I just finished a 6-hour cooking marathon, during which I made:
Burrito Pie
Chicken Pot Pie
Cozy Cottage Beef Stew Soup
(still in the crockpot actually)
Freeze Ahead Fried Rice
(I used pork)
Thanksgiving Muffins
(I substituted carrot puree for pumpkin because I forgot to pick up the pumpkin on my grocery run today)
Blackbery Strudel Cookies
(I used blueberry jam and dried blueberries)
After 6 straight hours on my feet this computer-addicted blogger/photographer is exhausted, and I still have to pack for 10 days in Washington. Why did I put myself through this? To prevent That Husband from surviving on tuna and peanut butter sandwiches for the 5 days that I will be in Washington while he is still in Texas (he joins me and my family on Monday). The chicken pot pie is in the fridge, meant to be eaten tomorrow, the beef stew is still in the crockpot (I’m guessing he will just store and eat it from the crockpot while I’m gone, never transferring it to another container), the fried rice and burrito pie are sitting in plastic bags in individual portions in our freezer, the thanksgiving muffins are also being stored frozen in hopes he’ll have a “grab and go” meal in the mornings, and the cookies were made out of love (and because I knew I would want to snack on something sweet after all that cooking. If this keeps him full, I think I’m going to start cooking like this once a week, and keeping a freezer stocked with individual-sized homemade meals for him to grab when I’m not home. Does anyone else do this? Any cookbooks or websites you can refer me to for meals that freeze and reheat well? (Must be something that is cooked already, and can be reheated quickly in the microwave, otherwise I don’t think he’ll make it.)
*All images from this post found at the site where the recipe is located.
December 16th, 2009 on 1:15 am
This is such a great idea. You’re so thoughtful. Ty is so happy to eat a PB&J that if I’m not feeling well, or I’m not around, that or a bowl of cereal is his meal. Haha. Boys are weird.
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December 16th, 2009 on 3:13 am
I recommend The Happy Housewife. She has a family of 7, so most of her stuff is nutritious, but also easy to pull together and it seems to freeze well.
http://thehappyhousewife.com/category/recipes/
http://thehappyhousewife.com/category/food/
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December 16th, 2009 on 5:55 am
Great freezer stocking Jenna! You’re on the right track with casseroles and stews – I’m going to try the freezer fried rice soon! I’ve seen cookbooks devoted to make -ahead cooking (one I read was set up with strategies to only cook once – for an entire 2 days – for a month’s worth of meals! the strategy was to plan every meal, shop one day, then cook the next day. Trying to shop and cook in volume on the same day is way too tiring) that idea was a bit much for me, but the main idea is to choose things that freeze and thaw well and to purposely undercook pastas, rice, potatoes etc so they don’t turn into mush when re-heated / recooked.
Things like lasagna, baked ziti, chicken parm and macaroni and cheese have always been go-to freezer items for our house. We have a few individual bvaking dishes that I’ll sometimes use for a dish like this so that it’s frozen in a single portion (I cover these dishes with foil, then put into baggies to prevent freezer burn), ready to go straight into the oven.
For me, the key is also having fresh salad and already cut and prepped veggies on hand to round out the meal (though if TH is anything like my ‘H’ he’ll be happy as a clam to eat main dishes and dessert with no veggies or salad in sight!)
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Jenna Reply:
January 13th, 2010 at 1:08 am
You know about Once a Month Mom, right? http://onceamonthmom.com/
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December 16th, 2009 on 6:53 am
I’ve played around with making burritos (rice, beans, meat and cheese) but haven’t gotten it down perfect yet…
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December 16th, 2009 on 7:23 am
Once-a-week cook checking in! Husband and I both work full-time so I came up with a system when we first got married that has worked well for us. I do all of the cooking on Sunday in mass quantities, and we reheat portions throughout the week. Casseroles, pasta, and simple chicken-based dishes all work well, with salad or fresh veggies on the side.
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December 16th, 2009 on 7:49 am
What a GOOD WIFE! I wish I was that organized. Instead, my husband makes two staple frozen dinners in our house at the start of the month and they’re our “go-to” meals when we’re not up to spending more than five minutes in the kitchen.
Like you, my husband’s not American. When he moved to the States, his mum packed a handwritten cookbook of her recipes for him. I’ll send you an email this week (or maybe after Christmas, when you’re home again!) with the two meals (Apricot chicken and delicious steak spaghetti sauce) that we freeze. Easy to portion in plastic bags and easy to reheat.
