I hope you’re planning to join me for Week One of our newest Freezer Cooking Challenge! I figured if I needed to spend some time getting ahead, you might too. Why not cook together, right?

For Week One, we’ll be focusing on beef recipes. If I’m going to brown one pound of hamburger meat, I might as well brown eight or ten. I still just dirty up one pot, and the time I save overall is amazing. So, we’ll be browning 8 pounds of meat at once, then we’ll put together 8 meals with the meat we prepared.

We’ll do this over the course of a week – so really, the time it takes each day to do the work is very minimal. I’ll walk you through all the steps! Here’s what is on my list to prepare during the upcoming week. My idea is to make two of each casserole listed below – one for our evening meal, and an additional one for the freezer. So easy! (All of these recipes can be made gluten free if you use GF pasta and corn tortillas.)

• Cheesy Beef and Rice – catch the details in this post
• Bacon Cheeseburger Casserole (recipe in {Healthy} Make-Ahead Meals and Snacks eBook) – catch the details in this post
• Cheesy Beef and Pasta Casserole (recipe in {Healthy} Make-Ahead Meals and Snacks eBook) – view details here
• Creamy Salsa Enchiladas (recipe in Let’s Do This! eCourse, Lesson 2) or if you prefer, you can make the Cheesy Salsa Enchiladas version of this recipe – catch the details in this post

Don’t want to make them all? No problem. Want to make three of each? Okay. This needs to benefit you, not cause you stress – so you just grab hold of whatever part of this challenge works for you and drop kick the rest. The grocery list below assumes you’ll be making two of each casserole. You can adjust it accordingly.

What you’ll need:

• 5-6 Casserole Dishes (I use 9×13 inch Pyrex Dishes with lids)
• 8 pounds hamburger meat
• 1 pound bacon
• 16 ounces pasta (I use whole wheat)
• 5 cups brown rice
• 5 cups sour cream (40 ounces)
• 4 cups salsa (32 ounces)
• 4 cups tomato sauce (32 ounces)
• 2 eight-ounce cream cheese packages
• 1/2 cup dry minced onion
• 14 cups shredded cheese (4-ounces equals one cup; you’ll need approximately 56 ounces – less is fine if you would like to save money by skimping on the cheese)
• 12 whole wheat tortillas (homemade tortillas are awesome)
• 1 cup ketchup
• 2 cans black olives
• 2/3 cup milk

Be sure you have:

• mustard
• chili powder
• sea salt
• pepper
• garlic powder

I’ve created a downloadable and printable grocery list for you here:  Freezer Cooking Grocery List ~ Week One

Be sure to add plenty of fruits, vegetables, and salad items to your list to go with your casseroles!

Here are your first assignments:

1. Pick up all needed items at the grocery store.
2. Brown 8 pounds of ground beef, along with about a half cup of minced onion.

Once your meat has been cooked, let it cool, then put it into the fridge to be worked with later. You can divide it into 4 equal(ish) sized portions if you would like, just to make it easier later. I personally just put my whole pot into the fridge and will scoop out 1/4 of the contents each time I need it.

You’re welcome to put together recipes as your own pace, of course. But for the sake of those who want to do this freezer cooking in stages, I plan to break all tasks down into small chunks so that it will be doable for all who only have a few minutes to spend on this at one time.

On Monday, we’ll continue on by putting together our first round of casseroles. Don’t forget, Let’s Do This! eCourse and {Healthy} Make-Ahead Meals and Snacks eBook are discounted to just $5 for the whole package.

Hope your freezer cooking prep time goes well! Let me know how these first assignments go for you.