The Method to My Madness: Start Where You Are and Learn As You Go

Every time I blog about a Baking Day or a Freezer Cooking Day, I invariably get a multitude of questions that go like this:

Can you tell me how you package the meals for freezing them? Do you just put them in a metal 9x13 and then cover the top with tin foil? Does this keep out freezer burn for you?

Or this:

I'm wondering if you use aluminum baking pans? I want to make up a bunch of stuff, but then I'd have to go out and buy a bunch of throw away pans for it...I've done it before. Now that I've cut my budget in half for groceries, I'm wondering if there is a way around this?

Or this:

It appears that you have frozen many items in the dish that they will ultimately be baked in; do you purchase additional dishes just for freezing? do you use foil pans? do you just own a billion more dishes than I do? I'm just curious as to your freezer storage method - not so much the wrap in foil/use a freezer bag, but do you use all your dishes and how do you fit them all in your freezer along with milk, butter, etc. that you seem to stock up on and freeze throughout the month?

For a number of months, I've just pretty much avoided these questions because I didn't really know what you'd think of me if I answered them. But I decided this Freezer Cooking Day it was high time I come clean on this whole freezing thing and what I do.

Are you ready for this?

I have no idea what I'm doing. Seriously. There really is no precise method to my madness; I just work with what I have and do the best I know how.

I'm not much of a "follow-the-directions" kind of gal (which is one reason I have a very hard time following recipes exactly!) so it's rather comical anyone is coming to me for advice--especially when it comes to cooking. I have a long history of flopped dinners. In fact, growing up, many of my family members were afraid to eat anything I made for fear of what it might taste like or be made of.

Practice has provided much progress in my cooking abilities, but I still have huge room for improvement. And as far as freezing goes, I'm just learning as I go.

So I'm probably not the person to go to if you're looking for specific and detailed instructions on how to freeze food. But I hope that my admission encourages you: it doesn't take much skill or knowledge or know-how to make up food for your freezer. It just takes some energy, some perseverance, and the willingness to make a few mistakes along the way!

Of course, I think it's helpful to check out books from your library on freezer cooking (you can see a few of my favorites here). But I think book-learning is almost always trumped by hands-on learning.

Now that I've confessed I don't know what I'm doing, here are the answers to your questions as far as what I do when it comes to freezing: I usually freeze half of the meals in the pans they'll be cooked in and half the meals in freezer bags laid flat (to conserve space). I usually try to use the meals in pans first as they are more prone to freezer burn. But I've rarely had a problem with this so long as they are sealed well.

I sometimes use a few foil pans--if I have some on hand--but most often, I just use freezer bags and glass or metal pans. I don't have a huge collection of pans (I'm a minimalist, remember?), but since I won't be doing much cooking because most of our meals are already made and frozen, I can tie up most of my pans for a little while without even missing them. I do try to make sure I set aside at least two pans of some sort since I usually have something or other I have to cook each week!

This is what works for me and for our family. It may not work at all for you or yours so please do what works for you. Amy has a post here with a freezing method that works for her. If you're the type who needs to have a detailed freezing tutorial, I'm sure they are out there. I've just never taken the time to look! (I take that back. I just did a quick search and found many different tutorials, including this one which is rather comprehensive.)

Think you're up for some cooking ahead (and I hope this week inspired you to save time and money by doing so!)? Don't be intimidated! Just start small, make a plan, work the plan, and learn as you go. You'll improve a little bit each time until you're soon an accomplished Freezer Cooking Pro!

Who says you have to have a big deep freeze to cook ahead? I don't! You know all the meals I made earlier this week? All 21 dinners plus 14 breakfasts? That's them all stashed in my over-the-fridge freezer along with some frozen veggies and bread. Get creative with your freezer space and you can probably do a lot more with it than you once thought possible! I know that's certainly been the case for me!

Wondering how you can pull off Freezer Cooking on a budget?

Were you inspired to try your hand at Freezer Cooking this week but skeptical as to whether it's possible to do on a budget? FishMama shares tips for Freezer Cooking on the Cheap for her Frugal Friday post today.

Just for the record, everything I used to make my meals this week was well within our $40/week grocery budget. Best of all? We've yet to even touch any of the grocery money for the month of November--and I already have a freezer full of meals! Which means--you guessed it!--I'll even have more wiggle room to stock up this month on bulk purchases (and maybe even to splurge on some more healthful ingredients--like the coconut oil I've been eyeing for the past few months!).

Truly bulk-buying and bulk-cooking are allowing us to eat much more healthfully on a very slim grocery budget. It's taken some practice and time to get there, but that practice and time is starting to really pay off.

