It took me four days, but...

[Molck]

I froze meals!!

Tuesday: made a grocery list and plan of attack
Wednesday: grocery shopped
Thursday: made huge batches of rice and quinoa
Today: cooked and froze stuff
(I have one more meal to do tomorrow)

I'm so proud . Of course, the kitchen is a disaster now. My body decided I was done about 40 minutes before I stopped, so it probably won't get cleaned until tomorrow morning, but oh well.

What I made:
2 nights' worth of enchilada-type meals
2 pans of cornbread
12 Quinoa almond muffins
Chili-prep for crockpot
Chickpea vegetable soup-prep for crockpot
Lentil apricot soup-prep for crockpot

Tomorrow I'll finish 2 nights of collards/rice/tofu meals. Yay! I really didn't think I was going to find the energy to do this, but I've been so into it all week.

I've been cleaning more than normal, too, so while I don't feel crazy/compulsive about it (yet), maybe I am actually starting to use my nesting instinct for good (instead of just for online window shopping).

[aishy]

Niiiice ! You are so going to appreciate that in just a few weeks.

I should steal my moms Saturday again and have her come over and help me prepare a bunch of meals to freeze.

[K's Mom!]

You rock! Go mama go!

I have a question about your soups. Are you fully cooking them and then freezing it, or what? I just don't want soggy overcooked carrots in my beef stew when its time to eat it, yk?

[battymama]

Yay! nothing like knowing you have a fully stocked freezer, i just got my mums crock pot, you know the old green ones so i have been putting on a big pot of stew, or lentils, then we have a meal for that night, and one or two meals to freeze. It really makes life easier. I am still working out how to get the lentils nice and soft though, i have dahl on at the moment, and it just isnt going mushy, any ideas?

[PerkyKP]

Good for you! I might do a few meals in the next days, but my parents will be here in a week and I'm anticpating Mom making some for me. This is when I need a separate freezer so I can load up before they leave. Mmmm, enchiladas and cornbread sound so good right now! :

[sweetcheeks]

It's a good feeling, eh? You will definitely appreciate it after baby arrives, it'll be nice not having to worry about some meals knowing they're already in the freezer.

My deep freeze is just about completely full w/meals, casseroles and soups. I just want to add a couple dishes of black beans and rice, lentil and rice soup and homemade mac and cheese and I'll feel good. My goal was to have at least 3 weeks of meals in there (to start using once DH goes back to work -- he's taking off 2 weeks) and I've definitely surpassed that. Yay!

[UnskulinMama]

Yay! Your meals sound awesome... I've been busy doing freezer stuff too, but mine aren't nearly as healthy. Oh well, it's still food!

Over the past few days I froze:

1 lb cooked, seasoned taco meat
2 lbs meatballs waikiki
8 cups (2 stuffed full qt size bags) bbq pulled pork
2 qt sized bags of leftover chinese food chicken : + 2 egg rolls

We only have the freezer on top of our fridge, so there's not room for a whole lot more, but I'm going to do a couple of dump chicken recipes and then random stuff like pizza dough and frozen fruit...

/End hijack!

Congrats on getting stuff done!

[Molck]

Originally Posted by K's Mom!

You rock! Go mama go!

I have a question about your soups. Are you fully cooking them and then freezing it, or what? I just don't want soggy overcooked carrots in my beef stew when its time to eat it, yk?

Soups: For the vegetables, I did a quick saute to try and get some of the water content out without fully cooking them. Hopefully they'll finish in the crockpot this way without getting soggy.

For the lentil soup, I left them out with instructions to add to the crockpot, but I went ahead and put the beans right into the bags in the freezer. If I had done my own, I'd have half-cooked them, but since I did canned I just threw them in. Figured I'd rather have mushy beans than no beans (because a can in the pantry is likely to get used for something else by accident).

[Molck]

Originally Posted by battymama

Yay! nothing like knowing you have a fully stocked freezer, i just got my mums crock pot, you know the old green ones so i have been putting on a big pot of stew, or lentils, then we have a meal for that night, and one or two meals to freeze. It really makes life easier. I am still working out how to get the lentils nice and soft though, i have dahl on at the moment, and it just isnt going mushy, any ideas?

A couple of things for lentils:
1- Certain varieties/preparations will get mushier sooner than others; go for split lentils if you can find them.
2- Pre-soaking overnight can help
3- Sauteing before putting them in the soup can help.

DH and I are huge lentil fanatics! We probably have 6 varieties in our pantry right now!