{31 Days to a Functional Kitchen} Day 21: Freezer cooking

I know I skipped a day yesterday but I was so, so tired the other night, I just couldn't finish my post and get it ready to go.  I will admit, this series is taking a lot out of me but it really truly has been fun looking at what makes my kitchen function for me.  I hope you have enjoyed some of the tips I have shared - 10 more tips to go!

Freezer cooking is a great way to bring efficiency to the kitchen.  Stocking your freezer with pre-prepared meals and prepped meats and vegetables is wonderful.  Recently I have been introduced to a couple of programs that offer bulk purchases of a single ingredient (i.e. tomatoes, peaches, ground beef, chicken, etc.) at an amazing price.  I have really enjoyed the opportunity to stock my freezer and pantry with some great, healthy ingredients.

The key with freezer cooking is prep, prep, prep!  I may spend a few hours prepping 20 lbs of ground beef (like I did here), but it has saved me valuable time at meal-time.  This prep gave me the following:

• 3 meals of Italian meatballs
• 30 hamburger patties
• 5 packages of pre-cooked ground beef base (for chili, tacos, pizza, spaghetti, etc.)
• 8 one pound portions of ground beef

This week I was able to get 40 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breast for just $1.49 a pound.  These were not your typical chicken breasts either - they were beautiful, large butterflied breasts.  With these, I simply spent a couple of hours prepping them for the freezer.  I know 2 hours sounds like a lot of time, however it was 40 lbs - I ended up with 36 individually portioned breasts!  YIKES, that is over 1 pound EACH!!! 

I trimmed a little fat, cut them apart into individual breasts, wrapped them in plastic and laid them out on baking sheets.  I then placed them in the freezer overnight.  After they were frozen solid, I placed them in Ziploc bags and put them back in the freezer.  I can now pull out just what I need for a meal and not worry about having too much.  Once they are thawed, they are ready to use!

What have you stocked your freezer with to make meal time prep easier?

Freezer Cooking: Ground Beef

I love being able to go to the freezer at the spur of the moment and have it loaded up with a variety of dinner options.  As hard as I try, meal planning generally doesn't happen until after 4pm and the kids are complaining that they are hungry.  If I am especially lazy, we end up eating spaghetti or quesadillas because they are quick easy and great go to meals.  I love when I go to the freezer and can pull out a chicken dish or beef dish that has a bit more panache!  You know, cuz we are fancy!  hee hee!

This past week I loaded my freezer up with ground beef.  We were able to get 40 lbs of lean ground beef through a local food distributor that brings a variety of fresh form the farm items at a great price.  This is the same place we got the peaches the week before.

So here she was, 20 pounds of 93% lean ground beef...2 HUGE chubs!  Yikes!  I knew I better get to work because we were having refrigerator issues so I knew I needed to get it into the freezer.

Ground Beef:  First thing I did was cut one of the chubs in half and wrapped up 6 equal portions (just under a pound each) to have available for a recipe.  In order to avoid freezer burn, I double wrap them in plastic wrap and then place them inside a Ziploc freezer bag.  (Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of this step.) 

Whew, 1/4 of the way done!  That was easy!

Base:  The other half of the chub I popped into a pan along with a cup of water and browned it up to create a ground beef base.  To this base I also added 2 finely chopped onions and green peppers.  That was the only seasoning I added.  This base will be great for a quick meal of tacos, sloppy joes, pizza, etc.  All I need to do is throw this already cooked meat into a pan along with some seasoning and serve.  This will save a big step on a busy evening.

After I browned up the meat, I spread it out on a large baking sheet to cool.  Once it was cool, I divided it into 1 pound portions in Ziploc bags.  I squeezed out any air and then laid them flat and placed the in the freezer.  Once the bags were frozen, I placed them in a larger gallon size freezer bag to further protect it and to keep them organized in the freezer.

Meatballs:  Next, I cut off about a third of the 2nd chub and placed it in a large bowl along with a pound of spicy pork sausage (what I had on hand).  I added a few eggs, bread crumbs, seasoning and onion.  I mixed it up and formed it into meatballs.  I laid these out on a baking sheet, popped them in the freezer until they were frozen (a couple of hours) and then put them in a Ziploc freezer bag.  Again, I laid these plat in the freezer bag so they can be stacked easier and the bags take up less space.

Hamburger Patties:  Okay, more than 2 hours in and I looked up and there sat 7+ pounds of meat that I still needed to deal with.  I was exhausted.  Yet, I forged on.  The remainder of the meat was made into quarter pound patties.  I again, laid them out on baking sheets, froze them and then placed them into large Ziploc freezer bags.

Overall, it was a great day and I am so excited to have all this great meat ready for our busy school and activities schedule.  Now I hope I can come across a great sale on chicken so I can put together some go to chicken meals too!