An hour of freezer cooking.

I did some big time grocery shopping at Sam's (with 4 kids in tow) today and decided I would do some freezer cooking in order to save me some time in the future. I made my menu of dinners for the next 4 weeks (future post coming soon) and figured out I had 7 dinners that I could prep ahead of time to save even 15 min. each night of work later on. I got out my gallon freezer Ziploc bags and all my ingredients and started working at 3:45 this afternoon. The things I prepared are just the main course and maybe just the toughest part of it, in my opinion.

First, I cooked up 2 lbs of ground turkey and added taco seasoning then split it between 2 Ziploc bags, labeled and done! This will save me probably 20 minutes on two different nights of making dinner because now I will just need to defrost and warm. This will make 2 dinners of tacos for us.

 I also took 2 lbs of ground turkey and made it into 2 meatloaves and put them each in a freezer bag, labeled and done. Now I just have to throw them in the crock-pot when its on the menu and make some quick sides dishes! Usually when meatloaf is on the menu I forget till about 4PM, then I am rushing to defrost the meat and add all the extra stuff to it, then I have preheat the oven and cook it for an hour!!!

Another meal that is easy to prep is sloppy joes. We like the Manwich BBQ sloppy joe sauce, its less spicy for the kids. So I browned up my last pound of ground turkey and threw the sauce on, then popped it into a freezer bag, labeled...and DONE!

For my last 2 meals I had bought a roast from Sams Club. I decided since it was so big I could cut it in half and make 2 meals out of it. For the first one, I peeled and cut some red potatoes and an onion, then placed them in the baggie with the roast for a (crock-pot) pot roast one night. I will pick up some carrots and add them when its time to cook it. The other I put in a baggie by itself and will pick up a marinade when I am at a regular grocery store and add it to the meat when it comes time to cook it.

4:45 PM and I am DONE!

So there you go- 7 dinners in the freezer in an hour and with little fuss and mess. I didn't even have to make a casserole!!!!

*Most side dishes we add are bread, applesauce & fresh or frozen steamed veggies.*

Sara