I love seeing how many are grabbing the Let’s Do This! Getting Ahead in Your Real Food Kitchen eCourse and {Healthy} Make Ahead Meals and Snacks eBook. It is especially great to hear how some of you are already using the techniques described in the eCourse and the recipes in the eBook to get ahead. As one person commented this morning, “Because of your course, I now already have dinner made for tonight! That’s a first for me!” Awesome. :) It’s so exciting to me to see how many of you are saving yourselves so much time and energy in your kitchen!
Today, I wanted to share an additional tip that has helped me to get ahead this week. It’s been hot at our house the past several days – too hot to bake. In fact, I’ve hardly even wanted to cook anything on the stovetop because even that heats up the kitchen on hot days. But I still found myself with about thirty minutes of time yesterday that I could work ahead in the kitchen.
So what did I do? I mixed up items that could be frozen raw and baked later. It was the perfect solution to getting ahead without heating up the kitchen!
Here’s what I made:
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough (a necessity, right?)
To freeze cookie dough, simply mix up the batter and scoop it out onto a cookie sheet. Place the cookie sheet in the freezer until the cookie dough is frozen. Transfer the frozen dough to a well-labeled ziplock bag. Store in the freezer for up to two months. To bake the cookies, place the frozen balls of dough onto a baking sheet, two inches apart. Bake as directed, adding a few minutes extra baking time.
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffin Batter
Here are the details you’ll want to read to learn about freezing muffin batter. On a chilly morning someday soon, I can use these frozen muffin balls to make fresh muffins without any effort!
Don’t like the hassle of rolling out and cutting out biscuits at breakfast or dinner time? Me neither (even though it really isn’t hard). I mixed up a double batch of biscuits, rolled them, cut them, and froze them on a cookie sheet. Once they were frozen, I transferred them to a freezer bag. To bake frozen biscuits: Place desired number of biscuits on a baking sheet to thaw for 30 minutes to one hour before baking. Bake as directed.
Other ideas of ways to get ahead when it’s too hot to cook/bake:
- Put together Whole Wheat Butterhorns and store them, unbaked, in the freezer.
- Grate cheese
- Prep veggies
- Make salad dressing
What else have you done to get ahead in your kitchen that doesn’t require using a stove or oven?
How has it been going for you as you’ve been
working through the eCourse and trying new recipes from the eBook?
Haven’t started yet? We’d love to have you join us!
On the quick mix mix how do you freeze it without it turning into a brick? I don’t have any trouble with the muffin mix but the quick mix is not cooperating! Help? Thanks!!
That has been a problem for me too sometimes. The only real reason for keeping it in the freezer is to keep the flour fresh. SO, if you’re going to use it within a week or two, just store it in your pantry. :)
For years I’ve been freezing cookie batter (a necessity in my house) but never thought about freezing biscuits. Brilliant! Thank you!
Ditto to Lana’s comment! :D
What a timely post! I am sweating it out right now in my kitchen/homeschool room because I have 2 pots of beans simmering. I’m wishing I would have just gone for the cookie dough ;0) Although I don’t know how great that would taste in casseroles or chili. Thanks for always having great information on your site.
I just read your comment on making salad dressing and chuckled. We eat a salad every night for dinner per a New Year’s resolution and I get tired of mixing up the same ingredients every other night. I decided last night to make a quart once a week! It might save me a few minutes!
Also, prepping lettuce and veggies for the salad can be done a few days in advance to help with dinner. I chop them and just pull out what I need.
How funny, I just made double batch of cookies and only had time to bake half. When I went to bake the rest, the dough was difficult to scoop and I was wishing I had thought to scoop the balls before refrigerating the dough. Then I thought, I bet Laura freezes her dough balls for instant cookies and sure enough she does, LOL
For faster biscuits, skip the rolling and make drop biscuits. my recipe calls for 3/4 cup buttermilk when rolling out, 1 cup buttermilk for the drop version.
I got ahead this week by making muffins, granola bars, cookies and brownies. It’s been in the mid 90’s this week and our central air has been on, so I didn’t notice our house heat up. I did at least try to bake things back to back to take advantage of the hot oven.
I like to wander down the frozen food aisles in the store periodically to get some inspiration. If they can freeze it, so can I!
Thanks for the tip for freezing muffin batter!
I love this post, not because it’s too hot where we’re at right now but because we’ll be welcoming our 4th baby in about 3 weeks! I’m going to make up some of these things ahead of time and it will be so helpful to have them in the freezer and be able to bake them fresh. Thanks!
I really love the idea for the frozen cookie dough.