I know we still have quite a bit of summer left, but I know many of us are looking towards the fall and trying to get ourselves organized. For me, something that will make a world of difference, is having simple, yummy meals ready for those whirlwind days when dinner is the last thing on my mind. So this past Monday, I spent the day with my mom and sisters prepping freezer meals 🙂
My mom has these amazing cookbooks called The Big Cook and The Big Cook 2, so all of our choices came from one of these two books. These cookbooks are great, because the recipes are specifically for freezer meals! They tell you exactly how much of each ingredient you need depending on if you are making 1, 4, 6 or 8 meals, and then how to pack each freezer bag. Couldn’t be easier!
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This is such a great way to prepare delicious, hearty meals for those busy days coming up in the fall when you have no time to prepare dinner. All you have to do is take it out the night before to thaw, and then slow cook it the next day. It is also such a fun thing to do with your family or a group of friends, where you get to socialize and chat, and then leave feeling accomplished, with a bunch of meals ready to go!
Our Process:
There were 4 of us, so we made 4 of each meal. Each of us picked 2 meals from the cookbooks, so we ended up with a great variety, and each got to bring home 8 meals. We individually shopped for all of the ingredients for the 2 meals we selected and then we focussed on those two meals. For things like chopping onions or peppers, one person would do it for everyone else, but they would ask each person how many cups they needed for each of their recipes. We also helped each other out with things like opening cans, holding the bags while one person poured something in, etc.
We set everything up on the kitchen table, and then grabbed things as needed. My sister and I started by labeling all of the freezer bags (because we once made the mistake of trying to label it after we added the food and it did NOT go well, haha). We labeled 4 bags for each recipe. These cookbooks are great because they give you short and concise instructions for each recipe, which we copied onto the bags. Here is an example!
This one has both slow cooker and oven instructions, but I prefer the slow cooker!
Just so you have an idea of the kinds of meals in these particular cookbooks, here are the 8 meals we chose:
- Mighty Meatballs (this one made SO many meatballs, we couldn’t stop laughing)
- California Chicken
- Beef Stroganoff (we bought a bag of noodles to go with each meal)
- Cantonese Chicken
- Pineapple Ham
- Marinated Pork Chops
- Sante Fe Chicken Chili (DEFINITELY double bag this one)
- Sausage and Tortellini Soup (and this one)
We spend about 7 hours working on everything. Keep in mind we had all of our kids with us, so there was a fair amount of chaos and time spent “setting them up” with things to do!! But I think that was what made it so special… It was a full day event where we got to catch up and chat (and if you know us, you know we could talk for hours and hours), and it was a happy kind of chaos. Kids running around, food everywhere, and lots of laughter.
My mom used to do this with her best friend when we were all kids, so it brought back a lot of memories. I feel so grateful that my family is close and that we can do these amazing things together. Helping each other with our kids, prepping meals to keep us all sane once the fall craziness begins, enjoying some wonderful company…
My heart (and my freezer) were full after that day.
I hope this inspires you to find a small group of family or friends to do the same. And of course reach out if you have questions or need some advice!
P.S. These meals also make great gifts for people with new babies (my mom did this for us) or for anyone who needs a little extra help or support 🙂
