Freezer Cooking

By | January 7, 2013

This year is all about being productive. Not reproductive. The ol’ husband nixed that idea.

But if I can’t have a bun in the oven, I might as well have a month’s worth of food in the freezer, right?

Yes, I know somewhere I skipped a beat but its just too hard to go back and figure out where it all fell apart. Or came together.

All you need to know is that Pinterest is to blame. It always is.

I got to thinking about it and realized that last year I really sucked at cooking. The few times I did cook, it didn’t suck. But then I just never cooked. And that sucked. There was much cereal. Much pizza. And many last minute trips to the grocery store for rotisserie chicken and bagged salad. The fact that I felt really good about myself after the chicken and salad dinner just goes to show how pathetically far I’d fallen out with my kitchen.

So this year, I decided to shake it up a bit. Or a lot.

I realized I hate being in the kitchen (unless it’s for baking cookies, or I’m sitting at the table while someone else cooks. Then I don’t hate it). I realized that I need to minimize the time I spend in the kitchen. But we still have to eat, so the minimal time I spend ought to be maximized in productivity. Mind. Blown.

Enter Pinterest and freezer cooking.

Freezer Cooking

Hmmm. So apparently there’s a bunch of women out there with freezers full of prepared meals. Not nasty tv dinner meals. REAL meals just waiting to be popped in a crockpot or oven. Imagine. A month’s worth of home-cooked dinners waiting in the fridge.

I’m fairly certain that if I didn’t have to worry about dinner every day that I would take over the world. Not making any promises, but I think it could happen.

Except it won’t. Because I’m scared to death of this freezer cooking thingamajig. Here’s the scoop:

I did the reconnaissance. I scoured through a million and two pins on Pinterest. Yes, even the most evil 404 redirects. I, gasp, had to even “Google” some of my search for freezer meals. I made my menu for the month. I wrote my detailed list. Aye, down to the last bottle of red wine vinegar and refill bag of herb de provence.

I’ll admit, I felt a cold tingle of power course through my wrists as I held the master list in one hand and pushed a full cart with the other. My husband trailed behind with ANOTHER full cart. Muahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!

For the duration of the ride home I whooped and gloated. Checking off my ingredients with a scrolled flourish.

And then we came home and unloaded it all.

And that’s where everything went wrong. It was all well and good when things were parceled away in their little bags. But as we removed each item from its bag, everything got real crowded real fast.

No one showed me this part on Pinterest. No, no, no. On Pinterest, the meat was cubed, the vegetables chopped, and four hundred cans of tomatoes were lined up in alphabetical order. Figure THAT one out. I saw pictures of kids helping their moms with the prep work. Yes, I was under the impression that there could be some parent-child bonding with my cooking enterprise.

I know the freezer moms of Pinterest lore MUST have unloaded groceries at some point, but surely they had a method to their madness. There’s got to be something I missed. Because my kitchen looked so very un-Pinteresty.

So I made chocolate chip cookies, ate some dough, and started to feel more confident about this whole freezer enterprise.

Then I succumbed to the premiere of Downton Abbey and ate too many cookies. Of course I was bloated and miserable afterwards. What, oh what, will happen to Downton? Will Matthew give away Lavinia’s money to save the estate???

I turned to my kitchen and changed my tune to, “Who, oh who will put away my groceries? Wherefore art thou freezer chef? Whence shalt thou replenish my fridge and cleanse my kitchen?”

Panic causes me to lapse into Shakespearean. Apologies.

So…this is what my kitchen looked like. As you can see, nothing chopped. No alphabetized tomatoes. No smiling toddler.

Freezer Cooking

Just me and my disgusting kitchen. Oh, and some cookies. Hairy cookies.

Freezer Cooking

Tomorrow I will try again. I will try to do more than procrastinate by eating cookies and blogging. Oh, I will blog. I will let you see if there is progress to be had. But consider this the missing “pin” in all those inspirational freezer-cooking-pins.