Freezer Cooking Day: The final results (and come link up your posts, too!)

I made it to the end of the list. Well, okay, not quite, but it's the end of the day so I'm calling it quits.

Compared to FishMama's accomplishments, it looks like I didn't do much at all these past two days. But she's pretty much Superwoman's clone, so I won't feel badly (I used to live in the same town as her and have spent lots of time with her and she's every bit as amazing as she seems on her blog--even moreso in real-life!).

Here's the fruit of around eight hours of labor:

Here are the final tallies along with links to the recipes:

2 dozen Whole Wheat Waffles
2 dozen Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
2 dinners' worth Freezer Mashed Potatoes
2 batches Granola
3 dinners' worth of Turkey Meatballs
3 dinners' worth of Slow Cooked Pepper Steak
3 dinners' worth of Farmhouse Chicken
8 dinners' worth of Chicken Tetrazinni (I made two different varieties since we really like this!)
4 dinners' worth of Chicken Broccoli Rice

All in all, we now have 21 dinners in our freezer plus at least 14 breakfasts and some snacks and sides. That will most certainly cover our dinners for the next month (and we still have some meals leftover from last month's Freezer Cooking Day!) plus a number of breakfasts, too. What a great feeling!

Freezer cooking is not for the faint of heart. It's a lot of work and I won't be lying one bit when I say that there's a point in the middle of every Freezer Cooking Day that I wonder what on earth I've gotten myself into. But it is worth persevering through as it saves me so much time, energy, and effort the rest of the month.

In fact, I rarely cook much during the month outside of my Freezer Cooking Day! And we eat out a whole lot less when our freezer's full, too. So it saves me lots of mental thought and physical labor the rest of the month and it also saves us a lot of money, too.

Things I learned from this month's Freezer Cooking Day:

::Always double-check to make sure you have more than enough ingredients on hand (so you're not trying to make a big batch of granola without oats!)

::Don't try to do other things on Freezer Cooking Day. Cooking a month's worth of meals is enough work for one day. Sigh. Why do I always have to learn these things the hard way?

::It's better for me to start early in the morning instead of waiting until the afternoon. Otherwise, I run out of steam way before I run out of recipes I'm supposed to cook.

::And in the same vein, I think it works better for me to do all the cooking on one day instead of breaking it up over two days.

I'm making a game plan for next month's Freezer Cooking Day based upon the successes and failures I had the past two days and looking forward to implementing it the first week in December when FishMama and I plan to hold another Freezer Cooking Day.

But for now? I have a very messy kitchen to attend to.

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Did you have a chance to do any baking or cooking this week? If so, post about it on your blog and leave your link below to your direct blog post. I'd love it especially if you could share pictures and recipes so we can get ideas for our next Freezer Cooking Day! And I'm guessing many others would be inspired as well.

Freezer Cooking Day #2: Pepper Steak and Healthified Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

I stuck the Pepper Steak in the crockpot to start cooking while I mixed up a batch of Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins.

We're experimenting with replacing refined sugar at our house right now so I redid this recipe to see if I could tweak it enough to make it healthful but still delicious. I used fresh-ground whole wheat flour, farm-fresh eggs, and 1 1/2 cups sucanat in place of the sugar.

They ended up turning out quite delicious! They are a little heavier than usual and wee bit less moist than the original recipe, but they are still very good and the girls didn't seem to notice any difference. I'm pretty sure that they'll gladly eat just about anything so long as it has chocolate chips in it!

Now if I could just replace the oil, make my own pumpkin puree, use chocolate chips made without refined sugar, and replace the storebought milk with organic farm-fresh milk, these would be the most nutritional muffins you ever did eat. But it's all about making little changes and babysteps, right? So I'll just guilt-lessly feed my family these healthified Pumpkin Chocolate Chip muffins!

Next up: Turkey Meatballs and Farmhouse Chicken

Freezer Cooking Day #2: Almost-Oatless Granola

After cleaning the kitchen, I went to mix together the granola and discovered that I had completely forgotten to check to see if I had plenty of oats on hand when I was making my grocery list. There was only about 1 1/2 cups left. Oops.

Instead of ditching the granola idea, I decided to get creative and see what I could come up with. I used this recipe here and what oats I had and then added in lots of wheat germ, sunflower seeds, flax seeds, coconut, wheat bran, almonds, and sesame seeds to make up for the rest of the missing oats. 

It actually looks like it might turn out quite well. And it will definitely pack a nutritional punch!

Now I'm sticking the Pepper Steak in the crockpot and starting on the Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins.

