Freezer Cooking Day

It's freezer cooking day! I randomly chose today to assemble a bunch of make-ahead meals to throw in the freezer for later. I did some research this week and am trying several new recipes - none of which are actually in this post. But fear not, I will be posting them throughout the week. And as I write them, I will link them in this post for your convenience. :)

Here's what's on the docket for today:

• Honey Glazed Chicken
• Chicken Souvlaki
• Chicken Spaghetti
• Chicken Pesto Pasta
• Chicken Burritos
• Beef Tetrazinni
• Lasagna

Of these things, the only ones I've made before are the chicken spaghetti (which I've blogged about in the past, it's yummy) and the lasagna. I'm excited to try the other five recipes! They look great!

For anyone who is interested in making freezer meals (also known as make-ahead meals or once-a-month cooking - OAMC), I thought I'd share a few tips:

• Make sure your dishwasher is empty and ready to be loaded. You will have plenty of dirty dishes when you are done with your day of cooking.
• Order out or have leftovers on your cooking day, because after a full day of preparing meals, you won't want to have to cook supper, too.
• There are certain things you can do the night before your big cooking day to make it easier for you the next day. For example, if your recipes call for shredded chicken, you could cook and shred all the chicken the night before. Or you could brown your ground beef the night before. Things like that.
• When you're ready to quit even though you haven't finished making all of the things you planned, just remember one thing: you are trading one day of aching feet for several days of easy meals and easy clean-up. Trust me, it's worth it.
• Stock up on disposable casserole dishes like the one pictured below. It's actually a roaster pan, but that just means it's extra sturdy. I hate the flimsy ones.

There are many benefits to freezer cooking. I like to do it so that we can have a good, hearty, home-cooked meal and all I have to do is throw it in the oven after work - no prep necessary. It's wonderful. Also, it's much easier for me to decide what to have for supper when all I have to do is look around in the freezer. It keeps me from reaching for the phone to order take-out, because I know I have something delicious waiting and it will be ready to eat in the amount of time it would take for a pizza to be delivered.

And for those of you who don't have the freezer space to cook seven meals at a time - all is not lost! By no means do you have to freeze these recipes. You can prep them and cook them in the same day. These are simply freezer friendly recipes.