Freezer Cooking

 

So, speaking of Pinterest, you should totes follow me over there ???? And, I am really gonna be talking up this freezer stuff on Facebook so why not like my page and keep up over there too?

37 thoughts on “Freezer Cooking

  1. Amanda Nelson

    Haha. I was laughing through this entire post. I want to make a bunch of freezer meals too. But I currently have one very tiny freezer. So I am saving my pennies for a chest freezer first.

    Reply
  2. Jessica

    You are so funny and I feel much better after reading this. I would be in the same boat if I decided to take on freezer cooking. Or I would have already made something, not followed the directions and ordered pizza.

    Reply
  3. Adrienne

    Oh my goodness! This is hilarious! So true, too. We can’t trust pinterest to ever give us the whole story.

    Reply
  4. Natalia

    You’re hilarious! I always think about doing it then never get around to it. At least you’re half way there, right? You got all the stuff! My freezer this year is the size of a vegetable drawer, so that’s out for me! Good luck lady! Let’s chat soon!

    Reply
  5. Janis

    I cant plan that far ahead.. I am sure i would have them all in the freezer and then never “feel like” eating that for dinner. I can plan a hap hazard week at a time and that often goes astray.. ecspecially Friday Saturday and Sunday.. when i not only do not want to cook.. i want to eat out or at the very least be waited on.. lol..

    good luck!!!!

    Reply
  6. jennyonthespot

    A woman after my own heart… *shoves another cookie in the pie hole*

    Reply
  7. Holly Lefevre

    I cannot believe it tastes good…I just cannot. I’ll take your hairy cookie..thanks!

    Reply
  8. Kim@Co-Pilot Mom

    This is very good to know. My kitchen feels a little overwhelmed unpacking one week’s worth of groceries, let alone freezer cooking for a month. Eeek! I have always been curious about it – it sounds amazing, right? Looking forward to seeing your further adventures!

    Reply
    1. hillary

      Ugh. Now I have to finish what I started. Perhaps this will be the only month I cook all year.

      Reply
  9. How To Freezer Cook

    […] Well, I have learned yet another thing about freezer cooking. […]

    Reply
  10. misssrobin

    I have a friend who does this. She is amazing! I’m pretty sure she’s actually an alien.

    Reply
    1. hillary

      I don’t know if I have that much energy. I am just hoping that it will alleviate the annoyance of cooking all month long. We shall see…

      Reply
  11. Student Mom (Jenn)

    Oh good lordie. I know that feeling. I then reduced my list to a weekly shop… and then I had all these things in the cupboards that I never used because I’m not very list friendly and only made 3/7 planned meals.

    Reply
    1. hillary

      Yah, that’s what happened last year. I still have some random stuff in my cupboard from my “menus” last year…

      Reply
  12. Best Freezer Cooking Recipes

    […] had my doubts, you know. At first I was certain that the mess and hassle would not be worth it. But then I powered through it and made most of the meals in one day. We’ve worked our way […]

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  13. Freezer Food Facts

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  14. Chris Carter

    You are so darn funny and adorable to boot!! I am the SAME with cooking!!!! I hate it. I fail miserably at doing it and occasionally get a good “home cooked” meal on the table once a week if I am a good home-making queen that I am! Oh yes… the rotisserie chicken has been picked up so many times!!! And pizza… HA! I will be watching to see what happens with this frozen crap… Can’t wait to watch it unfold!!!! GOOD LUCK! ????

    Reply
    1. hillary

      Yes, there really is nothing wrong with a rotisserie chicken. Such a versatile little grocery. I’ll be updating soon with my progress–I actually have good things to report!

      Reply
  15. Ginger Kay

    Before I retired from homeschooling, I spent over a decade hearing about once a month cooking. I used not having a spare freezer as a polite excuse as to why I was not interested in being a kitchen slave for two days each month. And a planning slave for another two. And a shopping slave for one. I’d rather spread out that misery, and take it in a small, daily dose. But I blamed in on the freezer space.

