Freezer Cooking

For quite awhile I've wanted to give freezer cooking a whirl. My inspiration came first from reading Dani and Shelly's blogs, and lately that has been reinforced through reading Money Saving Mom. A couple of weeks ago there was a brief mention of it in a devotional I read from Proverbs 31 Ministries, and in that devotional they gave a link to  Don't Panic - Dinner's in the Freezer. I immediately decided to buy that cookbook. I can't recall the last time I bought a cookbook. It's not something I usually do, and normally I would do some research on freezer cooking cookbooks before buying one. I did quickly research where I could get it for the least amount of money, and then I immediately ordered it. It came in the mail a couple of days ago, and I immediately skimmed through it and picked out a few recipes to try. I also read the instructions on how to freeze different types of dishes. Those were rather helpful. When I was grocery shopping on Thursday, I picked up the ingredients I needed to make a few of the recipes. I already had plenty of boneless skinless chicken in the freezer as I stock up whenever it drops under $2 a pound. I used about 9 lbs of chicken yesterday. I also used far more plastic wrap, aluminum foil, and freezer bags than I've ever used in one day before! Some recipes (like Cranberry Chicken) are frozen when they get to the stage of being ready to put in the oven. For other recipes I did actually cook the chicken today (such as for the white chili). It was tiring, but I think I'm going to be glad I did this. If it goes well, I'll continue to do this in the future.

I made one batch of Colorado White Chili, one batch of Cheesy Chicken Bundles, two batches of chicken enchiladas, one batch of Cranberry Chicken, and one batch (14 pieces) of manicotti. I've made the enchiladas and manicotti before, but the other 3 recipes were new. Hopefully some of the recipes will be "keepers!" I'm hoping I made enough to last 3 weeks, considering we usually get 1 or 2 large pizzas a week. If it goes well, I may try to make enough the next "cooking day" to last a month.

Cooking is one of the things I have a hard time finding time to do while caring for the kids plus teaching. The way I've cut my cooking time down has been to usually only cook for Paul. Many times I just serve Nadia and I things like pb & jelly or egg salad sandwiches, yogurt, etc. She and I go many days without eating a hot meal (unless you count a Hot Pocket, lol). Since Paul doesn't mind eating leftovers, it means I can get away with only cooking 1-2 times a week in addition to buying a pizza or two. Since I want to start a tradition of eating dinner together as a family, this means I'll need to cook more. I also think that having a family dinner will mean we'll all be eating more veggies, which is also a great thing! So hopefully freezer cooking will work out well for us. :-)

Updates would include that my eyes feel fine as long as I have the drops 3 times a day. I haven't gone this long without wearing contacts in about 15 years. I miss them! I plan to go back to contacts on Tuesday. The tinnitus has gotten a tiny bit better, but it's still rather annoying. I still can't hear out of my right ear At All. That is VERY annoying. I think Paul is annoyed also by my lack of hearing. I really didn't expect to go this long without being able to hear out of my right ear. I asked Paul to mow the lawn today. I am already very congested. The last thing I need to do is aggravate my allergies even though I'd like to get an hour of exercise. The grass really, really needs mowed since we've gotten a lot of rain over the past week. I did clean out the kiddie pool yesterday and also trimmed some bushes. It was a really pretty day (not nearly as hot as it has been).

I had to let Ian cry again last night. I put him down at 7:15 and fed him at 8:10 when he woke up screaming. He was only up for a few minutes. Then he woke up at 4:30am and cried off and on for awhile. He eventually fell back asleep, but then he woke up at 5:50. I got him then. The good news is that he then nursed for 45 minutes. He nursed several times yesterday in addition to the first feeding. I am glad Thursday was a fluke. Whew...

I've made some progress with getting caught up on grading. I keep reminding myself to keep chugging along because there are only 2 weeks left. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can...


I can't believe on the list of Nadia's favorite sayings that I forgot to mention "The end." She says it whenever she gets to the last page of a book she's "reading." It's so cute!