Freezer Cooking: a Reflection

Some of you may remember my first major attempt at freezer cooking last month.  In all I completed enough meals to last for almost a month, and I promised to share a follow up post about how I thought the month went. 

These past few weeks we've enjoyed pre-cooked lasagnas, enchiladas, cubed chicken, and seasoned taco meat (among other things).  All-in-all I feel the freezer cooking thing was a huge success - I haven't touched a raw chicken in a month!  It has been an AMAZING feeling knowing that I've had so many things pre-prepared, and mealtime really is a snap for most meals.  We're down to only one bag of shredded chicken after last nights meal of chicken tacos, and then all my frozen meals are gone.  :o(

I wanted to explain why doing things this way is super-easy.  I started my meal last night with seasoning my shredded chicken (trimmed, cooked, shredded, and frozen last month) in a pan:

I then chopped a few bell peppers and onions (two of the things I didn't get to on freezer day, darn!) and saute'd them in another pan:

I threw some black beans in a glass bowl in the micro, warmed some store-bought tortillas (I applaud you Sylvia for hand-making yours, but I'm just too lazy! *smile*), and set out the cheese, sour cream, and lettuce and viola - dinner is served in about 10 minutes!

In the past I have NOT been a fan of leftovers or pre-cooked meats, but I was happily surprised that everything tasted GREAT!  My favorite items from my freezer cooking day:

1. Chili - I made just the "base" (meat, seasonings) and added the chili beans when I warmed it for our meals.

2. Taco meat - this was great b/c I could make it into any mexican dish I wanted!

3. Frozen cookies - I never knew these were SO good frozen!

4. Frozen cooked biscuits - super simple micro warm-up here.

5. Shredded chicken - I LOVED not having to cook and trim it!

It's that time again - I need to sit down and make a freezer plan for this next month.  I'm going to do things differently this time though; I want some chopped veggies and fruits, plus I think I'll cube the chicken BEFORE I cook it so it won't fall apart as easy when used in meals.  I also think I need more hamburgers - those lasted about five minutes once my son Austin found them!

At the end of the summer I'm hoping to do a little canning too.  Our new veggie and fruit garden should be up and running by then so I should have plenty to preserve.  We'll see - I don't want to get too domestic too soon!  :o)

I'll post my freezer plans as soon as I get them all squared away...