Getting Started

The trick to successful freezer cooking is to 1) have a general idea about what will freeze,  what will not, and what containers you'll need, 2) have an idea about what kinds of recipes your family likes, even if you've not cooked it before, and 3) have a detailed plan.  A plan for cooking, freezer space, and menus.

General Freezing and Storing

You can search Google for "foods that freeze well,"  or "freezer cooking,"  and come up with thousands of recipes and ideas for cooking.  Here are a few things that don't freeze well, that we eat on a regular basis.  Dishes that are more "fancy" you wouldn't want to freeze anyway, because you'd want it fresh.  No one is freezer cooking filet mignon and cheese souffle!

Don't try to freeze: 

• Anything with sour cream, which unfortunately includes the most delicious food on earth, hash brown casserole.  It will curdle. :(
• Cooked eggs by themselves. (If it's in a baked good, it's fine!)  They just do weird things.  
• Soups that have dairy (half and half, cream, or milk) added at the end, but some soups (like broccoli cheese) where the milk has been cooked a while do fine. 
• Veggies that have not been blanched (except onions and green peppers!)

You also want to have a plan for what kind of freezer containers you'll use.  I put about 90% of what I cook in Ziploc freezer bags (do NOT get the cheap kind!) and the rest goes in those little disposable foil pans, or tupperware containers.  I freeze my chicken stock in glass jars with plenty of head space so they won't break.  

I have a big freezer in our garage, so I put everything in there; however, I could totally fit all that food inside if I organized it in a different way, and cleaned out the inside freezer.  If you have just a little space, you might want to only cook for a month, instead of longer.

There are two of us, plus Emerson, so I portion everything into two servings per bag/container, unless it's something Emerson will eat, in which case I put a little more. If you have a larger family, you're going to want to make your portions (and containers) larger, and you might want to double recipes if you want more servings.  

Learn how to flash freeze.  It will save your life.  The basic process is this:  Prepare or cook the food, then lay the pieces out on a cookie sheet.  Freeze all day or overnight, then put in bags.  THIS is a good website for more detailed directions.

I just bought loads of frozen veggies from Sams, but if you wanted to get bunches of green beans, broccoli, etc. fresh, and blanch and freeze everything, you can learn how from the Ball Blue Book or Google.  I learned how to do all that as a kid (thanks, Mama!) but it's a giant hassle.  For real.

Recipes

What did I do before the internet?  That is all I have to say about recipe-hunting.

I posted my menu of food, and you may read it and say "My family won't eat any of that."  So don't cook it.  Cook what YOU will eat!  I don't spend copious amounts of time looking for recipes.  If I find something I'm interested in, I either print it, or save it to the home screen on my phone, and then I can go back to it later.  (Or forget about it for two years, and while cleaning out my recipe book say "Oh yeah.  Those pork cutlets with balsamic blackberry sauce looked really good.  I should make those...")

I also get magazines that have good recipes.  Southern Living.  Cooks Illustrated.  Martha Stewart Living.

I also check blogs for good recipes.  The Pioneer Woman is a good one, and Kelly's Korner often does a Friday link-up with certain kinds of foods (freezer meals, soups, main dishes, etc.)

You do need to have a general idea of how many servings you're going to get out of a recipe, so you know if you want to double or triple it.  If you're a family of four, and it serves four, that's not a good freezer meal unless you make more.    

Planning

The next thing you'll want to do, after collecting a bunch of recipes and figuring out how many meals you'll have (you can do 30, 60, even 90, but most stuff will taste "off" after about 3 months.) is start planning your grocery trip. 

Go through each recipe, and scan it for things you don't have on hand and make a list.  I organized my list by store (Sams Club, Ingles, ABC Store, Fresh Market, etc.) and then by type of food.  So my Sams List looked like this:

Sams:

Meat:
Chicken Thighs (at least 12)
Chicken breasts (2)
Pork chops (6-8)
Hamburger (8-10 lbs.)
Stew meat

Frozen:
Salmon 
Tilapia
Shrimp
Green Beans
Corn

Produce:
Potatoes
Onions
Green Peppers
Garlic
Carrots 

Other:  
Olive Oil
Peppercorns

I would then go over recipes AGAIN.  I always *think* I have something, but I don't.  Or I completely forget to write it down....you do not want to have to make a quick trip out when you've got three pots on the stove and two in the oven!

Next post will be how to organize cooking so you'll get the most use out of your pots and pans, stove, counter, crock-pot, and your time!