Freezer Cooking

Had fun stocking the freezer with (mostly) crock-pot meals to use over the coming weeks.  Working two nights a week, it's nice to have options to feed the kiddos so they don't end up with PB&J each evening.  (There is NOTHING wrong with PB&J in the evening, it would just add up to a lot of sandwiches if they had them each time I teach!)  These meals are portioned to feed my family of 4 and each typically results in enough leftovers for Tim to have lunch the following day.  In the interest of full disclosure, I should say that Gabe eats like a bird and Lily eats like a grown man.

Some tips I discovered while throwing these meals together:

1. Working with a 3 year-old will drastically increase the amount of time spent prepping meals.
2. It's worth it to spend extra money on pre-minced garlic.  You will use THAT much of it.
3. Baking muffins for breakfasts simultaneously is overly-ambitious (at least for this novice).
4. Label the bags before beginning to fill them.
5. Be sure to freeze all the bags FLAT.
6. Invest in some Dollar Store plastic magazine holders - they're perfect for holding the meals in the freezer once they've frozen through flatly. 
7. Buying bulk meat is not always cheaper - check your grocery store's sales.  Since you'll be freezing the meat right away, you can get away with buying meat that's on or near expiration.  I used all chicken breasts b/c I caught a great sale at Giant.  I had some staples in my pantry, but my grocery bill for the ingredients I had to buy was $49.
8. Slow-Cooker liners are TOTALLY worth the $1.97 for box of 4.  Clean-up is so easy with them - and easy is what I'm looking for after being with the kiddos during the day, then teaching then realizing I still need to clean-up after dinner.

Here are the recipes I used:

Chicken Curry
Healthy Mama BBQ Chicken
Sesame Noodles  (I prepared in entirety then froze once cooled.)
Sweet'n'Sour Meatballs 
Teriyaki Chicken
Black Bean Taco Soup
Zuppa Toscana (I prepared in entirety then froze once cooled.  I used a friend's recipe, but this one is similar.)

I ended up with 14 meals (each recipe made 2 gallon-sized Ziploc bags) plus I browned 2 lbs of ground turkey for tacos.

I hope to keep this kind of meal preparation up in the future.  It's been a blessing to my family!