Practical Project - 30 Day Freezer Meals

Practical Project - 30 Day Freezer Meals

As my husband's health issues make him less able to help around the house, my personal life has become disorganized.  After work, the choices are should I cook, clean, pay bills, run errands, etc.  It has become harder to find time to relax, exercise, read, find me time.  I had to do something or my health was going to be affected.  In an effort to make my life less frenetic, I went searching for solutions to some everyday problems.

One of the problems that I was having was meals.  By the time I would get home from work I was too tired to think about cooking.  If I sat down, it was all over.  Nothing was going to get done.  I was starting to live on junk food and take out.  It doesn't help that I am a stress eater and really, really want that chocolate covered crunchy thing with salt.  It was unhealthy and expensive.

In my search for meal solutions, I turned to Pinterest.  You know Pinterest.  It is that place where you collect all the interesting web things you find and then never do anything with.  It is a web junk drawer.  I opened the junk drawer.

In the middle of my Pinterest "food drawer" filled with recipes for chocolate covered crunchy things with salt I found an item for 30 Days of Freezer Meal.  I didn't like the meals that they suggested, but I liked the idea.  I thought about it for a while and decided that I would take my meals and make my own 30 Days of Freezer Meals.

I took an inventory of what was in my freezer and pantry.  It was a great time to clean the freezer, refrigerator, and cupboards, of all old items.  I picked recipes that would use up these items.  This ended up being a bonus stress relieving exercise.

I didn't know how much time it would take to cook 30 meals, but I set aside 2 days.  I made...

Chicken Stock
Chicken Soup
Chicken Pot Pie
White Bean Chili
Beef Stock    
Beef Stew
Pot Roast
Red Bean Chili
Marzetti  
Soup Beans
Spaghetti Sauce
Sirloin Burgers
Stuffed Green Peppers
Ham Steaks
Homemade Noodles - Thanks for the help, Mom!
Zucchini Bread
Homemade Pizza Bread
Homemade Yeast Rolls

It took me the whole two days to finish the project but with better planning, and knowing now what I didn't know then, I could have done this in one day.

This ended up being more than 30 days worth of meals.  Left overs and lunches ended up being a nice bonus.  I am so glad I used my own meals instead of someone else's suggestion.

Tips:
1.  Borrow crock pots - I used one and could have saved time if I had two or even three crock pots cooking meats over night.
2.  Put cardboard on the freezer racks if you are using plastic bags.  Those bags form fit around the racks and the only way to get them off is a hammer.  It is a good way to relieve stress, so you decide.
3.  Do not stack plastic bags on top of each other until they are frozen.  The only way to get them apart is the hammer trick.  See tip#2
4.  I may switch to plastic stacking bowls (BPA free).  One time expense, but if I don't lose the lids, it will save me money in the long run.  See tip#1 and #2
5.  Food process all the veggies at one time, not by meal.  It will save time.
6.  You may need less spice.  The freezing seemed to make the food taste spicier than expected.
7.  Make sure you use good quality plastic bags.  You don't want one to split open in the freezer.  Trust me on this.