Talking Pictures: August 2007 Archives

I spent part of the day cooking and freezing meals. This is a venture I have attempted somewhat both successfully and unsuccessfully in anticipation of the arrival of a new baby. Even though I would have a meal in the freezer, I would never plan out in time to have it thawed if necessary and have the side dishes available, hence the "OK"-ness of the method.

This week I bought the book The Freeze Cooking Manual from The 30 Day Gourmet. I did not think to buy the book before because I figured it was simply like the site in print. While the site has some good advice, it is mostly recipes, some that are not quite my style. The book however is more of a "how-to" with these incredible worksheets that help out with organized shopping, meal planning and menus. So I substituted many of my own recipes and used the method.

Today I shopped for a number of meals at 6 AM, and started preparing some. I intended for tomorrow or Friday to be my "cooking day", but with a nursling who hates everyone but me, I am not sure how feasible that is.

So as of today, I have in the freezer:

-4 nights worth of pork chops in marinade (they were buy one/get one)
-2 pans of baked rigatoni (rigatoni in bechamel sauce with mozarella or fontina cheese and proscuitto)
-2 nights worth of homeade chicken nuggets (I suppose I could save myself the effort and buy ready made/frozen nuggets, but I hate how salty ready-made food is-it gives me a stomach ache)
-3 quiche broccoli, cheese and bacon quiche fillings

I also bought some Italian bread and to accompany the meals and wrapped it up tight in foil and freezer bags.

I plan to make a couple of lasagnas, meatballs for three nights, a couple of Chicago pizzas, some chimichanga-ey things for a couple of nights, some type of chicken-alfredo stuff, and 16 pie crusts for quiches, or pies or whatever.

So what is the benefit? A planned menu. A full freezer. Better budget-ing. I spend a lot of time lately heading out to the supermarket at 2 PM trying to figure out what to make for dinner that night. I end up spending more money shopping like this and I am not sure how I got into this habit lately, but I need to get out.

Also, thank you for filling up the comments box below with some favorite recipes. I love the pretzel idea. Keep 'em coming!

How do you get out of dinnertime idea ruts? One of the latest problems I am faced with is whatever I cook has to be enough food. Many recipes I find that can feed a family my size are a little too "la femme cuisine" than I would like. Lots of what Dinka would call "with goo recipes" (canned soup and Velveeta). So my old cooking strageties nned to be revamped.

Oh, I forgot! My grandmother corrected me a few weeks ago-dinner is early in the day and supper is at night.

Whenever I make lemon meringue pie, it never sets. (I suppose baking on 90 degree days does not help either). The flavor is always fantastic and a homeade lemon meringue beats a store bought in flavor hands down. Still, it always turns into more a mess. We still enjoy it-we just put in bowls and use a spoon. However, I would not mind having a nice, stiff pie for once. Any suggestions?