Freezer Cooking Tricks & Tips

As we prepare to do our second Two-Week Cooking Project, I thought of a few tips and tricks that I wanted to share with you. These are things that I’ve tried and found helpful. If you have some other tips, please share them in the comments. We learn the most from each other!

The Dishwasher

I’ve found it helpful to start cooking with an empty dishwasher. This allows the MANY dirty dishes I create to go straight into the dishwasher rather than getting piled up in the sink. It speeds clean-up time, and it keeps my limited counter space from being taken over by dirty dishes.

If you don’t have a dishwasher, I feel your pain! This is the first place we’ve lived where we have a dishwasher, and I love it! I washed dishes by hand for years. The up side is that my nails always looked nicer. 🙂 If you don’t have a dishwasher, you may want to fill your sink with a fresh batch of dish water. Then you can add your dirty dishes to it and wash them periodically as you’re cooking.

The Meat

I saved some time during our cooking session by cooking some of the chicken ahead of time. If you’re creating meals that call for cooked chicken or ground beef, you may want to cook these items the day before you’re doing your prep. This allows the meat to cool before you have to add it to your dishes.

Recruiting Help

I found this last round of freezer cooking MUCH more enjoyable, because my whole family was in the kitchen. Emma was watching a video on the portable DVD player, but Jason was my right-hand man! He browned all of the ground beef and assembled several of our dishes. He was a BIG help. Having everyone hanging out together made the time go by quickly and made the process more fun.

Containers, Bags, and Wraps (Oh MY!)

I almost got myself into a pickle on this last round of cooking. I used my LAST gallon-sized freezer bag for the last meal we prepped. I knew I had a nice supply of freezer bags in the basement, but I didn’t realize that they were mostly quart-sized. That works for most things, but not the big casserole we were stuffing into the gallon-sized bag. I was also dangerously low on aluminum foil. Lesson learned…. The next time we cook, I’m taking a good inventory of our containers, bags, and wraps BEFORE I start cooking!

 Follow a Cooking Plan

I’m a planner to the core. So it made sense to me to plan out the order of my cooking for our Two-Week Cooking Project. I thought it through and figured out what needed to be cooking in a Crock Pot while I assembled other ingredients. I wanted to work with similar ingredients so that I wasn’t getting things out and putting them away, only to get them out again. Planning ahead saves me time and energy.

Cooking Night Dinner

One thing I didn’t do for our last freezer cooking day was plan an easy meal for that evening. After chopping and assembling, who feels like cooking dinner!?!?  We ended up eating one of the meals we had assembled, but that wasn’t in my original menu plan. If your family has a going-out-to-eat night, it might be wise to schedule it for freezer cooking day. If you’re trying to avoid going out to eat, it helps to have something in the Crock Pot for that night’s dinner.

We’re going to be doing our next Two-Week Cooking Project starting next week. If you’ve always wanted to try once-a-month cooking but haven’t had the ambition to tackle it, a Two-Week Cooking Project might be just what you need. It’s less overwhelming but still rewarding. I’ll start posting my menu plan, recipes, and shopping list next week. So feel free to join us!

Note to everyone who participated in our last Two-week Cooking Project: I know that you’re probably on your last week’s worth of meals, but we’re having a crazy week and weekend! I know that I’m not going to be able to cook this weekend. We’re going to use up the few extra meals we ended up with and probably have a soup-and-sandwich night or an extra pizza night next week. If you’re just about out of meals, I hope you can float through the next week and then come back for another Two-Week Cooking Project! I’ll start posting everything on Monday, August 16.

This post is linked to:
:: Works for Me Wednesday hosted by We Are THAT Family
:: Frugal Friday hosted by Life As MOM