Freezer Cooking Day #2: Starting at 8:00 a.m. instead

So I said I was going to start at 1:30 p.m. again today, but after going to bed so exhausted last night, I decided to revamp my plan for today and begin cooking at 8:00 a.m. when I'm fresh and energized. I should have known better than to attempt a big marathon cooking session in the afternoon when I'm usually tired and ready to put my feet up! You live and learn, don't you?

Hopefully I'll be able to do a better job of taking pictures and live-blogging today as a result of starting earlier. That just didn't happen yesterday while I was madly dashing around the kitchen trying to make it through my list in four hours.

First, though, I must clean up my messy kitchen. And then I'll start in on my list for today!

I'll be back with an update soon.

Freezer Cooking Day: Today's Accomplishments

I'm wiped out! I thought it wouldn't be too hard to pull off my to-do list if my mom were here helping with the children this afternoon. I mean, after all, I usually have them and do this all by myself.

Was. I. ever. mistaken!

Oh, it was a huge help to have my mom here, don't get me wrong! I just bit off more than I could chew with trying to put in our normal full morning of homeschooling and homemaking, then a lunch date with my hubby, and then a whirlwind four hours of cooking/baking in the afternoon.

It's so worth it to have all this food in the freezer, but I'm going to devise a different gameplan next month because I'm not superwoman and ran out of steam very quickly this afternoon. I'm wondering if perhaps I'm more energetic in the mornings so starting out at 1:30 p.m. is just too late in the day for me to be as productive? I'm still mulling over it.

At any rate, despite all this, I did get quite a bit accomplished:

I chopped up some beautiful red peppers I snagged for $0.99 total yesterday at the health food store and used them in the Chicken Tetrazinni.

I made two variations of Chicken Tetrazinni (see the recipe here) since this is one of family's favorite freezer meals--one I made with red peppers and onions and spaghetti noodles. The other I made with green peppers and fettucini noodles. They both turned out looking delicious!

I also made four pans of Chicken Broccoli Rice. I wish I could point you to a recipe for this, but the truth is that I don't use one. I just mix brown rice, broccoli, cheese, butter, eggs, cream of chicken soup, and chicken together in amounts that look right and then freeze. Who needs a recipe when you can just dump some stuff together and call it "dinner"?!

After that was done, it was almost dinner time, so I hurriedly decided we'd have leftovers for dinner--since we had some in the fridge--and skip the meatballs I was planning to serve. I finished up the Freezer Mashed Potatoes (see the recipe here) and got everything ready to do in the freezer, and then I called it an afternoon.

So here's what I ended up accomplishing today:

1) Grind flour and mix together waffle batter and begin cooking waffles
2) Boil chicken
3) Get potatoes in the crockpot for Freezer Mashed Potatoes
4) Chop chicken, boil noodles
5) Quick clean up
6) Boil rice, make homemade cream soup, chop red peppers
7) Make Chicken Tetrazinni
8) Make Chicken Broccoli Rice
9) Finish Freezer Mashed Potatoes

It might not seem like that much, but here's a picture to give you a better idea:

All in all, I made 12 meals, 2 dozen waffles, and 2 tubs of Freezer Mashed Potatoes. For 4 hours of work, that was definitely worth it!

Here's the revised plan for Wednesday:

1) Make Slow Cooked Pepper Steak and put in crockpot
2) Make Granola
3) Make Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
4) Mix together Turkey Meatballs
5) Make Farmhouse Chicken
6) Make Pumpkin Scones
7) Make Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
8) Finish dinner preparations (Farmhouse Chicken, mashed potatoes, corn, apples) and clean up kitchen
9) Be thrilled with the finished results, put my feet up, and relax knowing I don't have to do much cooking for the next month!

Like today, I'm planning to begin baking again at 1:30 p.m. CST and will be tweeting my progress and posting pictures and details as I cross things off my list. And maybe I'll have more energy tomorrow?

For now, I'm heading to bed and hoping for a very good night's rest!

Freezer Cooking Day: Whole-Wheat Waffles, Freezer Mashed Potatoes, Homemade Cream of Chicken Soup

I just finally sat down to take a blogging break after going strong for 4 hours. So far I have made 2 dozen waffles plus I have 12 meals ready to go in the freezer. Here's a little peek at what I've been up to:

After grinding the flour, I mixed up a batch of Whole Wheat Waffles times five. I used our family's favorite recipe here but this time I used turbinado instead of regular sugar as our family is working on moving away from white refined sugar.

While the waffles were cooking, I boiled the noodles for Chicken Tetrazinni and peeled the potatoes to stick in the crockpot for Freezer Mashed Potatoes (see the recipe here).

