Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Freezer Cooking Day: The Results



The results are in... I ended up making 10 meals of marinated chicken breasts using 7 different sauces.  Plus, I have 5 plain chicken breasts that are trimmed and ready for whatever I might need them for.   I was going to do 10 plain ones, but who am I kidding... which are more likely to be eaten?  The ones that are seasoned and ready to cook!

When you break it down by cost, you'll see what a savings it really is to do this type of cooking where possible.  I had all the ingredients on hand besides the chicken.  Even if I had used the recipes I had originally intended from my cookbooks, I already had all of the ingredients anyway, so the only thing I had to buy is the chicken.  For approximately 35 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breasts, I spent $51.93.  I got 11 meals from the 35 pounds.  As I said in my earlier post, the breasts are HUGE, so I cut them in half.  Each bag got 4 breasts, cut in half, so 8 pieces of chicken, at $4.73 per meal.  If we say that each meal is, on average about 6 servings, that works out to be about $0.79 per serving.  Not bad, and definitely cheaper than take-out.  The best part is, the work is done!

All in all, it took me about an hour and a half to clean the chicken, add the marinades, put the bags in the freezer and clean up.  It took me less time than I thought, but I had to wait until after Little Moo's bedtime, since she did not grant me with much of a nap today!  No one wants to be up to her elbows in chicken guts with a one-year-old running around.

The other part of my cooking in advance plan that I didn't accomplish was bread prep.  When I grind flour, I do enough for 6 loaves of bread, and measure out the whole wheat and white flour into freezer boxes for the freezer.  Doing this step ahead of time saves me a couple minutes when I'm making bread, which is so helpful!   Every few minutes helps.  Tomorrow is another day......

1 comment:

  1. You grind your own flour?!? I humbly bow before you!!! I like to freeze (when I find a buy one, get two deal) steaks in marinade too. That way, when they're thawing, they're marinating. Of course, I bet you already knew that, didn't you?
    Hey! You should totally come over to my blog on Fridays! Fridays are "Freezer Food Friday" where we share links to our blogs of any freezer foods, mixes, etc. Would love to have you!

    sweetjeanette.blogspot.com

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