Freezer Meals

Andrew is going to laugh at this post because I have been all about the freezer meals lately. Hey buddy, back off...things like getting a new deep freeze are exciting to us house wives, and you won't be so sarcastic when you are eating delicious meals when the baby is born.

So after getting our double stroller, it was time to start making some freezer meals in prep for the baby to come. After Coral was born, one of the things I struggled with the most was having the energy to make good healthy meals. When your baby has colic, the whole house is in a simply survival mode, the last thing on our minds was what we were going to eat. We did ok, we survived, but this time I want to be more prepared.

Eating healthy is important. It's good for breastfeeding mamas (you need lots of vitamins and nutrients...it's a lot of work for your body to make that milk), AND this time around I have a toddler to feed. I need to make sure she is eating good. Oh and I suppose I care what Andrew eats too :)

So here's what I did. When Andrew was in England, my mom came out for a few days to help because of the whole bed rest situation. I decided to put her to good use and got her to help me with the crock pot freezer meals. I chose five meals that we would make, then took a short trip to Costco to get what we needed. I knew that the crock pot freezer meals would be the most work, and wanted to get them all done in one shot. And we did! In fact we got it all done from start to finish during one of Corals naps.

We ended up making:
-3 roast beef meals
-2 stews
-2 goulash
-2 teriyaki chicken meals
-2 BBQ chicken meals

To make them, we simply just chopped all the veggies, added the meat, spices and sauces, and threw it all into a freezer bag. We wrote on the bag the directions (such as, some need rice added to it, or noodles, or more sauces, and how long to cook it for in the crock pot). Then, when it's time to actually cook the meal, simply defrost it, toss it all into the crock pot, and BAM, six hours later you are eating a delicious healthy meal. And since they are in freezer bags, they freeze pretty flat, making more room in the freezer for more meals.

Next I did some baking. Not all at once, just every now and then when I was getting bored of the whole bed rest thing. In our deep freeze we now have two bags of chocolate chip cookies (thanks to Christy for making one of those bags for us), chocolate chip muffins, and coconut peanut butter balls.

And the rest of my freezer meals are being made as I make dinner. For example, last night I made perogie casserole, doubled the recipe, and made a freezer meal out of it. This morning I made chili and tripled the batch, leaving one for us to eat tonight, and two to freeze. This is super easy to do, and I'm planning on continuing to do this after the baby is born. It's so simple to just double what your making, and then if I'm having a lazy day, or if I get sick and have no energy to cook, I will still have good meals to feed my family.

Other things in our freezer are: potato soup, bacon/chicken/spicy potato casserole, lasagnas, and pizzas.

Still to make: enchiladas, hashbrown casserole, chicken and rice casserole. And then my little deep freeze will be FULL! And there will be no starving people at the Hodgson house after the baby is born!