{Freezer Cooking Extravaganza}

I read alotta blogs. Do you use Google Reader? You should! It keeps track of my many blogs and lets me know when they are updated. It's a one stop shop and I love it. (hopefully very soon I will update my list of favorite blogs!)
Anywho...what's going on in the blogosphere is a big freezer cooking PUSH. I have done something like this once before and it worked out pretty well. Brandon and I have talked a lot and one of our family goals is to eat more meals together. Growing up, both of our moms cooked dinner every night and we ate as families. (My mother-in-law even made dessert... Overachiever!)
Evenings are always pretty chaotic for us. When we hit the door, the kids are starving (or so they say) and sometimes fish sticks and macaroni are the best we can do. BUT, I know there is a better way! Planning is critical. Menu planning is a great place to start.

A few sites that have this Freezer Cooking thing going on:
Money Saving Mom
$5 Dinner Mom
Happy Housewife

So I was inspired to try a little Freezer Cooking Extravaganza of my own. Since the weather outside was frightful, I had the perfect opportunity over the weekend. I did things a little at a time over Saturday and Sunday. I did not go quite as far as completing ENTIRE meals. My plan was more to prep things as much as possible. Here is what I did:

3 packages of diced chicken


1 package of marinated chicken


2 packages of Taco/ Fajita seasoned chicken


2 packages of Taco meat


3 packages of meatballs for Spaghetti and Meatballs OR Meatballs subs


And 6 packages of cooked pinto beans to be used for refried beans OR to cook with ham



This was the one Brandon was a little iffy about. But I paid about $2 for a two lb bag of dry beans and got about 6 cans worth of beans out of it. And 1 can of beans costs about $1. Every penny counts, right? And yes we do like beans. It took me about 15 minutes of hands on time (soaking, rinsing, putting in crockpot and packaging) because I used the crockpot to cook the beans.

So I got all of that in the freezer AND I made a pot of yummy Broccoli Cheese Soup for dinner Sunday (and we still have leftovers!) I made things as I saw small windows of children being entertained for more than 5 minutes and I barely noticed the work! So we have 9-10 meals prepped. I figure if every weekend I can get a few things ready to go for the week AND remember on weekday evenings to prepare for the next day, we will be doing pretty good!

AND for dinner tonight, I have this cooking:
Slow Cooker Beef with Balsamic Onions
I remembered to thaw the roast and I cut up the onions last night and had them ready to go in the fridge. It took me about 5 minutes to get it in the crockpot this morning.

So there you have it. Planning is really everything. Things go so much more smoothly when I can plan ahead a little!