Real Food Freezer Cooking–5 Breakfasts, 10 Dinners and a Printable Grocery List

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I told you guys last week how I spent all day Saturday real food freezer cooking. I also told you that I would give you the details on how I did it and what I made.

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I was inspired to do this little project not only because I had been wanting to try my hand at it, but because a good friend of mine and avid reader was getting ready to do a HUGE freezer cooking day. She is about to have her 3rd (!) baby and asked me what I knew about freezer cooking. Well, let’s see. I knew the concept of it–you make a huge batch of meals and freeze them, but what I didn’t know was what kind of recipes are good for freezing, and just how much dang work it takes to orchestrate it (luckily she had a LOT of help). 

Real Food Freezer Cooking--5 Breakfasts, 10 Dinners and a Printable Grocery List

When she told me about planning her freezer cooking day I got to thinking–why can’t I do a real food freezer cooking version? I mean, I already gave you guys an entire month’s worth of printable real food meal plans, so why not do a freezer cooking version of this?

That is essentially what I have for you today. Now, I didn’t do an entire month of meals but I did scour Pinterest, and found 5 breakfasts and 10 dinners. If you double most and triple or quadruple a few, you will end up with 24 dinners. That’s a pretty good start! I also found a recipe for dinner rolls that are freezable as well as garlic bread. Pair that with one of the dinners, add in a side dish and voila–dinner is served! 

What I learned during my real food freezer cooking session:

1.  Have a plan of action–know what you are making and what steps go into it. Last Saturday was the day I marked on my calendar to execute this. I made up the menu and grocery list about 2 weeks in advance, and didn’t think about it again until the day arrived. That was a TERRIBLE idea. I suggest at the very least, going over your menu and list again the day before you go shopping, and if you do the cooking on a different day, the day before that too. This way you have a good idea in your head of what you need to do–like soaking beans if you are cooking from scratch, making sure all of your meat is thawed out etc. You should even write down a plan of execution. If you have A.D.D like I do, you will definitely need it. I spent 8 hours in the kitchen and didn’t even make all of the meals on my list due to getting sidetracked. That is pretty sad!

2.  Make a DETAILED grocery list. Saying you need tomato sauce isn’t very helpful. Go through your recipes and count up how much you will need–write it out in quantities you are familiar with. For example, I know that tomato sauce comes in small cans (8oz), medium cans (15oz) and large cans or jars (24oz)–go through and figure out how many ounces you will need for everything! And you also need to make sure you read your list correctly! I didn’t and ended up not having enough of a few things. There is nothing more frustrating than getting everything prepared and realizing you forgot an ingredient. 

3. Clean out your freezer ahead of time. Why I didn’t think of doing this I have no idea. I was in the midst of preparing my meals and I had to stop to move stuff around, wipe out baskets, throw stuff away etc. So frustrating! This is probably why it took me as long as it did to make those meals!

4.  Make sure your kitchen is clean before you start. You don’t want to have to stop to wipe down counters, put dishes away, etc. Also make sure your dishwasher is empty because you will be using that baby, believe me. 

It is also helpful if you have a friend who wants to get in on this with you. You can divide out the meals when you are finished and it’s always nice to have someone to chop veggies while someone else assembles! The friend I mentioned earlier set up different stations and paired her helpers off. Each station was responsible for a few recipes, and this made things go so much faster for her.


Freezer Cooking

Alright, here’s a list of the real food freezer cooking recipes I made. A few are my own basic recipes, but most are from others. I love the power of Pinterest!

 Breads

Whole Wheat Pizza dough (make 2 recipes to make 4 pizza crusts)
• Garlic Bread
Dinner Rolls (makes 24)

Breakfasts

Blueberry and Greek Yogurt muffins (makes 12)
Breakfast Burritos (makes 20)
Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Pancakes (makes 12-16)
Mini Omlettes (makes 8-10)
Make Ahead Oatmeal Smoothies (make in whatever
flavor/quantities you prefer)

Dinners

Lasagna (make 2)
Mexican Chicken Chilli (double recipe)
• Frozen Pizzas (Make 4—use the whole wheat dough)
Greek Marinated Chicken breasts (double recipe to make 6-8
breasts and freeze in smaller portions)
Crockpot Fiesta chicken soup (double recipe)
Spicy Southwest Marinade for chicken (marinate in packages of 2-
3 breasts, freeze then grill, or grill ahead of time to use on salads,
quesadillas etc)
Mama’s Meatloaf (make 2)
Slow Cooker Chilli (double recipe)
Baked Penne with Chicken and Tomatoes (recipe makes 2)
Creamy Chicken Casserole (recipe makes 2)

As I mentioned before, I didn’t really have a good plan of action. I mean, I had an idea of what needed to be done, but I didn’t take into account everything. I did at least remember to soak my beans the night before since I was using dry beans vs. canned. In hindsight, it would be much wiser to actually COOK the beans a day or two ahead of time, as the simmering pots took up valuable stove space and made the kitchen pretty hot. 

Before I went to the store that morning, I did throw about 6 chicken breasts in my Crock Pot  with a little bit of salt and pepper, to cook while I was gone.

Real Food Freezer Cooking

I’m glad I remembered to do this! The chicken was pretty much done by the time I got home and had everything put away. All I had to do was shred it. This was one of those times I was VERY thankful for my Kitchen Aid stand mixer. I put 3 breasts in the bowl with the paddle attachment. It shreds the chicken in less than 30 seconds. For real. LESS than 30 seconds. Much better than shredding those babies with forks or fingers.

While the chicken cooled and the beans were simmering on the stove, I chopped up all of the veggies. This made it easier to do an assembly line sort of thing.

Real Food Freezer Cooking

I made up the 2 marinades first and put them in gallon Ziploc bags with the chicken breasts.
**Side note, be sure to use high quality freezer bags for this. Using a generic can result in a HUGE mess when the bags don’t stay sealed. <–happened to me!
I did the Greek marinade with whole chicken breasts and the southwest marinade with breasts cut into strips. The bags chilled in the fridge while I finished the rest of the cooking.

Real Food Freezer Cooking

Then I started assembling the Mexican chicken chili and Fiesta chicken soup. I made 2 batches each of these. Here’s a little peek at my assembly line. 

Real Food Freezer Cooking

Note: for the Mexican chili I opted to leave the chicken broth out of the freezer bag and wrote on the directions to add when cooking. I don’t think this meal would fit in a gallon Ziploc with 5 cups of broth added to it.

It was so much easier to get the bag to stand up by placing it in a bowl. I folded the “zipper” part over and the bags stood up no problem.  This allowed me to just throw everything in it without spilling or getting stuff all over the outside of the bag.  Definitely a time and hassle saver.

Real Food Freezer Cooking

After those were assembled, the beans were finished cooking. I added what I needed to the Mexican chilli and put everything minus the ground beef into bags for the regular chili.

Next I browned the ground beef and started cooking lasagna noodles. While all of that was cooking, I started making up the meatloafs–Meatloaves?  Meatloaf’s?

I don’t know about you, but there is something totally disgusting about mixing up raw ground beef with your hands. I guess you could use a spoon but I don’t think it would go well, and you can’t very well shape it into a loaf with a spoon now can you?

Next, I started cooking the bacon for the burritos. By the way, if you are still cooking bacon in a frying pan–stop! Bake it in the oven on 350 for about 20 minutes. Your house won’t reek of cooked bacon for days and it comes out perfect every time. Well, unless you burn it. Then I guess it’s not perfect, but you get the idea. 

 Do you have a favorite freezer meal?  I'd love to hear what everyone else makes!

Real Food Freezer Cooking

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