By then, I had a nice big stack of waffles finished.

I kept baking more while I mixed up a triple batch of homemade Cream of Chicken Soup (recipe is here) to use in the Chicken Tetrazinni and Chicken Broccoli Rice.

In the timeframe that I put all of that together, my kitchen went from looking like this, to this:

And believe me, it will likely get worse than that before this Freezer Cooking Marathon is over. But if I only have to do one huge pile of dishes once a month, it's every bit worth it to me. Just remind me of that when I tackling them in a few hours, okay? :)

Up next: Chicken Tetrazinni, Chicken Broccoli Rice

Freezer Cooking Day begins...

It's 1:30 p.m. CST and homeschooling is done for the day, Grandma is here to watch the children, my apron is on, Pandora is playing in the background, and I'm about ready to make a very big mess in my just-cleaned kitchen... all for a good cause because I'm baking and cooking up a storm today!

I'll be back with an update in a few hours or less. In the mean time, you can follow along on Twitter.

Freezer Cooking Day: The Master Plan

Today's the day! I've cleared my schedule, made my list, done my shopping, got a good night's rest, cleaned my kitchen, and brought in recruits (i.e. Grandma!) to help with the children. And I'm ready to hit the ground running with this cooking and baking thing.

But not before I first make another list (yes, I'm one of those Type-A list-makers--sorry, it's just the only way things seem to get done around here!). This list is my Master Plan list which tells me what to do when--in detailed order.

I've found that it's great to have a Proposed List of everything I want to accomplish, but breaking it down into bite-size pieces of the order I plan to accomplish it in helps me be much more efficient and organized.

Last night before going to bed, I grated up all the cheese I'd need today and set out the milk and ground turkey from the freezer to thaw. Prepping a few things like that the night before help give me a little jumpstart to my Freezer Cooking the next day.

Here's my Master Plan for today and tomorrow (remember, I'm planning to work from 1:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. CST since I'm fitting this in around our homeschooling schedule):

Tuesday

1) Grind flour and mix together waffle batter and begin cooking waffles
2) Boil chicken
3) Get potatoes in the crockpot for Freezer Mashed Potatoes
4) Chop chicken, boil noodles
5) Quick clean up
6) Boil rice, make homemade cream soup, chop red peppers
7) Make Chicken Tetrazinni
8) Make Chicken Broccoli Rice
9) Make Granola
10) Make Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
11) Mix together Turkey Meatballs, cook one pan for dinner, cook the rest and freeze
13) Finish Freezer Mashed Potatoes
12) Finish dinner preparations (Turkey Meatballs, Freezer Mashed Potatoes, Broccoli, Toast) and clean up

Wednesday

1) Make Slow Cooked Pepper Steak and put in crockpot
2) Make Farmhouse Chicken
3) Make Pumpkin Scones
4) Make Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
5) Finish dinner preparations (Farmhouse Chicken) and clean up kitchen
6) Be thrilled with the finished results, put my feet up, and relax knowing I don't have to do much cooking for the next month!

As you can tell, I'm planning to do the bulk of my cooking today since Grandma is here to play with the children. It also gives me a little wiggle room if I'm not able to get to everything I planned to do on Tuesday; I can always bump it to Wednesday, if need be. And if I get incredibly ambitious, finish everything on Tuesday's list, and have extra time, I can always start in on Wednesday's list!

Need more help and ideas for making a game plan for your Freezer Cooking Day? Check out FishMama's post here.

Stay tuned for live-blogging and tweeting (follow me on Twitter here) this afternoon on my real-time progress complete with pictures and recipes. Don't forget to follow FishMama on her blog and Twitter or the more that 250 other women around the country who are participating in this Freezer Cooking Day and tweeting about it with the hashtag #bakingday. 

Have you posted your Baking Day plans on your blog? If so, leave your link below so others can be inspired with ideas and new recipes to try. Remember to link directly to your blog post.

Guest Post: Tackling Meal Planning--One Month At a Time!

Guest Post by Tricia from Once-A-Month Mom

Meal planning can be a bit of a challenge to even the savviest of organizers. Planning each and every week can sometimes be time-consuming or tiring. I use to plan meals one week at a time and found that it worked for me most of the time, but other times, I was too exhausted or didn't have new ideas or I would make a great plan only to have plans change and not be able to use the meals, thus ingredients going to waste! That's when I started doing once-a-month cooking (also known as bulk cooking, freezer cooking, power cooking, and OAMC).

