Yesterday, I gave my best friend, Kim, a tutorial on freezer cooking. I had spent so much time thinking about freezer cooking before I ever attempted it that there were a few things that I knew in my mind and were automatic to me that I had to explain to her. It made me think that maybe I did not do a thorough enough job explaining my process in writing my “I Can’t Cook” post.
When we did our process yesterday, we started at 10 am and worked until 5:30pm. Yes, we had a couple of detours with lunch and trying to find a printer, but basically, we worked for at least five and half hours (including a shopping trip). Plus, typing into the spreadsheet and chopping and sorting veggies was done by both of us at the same time, so things went faster as a result.
I probably do my freezer cooking prep once every two or three months. Each time I make 18-22 meals at a time. I cook two to three freezer meals per week (on the other days we eat leftovers, make quesadillas or have dinner with other people). So, when I see that the freezer stash is getting low, I start planning and researching.
What You Need to Start
If you are just starting this process, there are some basics you need. First, you need freezer or fridge space. If you are doing many meals at at a time, you need freezer space to store the meals. You may choose to just do a couple at a time - like prepping for the week ahead - and that’s really helpful if you don’t have freezer space, in that case, just make sure you have room in your fridge for a few gallon sized freezer bags. (If I didn’t have freezer space, I would at least prep a couple of meals in containers or gallon bags so that I could either cook them in the crock pot or on the stovetop by just putting it together. I have WAY more time on weekends to do prep than I do on weekdays, so even if I did this on a small scale, I would do it. Planning ahead makes the week go so much more smoothly!) Second, you need gallon and quart sized freezer bags. I use gallon bags for full meals and quart sized bags for excess veggies or portions of meals (like if I am putting in the meat later, but I want to assemble the other parts of the meal, like veggies, sauces, seasonings, etc.).
I would strongly recommend using a big food processor for prepping your veggies. First, I hate chopping onions, so I will buy a bunch of onions and process them all at once. Some I slice and put directly into a quart-sized freezer bag (these are perfect for dropping into the crock along with sausages and bell peppers or with chicken breast topped with fajita seasoning). Most of the onions will get roughly chopped and put into the food processor so that they end up diced. I usually only do two onions at a time in the food processor. Otherwise, you end up with onion slush. Of these onions, I will drop some into freezer bags designated for recipes and whatever diced onions are left get put into a gallon freezer bag labeled “diced onions” and laid flat in the freezer.* When I need to use onions for non-freezer meals (like quick soups, fried rice or stir fries), I break off whatever amount I think I need and put the rest back in the freezer. (I learned this method from Jenni. Thanks, Jenni!) This way, I always have diced onions on hand without having to do the work (and shed the tears) of chopping onions each time.
I also love to use the food processor for carrots. Chopping carrots really hurts my wrist (and I am just weak), so I’ll throw the slicing disc into the processor and get a bunch of carrots sliced at the same time. Like onions, I’ll process a bunch at the same time and freeze whatever I don’t need for a future meal (like a stew, soup, fried rice or stir fry). You can also finely dice garlic using the processor. However, for onions alone, I feel that I NEED a food processor. With this kind of cooking, if you are prepping 10 or more meals, you could be chopping twenty onions plus twenty carrots. That is a lot of chopping. Just thinking about it makes my arm ache!
Research and Organization
Yesterday, we did the whole shebang in one day. Kim picked out her recipes ahead of time and together we made the spreadsheet, did the shopping and did the prepping and sorting. This makes for a very busy day. I generally do not have the luxury of devoting an entire day to doing this meal prep and I refuse to use a babysitter to get it done. Instead, I spend several days getting this done. I spend a few days of idle time (like after dinner or while kids are napping) flipping through the cookbook (this is the one I use and love, but you can also find recipes on Pinterest by searching “crockpot freezer meals” or free recipes at Stephanie O’Dea’s website) and I figure out which recipes are easiest and most appealing. If it requires pre-cooking something or adding dairy at the end of cooking, it’s too high maintenance for me and I will likely not use it. In our current state, the most I can do is drop the meal into the crockpot in the morning and get home and make rice to go along with it. The mental work of remembering to add something at the end of cooking and the extra time needed to cook something before adding it to the crockpot is just too much for me. Maybe later in life.
So, after I have done the research and tabbed my recipes, I start a document or spreadsheet that lists each recipe and the ingredients that go with that recipe. Here’s the spreadsheet I made with Kim. When we printed it for shopping, I realized that I could have better organized the shopping list by listing each item by its name then quantity like this: “red bell pepper (2)” rather than “2 red bell peppers.” That way, I could have sorted the spreadsheet by alphabetizing the column with the items needed rather than the area of the store. I would have had to do less scanning of the list to make sure that we had the right number of items we were looking for.