I’m excited to try your freezer meals. Let us know how they went over!
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Jenna Reply:
January 13th, 2010 at 1:10 am
I would LOVE to get those recipes if the offer is still on the table.
And out of the freezer meals I prepared, the Burrito Pie has been our hands down favorite. I made it again already.
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December 16th, 2009 on 7:54 am
Totally off-topic – but NieNie’s blog title today is “On the 9th Day of Christmas.” Don’t know if she’s being cute (its her ninth anniversary) or if I am missing that LDS folks celebrate Twelve Days of Christmas? Did I miss a Sunday post in there somewhere?
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Jenna Reply:
January 13th, 2010 at 1:10 am
Not officially in any way. Lots of families try to make up their own traditions and such but there are no official church sanctioned celebrations.
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December 16th, 2009 on 7:54 am
I did this a lot when I was in my last month of pregnancy (Chris worked/lived 4.5 hours away Monday am through Saturday pm–ugh!) and made things like quiche, taco casserole, spaghetti, chicken curry, etc. It always ended up being enough food for 2 weeks because the meals I would cook were enough to feed at least 6 people. =) [I'm still working on that one =)]
If you search online for OMAC (Once A Month Cooking) you should be able to find recipes. Like Rachel said, pastas and soups reheat really easily, and if you do your cooking once a week you don’t have to freeze everything, just the things you’ll want to eat later in the week. OH, and most pastas actually taste better the day after putting together.
I found this website recently too… just searched make ahead meals: http://makeaheadmeals.blogspot.com/
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Evelyn Reply:
December 16th, 2009 at 7:56 am
HAHA! I just realized at least one of your recipes is from that site… =D
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December 16th, 2009 on 8:28 am
I do this regularly for lunches so that we have grab and go food without extra preparation on top of making dinner. Chili and lasagna are my two staples and freeze well. Occasionally I have also made Chicken Enchilada Pie. Lasagna usually makes so much for two people we are eating it for months while interchanging with freshly cooked dishes. A good chili recipe is in the Betty Crocker cookbook but I spruce it up by adding 4-6 sliced zucchini and squash, any bell peppers, a fresh jalapeno or 1/2 habanero, oregano, cocoa powder and any spices you like. We enjoy the spicy but you may want to cool it for these next few months! Great way to get extra veggies in. Add some shredded cheese, chopped green onion and a dollop of sour cream and you have a great winter meal, or serve on top of macaroni with cornbread for a heartier dish. I am going to try out some of these!
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December 16th, 2009 on 8:41 am
We always do this. Mostly, we make meals and freeze them for lunches so we never have to go eat out. Chilli freezes really well and that’s my fiance’s favourite dish
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December 16th, 2009 on 8:45 am
I’m looking into this too. I have night classes next semester and if I leave the cooking to Mark, we never eat before 8pm and that is late for me.
You’re making me really glad that I’m marrying somebody that can cook though. (Not intended to be offensive, TH works so hard that even if he can cook, he probably doesn’t when he gets home b/c he’s too exhausted, so I totally get where you’re coming from.) Mark likes to cook, so he likes it when I go out of town and he can make meat filled dishes without me around, so I’m happy to let him do that.
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December 16th, 2009 on 9:26 am
Habitual lurker here, comin’ out of the shadows….
LOVE this idea! We’ve started planning out our weekly meals, but now that I’ve learned I can cook all day and FREEZE them?? Why did I never think of this before?? Both of us are hardly home until after the New Year, but I’m definitely interested in doing this once life slows down a bit. Genius!
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December 16th, 2009 on 9:44 am
You are a way better wife than I.
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Michelle Reply:
December 16th, 2009 at 9:57 am
DITTO.
I have a 4 day business trip in january, and even though I’m in charge of
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Michelle Reply:
December 16th, 2009 at 10:11 am
continued…
I have a 4 day business trip in january, and even though I’m in charge of nightly dinners, my husband is going to be on his own during my absence.
Yes, that will probably mean that his cuisine will consist of boxes of mac n cheese, PB&J, and cereal. Ya know what, I’m honestly not concerned enough to spend 6 hours to cook in advance. I love taking care of him and I love cooking dinner every night, but I draw the line once the ‘taking care of’ tasks blend into me being more his mom and less his wife. He is an adult and if he only feels like cooking mac n cheese, then so be it.
