With the new Freezer Cooking Recipe Series I’ll be posting in February I thought for every person who already does freezer cooking there are just as many if not more who don’t have any idea of what Freezer Cooking is…or WHY you should do it! So over the next 2 weeks Im going to do a few posts on what, why, where, how & when! So To start things off, here are a few of the basics of what is it and how do you get started…

What is FREEZER COOKING?

Freezer Cooking also known as Once a Month Cooking (OMAC) is when you plan out & assemble meals ahead of time and then freeze them to feed your family at a later date. You basically take a day to prepare all the meals for the months dinners and then freeze them individually. Each day you are able to pull out a ready to bake dinner that your family enjoys…saving you money, time & avoiding the “I don’t know what to make for dinner blues”

Everyone does things differently, for some people they want to jump in feet first and make a full month dinners…other people like to just make 2 weeks dinners at a time, and some like to only make an extra dish or two to store in the freezer…for the days they don’t feel like cooking. What ever you choose, is fine…there isn’t really a wrong way to do it!

How do I FREEZER COOK?

You can either do your FREEZER COOKING day by yourself or with a group of people or a combination of cook by yourself & exchange meals… there are advantages to all three ways.

Cook Alone:

Basically…plan out your meals, what you would like to make, go thru your stockpile to pull out any ingredients you have, then make a list of other items you need…shop on day 1, then prep on day 2 and assemble & Freeze on day 3

You get to choose every meal & you know your family likes them already
You can cook in your jammies, turn on your favorite radio station and jam to tunes all day…alone, peace & quiet =)
You can cook your way
Its also a lot of fun to bond as a family if you get your hubby and kids involved

Cook alone & Exchange meals:

Choose a few friends who have similar tastes in food & family size, sit down as a group and decide on recipes, you each choose one or more to make and assemble on your own…cooking 1 pan of the recipe for each family participating….so if you have 6 friends (you + 5 others) doing the FREEZER COOKING EXCHANGE you would cook 6 of each assigned dish. Then you all meet up and exchange meals, so if you each cook 3 recipes you walk away with 18 different recipes & meals!

You get to try NEW Recipes
You still get to cook YOUR way in YOUR Kitchen
You can have your family get involved

Cook together as a team at ONE location:

This is FUN…but it can be chaotic! To do a FREEZER COOKING as a team day, you’ll want to have one person who is in charge each month. This person would have the responsibility of shopping and paying for all items for the freezer cooking day. After all items are purchased, you would divide up the bill EXACTLY EQUAL. Jobs need to be assigned and you need to have someone coordinating. You also may want to have everyone bring a cooler so that food can be kept cold, when your making 70 meals for 6 families…your going to run short on fridge space;)

You can get together and spend a day with your friends
You get to divide the jobs
You dont have to do ALL the work or cleanup!
You get to try NEW recipes
FUN!!!!

A few things to consider…

When you are freezer cooking with others, you need to try to find people who have similar family sizes and food tastes.
When you make the meals think about how many servings each pan will feed, You dont want to cook a pan filled with 6 servings and receive back in the exchange a pan that only serves 3.
Make sure to AGREE upon serving sizes BEFORE you choose to begin the freezer cooking day.
If you choose to freezer cook as a team and exchange meals, you can change up the rules a bit & get as many people involved as you want…if you make 4 pans, you get to try 4 new recipes in exchange…make 10 meals & trade for 10!
This is a great option if you have a large circle of friends or extended family that would want to team up!