Freezer Food Time

How was ya'lls weekend?? Mine was awful for so many more reasons then just one. Yes it could have been worse but I don't want to imagine that. My heart was broken on a few occasions this weekend. I had some time for self evaluation and some tough decisions were made. There is alot that I will share on here but some stuff just isn't meant to be public so for that right now I am sorry. Maybe one day in the future.

However in the midst of the awfulness that took over most of my weekend I had a few moments of pure happiness and peace. A few moments where the tears almost start flowing because of the shear joy I was feeling.

My favorite part of the weekend though was seeing the hubs and Kinley get ready for their campout in the yard. Kinley was so super excited to be sleeping out in the tent that he actually wanted to go to bed early! haha This was picture perfect!

Now on to the main topic this morning!

Everyone looks forward to FALL for so many reasons. There are so many things that I love about this time of year and today I'm going to share one of them with you.

Last Fall and Winter I was a part of a freezer cooking group. I met some pretty great women that way and got to try out some awesome new food. I also found out that my family and I are alot pickier than I realized so the group thing didn't quite work out for us. Even though I bailed out the group is still going strong and I highly recommend giving one a try! You can read about how to start a freezer group here at Freezer Meals for Us   You might LOVE it or only LIKE it but it is definately worth a try.

I like to do my freezer cooking different ways. I don't have a set schedule to follow or but the most important thing I like to do is save money so I will freezer cook based on what is on sale.

This round ended up being relatively cheap for me because we just got our yearly purchase of half a cow, so I have hamburger coming out my ears!!

Here is what's on the menu for this time;

Football Lovers Chili
Sloppy Joes
Tacos
Stromboli
Pepperoni Roll

Notice the first three are hamburger based and the other two are lunch meat based. I had picked out a few chicken recipes that I love doing but chicken hasn't went on sale in the past two weeks here so I decided to postpone those until chicken goes on sale.

I am going to do this in two parts so that it doesn't become to long and drawn out

PART 1
Here is the grocery list (everything highlighted in yellow I already had at home):
6lbs of hamburger
4TBLS Chili powder
1 Onion
2 cans chili beans
4cans of light red kidney beans
2 cans of diced tomatoes with chilies
hot sauce
64oz Tomato Juice
2 pack of taco seasoning
2 cans Del MonteSloppy Joe mix
9 gallon size freezer bags

This grocery run cost me about $15

Start Time 8:30am

FIRST MAKE YOURSELF A CUP OF COFFEE

Brown burger and Onion the drain grease

Three pots- 3lbs in one and 2lbs in the other two

I used two crock pots for my chili so while meat is browning put this in each crock pot

2 cans kidney beans
1 can chili beans
1 can diced tomatoes with chilies
2TBLS chili powder
1/4tsp hot sauce (or more to your liking)
32 oz of Tomato Juice

After Draining grease off of burger split up the 3lb pot into the crock pots. About 1 1/2lb meat in each.

Cover and cook on low all day!

Super easy!

The next step is to drain grease off of other burger and mix in the Taco seasoning in one pot and then mix in 2 cans of Sloppy Joe mix in the other.

Follow directions on the packages and after they are done simmering let them cool.

Divide these up into the ziplock bags, squeeze all the air out the bag and seal!

Put in your freezer and bam you're done!
(PS I only had one bag of Taco meat because during the morning prep we decided to have burgers for dinner so I just left out one package of burger for that)

End time 10:30am and that's including clean up.

About 5:30 that night I turned the chili off and let it cool for about 2hrs. After it was cooled off it took me about another 30minutes to spoon it all out and divide the two crock pots up into 5 Gallon Size Freezers Bags. Squeeze Air out and seal good.


So with 2 1/2 hours of work and $15, today I put 9 meals in the freezer. These will come in handy when we are running around like crazy with work, T-Ball, softball, Awanas and more. Just pull it out stick it in warm water for about 5minutes then heat on the stove. All meals will be ready in less than 10minutes! That's my kind of dinner!


Freezer Tips for todays menu:

• Always write on your Ziplock baggies ahead of time
• Allowing food to cool lets you handle it easier and get the air out better
• When putting Soups or chilis in Ziplock baggies stack flat on a cookie sheet and put them in the freezer that way. This will allow the baggies to stay flat and take up less room in the freezer. Note* Take out cookie sheet once bags are solid

I designated one saturday morning for this cooking however ran into a few problems so it was done over a period of two days. 2hrs yesterday morning about 30min last night then another 30minutes on Sunday. I will do Sundays Freezer Meals (Stromboli and Pepperoni Roll) tomorrow!

Happy Freezing!

~Mel