Day 1: Shopping
Day 2: Chicken and Brisket
Day 3: Jambalaya and More Brisket
Day 4: Veggie Crepes, Potato Tacos and Gyros
Days 5 & 6: Veggie Crepes Continued and Thai Chicken
Day 7: Pierogi, Lentil Joes, and Black Bean Burgers
Final Days and Summary
Friday
Onto day two of cooking. I spent the majority of Friday out with my kids. We went to a free magic show in the park and to the playground. In the evening we went to our town's ice cream social. Both were very fun, and I love that our new town has lots of family-friendly events going on. This type of thing is also a big part of why I do freezer cooking.
I want to spend my summer doing fun stuff with my kids without worrying about what's for dinner. It's fantastic to come home after a fun day and not have to drum up the energy to get a homemade dinner on the table. Instead I simply reheat something I've already thawed, so simply throw some frozen item into a pan and make a salad while it's cooking. Next year I plan to do a large amount of freezer cooking just before school gets out. Not only can I spend the summer doing fun stuff with my kids, but also they will be out of my hair while I cook.
9:45 am - I shred and cool the brisket that cooked in the crockpot overnight from day 2. I divide it into portions and get it into the freezer, saving one for dinner this evening. I also get the last brisket half into crockpot. Three more dinners worth of brisket added to the freezer.
10:10 am - I'm done with the brisket and getting ready to go to the park with my kids.
6:45 pm - The jambalaya is simmering. I'm effectively done with it. It just needs to simmer, cool, be dished out and frozen. Dinner time!
7:10 pm - We're done eating dinner. The last batch of brisket I put in this morning and the jambalaya are both cooling. I finish prepping the Swiss chard.
9:45 pm - I dish up the brisket and jambalaya with 2 dinners of brisket and 5 of jambalaya. I also vacuum seal the frozen brisket and some of the chicken cutlets I made yesterday.
For liquid things like French dip I freeze them in Freezerware containers first, then remove the frozen block from the container and vacuum seal it for long-term storage in the freezer. This serves three purposes:
One, it frees up my containers. I have a lot of the freezerware containers, but it's still not enough for me to store everything I make for the freezer.
Two, it helps prevent freezer burn. Food gets freezer burn from being exposed to air. The tight plastic around the food from the vacuum sealer prevents this.
Three, it saves on space. I dish up the amount of food my family will eat in one meal, cutting down on leftovers and waste. However, this often leaves a couple of inches of empty space in each container. All of that space adds up and with how much food I freeze, space in my freezer is at a premium.
I also like that freezing the food into blocks makes it easier to stack and organize the food in my freezer. I even do this with less liquidy food, like the potato chorizo taco filling.
For things like the chicken cutlets I freeze them on sheet pans first and then vacuum seal them in meal-sized groups.
11:00 pm - I've only vacuum sealed about a of the quarter chicken cutlets, but I'm tired and decide to go to bed.
Time Spent Today: 3 hours 10 minutes
Total time: 12 hours 45 minutes
Meals Finished Today: 10
Total Meals So Far: 30
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