Freezer Cooking... What a concept!!!

For a while now I have been interested in freezer cooking, but with the holidays I just never did find time until today! My husband had to work today so I decided being home alone on a Saturday would give me the perfect opportunity to attempt freezer cooking!!

I wasn't quite sure how it was going to go or how hard it was going to be or even where to start, so I decided to pick 3 or 4 meals and start there. As you will learn later down in this post that didn't work so well.... I think I ended up doing 8 different recipes I put in the freezer and 1 in the crock pot. Oops..... But its ok, from start to finish cooking it took me only 2 hours and 30 minutes, if you add in the 1 hour grocery shopping and the 30 minutes picking recipes and making a shopping list total it ends up being only 4 hours this includes cleaning the kitchen after as well!!

 

Here is my list of meals, how many bags of each, and approximate number of servings in each bag:

Meal	# Dinners	Servings per Dinner	Total Servings
Lasagna	2 pans	12	24
Spaghetti Sauce	1 Bag	6	6
Pot Roast w/ Veg	2 Bags	6	12
BBQ Ribs	2 Bags	3	6
Teriyaki Chicken	2 Bags	2	4
Chicken Alfredo	2 Bags	6	2
Onion Pork	1 Bag	5	5
Beef Stroganoff	2 Bags	5	10
Pulled Pork	Cooked	4	4

 Total Number of Dinners: 15
 Total Number of Servings:73
Total $ Spend Grocery Shopping $148.46
Total cost per serving: $2.03

I would say that is pretty worth 4 hours of work!!

Here is all my groceries and the meals they created!!

 



  So I started this whole process by figuring out what was going to take the longest to make and try to multitask. I decided that the sauce for the lasagna would take the longest, so I started that first. It is the same as the spaghetti sauce I just leave a few ingredients out and put them in after I made the lasagna.

I labeled each bag with what is in it, how long to cook it, the date, and any extra directions. Take each freezer meal out of the freezer and put in the refrigerator the night before to allow it to thaw out a bit before transferring it to the over or crock pot.

Spaghetti Sauce

Recipe for 2 9x9 pans of  lasagna and a container for spaghetti sauce.
This recipe will fill a 6qt pot

• 2lbs ground beef
• 2lbs Italian sausage
• 4 14.5oz cans Italian style diced tomatoes
• 3 12oz cans tomato paste
• 3 15oz cans tomato sauce
• 1 large onion chopped
• 3 cloves garlic minced
• Italian seasoning to your desire

For just the spaghetti sauce

• 1 4oz can mushroom pieces
• 1 2.25 can sliced olives

1. Put all canned tomato products in a large pot turn on low
2. Brown beef and sausage with onions, garlic and Italian seasoning
3. Drain meat mix when completely cooked, add to tomato pot
4. After assembling the lasagnas add mushrooms and olives, put in air tight tupperwear and freeze. I put mine in a freezer bag just to be safe.
5. Pull out of freezer night before, put in crock pot next morning on low for 6 hours.

Lasagna

Makes 2 9x9 pans 12 servings each. Pull out of freezer night before you plan to cook. Cook on 350 40 minutes covered, 25 minutes uncovered.

• 1 15oz container of ricotta cheese
• 1 16oz container of cottage cheese (can replace with ricotta)
• 3 15oz containers of parmesan cheese (1 grated, 2 shredded)\
• 2 tsp Italian seasoning
• 19 Lasagna noodles (I use oven ready to lessen the work)
• 6 cups shredded mozzarella
• Big pot of spaghetti sauce

1. Cover bottom of both pans with 1/2 cup of sauce, top with 3 noodles each.
2. Mix ricotta, cottage, grated parm, 1/2 of a container of shredded parm, 1 1/2 cups mozzarella and italian seasoning in a bowl, add about 1/6 of mixture on top of noodles in each pan.
3. Cover cheese with 2 cups sauce, 3 noodles, 1/6 cheese mixture.
4. Repeat step 3
5. Cover last layer of cheese with mozzarella, then 2 more cups sauce
6. Cover with the rest of mozzarella and parmesean
7. Cover in parchment and foil and freeze.

