More on Freezer Cooking

I know many moms who do freezer cooking as a regular part of their meal planning. These are usually moms who have large families (4+ kids), and freezer cooking is a great way to keep some sanity at home and have awesome meals. I'm not there yet, but I'm getting there! For me, freezer cooking is one tool in my arsenal of meal planning. We often have a freezer meal once or twice a week.

The other main tool I use is planned leftovers. My husband doesn't mind leftovers at all. He wouldn't mind eating the same dinner 4 nights in a row, but I can only handle it twice, and I think if we ate the same leftovers repeatedly, he'd quickly tire of that meal. Planned leftovers allow me to only have to cook about 3 nights a week. Often we do breakfast for dinner one night, I cook two nights, with leftovers each time, and then a freezer meal to carry us through the other two nights. So we have homecooked meals every night, but I don't have to cook everyday. This is what works for us, but it wouldn't work for everyone. If you or your husband do not like leftovers at all, this wouldn't work for you, or you might just have to use leftover ingredients creatively to revamp them into a whole new meal.

I know moms who have themed nights too to help them with meal planning (like Taco Tuesday or Spaghetti Wednesday). I've only recently started doing this. In Damian's family, everyone gets together every Wednesday night at his grandmother's house for Red Bean Wednesday, when she cooks a big pot of red beans and rice for everyone. We implemented Red Bean Wednesday about a month ago, and both of us love it. I cooked a massive pot of red beans over a month ago, and every Wednesday night I pull out a small container of it for our dinner. Then all I have to do is heat up a vegetable or make a salad, and possibly make rice in the rice cooker if needed. Actually, we even freeze rice in quart sized baggies, which saves lots of time! I don't even care for red beans and rice, so I eat a PB&J while Isabelle and Damian chow down on the red beans. Yes, Isabelle loves red beans and rice, so when we have just small amounts left over, I put together itty bitty meals for her in 2 ounce containers to pull out for lunch or on nights when we're having soup or something that's hard for a 1 year old to eat.

My favorite thing about freezer meals is that sometimes, we mamas just don't feek like cooking! I can't explain it, I just know that sometimes, when the clock hits 4 o'clock, I just have no desire to get in the kitchen and cook.  On days like those, it's great to just reach into the freezer and thaw something out, and it sure is cheaper than ordering pizza.

Authentic cajun red beans and rice (minus the rice) simmering on the stove.  They'll look VERY different after a couple hours on the stove.  It doesn't take much more time to double the recipe, and longterm, it'll save oodles of time and energy.