After doing this for years and considering the limited time I have available to devote to a freezer cooking session, I generally choose three or four recipes based on how easy they would be to work on at the same time rather than considering ingredients. For a normal session I might choose tamale soup, chimichangas, and lasagna. I always try to make one crockpot meal because it's so easy. This is what my cooking session would look like:
- Saturday morning I review my recipes, decide on my quantities, and make my shopping list. After doing the shopping, I leave everything for my cooking session on the counter that doesn't need to be refrigerated. There is no reason to put it away, only to pull it out again.
- Saturday afternoon I grate all the cheese I will need in the food processor. I also chop the vegies such as onions for my recipes.
- Sunday morning I put everything in the crockpot for Cafe Rio Chicken. The chicken is done when we get home from church. For lunch we have salads with the shredded chicken on top. I put the rest in the fridge to use Monday when I assemble the chimichangas.
- Monday morning I make sure my dishwasher and garbage are empty and start cooking. I put everything in the crockpot for tamale soup. It cooks all day so I don't need to worry about it for hours.
- I make the sauce for the lasagna. While it simmers I start the chimichangas. After my sauce has simmered for about 30-45 minutes, I take it off the stove to allow it to cool. To do this quickly, take several water bottles and thoroughly clean the outside. Fill 3/4 full and freeze. Place the water bottles in the sauce. They will quickly cool it, just make sure your lids are on tight. Wash your bottles and refreeze for next time. While the sauce is cooling I finish the chimichangas.
- Once the chimichangas are wrapped and in the freezer, I go back to my lasagna. Generally I make mine in 8x8 pans because it takes us forever to eat a 9x13. I just break the noodles to fit my pan when I assemble it. Place your pans in the freezer.
- When my tamale soup is ready, I use the same strategy to cool it as the lasagna sauce. Ladle it into quart or gallon Ziploc bags and freeze flat.
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