Once I have this master list, I modify it. If I disliked a recipe, I remove it from the list. If I want to try something new, I add it to the list. I make the list so that the quantity reflects one meal’s worth of ingredients and when I actually go shopping, I decide if I’m going to double or triple my recipes and I change my quantities on that day. (I hardly ever make just one meal of something. I almost always double it and if we really like it, I triple it.)
Prepping Meals
Once you get all the groceries home, figure out what you need to do to your items. For example, figure out how many onions need to be diced and how many need to be sliced. Then start slicing and dicing!
Yesterday, we used big bowls to sort ingredients. We sliced and chopped and when we were done slicing and chopping, we started sorting ingredients into bags.
On each bag, I write the name of the recipe, the date, the cooking time (usually low for 6 hrs). If you need to add anything to the bag that you didn’t have at the time of prep (or if it requires adding dairy at the end) also note that on the bag. For example, if I needed soy sauce but didn’t have any at prep time, I would make a note “add 2 T soy sauce” or if it needs heavy whipping cream at the end, I would write “add 1 c. heavy whipping cream in last 20 mins.”
Then we went to each recipe, set up a gallon freezer bag (or two if you’re doubling) for that recipe and started sorting ingredients based on the recipe. If a recipe called for four chicken thighs, 1 diced onion, two sliced carrots, 1 tablespoon of cumin, we would grab each listed item and plop it into a gallon freezer bag. (The only things you would NOT put in the bag are any ingredients that are supposed to be added at the end of cooking. Sometimes dairy, pasta or fresh herbs are added at the end of cooking. You just have to look at the recipe to figure that out before you start bagging up your meals.) Once all of the ingredients are in the bag, seal it up and lay it flat in the freezer.
Side note: I do not like raw meat. When I can, I buy frozen meat - like frozen chicken breast or thighs and I put them into bags frozen. We eat a lot of chicken mostly because it comes frozen in pieces and I prefer handling it like that.
Another side note: If you find that you have leftover chopped veggies, put them into labelled quart or gallon freezer bags and freeze them for use in future freezer meals or for a non-freezer dinner you make. I often use these frozen veggies for soups.
Using Your Meals
When it’s time to use your meals, you can put them directly into your crockpot frozen and cook it all day. I have an oddly shaped crockpot (my favorite one is this one because it’s programmable and it doesn’t lose too much moisture during cooking, but I also have traditional type crockpots for times when I cook something big or if I need multiple crockpots going at once - which I sometimes do). Because of my oddly shaped crockpot, if I have a super full gallon bag meal, I might let it thaw overnight so I can easily break it up to fit into my crockpot. Most of my meals go directly from freezer to crockpot with no issue.
When I make a crockpot meal, if it’s a “meaty” meal, I’ll set up my rice cooker right next to it and add my grain (rice, quinoa or couscous) in the morning then when I get home I’ll add the water (or broth) and turn it. If it’s a soup or stew, we don’t prepare anything else to go with it other than breaking tortilla chips into it (if it’s a chili or tortilla soup) or maybe serve bread with it.
Doing This in Reality and Not Fantasy
As I mentioned in the beginning, it’s rare that I would actually spend an entire day devoted to prepping freezer meals. Usually, what I’ll do is plan and organize one hour at a time - stealing time in the evenings. Then, when I’m done with that step, I’ll do a big grocery trip. On the day I do the grocery trip, I usually don’t have time to assemble meals, but I might just chop veggies. Sometimes I don’t have time to chop veggies. If that’s the case, I prep them during nap time the next day. Generally, on big shopping days, I leave right at the beginning of the babies’ nap time, I am gone for about an hour, then I immediately come home and chop veggies. When I’m in this mode, Jeff and I have an agreement that he takes care of the kids so that I can get this part done.
If I have an item that will go bad quickly, like raw stew meat, I’ll try to assemble those meals right away so I don’t have to worry about it spoiling before I use it. I prioritize my assembly by whatever is likely to spoil first. So, if it will go bad, I process it and freeze it right away. Then, I try to make sure that I have a few hours - like two or three - to assemble the rest of the meals. I usually do this during afternoon nap time.
So, here’s how it might look:
- planning and organizing (Monday through Thursday 7-8pm)
- shopping and chopping (Saturday from 1-3pm)
- sorting and freezing meals (Sunday from 1-3pm)
So, there it is! WAY more detail. Hopefully it’s helpful! Let me know if you have questions! Even if the comments part of blogger is not working, you can send me an e-mail at susan.ludlum@gmail.com.
P.S. These meals are also great to have on hand if you have a friend who is sick, overwhelmed, just had a baby or just lost a loved one. On more than one occasion, I was able to reach into my stash and drop something off for someone to cook later. As long as they have a crock pot, these meals work!
*Freezing things flat is essential for freezing. It makes it easier to break off portions of whatever it is or if you are thawing it, it makes it thaw faster.
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