I’ve been needing to do this for months.
The problem with trying to get ahead is that before you can get ahead, you have to catch up first. But I’ve been behind, so trying to catch up has been tough, which means that getting ahead has just been a far off dream.
Oh, and that reminds me that I’ve really been wanting to experiment with making my own catch up (or ketchup or however you want to spell it). Maybe once I’ve figured out how to make homemade catch up I will feel caught up?
Is this anything like getting a round tuit?
Is this conversation making anyone else tired, or is it just me?
So here’s my point: This weekend I’m going to attempt to get ahead in the kitchen. The idea has been in the back of my mind for weeks now and I truly love having big cooking marathons. Once I saw that Crystal and Jessica were challenging others to join them in their Freezer Cooking Days, I decided that caught up or not, I was going to try to get ahead.
I really want to put some food in the fridge and freezer to make our school days easier. Oh, and the snacking. Lately I have felt like there are not nearly enough “easy to grab” snacks available.
This weekend I plan to let the house fall down around me while I make a huge mess in my kitchen. Actually, I plan to have my boys clean the rest of the house while I make a big mess in the kitchen. They don’t know that yet. But I have a list for them, oh yes I do.
Here’s my list for this weekend:
- Cheesy Beef and Rice (x2)
- Beefy Enchilada Bake
- Sloppy Joe Meat (x2)
- Corn Dog Muffins
- Chili
- Popcorn Chicken (x 2 ready to rewarm for quick lunches)
- Beef and Cheese Burritos (x 2)
- Lasagna Casserole
- Homemade Pizza Pockets
- Cinnamon Swirl Bread (2 loaves + 2 regular loaves of Honey Whole Wheat Bread)
- Whole Wheat Tortillas (x 4 – some for burritos and some to have on hand for quesadillas and tostadas)
- Chocolate Chip Cookies (3 batches for upcoming church activities)
- Whole Wheat Graham Crackers
- Strawberry Bread (x2)
- Whole Wheat and Honey Zucchini Bread (x2)
And now forgive me while I think out loud about some of the things I need to do before I can pull off this big “cooking ahead weekend”. I’d spare you, but it needs to be done and since Matt and I have very limited conversation time these days I hesitate to use up our precious minutes to tell him how much hamburger I need to thaw for my burritos.
- Thaw five pounds of ground beef.
- Thaw three pounds of ground venison.
- Thaw a package of hot dogs.
- Grind flour for baked goods.
- Thaw strawberries for bread.
- Thaw zucchini for bread
- Thaw two pounds of butter for cookies and tortillas.
- Thaw two pounds of cheese for burritos, pizza pockets and casseroles.
- Soak beans for chili.
- What am I forgetting?
- Hey did you fall asleep?
That’s okay…that was a boring list. But it was helpful to me, so thank you for putting up with it.
Okay, well I’m pretty excited about getting all of this done! Think I can pull it off? I’ll share a report and pictures on Monday to show how it went!
Want me to have the boys take a picture of all the flour that will be in my hair?
Oh, and after all of this…if I’m still standing upright…I REALLY AM going to try to make homemade catch up….ketchup. Maybe?
It’s actually “catsup.” But most have taken the brand name and now use “ketchup.”
Good luck, Laura! Hope your weekend goes as planned! Looking forward to the report on Monday! You’ve inspired me to do some ketch-ing up of my own – thanks!
Go right ahead and think aloud your list to us. I have been doing alot more freezer cooking days, but it’s really broken up over a few days (I am blessed with many little ones:)
I love cooking marathons! I wish we lived closer so I could come and help, it is more fun with someone else. Although, if you are like me, the kitchen is personal space much of the time, and it is hard to let someone else invade it, help or not…Good luck, you have great plan.
Hmmm… sounds like a good idea for me too!! We’ve been crazy busy this week. We had church every night! I won’t embarrass myself and say what we ate!
Anyways, I’m thinking of making the cinnamon bread… i’ve never made bread before… a little nervous! but i LOVE cinnamon raison bread!
