Comments on: 3 Weeks Till Christmas: Menu Plan & Batch Cook for December

By: Simple « Once Upon A Grain Of Sand

Simple « Once Upon A Grain Of Sand — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 17:22:46 +0000

[...] a priority planner from Creative Counterpart by Linda Dillow. I made a bunch of freezer meals. I cooked more than we needed as often as I could and froze most of the leftovers. I started couponing. I did [...]

By: Heather

Heather — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 17:07:41 +0000

Janel, I’m not sure what Tsh does, but I prefer to have my pizza ready for the oven when I pull it out of the freezer. So I have made the entire pizza (in a rectangular shape to fit into a FoodSaver bag) and freeze all the toppings and sauce along with the dough on a cake cardboard piece – just like they do from the freezer at the grocery store. Be sure to wrap the cardboard with foil or parchment paper so dough won’t stick to the board. It works perfectly! I hope that helps!

By: Ginger

Ginger — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 16:33:24 +0000

I don’t have a lot of freezer space or dishes, so I use a lot of Ziploc gallon freezer baggies. You can carefully lay enchiladas in them single layer (side by side) and then put that on a piece of cardboard or something and stack the bags — takes very little room. I also put chicken breasts with seasoning and cream of chicken soup in them, mush it all up and then sort of push the bag flat. Just put something between that baggie and the next so they don’t freeze into each other.

I’ve also lined a casserole dish with foil, frozen it and then popped the foil out of the dish and wrap that carefully with more foil. You can store the “shaped” casserole without the dish. And, Sam’s sells those aluminum pans that are great for freezer food — just no tomato stuff in alumninum.

By: Janel

Janel — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 16:31:43 +0000

Lovely list! Thanks! I hope to incorporate some of this this month – one question on the pizza dough — when you batch make the dough – do you freeze it in dough form or do you cook a view plain ones and then freeze that? Something I’ve always wanted to do but that part confuses me

By: Ginger

Ginger — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 16:28:46 +0000

I have heard you shouldn’t freeze, thaw and refreeze meats. If I brown hamburger, I wouldn’t freeze that, thaw and then cook it in something to refreeze. I do keep frozen cooked meat (chopped chicken, hamburger) in the freezer and pull it out to add to a dish, but I wouldn’t take part of that dish and refreeze again.

By: Ginger

Ginger — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 16:21:40 +0000

My 11 year old and I made some Muy Nacho Stuffed Shells (http://wegottaeat.com/CandaceT/recipes/muy-nacho-stuffed-shells) and froze up batches. The kids absolutely love them even when the pasta shells fall apart during stuffing. We stuffed shells, put them flat in ziploc bags and froze them, with the sauce in a baggie attached. I used the manicotti shell boxes to “layer” the ziploc bags in the freezer and keep them from getting smushed.

This was so great to pull out of the freezer and bake yesterday after all the turkey and turkey soup and turkey sandwiches through the weekend.

I find I always enjoy having a “copy” of something in the freezer that’s a favorite. It took a while to stuff all those shells, but now we can enjoy them anytime. And, because he helped, it’s a guaranteed winner with him!

By: 2 Weeks Till Christmas: Make Your Food Gifts | Baby Shopping Ideas in the Philly Outer Rim

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 02:33:27 +0000

[...] 3 Weeks Till Christmas: Menu Plan & Batch Cook for December [...]

By: Heather

Heather — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 04:08:22 +0000

I just finished my first week following your menu plan (replacing a couple of my own recipes) and, wow, how great it was to eat at home for a change! Thank you for not only the idea, but also your monthly menu. That took so much of my planning time away – I usually spend an hour planning one week (when I do cook) but I don’t think I spent that much time planning a whole month using your menu plan. My parents bought us a FoodSaver last Christmas and I’ve used it more this past week than I have the entire year! Totally worth the investment if cooking this way. My boys (7&9) loved your White Chicken Chili. We also just had your pizza recipe – no more Domino’s for us! I substituted one and a half cups of the white flour for wheat flour (doubled dough recipe) and yumm-ie! Thanks again!

By: Christi {Jealous Hands}

Christi {Jealous Hands} — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 23:20:05 +0000

All the recipes sound absolutely delicious – and what a great idea. Thanks for sharing!
.-= Christi {Jealous Hands}´s last blog ..Cade =-.

By: Andrea

Andrea — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 21:54:20 +0000

I love the idea of bulk cooking and freezing. Your plan sounds great! I’m just wondering: do you have a large stock of casserole dishes or do you put things like the Enchiladas in plastic container and then transfer it to a baking dish when it’s time to re-heat?