Update on bulk cooking progress

I have been meaning to update you all about my progress in bulk cooking for two months and am happy to say that I am DONE and it was a success! I was able to get a two month menu in my Microsoft works calendar and enough meals in the freezer to have us set for those two months! Here is my finished freezer, with plenty of room for some more things...I am working on getting some things baked soon to stick in there as well.


I do have a separate freezer as well (so the reason for my freezer looking so clean and organized..lol) and have been stocking up on some necessities in there like milk, butter and TURKEYS! They are super cheap right now and whenever I hit the store for fresh veggies and fruits I buy one and stick it in there....they will be part of my future bulk cooking sessions.
I *do* plan on doing this every month and Starting in Jan probably only for the month (and not two months) since I will have much less time with a newborn. Some meals that are NOT in my freezer but ARE planned on my calendar are chicken soup (I make this homemade every time I roast a chicken), Dinner for "bean night" (once a week on Sunday) and Pizza night. I left those two nights open and did not prepare them ahead of time because 1) they are super simple to put together already- just soak beans, throw in crockpot or make crust in bread machine, pick up a frozen one or better yet have hubs pick one up after work 2) We eat out sometimes on "bean night" after church 3) I like to have some flexibilty for new recipes I want to try or just for things that sound good at the moment. Two nights a week of cooking is really simple and something I can handle for sure!


All in all it took me about 3 days to do these meals and that was with lots of breaks in between for this 9 month preggo mama. I am extremely excited because I stayed on budget , even though we don't eat your usual meats that are cheap like ground beef, AND I have money left in my budget this month for fresh produce to add to our main dishes each week. Next month (first Week of Dec) I am hoping to get another 15 meals in the freezer or so for January's dinners and enough baked things to pull out for snacks and breakfasts. I didn't get to any baking this weekend but I plan on having a baking day in the next few days due to 7 pumpkins ready to be processed for Thanksgiving and other things.

Here are some of the meals I either cooked and froze or made in "dump" format (which is basically just marinating and ready to throw in the oven or on the grill)

Chicken Fried Rice (Will fry and add eggs and soy sauce when its cooked)

Chicken and Dumplings (all ready cooked chicken and veggies waiting for broth and dumplings)

Cooked pinto beans (waiting to be refried) will do a post on these because I had someone ask about them.

The BEST chicken pot pie. Lets just say I really am loving this recipe and want to eat these everyday...lol
Dump Chicken Wings (BBQ, Hot, and plain for gumbo)

These pics were taken on my Chicken cooking day(obviously), but over half are beef meals also.

I had a lot of fun planning my menu for those days of cooking and am already working on Decembers session for Jan and will put that up first week of Dec , Lord willing, or maybe I'll have a baby by then and will just be putting up cute pics!