Wrap-up Freezer Cooking

Every three weekends my husband works so I try to use those weekends for freezer cooking or organizational projects.  For this freezer cooking weekend I had planned the following:

• Meatloaf
• White Chicken Chili
• Lasagna
• Meatballs
• Shredded Chicken (for chicken tacos)
• Applesauce
• Cranberry Relish
• Peel, slice & freeze apples for pies
• Pumpkins - I saw this recipe over at MSM and thought I'd give it a try

Unfortunately I picked a weekend to do my freezer cooking when I was coming down with a terrible cold.  Some of these items were very time consuming (like peeling and preparing a couple grocery bags of apples), plus I had company the day I was trying to accomplish this so I also did some baking and cooking for them.  It actually took me longer than a weekend to get this done but I was still able to get most of it done. 

The first thing I worked on was the apples.  I had gotten several bags of apples from my mother-in-law's tree and they HAD to be processed.  From these apples I made the applesauce, prepped a bunch for future pies and made apple chips.  I'm going to admit that the apple chips weren't that fantastic so I won't be making those again.

Here is what I accomplished:

• Apples - My family really likes apple deserts and breads so I try to prep my apples in different ways for easy baking when I easily bake for them.  A few of the bags hold two cups of diced apples for my apple cake.  A few bags hold 6-8 cups of peeled apples and quartered apples for traditional pie while the rest of the bags hold about 4 cups of peeled and sliced apples for my quick apple crisp.  I don't add any ingredients to my apples so that I have flexibility when it comes time to use them.
• 1 pot of white chicken chili (separated into single servings for lunch)
• 1 double batch of cranberry relish
• 2 chickens baked and shredded (after shredding the meat from each chicken goes into a freezer bag.  I don't add the taco seasoning until I'm ready to make the tacos.  My experience has been that's an easy way to warm up the chicken while keeping it moist but you could go ahead and add the seasoning and then warm up in the microwave)
• 2 batches of chicken stock
• 1 batch apple chips
• 1 batch bread crumbs (this was my first experience making bread crumbs - I'm a convert and will be sharing my process later)
• 2 meatloaves (I form these in my 9x13 stoneware pan and then wrap in aluminum foil and bag.  I prefer to bake my meatloaf in a stoneware pan since it can get a little greasy)
• 9 cups pumpkin puree (I'll write more about this later but I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out)
• Two lasagnas (I prepare, freeze and then bake these in Gladware)
•  Several batches of applesauce 

 

What have you done in the way of freezer cooking?  Feel free to post a link to your post in comments.

 

I'll be linking this up over at Money Saving Mom and Life as Mom

 

You might also like:

 

Organizational Plans for This Weekend
Being Mellow
Ideas to Save for Christmas
Organizing the Spices