Bring On the New: Tips for MASSIVE Freezer Cooking

When Lucy was born, my dear, dear friend Melissa did the most amazing thing for us. She cooked, like, a gazillion meals for us, froze them, and sent them up to us (she lives two hours away).

Twice.

It was the. best. thing. ever.

Now in terms of domesticity, Melissa is Michael Jordan and I am the kid across the street who can't hit the broad side of a barn. She is Jimi Hendrix and I am the 7th grade guitar class at school. She is Adelle and I am a screeching cat. But Rick's sister is having a baby, and I thought this was a good idea...

Tip #1: Having Meals in the Freezer is the Best Thing Ever
I think I already said this, and it's not really a "tip," but it bears repeating. I learned this when Melissa brought the meals while I was on bed rest. (NOT something I recommend, btw.) It was amazing to just be able to pull something out of the freezer, let it thaw, and throw it in the oven!

Tip #2: Take it Slow
My original plans were a bit more grandiose, but real life and a growing understanding of what I could actually accomplish, given my lacking skill level, full-time job, two children, fitness schedule, and cooking for my own family, brought me swiftly back to Earth. Thankfully, we have 1/4 of a cow in our freezer, and thanks to one of the freezers going out and me spending four hours cooking 60 lbs of ground beef, that part was already done. I spent about three sessions of five-hour stretches in the kitchen, and then bits and pieces here and there. Between cooking and organizing the guidebook (which was actually my favorite part of the entire process), I probably spent a good 24 hours on this over the last month!

Tip #3: Have a Plan
Here is my menu:

I kept a Google spreadsheet of what meals required what ingredients, what ingredients I had and which ones I still needed to get, etc. Obviously, the plan changed, but that was okay.

Tip #4: Have Partners
My husband was a rock star while I was doing this. He took the kids across the street to the park, or just kept them out of the kitchen, sometimes for hours on end. And my mom was awesome because she offered to pay for all the disposable bake ware, which is a necessity when you are freezer-cooking for someone else!

Tip #5: Break the Cooking into Segments
I did this in shifts, and invariably, the shift that I thought would be two hours ended up being five. Plan for that.

Tip #6: Try to Cook HEALTHY Stuff
Now that I have spent 15 weeks eating plant-based whole foods, it's hard for me to go back to thinking about preparing white flour, processed foods. I purchased a few ingredients I hadn't purchased in probably 6 months (like Velveeta, for instance), and to be honest, I had a little internal battle as I was preparing these things. If I don't want to be eating these, should I be making them for someone else? Melissa's meals were all super healthy - shouldn't mine be, too? So I compromised. Rick's sister is not a fan of veggies, but I made three dishs (meatballs, sloppy joes, and "mashed potatoes"), that have "sneaky" veggies. I'm particularly proud of the "mashed potatoes" because I didn't have a recipe and they turned out SO GREAT! I'll share the recipes at another time.

Tip #7: Think about Convenience
Do things that are going to be easy. Almost all of these meals can be thawed in the fridge overnight and tossed in the oven 30 minutes before go-time. You don't want meals where you have to do a lot of prep.

Tip #8: Use everydayhomecook.com for Pretty Much Everything
Allow me to GUSH for a moment. This is a MUST on your list of food blogs. It's run by a friend of mine (who I absolutely adore) and it's awesome. This is hands down my favorite cooking site. It's so easy, everything is step-by-step, and the food is DELICIOUS every time. I used her refrigerator dough, bierocks, monkey bread, bread sticks, cookies, and taco seasoning all directly, but then I used variations of several recipes as well. GREAT resource.

Tip #9: Have a Guidebook
This was really for my own sanity, but I know how helpful it is to have a guide because Melissa made up great instructions for us. I used Google Docs (PS Kallie, if you are reading this, Luckiest Guy is my new favorite font!) and generated a Meal Plan (above) and a Table of Contents: