One CRAZY Day...my first freezer cooking experience

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What you are about to witness is purely supernatural. That may sound trite and you may think that I'm joking, at least to some extent, but I assure you I am not in the slightest. If you know me well, you will not be hard to convince. If in doubt, just ask my mom or my husband!

I was just starting to think "meal plan" for the first time in at least 2 months, when
I happened to notice that my friend, Julie, had posted about bulk cooking on her awesome blog. I'd heard of freezer cooking or monthly cooking over the previous year but the mere thought made me sweat. I felt like such a rookie at cooking in general (the practical side of homemaking does NOT come naturally to me) that it seemed like this huge, super-organized, impossible for me to do. We also did not have freezer space at the time. All that struggling over daily cooking was not in vain, because I finally have a number of recipes I feel fairly comfortable making, which makes this new endeavor much easier.

When I read Julie's post it suddenly sounded so practical and doable. I really believe it was just purely God's timing when I was ready for and NEEDED it! Suddenly a plan began to take shape in my mind. I started grouping my common recipes into those made with hamburger meat, those made with chopped chicken, those made with no meat, and those made with cut meat.
Then I started grouping them in threes so that I could have one going primarily on the stove top, one in the oven, and one in the crock pot. I told Tom about this, and I could tell yesterday that he was surprised that it actually came to pass (though he did not say so ;).

Yesterday was recipes that use ground beef. I quadrupled my spaghetti sauce recipe for spaghetti and two pasta bakes, I doubled my Crusty Mexican Bean Bake recipe, and made a crock pot of chili (2.5 quarts). It was a crazy day and literally took all day between feeding and caring for my little ones but it was so worth it. Here's what I ended up with. We had spaghetti for dinner and there is enough sauce for two more family dinners (2 more quarts).




Reasons I'm excited about bulk cooking:

1. The most obvious is that it will make daily prep. time for dinner just a matter of re-heating and preparing simple sides, except for one day every 2 or 3 weeks or more.

2. We'll save a lot on dining out because it will be when we want to, not because mommy didn't get dinner together in time or hasn't been able to get to the grocery store yet.

3. Trying new recipes will be without pressure and "for fun" since feeding the family won't depend on it.

4.Preparing meals for other families will be much easier.

5. We'll have leftovers from even the individual meals for either another night and/or lunches.

6. I'll have more flexibility with visiting, having visitors, errands, or anything we may want/need to do besides cooking, except on the big cooking day of course.

I am so thankful to the LORD for this idea and the ability to get it started, and to my husband for putting in an extra freezer for us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!