Most people are overwhelmed at the prospect of making all of their meals for the entire month in one day. They hear "8 hours in the kitchen" and they leave about hyperventilate!

Don't get me wrong, 8 hours in the kitchen is a long time, and tiring. But when you are finished, you have enough meals to rarely step into the kitchen for another month! Not only that, but you can also save money on your grocery bill as well because this method of planning and cooking will save you shopping trips and trips through the fast-food lane.

Here is a look at how a whole day in the kitchen can put more hours in your day and money in your wallet:

Once-A-Month Cooking Saves You Time

Once-a-month cooking does require an 8-10 hour cooking day (or split amongst several days). However, if you do the math on the amount of time that you would have spent in the kitchen preparing these meals throughout the month, it would be substantially higher.

Once-a-month cooking saves time because you are cutting, dicing, mixing, chopping, sautéing, and cooking "like" ingredients all at once. For instance, instead of chopping onion several nights each week for the entree you are making, you can chop that onion all at once, then cook and package the meal.

In my most recent once-a-month endeavor, I spent 8.5 hours in the kitchen. At the end of the day I had 30 meals (a mix of breakfasts, lunches, and dinners). The time I would have spent had I prepared these meals when I was serving them would have been at least 30 hours. I don't know about you, but I can find lots of things that I can do with an extra 22 hours during the month!

One of the other ways that once-a-month cooking saves time is that you don't have to perform a juggling act to get dinner on the table. The stretch between 4:00 pm and 5:30 pm has to be the most hectic time of the day in our household. My husband isn't home from work yet; I am trying to appease my son so that I can get dinner finished in a timely manner; and all he wants is for me to play with him—it gets rough! I find myself frazzled and easily willing to forgo my menu plan to save my sanity. When I have done once-a-month cooking, I instead pull out one of my freezer meals, stick it in the oven and go play with my son until it is ready. That is precious time that I can't afford to miss!

Once-A-Month Cooking Saves You Money

I am amazed at how cooking "like" meals can really save you money in a month. The savings comes in the fact that you are buying large quantities of products at one time, hopefully when they are on sale or when you have coupons. If you plan to make things that are in season, you can also save money by buying ingredients when they are at their lowest price point.

For smaller families, these bulk savings are not usually possible because large quantities of food often spoil before it can be consumed. With once-a-month cooking, you are preparing all that food at once and don't have to worry about it going to waste. And it will last in the freezer for several months!

In the last two months alone, we have cut our grocery bill in more than half by doing once-a-month cooking. I decide what we are cooking, shop the sales all month, and then prepare the meals that we will be eating the following month. I usually spend approximately $75 to $130 for a month's worth of meals. That is around $2.60 to $4.33 per meal!

If you are looking for ways to make your dinner time less hectic, spend more time with your family, spend less money on your grocery bill, or develop an effective way to menu plan, you should try once-a-month cooking. You just might surprise yourself at how much you can save, both in your wallet and by your watch!

Tricia recently had her first child and is getting used to her new career as a stay-at-home mom in Ohio, where her family resides. She is expecting her second child in December (don't ask the gender they aren't finding out). She is trying to show others how to be good stewards of their time and their money while still providing wholesome and nutritious meal options to their families. Her website, Once-A-Month Mom, is dedicated to "making daily chores monthly memories" by providing monthly meal plans, grocery lists, instructions, recipes and more for families curious about once-a-month cooking and baby food.

Note from Money Saving Mom: If you are planning to join us for our Baking/Freezer Cooking Day Tuesday and Wednesday of this week and are looking for a "plan of action", you might try using the October (Thanksgiving) Menu or the new November (Christmas) Menu. The October (Thanksgiving) Menu has many make-ahead Thanksgiving recipes and lots of menu items that you will find on sale right now at your local grocers. The November (Christmas) Menu is meant to be shopped throughout the month of November, cooked at the end of the month, and consumed in December. However, you are welcome to shop and use the menu now. Each menu includes recipes, a grocery list, step-by-step instructions, and labels.

The Proposed Baking/Freezer Cooking Day List

As I mentioned on Saturday, FishMama from LifeAsMom and I are planning to host a Freezer Cooking Day on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. We'll be live-blogging our progress and sharing tips and recipes along the way on both of our blogs. If you'd like to join in the fun, you can sign up at the Facebook Event page here, follow along on twitter with the #bakingday hashtag, or just check our blogs for updates, pictures, and more!

Since our family is on a new schedule and I'm staying completely offline in the mornings so I can focus all of my energies and full attention on homeschooling and investing in/loving on my children, I'm planning on doing my baking and cooking from 1:30 to 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons. Check in here or on Twitter for my real-time progress updates.

