Freezer Cooking Day

Over the Labor Day weekend I decided to do my once a month freezer cooking day since Jon was home and could keep the little guy (mostly) out of the kitchen for a couple hours. Since coming up with our school year dinner rotation (posted here) I had planned on doing most of the prep and some of the actual cooking of the meals ahead of time. My reasons for this mainly being that it would save time, money and ultimately allow me to spend more time with Josh during the dinner prep hour (which is when he is usually wanting my attention) and not be stressing about getting dinner ready. Most of the meals I picked are freezer friendly and I was super happy with my end results. Hopefully I'll be able to keep this up once a month! Here's a play-by-play of what I prepared!

I made:
- Baked and chopped chicken for caesar salads (2 dinners)
- Browned and seasoned ground beef for taco salads (2 dinners)
- Spaghetti Sauce (4 dinners)
- Spicy Chicken Sausage Stir Fry x 2
- Crockpot Honey Garlic Chicken x 2
- Crockpot Balsamic Chicken x 2
- Burgers (x 4)

First I turned on some Friends to keep me company!

I threw some chicken tenders in the oven. These I seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic and italian seasoning. 

Next I started browning some ground beef for taco salads

While the chicken and ground beef were cooking I chopped up bell peppers, onions and chicken sausage for stir fry

Taco meat done! I made my own seasoning for this just by googling a recipe for it. That way you can control how spicy you want it and don't have any fake additives.

Chopped Italian chicken for Caesar Salads

Next I started browning ground beef for my spaghetti sauce. I used the Pioneer Woman's recipe (here) and halved it since I didn't need the full 18 servings her recipe makes. 

Spaghetti sauce simmering away!

While the sauce was simmering I prepared crockpot chicken meals. This was Balsamic Chicken (recipe here) 

And Honey Garlic Chicken (recipe here)

Sauce is all bagged up and ready to freeze!

I also formed burger patties and flash froze them but I didn't take pictures of them :)

At the end of 4 hours I had 16 different meals ready to go in the freezer. I'd call that successful! We are eating the same things every other week so for most of the meals it was as simple as making double and then splitting the portions up. Easy peasy! I've already been enjoying the fruit of my labor this week especially since I came down with a nasty cold/bronchitis type stuff and was glad I already had dinners ready to go. Putting in the hours ahead of time is definitely worth it!

My end results!