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Jenna Reply:
January 13th, 2010 at 1:12 am
If TH had a normal 9-5 job, I wouldn’t do that. Unfortunately that isn’t the case with his current employment.
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Jenna Reply:
January 13th, 2010 at 1:11 am
It’s only because I watch my husband work 16-20 hour days much of the time. I feel so bad for him
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December 16th, 2009 on 10:15 am
There is actually a cookbook itself entitled “Once a Month Cooking” about which I have heard very good things. I cannot personally vouch for it, as I work such long hours that I am never really home for more than 3-4 hours and awake, so I don’t have a day a week (or a month!) to dedicate just to cooking… but if I did, I would run out and pick up the cookbook!
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December 16th, 2009 on 11:03 am
We freeze a ton of soups. It saves us, because there are so many late nights where he doesn’t want to cook and I don’t want to clean.
You are so sweet though. When Sean left for France he was asked me if he could teach me how to make rice. I lost three pounds while he was gone because I just forgot to fix meals. Next time he leaves I am going to send him this post!
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December 16th, 2009 on 11:05 am
You’re a good wife — I don’t do this, well, not like this. I would probably make a huge caserole or soup and expect him to eat it for every meal or something. That and cheese sandwiches and mac and cheese.
And hubs would probably eat out a bit and that’s OK.
Before I met the hubs he was eating at Outback Steakhouse 3 times
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Evelyn Reply:
December 16th, 2009 at 9:56 pm
Hah! hilarious! My mil does the same thing, making a big casserole that lasts a long time, but my fil always ends up finding hot dogs (or something) in the freezer and eating it instead.
Isn’t it interesting/appalling the things our husbands ate before us? (I’ll be honest though, eating out every day sounds so appealing to me right now, but that’s because cooking & eating is so UNappealing these days…) Mine ate a lot of ramen and couscous-inspired meals.
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December 16th, 2009 on 11:06 am
Didn’t finish my comment!
Before I met the hubs he was eating at Outback Steakhouse 3 times a week and Dennys on the other days — so anything is better than that!
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December 16th, 2009 on 11:40 am
The Robin Miller Quick Fix Meals cook book is a great resource for some easy cook and store recipies – the great part of the cook book is she reuses a lot of the staple ingredients. Sometimes I find with other cookbooks that they want you to go out and buy a bunch of ingreidents and then never utilize them again (except for the same recipie) – not budget friendly!
Also my quick veggie soup recipie is PERFECT for the freezer – a can of crushed tomatoes (the big can 28oz), mixed veggies (Frozen or fresh chopped depending on how much effort you want to add), add 3 cups of water, salt, pepper, and a bay leaf – simmer for 3 hours, cool and serve and freeze in individual portions. I also add beef to the recipie (a chuck roast cooked for a few hours will do just fine) for my husband, personally I can do without the meat.
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December 16th, 2009 on 11:43 am
I’ve always wanted to get it the habit of planning a week’s worth of meals, doing all the shopping at once (I usually make several trips in a week), prepping everything in advance, and then freezing portions of what I cook for the nights we don’t want to cook. I am actually leaving on Friday for 10 days with my husband not joining us until Wed and wanted to do something similar – though I don’t know if I have 6 hours – wow!! I was actually thinking of buying bread (we’ve been out for awhile!) and sandwich meat! I’m hoping in the New Year I can make meal planning a habit.
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December 16th, 2009 on 11:55 am
My hubby is an anomaly in that he doesn’t really like home cooking. Not mine per se, just home cooking in general. Before me, he was a ‘blue-box or take-out every night’ kind of guy. You’d think he’d be happy to get some home cooking after that, but actually it has taken me 2 years to find a dozen home-cooked meals that he gets half-way excited about eating. And he hates leftovers – will not eat them – even if it’s pizza or something. If I were to make all these delicious things you made, I would come home to all of them still in the fridge and freezer, and a garbage can full of empty takeout containers. Oh, but the cookies would be gone of course!! I will have to do a post on this sometime – cooking for the picky and independent eater – but I want to do it in a way that doesn’t wrongfully suggest that 1) i am a bad cook or 2) he is an ungrateful or bad husband in some way.