Pot Roast with Veggies

This makes 2 bags
 Its is the same recipe for Pot Roast that I have previously published in my blog just twice, but instead of putting it in the crock pot right away I put it in freezer  bags and froze it.

Pull out of the freezer the night before and follow the directions the next morning!

Teriyaki Chicken

Made 2 bags (to make it easier instead of using all the ingredients below to make the sauce you can by sauce in a bottle and just pour 1 bottle in each bag.

• 4 chicken breast (2 in each bag)
• 1 large online quartered (1/2 in each bag)
• 1 cup sugar (1/2c in each bag)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar (1/4c in each bag)
• 1 1/2 cups soy sauce (3/4c in each bag)
• 2/3 cups cider vinegar (1/3 in each bag)
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic (1 in each)
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper (1/4 in each)

1. Divide above ingredients in to two bags. If using bottled sauce just combine chicken, onion, and sauce in each bag.
2. Freeze. Pull out of freezer the night before
3. Cook in crock pot on low for 6 hours
4. Thicken sauce with cornstarch and water if desired
5. Great served over rice

 

BBQ Pork Ribs

Makes 2 bags

• 4lbs of pork ribs (you can use any kind of ribs I just used pork)
• 2 bottles of your favorite flavor bbq sauce

1. Put 2 lbs of ribs and 1 bottle of sauce in each bag and freeze.
2. Pull out of freezer the night before, cook on low in crock pot for 6-8 hours.

I'm going to serve these with corn bread!!

 

 

 

Chicken Alfredo

Makes 2 bags

• 3-4 Chicken breast chopped into chunks
• 3 store bought jars of alfredo sauce ( I know its cheating but its so easy)

1. Put half of the cubed chicken in each bag
2. Pour 1 1/2 jars of sauce in each bag and freeze
3. Pull out the night before. Cook on low for 8 hours, stir frequently
4. Cook fettuccine noodles and serve sauce over them

 

 

 

Onion Pork

Makes 1 bag

I only made one bag of this because I want to see how it turns out before I made more.

 

• 2lb pork tenderloin
• 2 tablespoons of canola oil
• 1 envelope onion soup mix
• 1/2 cup chicken broth

1. In a skillet brown all sides of pork loin in canola oil let cook off a bit before putting in the bag
2. Put all ingredients in bag and freeze
3. Pull out night before, cook in crock pot on low for 8 hours add more chicken broth if needed during cooking.
4. Take pork out of crock pot and slice
5. If desired thicken sauce with cornstarch and water
6. Serve sauce over pork

 

 Beef Stroganoff

Makes 2 bags

• 4lbs beef stew meat
• 6 cans cream of mushroom soup (3 in each bag)
• 1 15oz container of sour cream
• 2 packages of dry onion soup mix

1. put 3 cans soup, 1/2 the container of sour cream and 1 package of onion soup mix in each bag. Mix together in bag.
2. Add 2lbs of meat to each bag and freeze
3. Pull out of freezer the night before. 
4. Stir when you put into the crock pot and add 1/2 cup water. Cook on low for 6 hours.
5. Serve over penne pasta.

 

 

The last one I did not put in the freezer because I am cooking it for dinner tonight but it can be a freezer meal as well!

 

Pulled Pork Sandwiches

• 2lb pork tenderloin
• 1 bottle of bbq sauce your choice flavor

1. Put pork and bottle of bbq sauce in a bag and freeze
2. Pull out of freezer the night before. Cook on low for 7-8 hours until pork starts to shred.
3. Take pork out and shred then return to crock pot
4. Serve on hamburger buns.

 

 

Well there it is, my first attempt at freezer cooking! Not to complicated and its going to make my busy life much easier not having to worry about cooking dinner when I come home from work!!

 

Some people don't like to freeze dairy products or creamed soups but it is up to you. If you choose not to freeze these things just omit from the freezer bag and write a not on the bag to remind yourself to add to the crock pot when cooking! I hope this makes someone elses life a little bit easier!!