Chicken Freezer Cooking Day

One of my goals for a while was to try my hand at freezer cooking.  I wasn't very familiar with that concept until I started following Money Saving Mom and I thought it seemed pretty neat and efficient, but for some reason figured it just wouldn't work for me.  I have this strange fear of putting things in the freezer and then forgetting about them, or them coming out all ice-crusted and gross looking.  Over the past 6 months, I've slowly been training myself to use what's in our freezer (and to look in there frequently) so that it doesn't become a black abyss of freezer-burned food.  In the past month or so, I've tried a few different freezer meals (things I was already making for dinner that were freezer-friendly and just doubled the recipe--one for dinner that night and one to go in the freezer) and they've all been successful.  A couple of weeks ago I tried this recipe for Freezer-Friendly Breakfast Burritos for Billy, and he LOVES them.  So after building up my confidence, I decided that I would do an all-out freezer stock up before Piper was born.  I know that things might be a little crazy around here after her birth, so I thought it would help me out to have dinners already prepared in the freezer.

In preparation for this huge project, I sat down and made a list of every meal we already have in our dinner repertoire that was freezer friendly...I went through my personal cookbook where I keep all of our tried-and-true recipes, and also searched my boards on Pinterest for foods I had pinned that were good and freezer friendly.  After coming up with my list, I determined which recipes would be really easy to double.  This is my list (with links to recipes for some of them):

• Stuffed Shells (x2)
• Spaghetti Casserole (x2)
• Crockpot BBQ Chicken (x2)
• Twice Baked Potatoes
• Italian Chicken
• Blueberry Muffins
• Whole-Wheat Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
• Chicken Tacos
• Beef Tacos (x2)
• Banana Bread
• Hashbrown Casserole
• Cheesy Chicken and Rice Bake
• Baked Ziti (x2)
• Asian BBQ Chicken
• Southwest Roll-Ups
• Pancakes (x2)

I then went through each recipe and determined what ingredients and quantities were needed.  I found this article on Money Saving Mom's website that was really helpful and instructive on how to plan a freezer cooking day, and pretty much followed this method.  After figuring out my ingredients, I went through the pantry and cupboards to figure out what I already had on hand and what I needed more of.  Once I refined my ingredients list, Ellie and I took a shopping trip to Kroger to get everything.  I saved up some personal money for this, since I didn't want to have to try to factor the freezer cooking day into our weekly grocery budget.  I spent $79, which I was extremely happy with, since I had set aside $100.  

I knew that if I tried to cook all of this stuff in one day I would totally lose my mind, so I broke my list up into four categories--chicken, beef/pasta, vegetable-based, and baking.  This gives me a more reasonable amount of things to make at one time, and then I don't have to worry about trying to bake cookies while also handling raw chicken.  Today, I tackled the chicken during Ellie's nap.  I prepared 5 bags of marinated chicken (Italian, BBQ-x2, Asian BBQ, and chicken tacos) and one casserole, plus I set aside some cooked shredded chicken for the Southwest Roll Ups I'm making on vegetable freezer cooking day.  I am totally amazed that I was able to do this, considering how quickly I get burned out in the kitchen lately.  Here's a picture of my success!

I feel so great knowing that there are 6 meals sitting in my freezer that are ready go...all I would have to do is throw them in the oven or crockpot, add a side, and some bread.

I also made some burp cloths for Piper last night...I think I must be in the nesting zone because I've been really motivated the last 24 hours =).  I will warn you, my burp cloths are kinda tacky looking, but I didn't want to spend money on pretty, coordinated fabric when I already had a bunch of scrap fabric around the house!  I used up some flannel that I've had for over a year, plus an old Eddie Bauer t-shirt that I loved but got a stain on, and two grimy, stained baby towels that were Ellie's.  I made 6 burp cloths total (two of each pattern pictured below).

The colors and patterns are kinda weird...but seriously, they're going to mop up baby vomit.  They don't have to be pretty =).

I also spent most of this morning (pre-freezer cooking) working in the girls' room.  We finally got our baby furniture situation resolved (we ordered a chest of drawers but got a dresser instead and didn't realize it until we got home--after 4 hours of driving in one day!) so we rearranged their bedroom last night to make everything fit.  This morning, I made Piper's bed with Ellie's old bedding (Ellie now has a big girl set with a comforter and pillow) and put all of the baby blankets, towels, sleepers and gowns, shoes, socks, and other accessories in the chest of drawers and dresser.  It took me quite a while (I'm funny about how things are organized...what makes sense and what's most efficient are very important to me!) but I think it's pretty much done!  I also set aside a few baby items to take to the hospital, so now I just need to work on packing my hospital bag.  It's hard to believe that I'm going on 37 weeks, and Ellie was born at exactly 37 weeks.  Motivation for me to get things done!  Although let's pray that the circumstances are entirely different this time... =)

And just for fun, I wanted to include this picture of Ellie enjoying her very own smoothie!  I make this Pick-Me-Up smoothie pretty much every morning for breakfast, so I decided to share some with Ellie and gave her her very own cup!

Her face cracks me up! =)