Freezer Cooking Day: The Plan

Today and tomorrow, Crystal from MoneySavingMom and FishMama from LifeAsMom are hosting a freezer cooking day, where they prepare a bunch of meals to freeze for another day.  They have started doing this once a month to make life easier at dinner time.  I have done versions of this in the past, usually on a smaller scale based on what ingredients I have on hand and what meat/protein I can find at great prices.  I like to do this bit by bit so that I don't have to take the whole day to cook.  When chicken is on sale, I buy enough for 4-6 meals, prepare them and freeze.  The same goes for pork.  When those huge loins are on sale, I have one or two sliced into chops and roast, season or marinate, and into the freezer they go for another day.  By preparing a handful of extra meals here and there, before you know it, you have a freezer full of meals to choose from.  Better yet, they have all been bought on sale and the cheapest prices I can get!  Then, when I'm ready to eat them, I just thaw and bake/grill/put in the crockpot. 

Before I decided to participate in this Freezer Cooking Day, I had already noticed that my local high-end grocery store was having a sale on chicken breasts for $1.49/lb, which is pretty good in this area, especially for good quality meat.  I had planned to take advantage of this deal this week anyway, so it was a nice coincidence that a couple of my favorite bloggers are doing freezer cooking today also!

This morning I picked out the recipes I was planning on making, from Fix Freeze Feast and Don't Panic, Dinner's in the Freezer (info is listed to the right), my two current favorite freezer cooking books.  Then as I was looking through my refrigerator and pantry, I changed my gameplan.  I decided to move along a bunch of condiments that I am sick of looking at.  Instead of trying some new recipes this time, why not marinate a bunch of chicken breasts in sauces I already have?  How's that for frugal...

So here's what I'm planning: 

::  35 pounds of skinless, boneless chicken breasts, trimmed and divided into 3 pound portions.  The breasts are usually huge, so I cut them in half the fat way, so I end up with a triangular piece and a sort of semi-circle shaped piece.  Each portion of 3 lbs goes into a gallon-sized zip-lock bag.  Before adding the chicken to the bag, I label with a permanent marker what is in the bag and cooking instructions.  I am purposely buying more chicken than I need to account for trimming.  Any extra chicken will be frozen on cookie sheets and put in a zip-lock bag for later.

::  7 different marinades/sauces:  two different BBQ sauces, mole sauce, curry sauce, sweet and smoky Indian marinade, raspberry salsa, and a sesame teriyaki sauce.

::  The marinade gets poured into the zip-lock bag, and I squish around the chicken and sauce until the chicken is coated.  Depending on how much time I have and how creative I am feeling, I may add some pizazz to the bags like extra onions, garlic or other herbs and spices.

::  As for cooking, some are for the crock pot, and some are for grilling or baking.  The BBQ sauces with chicken will go in the crock pot for healthy and delicious pulled chicken, similar to pulled pork but much easier!  Same goes for the mole sauce, which will probably be served with tortillas for tacos or burritos.  The others will probably be grilled or baked. 

So it's that easy!  The hardest part is cleaning up the chicken, which takes me awhile since I'm picky.  If you wanted to do this even MORE quickly, you could buy the bags of indivdually frozen chicken breasts, count them out into your zip-lock bags, add your marinades and pop them in the freezer.  In literally minutes, you could have many main dish meals in your freezer, ready to go.  While the meat is cooking, make a quick salad and/or other vegetable and you have a healthy, cheap meal.

Do you do any freezer cooking?  Tell us about it in the comments section!