My First Time Freezer Cooking

I've been in an unproductive rut lately. I still haven't found a job since we moved here so I'm home all day while Matt is working. I was productive at first, unpacking the house, getting things set up, and applying for jobs. Now that the house is done and I've applied for just about every job out there (well over 40), things have slowed down.  I still have my sewing, cleaning, and laundry but somehow, everyday without fail, I turn on the TV, get sucked into some pointless show and can't stop watching. By the time I realize it, the day has flown by, Matt will be coming home soon and I haven't even thought about dinner.

By default, my job is to be a housewife for the time being.  I have no job and no kids, yet, I get nothing done. I've been sending my poor husband to work with a PB&J sandwich (and not much else) nearly every day.  The pantry and fridge are bare.  With all this free time, I could be working out like crazy, cooking, cleaning, reading, sewing and doing a million other more productive things than watching TV.  So I decided to dive on in and take this housewife thing seriously.

And I'm exhausted.

I decided to do some freezer cooking. I choose the following recipes:

Twice Baked Potatoes

Brown Bag Burritos
(named that b/c they're great to pack for lunch)

Sour Cream Blueberry Pancakes

Southwestern Breakfast Burrito

Corn, Black Bean & Beef Empanadas

Cheesy Chicken, Bacon, & Avocado Quesadillas  

(for dinner, not to freeze)

Whole Wheat Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

(its a bread recipe but I put it in a greased muffin tin and cooked on 375 for 15 minutes)

Apparently, I was in the mood for mexican food.

It all started with this mound of groceries.

I cooked from 1:00 in the afternoon until Matt got home. I wasn't done but I wrapped it up and started making the Cheesy Chicken, Bacon & Avocado Quesadillas for dinner. They were so delicious. Matt made several comments about how amazing they were.  Click on the link above and cook them tonight! Seriously, you will be glad you did.

I had left overs for lunch the next day before I got started with round 2.

Another afternoon in the kitchen had come and gone and I finally finished.  Here's how it turned out.

The grand total: 

• 16 Breakfast burritos
• 20 Lunch burritos
• 10 blueberry pancakes (a few had to go through a taste test and never made it to the freezer)
• 16 twice baked potato halves
• 20 beef empanadas
• 30 banana chocolate chip muffins
• chicken broth (left over from one of the recipes)
• 2 pounds of carrots (I shredded then chopped up some to hide in ground meat and other meals, and the cut ones get hidden in our smoothies)
• The cheesy quesadillas (not pictured here) 
• Chicken for 2 more dinners this week (not pictured)

I spent way too many hours in the kitchen but it's so worth it to have good to have all that preparation out of the way. I hope to get more efficient with practice. It's hard when you're making pancakes, have burrito filling on the stove, and are trying to re-stuff potatoes, all while trying to make sure nothing burns. Not to mention the loads of laundry and the dish washing I was doing along the way. I had to learn to improvise when all my cooling racks were used and dirty when my muffins were ready to cool.  Do you like my homemade one? A pizza pan and cans :)

I didn't follow all these recipes exactly. For example, a spice mix up nearly ruined 2 lbs of empanada filling but I rinsed it off somehow and ended up just adding salt, pepper, and tony's (it goes on everything right?) instead of any of her fancy spices. I doubled many recipes and I used a bread recipe to make the muffins (adjusting the temp to 375 and cooked for 15 minutes).  


Tips I learned:
In this short time I have learned a few things about freezer cooking. I like the idea of reusing the tortilla bags to store the burritos in the freezer. Also, write some instructions like temperature and bake time on the bag. That way I don't have to look it up or if I'm not home one night, Matt can easily cook one of these meals.

look at my tiny, happily stocked freezer.  :)  The potatoes are hiding so it looks a deceiving but there's lot in there!

And best of all, I gave my husband options while packing his lunch this morning! No PB&J in his bag today.

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Do you have any freezer friendly recipes? Do you have any more tips or tricks? I'd love to hear them.

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