Frugal Menu Mamas

I come from a long line of great cooks who have learned which of their recipes freeze well.  I think my mother and grandmother were sort of freezer cooks before the idea was popular.  I learned to freeze last week’s recipe (Country Style Steak) from my mother.  I also learned to double some things and freeze them from her.  My grandmother would send me cookies in college that she had made and frozen.  She just pulled them out of the freezer and mailed them.  :)  I learned so much from these two ladies that I was already freezing meals before I learned the term “freezer cooking”.

I really enjoy making my life easy.  When I heard about cooking for a day and eating for a month, it sounded great!  However, when I started to research, I was scared to death of all the work that went into one day of cooking.  Then, I discovered a marvelous thing…a freezer cooking co-op.  I started asking around if anyone here would be interested and got a good response (we have anywhere from 5-8 people involved each swap).  So, the freezer cooking co-op was born.

You may be asking, what is a freezer cooking co-op?  It is a group of individuals who each make one recipe but they make that one recipe for each member of the co-op, then they all meet and exchange the meals.  I think this is much better than once-a-month cooking because you only have to do one recipe.  It saves money and time as well.  Then you receive 5 or so different freezer meals.

Here are some tips and resources to help you decide if you’d like to try one:

–One person should be the organizer and the one to make the ultimate decisions for the group if a decision cannot be reached.

–Ask folks to consider joining who have similar cooking styles, food tastes, and family sizes.  Folks with food allergies may need to start their own group.

–Decide on rules at the first meeting.  Research other groups’ rules to get ideas.  Here are my group’s rules, we are always tweaking them…  Here is another good resource that I used.  Mommysavers has a forum on freezer cooking.

–Decide how often you can manage to do this.  We do it every 4-6 weeks, but we took off the whole month of December.  We usually have enough freezer meals to eat one per week.

–Critique recipes periodically.  Find a nice way to do this so that your group knows if a recipe should be made again.

–Do not experiment on your group.  Use only recipes that are already proven to be good freezer meals OR try your recipe first, freeze it, and reheat to see if it works.

So, here is what my group typically does.  We meet at Panera Bread on a Saturday morning for about an hour.  At the meeting, we decide on the next date, tell what we are planning on making the next time, critique recipes, and give last minute instructions.  Then we head out to our cars (we park them all in the same section) and exchange the already frozen meals.  We all bring coolers to do this.  About a week or so later, I email the group what I have written down that everyone is making and we confirm everything.  I usually make my meals the week of the exchange or the week before.  I buy all the ingredients and complete my recipe in one afternoon.

Does this help you??  Are you pumped to try it yourself?  Let me know how it goes!  Leave me a comment.

Here is a great freezer recipe.  For my family, one regular batch is too much, so we divide it into two and freeze half.  You could easily fit a double batch in a large stockpot though and freeze in small portions.  Enjoy!

Taco Soup

1 lb. hamburger

1 large can whole/diced tomatoes

1 can black beans w/juice

1 can kidney beans w/juice

1 can garbanzo beans (chick peas) w/juice

2 small cans tomato sauce

1 pkg. taco seasoning

1 can corn

Brown hamburger in large pot, then add all canned ingredients EXCEPT corn.  Cook until boiling, then add taco seasoning, return to boil, turn down and simmer for 10-15 minutes (or until beans are soft).  Add corn during the last 5 minutes of cooking.  Serve with grated cheese on top.  If freezing, cool completely before ladling into gallon Ziploc bags.  Freeze flat.  When ready to cook it, thaw overnight, dump in large pot and warm over medium heat.  Serve with corn muffins.