Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Want more time to sew?

 
Stock your freezer.
I spent about 4 hours Sunday preparing freezer meals.
I started with a pot of spaghetti sauce and let it cook while I prepared my other meals.
I made enough sauce for three separate dishes - spaghetti, lasagna and my go to meal, ziti.
Mmmmmm....
 
 
Next, I got out my pressure cooker and filled it with boneless chicken breasts.
Twenty-five minutes later my chicken was done.
 I shredded the chicken and divided it into 4 packages (3 cups each) for the freezer to make chicken and yellow rice, chicken and pasta, chicken salad etc.
  I set aside the rest to make the filling for two chicken pot pies.
 
 
 I usually put all the filling into the uncooked pie crust and freeze until I am ready to bake.
This time I decided to try something different.
I froze the filling and pie crust separately.
 It actually takes up less room in the freezer too.
 
 
When I'm ready for chicken pot pie it will only take me a couple minutes to roll out the pie crust, put it in a casserole dish, dump the filling in and top it with another crust.
I made enough homemade pie crust for 2 pot pies and a couple quiches.
 
 
Up next was the ground beef.
I package my ground beef in one pound packages and roll them out flat.
Rolling them flat makes it quick to thaw and easy to store in a small freezer.
 
 
What I didn't freeze into one pound packages, I made into meat loaf.
I like making little individual loaves - one for each of us.

 I made enough for 3 separate meals for my family, but if someone stops by for dinner, I just take out an extra little loaf.
 
 
Again, these thaw quicker and it only takes a minute to mix together the yummy topping for these babies and pop them in the oven.
 
I like to plan my meals a month ahead. You can read about that here.
Planning ahead, I not only know I have all the ingredients I need, but I know every morning what I need to take out of the freezer or prepare in the Crockpot for dinner that evening.
I hate trying to figure out what's for dinner at 4pm every day.
 
I didn't have time Sunday, but I usually put together a few casseroles and freeze them uncooked so I can literally just thaw them and pop them in the oven - no prep time at all.
 
See how stocking the freezer can give you more time to sew?



No unnecessary trips to the grocery store and it only takes 5 minutes to prep for dinner each night.
 
Now go sew while dinner is cooking!
 

2 comments:

Debbie said...

WOW! I'm so impressed - can you rub off on me? :)

Terri said...

Oh my gosh...this is crazy! I can't even plan meals that far ahead, let alone actually execute it ahead of time! I wish I was half this organized!

BTW...at first glance, I thought your pie dough was sugar cookie dough...thought you were taking the plunge!