If you’ve never tried cooking ahead, please try it . . just once or twice!
Over the weekend I made Chicken Parmigiana.
It was so good! Don’t anyone tell me you can’t tell the difference in home grown canned tomatoes vs. store bought canned tomatoes. I made extra and froze it.
I can hardly wait to have it but I’ll wait til some day when I’m too tired or don’t have the time to cook. I’ll pull it out, heat it up, serve with pasta, bread and a salad and we’ll have a yummy meal with no effort.
And, another night over the weekend, I was made pizzas. Had pizza crust dough in the freezer so we had homemade pizza in no time at all!
Any time you’re cooking a meal, think about whether what you’re making would freeze well. If so, make extra, freeze it and have it later. Just keep a list of what you’re putting in the freezer because you don’t want to forget about it and leave it too long and then lose it.
Remember . . time saved is time you can use for quilting!
peggy says
Based on your previous postings, I bet you made a spread sheet for what’s in your freezer!
Gari says
Unlike you, I don’t like to cook. I am pretty good at it but it doesn’t do anything for me. So, I usually will cook ahead, when I cook. I have tried to teach this to family and friends but they see “leftovers” rather than meals made ahead of time. I, however, love pulling a favorite meal out of the freezer and without effort, I look like I cooked all day. Cool.
Sarah says
I would LOVE to do more freezing. But I don’t actually know “what would freeze well” – any general suggestions? For example, should I freeze before or after cooking? What kinds of foods are good candidates? And how do you thaw the stuff?
Linda Burley says
This past week I have cooked enough for a double batch and now have frozen in my freezer: chili, beef stew, cream of chicken and wild rice soup, and a chicken casserole. Basketball season is almost here and on those nights when we have games and no time to make dinner we can still have a nutritous yummy meal waiting for us.
Carol in SW IN says
This is a link to USDA guide to food preservation-freezing. Hope that it helps. There are tons of places to get information just do a search on food preservation by freezing
http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/freeze.html
I like to do this a lot. I even have tried to start putting calorie & carb info on my labels so I can make better diabetic choices.
I have made lasange in individual size loaf pans and learned to let cool in fridge, wrap with plastic wrap then aluminium foil. I wrapped in foil only one time and the acids in the tomatoes made the foil turn colors and pitted with holes.
Not a very appetizing look.
When I worked and had classes in the evening, I would plan on cooking a lot on the weekends to save time during the week. I found out that one of my sons would go to his friends house and eat there during the week. The mother asked him if I ever cooked and he told her ‘Oh Yeah, she cooks all weekend but I just like the company here’ I was glad it was for that reason and not that I was a bad cook
;-D
Judy, Thank you for all of the inspiration here.