To be honest cooking is not my favorite past time but as I am committed to having home cooked meals 3 times a day, I get to do quite a bit of it. One thing that I do that helps me to spend less time in the Kitchen is to make double what we need and then freeze the rest for later. Tonight I made Tuna Noodle Casserole (Not that exciting looking, but one of our family's favorites). I made enough to freeze one dish full and then we ate the other. The amount of time I spent was only about 2 minutes more to make double. It is very nice to have frozen meals whenever we have a very busy day or perhaps I don't feel well. It saves us a lot of money because times that we might be tempted to go out to eat, we can just use one of these meals instead. Obviously not everything freezes well so I don't do this everyday but I try to do it fairly often. Here are some of the dishes that have worked well for me to freeze: Lasagna (I freeze it before it is baked), Tuna Noodle casserole (This I also freeze before baking), Enchiladas, Homemade Pizza (When I do this I pre-bake the crust about 10 minutes and then put the toppings on and then I will bake it the rest of the way before we eat it. I usually make 3 of these at a time), Meatloaf, Chili , soups and Chicken Rice Burritos (Pictured below).
Do you ever freeze meals? What are your favorite ways to save time in the kitchen?
Another similar thing that I do is to brown a lot of hamburger at once and then freeze in containers.
I like to freeze cooked meat like hamburger, sausage, chicken or meatballs. It makes certain meals go faster because you don't have to precook meat.
ReplyDeleteI also make big batches of cookies whenever I bake so there is dough in the freezer. I always do double batches of muffins so the kids have snacks for their lunchboxes.
I like to make several meatloaves at a time ... one for dinner and the rest for the freezer.
ReplyDeleteI also save small amounts of leftovers (that spoonful of green beans, or single pork chop ... even gravy)in a container in the freezer. Once it's full I thaw it out and place it in my crockpot with some water, bouillon (sp?) and seasonings. Add some homemade bread with your yummy veggie soup. :o)
Meatloaf, homemade quiche, homemade soups, spaghetti sauce (for several meals) just about anything. I double my recipes and put 1/2 in the freezer. Spaghetti sauce I cook a big batch for 3 meals and then pull it out later in the month and just heat the noodles. Spaghetti sauce is one of those things that taste better as the flavors sit together.
ReplyDeleteI also cook my meat ahead of time or at least freeze it w/ sauces on it to save time later. Bacon I cook 4 lbs at once and just crumble it that way you can put it on anything from pizza to eggs. Chicken, turkey and ham I cook as one meal then save the leftovers in 2C bags, when a recipe calls for cooked anything I pull a bag and throw it in. I have REALLY cut down the time I'm in the kitchen.