearly every recipe of yours I’ve tried! I Only had a half hour before bed to cook them when I realized they needed to be cool by morning. I had planned to cook them in a crock pot overnight, but instead baked them at 350 for a half hour, then turned the oven off, but left them in there overnight. It worked great!
Amanda Sikes says
I wasn’t clear if the recipe had to be from your site? Could you answer that question? I did lots of freezer cooking today but when I reread the post it seems to me it has to be one of your recipes to count as an entry.
Laura says
Sorry about that! It can be ANY recipe from anywhere!!!
Brooke says
Yippee! I already posted today but I’m just proud to announce that I got more freezer meals done today! Sloppy Joe muffins, stuffed bell peppers, BBQ Chicken Enchiladas, and I’m going to through my pork chops together right now to get them in the freezer :) I think my freezer is smiling!
Krista says
coconut ice cream! Yummy! Count me in!!!
Jessica F says
Thanks for the freezer recipes! These were all new to me and great to add to my freezer-cooking arsenal. I’ve done once a month freezer cooking for over a year, and now I’m taking a sabbatical. I’m in the throes of serious pregnancy nausea and cooking is VERY difficult for me.
I can’t wait to resume my once a month cooking as it saves me tons of time and money as a mom of three little ones (almost 4). I’ve used MANY of your wonderful recipes through the past year. Thank you for your effort you put into this blog! May the Lord encourage you for being such an inspiration to so many:-).
D says
Made some quick eggs for breakfast then got busy with the week activities and did not have time to do much extra this week.
April says
I’m a little late, but I have the link to my freezer cooking up now. Thanks for hosting this Laura!
Harmony says
We had a successful cooking day yesterday a friend and I made breakfast burritos, muffins, fruity burittos, turkey sausage, breakfast casserole, fruit cups, 2 bbq pizzas, 3 chili, 2 carne asada, chicken burritos, fajitas, corn dog muffins, feta & spinach turkey burgers, garlic bread, twice baked potatoes, southwest chicken, greek chicken, steak roll ups, sundried tomato stuffed chicken, & sweet & sour chicken.
One of our favorite from yesterday is the fruity breakfast burritos, a oamm recipe:
Ingredients:
•10 flour tortillas, small
•1.25 cups vanilla (or fruit flavored) yogurt
•8 oz DOLE frozen blueberries (or sub .5 pints fresh)
•8 oz DOLE frozen raspberries (or sub .5 pints fresh)
•.5 cups sugar
•1 Tablespoon cinnamon
•Spray butter
Directions:
In a small bowl, mix the sugar and cinnamon well. Pour it out on a large plate. Set aside. Spray one side of each of the tortillas with butter, coating the entire surface. Flip the tortilla over, butter side down, on the cinnamon sugar mixture. Push it in until the entire surface is covered in cinnamon and sugar.
Place the sugar covered tortilla on another plate, cinnamon/sugar side down. Measure .125 (1/8 cup) cups of yogurt and spread across the tortilla a little left of center (see pictures below). Place fruit on the yogurt strip. Wrap the tortillas tightly from left to right. Place on a cookie sheet to flash freeze. When completely frozen through, place in a zippered freezer bag for storage.
To serve: Take out of the bag and eat immediately. If you would like you could also let them thaw for a bit. Thawing overnight or for too long can result in a mushy burrito, but can be done.
Variations: There are so many variations that you can do with this recipe. I encourage you to try different flavor combination’s. Maybe strawberry/kiwi or strawberry/banana or apple cinnamon. The possibilities are endless. Be sure to report back on your favorite flavor combination’s.
Freezing Directions:
See above.
Servings: 10
Angelia says
I didn’t exactly get a recipe done since we have had company. But – I did manage to cook some extra rice to freeze and some extra black beans and chicken as well while preparing meals for our guests. Every little bit helps!
Angelia says
Forgot to say that the above will be for burritos. Just need to get the tortillas done:)
Terri Dahmer says
I made cinnamen raisin bread, and mac a cheese cups from OAMM.
Tara says
This site is awesome! I am off to double another meal!
Crystal @ Intentional Homemaker says
Ooops. I somehow linked to the wrong page. My link should be on the Gratituesday page. I’ll try to fix that! :)