When I say that I do freezer cooking sessions, it is a little misleading. I don’t usually take a day to do a whole freezer full of meals. Instead, I practice some big cooking, and I make up freezer meals with the leftovers over the following couple of days.
Last night, I made a 20 pound turkey and five pounds of mashed potatoes. We had turkey, mashed potatoes and peas for dinner. I took the time to get the entire turkey carved up and separated. The dark meat went into one container, while the white meat went onto a platter. The skin and carcass was divided into two pieces. Since I only have one stock pot, I’ll have to make two batches of turkey stock on two different days. I also made up some home made gravy to use fresh with our turkey meals.
Of the mashed potatoes, I filled a muffin tin, that normally makes six large muffins, with mashed potatoes and placed it in our upright freezer. When the potatoes are frozen, I’ll pop them out of the cups and pop them into a freezer bag. This will make real “instant” potatoes for future meals.
Today, I will make one batch of turkey stock, and three batches of turkey enchiladas. If I get really ambitious and the kids cooperate during the day, I may even make two turkey pot pies. I’ll also make up a regular turkey dinner for someone in need.
Over the next few days I have some other meals planned with the turkey, including a creamy dish made with cream cheese and toast. Yummy. And somewhere in there, we will have at least one other regular turkey meal for the week.
I find that by stretching out the freezer cooking over a few days and incorporating it with regular meals, I am more likely to stock my freezer. Since I have to cook dinner anyway, cooking a big meal makes sense for me.
How do you do your freezer cooking, and do you have any turkey recipes that you love?
Mary Ann Romans writes about everything related to saving money in the Frugal Blog, creating a home in the Home Blog, caring for little ones in the Baby Blog and now relationships in the Marriage Blog. You can read more of her articles by clicking here or subscribe to the blog using the subscription box on the right.
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