Freezer Cooking..

As many of you know, I commute 2 hours a day. The *last* thing I want to do when I get home is cook. That has lead to a ton of processed crap and fast food, which.. lead to me never using the scale.

So.. a while ago I bought a ton of material on cooking for a month. We have 2 freezers, but.. I keep everything in pretty good order with over flow in the second one. The one thing you have to be about freezer cooking is organized. Don't worry, I'm not... but.. here's the steps I use to start:

1. Make a list of everything in the freezer, especially frozen meats.

This month I had:

• Chicken thighs- 4 packs of 4, which I bought on clearance for $1 a piece.
• Chicken Quarters, 3 packages of 2 a piece, don't remember what I paid, sorry!
• 4 pkgs of variety steak, my husband is a sucker for those trucks that ride around? Yeah...
• 4 pkgs of sizzlers
• 4 pkgs of round steaks
• 3 pkgs of pre-made hamburgers
• 5# pork loin
• 2# beef roast
• 2 pkgs of 1 # of pork chops
• Smoked sausage
• Brats
• Meat balls
• Mixed Veggies, Broccoli, Green beans, Peas & Corn
• 3 bags of mashed potatoes (a store in town has 5# bags on sale for $1 occasionally, I buy 20# and make homemade hashbrowns, mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, etc.)
• 3 loafs swirl bread (from the day old bread store, works great for french toast & only costs me $0.50.
• 6 pkg 4 pieces of garlic toast (another thing I watch for $1.00 deals on & split up and repackage & freeze)
• tater tots

Left overs from last meal plans, where we had plans that took the place of meals

• Beefy mac
• Cheesy chicken & Rice
• Chicken Shells
• Beef Stew
• Pizza dough (which is something I usually have on hand anyways- homemade of course)
• Chicken wings

2. Make a calendar- a list you can put on the fridge. I always go through & put what we already have on the list in days.

3. Research meals to use the things on hand you already have and make a list of what sounds good.
My husband always teases me about having 20+ cookbooks.. but they come in handy, I go online, pinterest is one of my favorite (fun things).

4. Plan out your month(s), I do two at a time, it saves me time in the kitchen. Tomorrow, I'll share my calendar with some meal ideas and through out the week share some of my recipes I've adapted in the last few months. Stay tuned!

Now... I'm backing away from the blog and working on my cleaning ideas I got from Pinterest! :)