Yesterday I spent about 5 hours cooking. It was off and on, and I was able to do other stuff during the “simmer” parts of the process. It wasn’t strenuous by any means. But now our freezer is stocked: a spinach lasagna, spaghetti pie, baked ziti, lentil curry, chili, red clam sauce, pumpkin muffins, and chocolate muffins. I have to give credit to the book Frozen Assets for giving me the idea. I’ve always been a fan of cooking large quantities of soup or chili and putting the leftovers in the fridge for later in the week. But I’ve never cooked several main dishes in one day and frozen everything. I spent about $40 on groceries for my big cooking day, and ended up with ready-to-cook meals that will last us about 14 meals. And it’s such a great feeling to know that everything’s in the freezer and just needs to be thawed and heated. I stuck a list on the freezer door, so we know what’s in there, and when it starts to run out, I can spend another Sunday cooking several meals. And the problem of don’t-feel-like-cooking-better-go-out-to-eat is solved.
Cooking everything in one day worked well for me. I stayed motivated because I could watch the freezer filling up as I went along, and I was able to use the same ingredients in multiple dishes. We don’t eat a lot of meat, so I used one package of groung buffalo and cooked it with a bunch of diced tomatoes, onions, and bell peppers. Then I was able to use this meat/veggie mixture in the lasagna, spaghetti pie, and chili. It was easier than starting from scratch to add meat to each of those dishes.
I’ve checked the Frozen Assets book out of the library two or three times, and each time I thought it would be a great idea, but never got around to actually doing it. I’m so glad that I finally tried it. I enjoy cooking, so yesterday was fun for me, and will make my weeknights a lot easier. Even for someone who hates to cook, making a bunch of stuff (it doesn’t have to be fancy) in one day at least gets the process out of the way for a while.
Leave a Reply