    Reply
    1. hillary

      Ugh. Seriously. I am now a slave to all the groceries I bought. I have to cook it up or it’ll be a huge waste of money.

      Reply
  16. Jeanne

    I will definitely have to follow! We’ve been doing way too much fast food lately. Although I don’t mind cooking, I’ve become quite lazy in the kitchen these days.

    Reply
  17. Jen at PIWTPITT.com

    OK, so this makes me feel so much better. I have several friends who get together once a month and prepare freezer meals together at someone’s house. I hear the stories of how much fun they have doing it together and how great it feels each night to open the door and know dinner is done and so I think, I should join in. I have a deep freeze and a Costco and Sam’s Club membership. Let’s do this! And then I read this and I know I can never. I barely like to prep ONE meal at a time, let alone 30! I don’t even think my freezer COULD hold 30 meals – that’s a lot. Ugh. I’m going to stick with the rotisserie chicken plan.

    Reply
    1. hillary

      Yah. I got way in over my head. Want to do me a favor and just punch me in the throat?

      Reply
  18. Laryssa

    I laugh every time I come to your blog, which is why I keep coming back. Thank you for letting us all know we are not alone in the overwhelmingness of life – in this case freezer meals. I’ve been shying away from them because my vision of exactly this happening to me. And I will continue to shy away.

    Reply
    1. hillary

      Ha! Glad to give you a laugh ???? But you need to read the other post to see how it turned out. I actually made it through a bunch of meals and now I’m feeling all proud of myself. But don’t worry. Disaster follows wherever I go ????

      Reply
  19. JDaniel4's Mom

    My kitchen and pantry are tiny. They barely hold a weeks worth of groceries. I have know ideas what I would do with a months. I think I would rather watch Downton Abbey then think about it.

    Reply
    1. hillary

      I know…pretty crazy. And yes, I would always choose Downton over anything ????

      Reply
  20. Keely

    Oh, darlin’…your sentence about the bun in the oven should be framed. Or stitched on a sampler. But not by me- I’m too busy shoving irregularly sized things into my OWN cabinets and freezers. (Keep fighting the good fight!

    Reply
    1. hillary

      That would make a good sampler. Alas, I don’t know how to do that either.

      Reply
  21. Sarah

    Okay, I have to tell you– I’ve done the whole month-long overload thing, and failed. Miserably.

    Reply
    1. hillary

      You are SO smart. I know this is what I should have done. I HAVE to put it all together now, or else the foods going to go to waste. Ugh. I got way in over my head!

      Reply
  22. Kim

    Oh, what we really see when we throw the curtain back on Pinterest, a la Wizard of Oz. Your kitchen looks like mine would if I had brought all that home. Yikes. My sympathies!

    Reply
  23. frugalistablog

    Please tell me someone helped you put them away today. And I haven’t finished watching last night’s Downton Abbey I recorded on my DvR, can’t wait!

    Thank you for being adorable and down right loveable.

    Reply
    1. hillary

      You’re very welcome for being adorable. Glad I could do that for ya ???? Yes, the old husband helped me put them away. And actually almost all the meals are done! That’s another blog post for another day ????

      Reply
  24. Sarah

    This is hilarious! I stopped pinteresting a while back because everything I tried from there turned out like a terrible half-ass project, even though it was a full kick-in-the-ass of an attempt. I’m looking forward to your post on freezer cooking, and will be looking for recommendations. I’m starting my own 2013 resolution in the kithchen – $100 a week for all of our life expenses (groceries, gas, hygiene, etc) and homecooked meals 6 out of 7 nights of the week. I’m blogging about it at http://www.allsarahskitchen.blogspot.com. Good luck with your resolution – you can do it! Practice and cookies – guaranteed success.

    Reply
    1. hillary

      Wow! You are more ambitious than I! $100 a week is pretty impressive. Are you couponing too?

      Reply

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