In the mean time, here's my Proposed Freezer Cooking Plan:

Breakfasts:
Whole Wheat Waffles x 5
Granola
Whole Wheat Pumpkin Scones with Cinnamon Icing

Main Dishes:
Chicken Tetrazinni x 4
Turkey Meatballs x 3
Farmhouse Chicken x 4
Chicken Broccoli Rice x 4
Slow Cooked Pepper Steak x 3

Snacks/Desserts:
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

Sides:
Freezer Mashed Potatoes

Guest Post: Maximize Your Freezer's Potential and Minimize Freezer Burn

After I live-blogged my Baking/Cooking Day last week, there were hundreds of questions asked about methods of freezing. I'm hoping to address many of these in future posts, but while you're waiting on that, my friend Amy from The Finer Things in Life offered to write a quick guest post on a creative way she's discovered to maximize her freezer's potential and minimize freezer burn. I think those of you who feel like you don't have space or pans to pull off Cooking Ahead might just re-think that after reading her guest post!

Freezing meals ahead of time for busy days sounds like a great idea, in theory. But what about freezer space? What about pans? What about freezer burn?

A technique that my high school home economics teacher shared with us many years ago has stuck with me and served my family well when it comes to freezing meals. Here's what works for us:

Prepare freezer meals in 8x8, 9x9, or other smaller pans. Anything that will fit in a gallon-sized freezer bag will work. Before filling it with food, line the baking dish with aluminum foil or freezer paper.

Fold the foil over the top and freeze the meal.

Once frozen enough to hold its shape, pop it out of the baking dish. Seal the meal in a freezer bag, removing as much air as possible.

When you are ready to use the frozen, there are two options: you can either remove the wrapping while the item is still frozen and place the food back into the original pan to thaw and bake. Or, you can just slip the whole thing (still wrapped in foil) in a pan and bake it making clean up a snap!   

Here are just a few of the reasons I love freezing meals this way:

    * The smaller pans prevent leftover burnout (If you have a large family, just pop two pans in the oven.)
    * Several meals can be in the freezer while favorite baking dishes remain handy.
    * There's no need to purchase lots of expensive aluminum pans (or clean them!)
    * Foil and freezer paper can often be found on sale with a coupon.
    * Wrapping the meal and then sealing it in a bag prevents freezer burn.
    * This method maximizes freezer space since the baking dishes aren't stacked up.
    * And, in light of yesterday's post, it's also worth mentioning that your freezer bags can be reused when food labeling is done on the foil or freezer paper.

Amy is a Tiny Town coach's wife and mother of three convinced that the The Finer Things in Life offer more joy than anything money can buy. 

Baking Day: Lasagna, Ziti, and a picture of the fruits of my labors

After the girls went to bed last night, I quickly whipped up three pans of lasagna and three pans of Ziti.

The lasagna recipe was a new one (go here to see it) that FishMama highly recommended. I'm curious to see how it tastes. It was easy to make and less expensive than usual lasagna since I can often get cream cheese for $0.50 per package (with a sale and a coupon)--which beats the price of cottage cheese or ricotta cheese that I'd usually use in lasagna.

I don't have a recipe for the Ziti because I just made it up on the fly using ground turkey, pasta sauce, cottage cheese, mozzarella cheese, noodles, and spices. I've learned that a great way to be frugal in the kitchen is to learn to be creative and flexible with ingredients!

After finishing up the pans of Ziti and Lasagna, I called it a day. I didn't get to quite everything on my list, but I did get a lot done yesterday--and that's a very good feeling! In fact, I was surprised at how much I'd gotten done when I laid everything out on the table to take a final picture:

5 batches of Whole-Wheat Waffles
3 bags of browned ground turkey (we'll use this for homemade pizza or possibly pair it with pinto beans to make chili)
1 bag of cooked chopped chicken
1 batch of Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
5 bags of cooked Pinto Beans
3 pans of Lasagna
3 pans of Ziti
3 meals of Chicken Tetrazinni
1 bag of Southwest Roll-ups

It was about seven hours' worth of work total to make all of that and I'm figuring it will make at least 20 dinners and 8-10 breakfasts. That is totally worth it to me for seven hours of work. Plus, it means I don't have to worry about "What's for Dinner?" many nights for the next month nor do I have to mess up my kitchen as much!

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Did you have a chance to do any baking or cooking this week? If so, post about it on your blog and leave your link below to your direct blog post. I'd love it especially if you could share pictures and recipes so I can get more ideas for my next Baking Day projects! And I'm guessing many others would be inspired as well.

Baking Day: Pinto Beans and Chicken Tetrazinni

Did you think I up and forgot about you? Nah, I just had to take a break for dinner and time with my husband. But everyone went down for an early bedtime so I'm trying to make the most of a quiet house!

Here's what I've done since my last update:

I bought this big 10-pound bag of Pinto Beans at Sam's Club on Saturday for just over $6 so I used some of it to make a big pot of Pinto Beans. You can read how I cook these up here.

Once the beans cool, I will divide them into two-cup portions in bags and freeze them. Then, whenever I make a recipe which calls for canned beans, I can just use these instead. It's much cheaper and better for you, too. In addition, it's so easy to do.

I didn't have any brown rice on hand, otherwise I would have cooked some of that up, too, and then stuck it in the freezer in two-cup portions as well. It's so simple to then pull out a bag of rice and a bag of beans and thaw them overnight to use for a healthful and very inexpensive meal of beans and rice. (You can set out bowls of corn chips, salsa, lettuce, tomatoes, sour cream, and cheese along with the beans and rice and let everyone build their own Mexican dinner on their plates. Or just serve plain beans and rice with cheese.)

In addition to the Pinto Beans, I made a double batch up Chicken Tetrazinni. This is an easy and inexpensive recipe which freezes well:

(For the record, this looks a whole lot better cooked than uncooked!)
 
Chicken Tetrazinni (serves 4-6)

2 cups spaghetti, cooked and drained
2 cups chicken, cooked and diced
1 can cream soup (you can make your own with this recipe)
1/2 cup onion, chopped
1/4 cup green pepper (or red pepper, as I used this time since I had some given to us from a friend's garden!), chopped
1 cup chicken broth
1 1/2 cup Cheddar cheese, grated

Saute onions and peppers in a little oil. Mix with the rest of the ingredients. Cool and put a freezer bag and freeze flat.

When ready to use, thaw and place in a 9x13 pan and bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes until heated through. (I like to sprinkle with additional cheese.)

I doubled the recipe and split it into 3 freezer bags as it will be enough for three dinners for us.

Next up: Lasagna and Spaghetti Pie (and I haven't forgotten about the Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins; I just keep procrastinating on those!)

Baking Day: Southwest Roll-ups and Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

I'm not meaning to leave you all hanging for hours on end, I just find that when I sit down to blog, I lose my focus. So I'm trying to stay off the computer more this Baking Day and just focus on, well, baking!

We also took a break from being in the kitchen to have our afternoon Reading Time. We love reading together and I try to make a point to read to everyone at least 20-30 minutes every day, even on those days when we take a break from our usual routine.

But here's what I've accomplished since I last checked in:

I finished all the waffles! I ended up with a mountain of waffles (five bags!) which should last us for every bit of 8-9 breakfasts. That means we should be stocked on waffles for at least another 5-6 weeks. And that's a great feeling. My picture of all of these will be coming in the final Baking Day photo.

I also chopped up all the chicken I had boiled and made up Southwest Roll-ups. These are one of our family's "staple recipes". You know, the kind that you turn to when you are feeling brain fried in menu-planning or just need a really easy dinner. I've been making these and freezing them ahead of time recently and have found this works well, too.

Southwest Roll-ups (makes 8 roll-ups)

1 can refried beans
1/4 cup salsa
1-2 cups cooked chicken, chopped
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
8 tortillas

Mix together beans, salsa, and chicken.

Spread 1/8 of mixture onto one tortilla. Sprinkle with cheese. Roll up and turn ends under. Stick in a freezer bag or in a 9x13 baking pan.

When ready to bake, thaw and bake in a pre-heated 350 degrees oven for 20-30 minutes until heated through. Sprinkle with more shredded Cheddar cheese, if desired. Serve with salsa. Serves 4.

I bought this huge bag of chocolate chips at Sam's Club on Saturday so I made some Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins (the recipe is here).

I've heard there is a canned pumpkin shortage in some parts of the country, but I have quite a few cans which I bought a number of months ago for $0.25 each so I'm well-stocked. And now that I have plenty of chocolate chips, I'll likely be making more of these muffins as they are one of our favorites.

I made them with all whole wheat flour and I don't think you can even tell a difference. My husband loves these in his lunches! I stick them in the freezer once they are cooled and then just pull out a few and stick them frozen into a baggie into his lunch box. By lunch time, they are thawed and ready to eat!