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December 16th, 2009 on 12:07 pm
Wow, you get the A+++ Wife Award today. I hope TH loves everything you made because my husband would probably pee his pants with excitement if he found all that loot in our fridge. I love cooking for him (he is the most appreciative eater ever) and I do a lot of cooking in advance, but when I went on a work trip earlier this month, I let the dude fend for himself. I made sure our pantry had canned chili and our freezer had Trader Joe’s mac and cheese, his favorite convenience foods. So yeah, I am clearly not as dedicated as you!
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December 16th, 2009 on 2:12 pm
McCormick has a bunch of seasonings that come with recipes. They tend to freeze really well. The wife and I will make some of their chili and it’ll freeze for weeks.
I don’t know if this will work but here’s a link to their chili seasonings.
http://www.mccormick.com/Products/Seasoning-Mixes/Chili.aspx
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December 16th, 2009 on 3:02 pm
Wow, everything looks so yummy! Especially those spiral cookies
As to the frequency of cooking- I eat trending towards vegan, which, contrary to popular belief, is not difficult to cook around, but it is difficult to eat out around, so that brings me back to cooking most of my meals. However, between what was up until three months ago 4 grad classes a semester plus full time work and volunteering- and lots of socializing 
– I got in the habit of making two meals on Sunday to reheat and eat during the week, usually a casserole or a veggie bake and a really good chunky stew with loads of beans and veggies. Then I’d just fill in with oatmeal and fruit for breakfasts and usually chopped salads for dinner. A good thin about eating vegan is that if I want something sweet, I pretty much always have to make it myself, so I have to *really* want it to do so 
I don’t think I could ever do the once a month/once every two week cooking, simply because I use fresh ingredients and I like it to taste fresh, and in general I don’t freeze things for that reason. Once a week I think is the perfect sweet spot of yummy home cooked food plus convenience.
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Kristin (Quiche) Reply:
December 17th, 2009 at 1:25 pm
If you have any freeze ahead vegetarian meals, I’d love to have them! Do you have any go-to websites for veg. cooking?
Thanks!
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Sophia Reply:
December 17th, 2009 at 8:42 pm
This website is *amazing*- http://www.vegetariantimes.com. Lots of options from fancy to easy. For total food lusting I check out jennshaggy.blogspot.com- the things she makes are totally vegan, and totally amazing- like gourmet stuff. But for day to day stuff I have to admit I use cookbooks, and my absolute favorite one is a new one- Veganomicon. It’s huge- over 250 recipes!- not heavy on processed things, teaches you how to make lots of things from scratch, and a lot of the recipes are pretty easy. Regina’s Vegetarian Kitchen is another cookbook that I love, love, love. Overall I find that bean heavy, root vegetable stews/soups freeze the best, but stir fries and casseroles work well too. If you like lentil soup, there is a really easy recipe that makes a phenomenal soup- it’s a 15 oz can of chopped tomatoes, 5 to 6 cups of veggie stock, 1/4 to 1/3 a cup of lentils, and one or two onions depending on how much you like onions
You just cook up the onions in some oil, and then dump the other ingredients in and season with some cayenne pepper, salt, and about a teaspoon each of cumin, turmeric, and garam masala, cook it until the lentils are tender, about 45 minutes. It smells like heaven, freezes and reheats well, and you can keep it in the fridge for a week no problem. Plus you can add all kinds of veggies to it- I like red and yellow bell peppers if I’m going sweet, or potatoes and broccoli. You can cook the lentils separately and then reduce the liquid overall and make it like a chunky filling for wraps and tacos as well- super good!
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December 16th, 2009 on 7:12 pm
i think this is the cookbook my mom used when we were kids: http://www.amazon.com/Once-Month-Cooking-Revised-Delicious/dp/0312243189
she had five kids in ten years and stayed home with us until i was in high school, and she was big on making ahead and freezing.
i’m trying to get there before we have kids, but as far as i can get is having crockpot meals all sliced and diced and ready to throw in the pot before i leave for work!
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December 16th, 2009 on 8:15 pm
May I reccomend the blog Freeze Happy – she is all about the frezzer meals and gives tons of advice, yummy recipes, etc.
http://www.freezehappy.com/
Love it!
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December 17th, 2009 on 3:57 pm
Real simple just had a post for this:
http://browse.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/freezable/index.html?xid=cookienews-12-17-2009
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