So a question for you… I know our grocery store has yeast, I think it’s active (or something) is that the yeast to get? Oh, and the kneading part (this freaks me out too!) How do you know when to stop kneading? And can you knead it incorrectly? lol
I use dry active yeast. Here’s my kneading bread tutorial. You can do it!!!! https://www.heavenlyhomemakers.com/how-to-make-whole-wheat-bread-tutorial
Yeah that’s it, dry active yeast!
Woohoo thanks!!! I’ll set the laptop in the kitchen and knead along w/you!
It’ll be the perfect day to do it, it’s going to be cold (mid-twenties, I guess that would be warm for yall lol) all weekend.
Thanks for the vote of confidence! Hopefully it won’t be as hard as I have imagined all these years!
Wow — thank you for this post! I love all these links to great make ahead food! Good luck with getting it all done!
I am anxious to hear how much you get done and how hard this was. I love this idea and have done some cooking ahead but never this much. Good luck!
Ok, you freeze butter? And cheese? Extremely curious about that! Would love for you to include info on those in a future post. I guess I might have heard of freezing butter, but do you just stock up on a ton of it? And I didn’t think cheese did well after it had been frozen – doesn’t melt nicely, not good for eating plain or cold… Would love hints and info on those. :-)
Hope the marathon goes great! And I am so glad I figured out I wasn’t getting your emails anymore! I had to go back and read quite a few to catch up. :-)
Kori
Oh YES you CAN freezer butter and cheese and I’m SO glad! I have been buying a case of each from my food coop and freezing them until I need them.
The butter is no problem at all.
The cheese does get a little weird. After being frozen, it doesn’t slice well or shred well. It mostly just crumbles. But, I don’t mind at all because I just crumble it apart and sprinkle it on like I would shredded cheese.
Amazing! So I guess any plain cheese eating would take place before
freezing. That is so good to know. Thanks!
Kori
Ohhhhh awwwww… strawberry bread…mmmmm….
Thinking aloud is just fine. Helps me figure out what I’ll need to do in order to follow your example. :-) We still have power here, so I’m going to bake as much as I can, as fast as I can!
I love the idea of freezer cooking. In fact one goal of mine is to actually do it and have enough for 30 days of meals. A bit ambitious. Anyway, I’m stuck on the logistics of it. Do you have a ton of cassarole dishes to freeze each dish in? Or do you somehow transfer to another container/bag to freeze it in? (I get stuck on this stuff and then never do it!)
Good luck with your weekend, I hope it is super successful!
You can do it, Laura! I was hoping to get some freezer cooking done this weekend but we are having a snow storm and hubby may be gone all weekend at work…so it may be whatever I can get done while the kids are asleep. I usually drop around 8pm so who knows?? lol
Can’t wait to hear your progress….I have bananas thawing for bread and that’s about it. :)
As a single gal, I’m going to have a freezer half-marathon this weekend. Snickerdoodles and pizza pockets will definitely be smelling up this house! P.S.- It’s going to be n icky, cold weekend for us in NC, so cooking is a great way to spend the time!
I love cooking marathons for freezing! I like reading your lists. thanks for posting have fun!!
Hey Laura! Congrats on your full freezers! I’m so jealous that your tortillas turn out so nice. I made some the other night with my new tortilla press. Ummmm, other than reminding me of a mammogram, they turned out pretty pathetic. They were too thick regardless of how hard I pressed. They didn’t fold either, much to my family’s consternation. The left-overs were accidentally left out on a plate all night, and the next morning they were strewn throughout the house. The cats probably played frisbee with them, because I’m sure they didn’t dance off the plate. Anyhow, do you add any gluten or dough enhancer or anything to yours? Thanks.
Lois the kitchen klutz
No, I don’t add anything to mine. Matt brought me a tortilla press from Mexico a few years ago and I love it because it’s so cool…but I just don’t use it because it just doesn’t make great tortillas. I always go back to rolling them with a rolling pin. Works SO much better for me! I can get them the exact size and “thinness” that way.
At least your cats had fun!
I’m still surprised that you survived that weekend. Great work!