(Picture from Marg at RecipeZaar)

Next up: Chicken Tetrazinni and Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Baking Day: Whole-Wheat Waffles and Ground Turkey

The dishwasher is humming, the chicken is boiling, the noodles are cooling, the waffles are baking, the girls are practicing their ABC's with Starfall at the kitchen table, Silas is sleeping, and I finally have a chance to sit down and post an update on my progress!

First thing this morning, I browned a big pot of ground turkey, turkey sausage, and ground beef. We prefer ground beef, but I was able to get some great deals on quality turkey over the last few months, so I'm being creative with what I have. I browned them altogether so I'm hoping it somewhat hides the ground turkey.

(My apologies to any pregnant woman who is reading this. I'm sure that a picture of raw meat cooking is anything but appetizing!)

I'll be using the browned turkey in lasagna, spaghetti pie, and freezing some to have on hand for homemade pizza nights. I've found that if the meat is already cooked, half the work of putting together a pizza is done!

After I got the meat browning, I mixed up a batch of Whole Wheat Waffles (see the recipe here). I took the recipe by five so it is making quite a massive amount of waffles!

As I usually do, I used milk that I had gotten reduced and frozen. This time, it was organic milk which I picked up for $0.59 per half gallon after the reduction and coupons. I also used fresh-ground whole-wheat flour and fresh eggs from my family's farm so these waffles are packed with good nutrition!

Once the waffles are cooled, I'll stick them into freezer bags and then we'll just pull them out and reheat them for quick and delicious breakfasts!

While the waffles were baking, I rinsed the pot I used to cook up the meat in and got the water started to boil the noodles. And then I cleaned up my very messy kitchen, started the dishwasher, got drinks and a snack for the girls, helped them get started on some new projects. (Since both girls are running fevers, I'm not having them help with cooking today so that our food doesn't get sick germs passed into it! So I'm pulling out a variety of fun things for them to work on while they rest.)

Then I was back to the kitchen to drain the noodles and start cooking up the chicken.

Next up: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins, Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins, Pinto Beans, and Hot Pockets

Baking Day: The Master Plan

As those of you who follow me on Twitter and Facebook know, my two-year-old was very sick Sunday and Monday evenings. We were able to get her in to the doctor yesterday and were relieved to find out she just has a very bad case of the flu--which we were very relieved to hear!

I wasn't sure whether or not I was going to be able to do a Baking Day this week but when she started taking a turn for the better yesterday and I knew I was going to be home all day today and she'll likely be resting much of the day, my husband said if I was up to it, I should just go ahead and go with the planned Baking Day. So here we are!

I got a later start than usual because we all slept in this morning. I've learned that I'm not very productive when I'm tired so it's better to sleep in and get enough rest than to try and limp along in a sleepy fog. After a much better night's rest last night, I'm feeling much revived and energized and ready to hit the kitchen and get busy baking and cooking!

Before going to bed last night, I made a Master Plan for today's baking. It really helps me to have a specific, numbered list to go off of. In addition, it helps me to be able to maximize my efficiency so that I can be multi-tasking on most tasks.

Here's a peek at my scribbled down list for today:

I'm off to brown the turkey and start on the waffles. I'll be back with a report shortly.

"Baking Day" list for tomorrow

(Teaching the girls how to boil, peel, cut, and stuff eggs as part of our homeschool lessons a few weeks ago.)

After a long hiatus, I'm back to doing menu planning and Baking Days! It's amazing how good it feels to be getting back "into the groove" (Nevermind the fact that my baby boy is almost five months old! It seems I just had him; I can't believe how quickly time goes!).

I'm planning to host a Baking Day here tomorrow and I'll be live-blogging it like usual. However, since I'm trying to do more freezer cooking now that our homeschooling is in full swing, I'm actually going to be doing more cooking than baking. I've never combined the two like this before, so I'm anxious to see how it goes.

You can follow along with my progress on my blog and you can also follow along/join in on Twitter with the hastag #BakingDay. Speaking of which, I'd love to have you join me by doing some of your own baking. At the end of the day, I'll post a Mr. Linky so that everyone can link up and share what they accomplished in their kitchens tomorrow.

The Proposed (and likely way-too-ambitious!) Baking/Cooking Day List:

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
Whole Wheat Waffles
Homemade Applesauce
Pinto Beans (cook up and freeze)
Lasagna
Spaghetti Pie
Farmhouse Chicken
Chicken Tetrazzini
Barbecue Meatballs
Homemade Hot Pockets
Southwest Chicken Roll-ups
Turkey Enchiladas

Recipes, pictures, and more will be coming in my live-blogged posts tomorrow. And now I'm heading out for a quick trip to the store and then coming home to clean up my kitchen and thaw out meat, milk, and anything else I need for the morning!