My girlfriends are the absolute BEST!A few weeks ago they held a baby shower in honor of baby Horn #3. But this was no ordinary baby shower. Besides the fact that 3rd babies don't usually garner a party, my girlfriends went out of their way to make this baby shower unforgettable.
Instead of giving lots of little gifts, the gals all pitched in to get us a gift card to home depot towards the purchase of a deep freezer! ! ! I was speechless (and believe me, it's not often that I'm speechless) when they first told me the idea and I'm still in awe at the depth of the generosity, thoughtfulness, and love reflected in such a gift.
(The rest of the shower was awesome too -- we partook in paraffin wax dips, turtle cheesecake, and a scrabble tourney. And yes, I won at scrabble. The girls were so nice to let me win.)
I just ordered our new freezer this afternoon; since we don't have much space, we chose a 5 cubic foot model as shown at left.
So, now my task for March is to fill up this bad boy! My friends are all going to provide at least one meal for the new freezer (aren't they amazing?!?) but I'd like to do some of my own stock-piling as well. I anticipate that the first few months of caring for three children will be more than overwhelming. The mere idea of having frozen dinners ready-at-hand is heavenly.
Here's where you come in. I am a firm believer that the best recipes come from other experienced cooks. I'm looking for economical, tasty, healthy, and family-friendly freezer meal/entree recipes. Any stellar recommendations for me?
5 comments:
There's the ever-popular lasagna and chicken casserole, of course. We also love meatloaves, enchiladas, burritos, taco pie, (Hmm. Mexican, anyone?).. And I've taken to freezing meal starters/helps lately, too. Pizza & pastry dough, browned & seasoned taco meat, refried beans, chicken broth, seasoned hamburger patties, garlic/cheese bread.
Moneysavingmom does tons of freezer cooking. Check that out as well.
What a thoughtful gift! Happy cooking!
WOW! Those are some really, really great friends! :-) I love those practical gifts!
Something that has really helped me is just to have some cooked meat in the freezer - cooked hamburger and shredded or diced chicken. packaged in meal-sized portions. I can throw anything together super fast if I have the meat all ready. I season it very simply or not at all to allow the most variety - although I have done massive quantities of taco meat, much to my husband's delight.
I'm sorry to admit that I have no tips for you. One caveat though - don't try to freeze creamy veggie soup with potatoes in it. That just does not turn out well :-) I'm rejoicing with you over the generosity of your sweet friends. God is good to bless us, isn't He? Have fun filling that bad boy!
that is awesome! sounds like a wonderful shower. i don't have any recipies, but that is a great idea.
when we got the kids back, a young family heading to Tanzania Africa (Dan and Jana Eads) gave us their smaller deep freezer and they went to Sam's club and filled it full of frozen meals for us. It was amazing, and truely humbling to receive such a generous loving gift.
What a blessing. Enjoy your freezer and I hope it is a blessing when your little one arrives.
janelle
Have you heard of a cookbook called "The Big Cook"? Once every couple of months, two or three friends and I get together and do a cooking day that results in each of us ending up with 30-60 meals. Another cookbook that I like is Fix, Freeze, Feast. The recipes in it are more nutritious than in The Big Cook but always take longer to prepare so I pick one or two recipes from there and the rest from The Big Cook.
I especially appreciate meals that I can put in the Crock Pot such as Sloppy Joes, Chili, or Lazy Lasagna.
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