Freezer cooking can be intimidating when you first start to contemplate it. There are many good books out there to help you with your freezer cooking, but often they leave you with more confusion than they help. For example, what do you do if a once a month plan includes meals that you know your family won’t eat? Do you make them anyway? Can you substitute and still make use of the ingredient list?
What many people don’t realize is that you don’t have to follow one way of freezer cooking. There are actually three main ways you can take advantage of the benefits of freezer cooking while still fitting it into your taste and lifestyle.
The traditional way of freezer cooking is what I mentioned a bit above: One a Month Cooking or OAMC. This requires a bit of planning. You basically put together a meal plan, buy your ingredients and then spend the entire day cooking enough meals to get you through an entire month. It gets all of your cooking over with in one shot.
Another way of freezer cooking is to just make enough meals for two weeks or even one week. This takes much less time at one shot and may be more feasible for you. Again, you’ll want to plan out your meals. You can also freezer cook by item, putting up a month’s worth of mashed potatoes at once shot one week and then a month’s worth of chicken dishes the next.
Finally, the easiest way, I think, to get started with freezer cooking is by simply doing your regular cooking, but choosing meals that freeze well. You cook extra of your dish, freezing the portions you don’t eat that night for future meals. For example, instead of making one batch of baked ziti, make two or three and freeze the other portions. it is usually just as easy to double or triple as recipe as it is to make just enough for one night.
Flattening Your Freezer Cooking
Incorporating Freezer Cooking into Your Life
Making Your Freezer and Crock Pot Work Together