I’m happy to report that I was able to cross off everything on last week’s Make Ahead Healthy Foods list, plus a little extra! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: If you want to get ahead in the kitchen, just do a little extra every once in a while. Here are a few pictures showing what I worked on during the past seven days:
I put my boys on the task of scrubbing 10 pounds of potatoes (the amount that fits well in my big roaster). We baked them to turn them into Hashbrowns.
If you’ve not tried making Hashbrowns this way – you’ve gotta try it! These are so easy, delicious and make for a great quick breakfast or dinner side dish. I freeze them on cookie sheets, then transfer them to freezer bags. Having frozen hashbrowns ready to grab and cook quickly is so nice!
I mixed up a batch of Honey Oat Crunch Cereal that is great to have on hand for a quick breakfast or a snack. (This recipe is in my Think Breakfast Outside the Box ebook.) I wish I remembered to make this more often – it’s great to have on hand. I just stick it in a jar and put it on top of the fridge. We eat it with raisins and other dried fruit, plain or with milk or cream. So good!
I guess I was on a roll with breakfast foods last week! I made a batch of Giant Breakfast Cookies. We ate half and froze half.
I made six pounds of Turkey Sausage, freezing it into eight meal sized bags. I LOVE having this on hand to use in my Pancake Sausage Muffins and Easy Breakfast Casserole. Plus, since I now have frozen hashbrowns, I can throw some of this sausage in with the hashbrowns, scramble eggs into it and we’ve got a meal. Easy!
I had ordered a big box of strawberries from Azure Standard which arrived last week. We ate as many as we could while they were fresh, but the rest needed to make their way into the freezer. I like freezing them on cookie sheets first so that they don’t stick together in freezer bags later. Aren’t they purty?
I’ve already shared about how I made Homemade Beef Bologna – we ate some and froze some. I also made Tammy’s Homemade Spicy Beef Pepperoni, but if we thought my bologna pictures were not pretty, my beef pepperoni pictures were even worse. Come to think of it, I didn’t even take pictures of the pepperoni. The pepperoni itself was so very ugly, I hid it from my kids before they could see it and decide they didn’t like it before they’d tried it. BUT, when I sliced it and put it on pizza, it was very delicious. So, I now have ugly bologna and ugly pepperoni in my freezers too, but I’ll spare you the agony of having to see pictures of them. ;)
Have you made anything healthy and tasty for your freezer lately?
In case you’re wondering, here’s a post on How I Freeze Food.
Brandi says
Did you cook the turkey sausage before you froze it?
Laura says
Yes, I cooked it by browning it all, then put about 2 cups in each baggie for freezing.
Kristi says
I put a roast in the crockpot. I make double what we need for a meal and then cut up and freeze the rest for a future beef stew. I’ve been canning up a storm, but I’m not sure that counts. ;) I froze 3 quarts of raspberries, and made a giant pot of stock for my freezer as well.
Laura says
It totally counts. :)
Michelle says
Do you freeze on parchment paper? It looks like you have something down on the cookie sheets in the pictures. I made the hashbrowns and they were soooo yummy. However, when I froze them in freezer bags they just became one hard glob of potatoes. Do I need to put something down on the cookie sheet when I freeze them?
Laura says
Yes, if I use parchement paper on my cookie sheets, they pull right up after I freeze them. Then I transfer them to freezer bags for storage.
Lura says
Do you have to use plain yogurt in the cereal, or would vanilla work? That is what I have on hand right now. Thanks!
Laura says
Vanilla would work – I’ve done it before with great results!
Sonja says
I found fresh organic whole chickens this weekend so I made 2 herb and garlic chickens for the freezer. These are great because you don’t have to remember to thaw them – just pop them in the crock pot and let them cook all day.
Andy says
I’m in the process of coming up with some recipes to make and keep frozen like this. I don’t eat grains/starches though, so it’s proving a bit more complicated.
Lisa M says
Andy-
I love to have mini meat loaves and meatballs in my freezer for a quick meal. We also have chicken that I grill, dice, and freeze. Lots of extra peppers and onions, corn from the garden that is frozen also. We are gluten free, and stick mainly to meat, veg and fruit. I too find it challenging to have freezer meals but I do have lots of parts that make cooking go quicker. would love to here your list.
Andy says
Thank you for the ideas Lisa. I also stick to mainly meat, vegetables, and fruit.
I’ve wanted to work on having freezer meals ready for a long time now and never have really gotten to do it. The idea of having parts of meals already done intrigues me, and sounds like it may be more manageable. I’m going to look at some of my favorite recipes and see what parts of them can be done and frozen in advance.
Of course, the couple times I have tried to freeze extra meals, in the days following those get eaten and we’re back to square one. Ha.
Kamilla Ostwald says
another freezer suggestion is pumpkin! – LOVE to put some in pancake batter (makes them fluffy & golden), mac-n-cheese (nobody knows:), smoothies & all the regular stuff – pies, bars, etc!!
Teri says
We have had lots of zucchini and summer squash from our garden this year, so I’ve been grating some and blanching some for the freezer. (you can also cook and puree squash, freeze and then use in soups, stews, as baby food etc. although I haven’t done any this year). I’ve also been freezing extra broccoli and just got done pickling 7 qts of cauliflower. And I have been dehydrating some of the zucchini and summer squash also. I plan to put as much as I can in our freezer from our garden. :) Tomatoes are next!
Lana says
You can clean large quantities of potatoes in the top rack of your dishwasher! Just put them in there and run the rinse cycle. They are amazingly clean with almost no effort!
Jean says
Have you ever tried freezing your baked potatoes to use for say…Taco Potatoes? I wonder how they would hold up in the freezer. Since it takes 1 1/2 hours to cook the potatoes, it would save so much time if you could cook a lot at once and then freeze them.
Laura says
No, I haven’t tried that – not sure it would work for whole potatoes.
Jenifer Parker says
How many Giant Breakfast cookies does this recipe make please?
Laura says
Between 18-24. :)
Dione says
Nothing headed toward the freezer at our house. Everything is going into jars. Put up 35 quarts of spaghetti sauce yesterday along with 26 pints and 7 quarts of plums. Today I have 12 trays of tomatoes drying now for quick tomato paste and plan to make up some salsa after a lunch of blt’s.
JenniferStuart says
I made the cookies and my family loves them!!
Sana says
A laundry tip I picked up from a book several years ago really saves me time with laundry. I have a shelf close to my dryer with a bin for each of my children in it. After washing and drying their clothes I drop theirs in the appropriate bin with out folding. I only fold and put away my and my husband’s clothes, and towels. The kids are responsible for putting away their own clothes. They don’t always fold their clothes. I just tell them to put the clothes in their correct drawers. Works well for us!