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!

Wednesday to do list- bulk cooking

Today I am thinking of tackling Thursday's to do list as well as Wednesday's. It really doesnt seem like too much to handle, especially since I don't need to leave the house for anything today. So on my list today:

**Start pot of beans on stove (for refried beans to be frozen)
**Slice peppers and beef for crockpot using this recipe and saving some out for dinner on Thurs. (Anyone ever tried that recipe? It looks really good to me)
**Chop the chicken breast that were boiled yesterday
**Make chicken wings dump recipe and freeze (BBQ and Hot Wings)
**Make top crust for Pot Pies (bought crust for bottoms..just too much work to do them all without a food processor)
**Make the sauce for pot pies and assemble. Once cooled, wrap 3 and freeze, cook one for dinner and serve with salad (leftover from last night's taco salad ingredients)
**Cool beans, Make a HUGE pot of rice for Chicken Fried Rice Bags and tommorow's dinner.
**Mix and assemble chicken fried rice
**assemble bags for chicken and dumplings (add broth and dumplings when cooked)
**Measure out beans for ziplocs and freeze

I *think* that is all I need to do today but will see as I go :) Will update later with my progress!

Tired but got lots done today.

(disclaimer..the chicken is seasoned..lol...not bloody like it looks..eww)

Everything on the bottom shelf was done today and last night, the top was a previous bulk cooking day and what is left of it.

I started what was going to be a busy day pretty early. I got my beef in the crockpot for shredded beef, chicken breasts boiling and other things that are slipping my my mind at the moment, done. LOL Good thing I downloaded and printed off a Freezer inventory list from Organized Home, right ;) All in all I got about 23 dinners in the freezer between the sauce I made yesterday and todays cooking session. I added in another 4 meals that I forgot about because with roasted chicken always come homemade chicken stock and soup...so those HAD to be accounted for! If you look closely you'll see that some meals are NOT cooked...they are what are commonly called "dump" recipes. You take your meat (Like in this instance..whole chicken) and season it, add veggies , marinades and then freeze as is ready to put in the oven or crockpot. There were several meals that I did this way, it will take little effort from me to throw a chicken in the oven now since I have pre-prepared them as such. NO messy giblets to remove on cooking day while waiting for it to thaw! Just take it out the day before, its all seasoned and ready to go for me. I also chose NOT to add veggies to my chickens, roasts, and soup meals because I will always just prefer to buy them fresh AND the fact that it would have been another step in the process. Potatoes, celery and carrots just don't freeze well raw....and cooking them was not an option for me today, so simply adding them in to the meal is going to be easier for me. I try to chop all my veggies for the week on a day I am not busy anyways, so this works fine for me.

So all together I made:
**Spaghetti sauce 4 1/2 qts for 5 meals
**Roast- preseasoned and ready to go into the crock pot x 2
**NY steaks marinated and ready for the grill x 2
**Beef soup x 2 (just the meat, will add broth and veggies when cooked)
**Whole Chickens X 4 to be roasted , then made into broth
**Chicken soup x 4 (made from the whole chicken leftovers and broth)
**Shredded Beef for Tacos (1 for dinner, 3 for freezer)

So 22 meals are out up and tomorrow I am hoping to get both Wed and Thurs to do lists done so I can relax on Thurs instead (we have to go out for parkday). Friday is pretty relaxed in that we are just going to make a double batch of cookies, Sat will be a baking day, and on Monday I will double some Alfredo Sauce.


My list for tomorrow will be done in the morning...I'm exhausted tonight!

Monday to do's -bulk cooking

Today I have a very busy day filled with a Dr's Appt, dreaded DMV, and more things to pick up for my bulk cooking, but I am going to be starting anyways! Here's my plans for the day (once I get home in the afternoon from my errands)

**Start Spaghetti Sauce (tweaking this recipe), making enough for dinner tonight and the rest for the freezer for 4 meals of Spaghetti and Pizza. This recipe has been scaled x 4 so I will be getting 4 qts of sauce....I am hoping that is enough for a months worth of pizza as well, but picked up some more cans of tomato sauce if its not.

**Start french bread in the bread machine and make one loaf for dinner.

**Put together all of my "dump" recipes and get them into the deep freezer for dinners later this month. Look for pics later today when I am finished putting it all together and explanation of what a "dump" recipe is exactly?


While I was at the store I decided to make our breakfasts and lunches extremely easy this week since I am doing so much already..but my kids are really easy to please and not a problem.
Breakfasts will be a choice of either cold cereal, oatmeal, or smoothies with toast. All which can be made my big brother :D
Lunches will be sandwiches, quesdillas or burritos. I'll have a different type of sandwich each day (grilled cheese, egg salad, chicken salad) and some fruit and yogurt or veggies and dip. Dinners will be whatever I am bulk cooking that day....tonight is obviously Spaghetti and tomorrow will be Mexican.

Be back to post my progress later today :)

Plans,Plans, Plans (as usual)

With roughly only 5 weeks left till we meet our baby girl (I say roughly because she may try and be my "early" baby or she may come late like the rest) ,I am starting to feel less peace with the order around my house and with the lack of meals in my freezer. I had planned on getting more things done in Oct, but with the extras I had committed to for school, I just couldn't do it all. I DID get quite a bit done in school planning and organizing of the house though and little by little my list is getting smaller, which is a GOOD thing! I plan to have ALL my list done by the end of the 3rd week in Nov, so I can relax the rest of my pregnancy and enjoy my family as it is now :) I think I have a decent plan going and am really trying to streamline the processes in which I do things as to not tire myself out before I realize it!

For the next week I will be doubling and quadrupling meals to last us through November and December.

Most of these meals are main dishes because we usually eat homemade bread, fresh veggies, rice or potatoes with our dinners. Most will be pre-made (just need to be thawed and warmed up) and some are just pre-planned and easily made on that same day (think pizza crust into the bread machine, homemade sauce from the freezer along with some already shredded cheese).

This is how I planned my meals:

I always start out with a "theme" for each day of the week according to our schedule. For instance, on some Thurs we have parkday and errands, so I almost always use my crockpot that day. On Sundays, I don't like to have to cook a big dinner (do that for breakfast) so I make it simple with "Bean night" and make different variations on dinners using beans. These are the "themes" I chose my Nov and Dec menu on...of course leaving the days for Holiday meals off.

Monday-Pasta night, veggie, and homemade bread. (the pasta meal is meatless and will alternate between spaghetti and Fettuccine Alfredo. I am making my sauces from scratch and just adding in a fresh salad or veggie (will also stock up on frozen for those weeks I am home with new baby) and homemade garlic bread (really simple with the bread machine).

Tuesday-Mexican night- we love Mexican food and eat it weekly...so this was easy ;)

Wednesday-Chicken or Beef- I like to have freedom in some things and some days you just feel like chicken and some days beef..I am making enough meals of each to decide what we'll have weekly based on our stock of meals in the freezer.

Thursday- Crockpot (stews or soups usually)- I am planning on doing some "dump" recipes where you season up your meat (like roast) add your veggies all in a gallon sized ziploc all ready to go for the crockpot! I am making stock from left over roasted chicken (through out the month as I roast them) and adding in pre-frozen veggies for a quick meal. Also, I am going to be making some dry ingredient "mixes" for dinner rolls etc that will just need to have the wet ingredients added and stuck in the breadmaker :)

Friday- Pizza night! (our family night) I love to have ONE night a week where I can either make homemade pizza, pick one up , or have one delivered! We can change the variety as we want (make BBQ chicken one week, pepperoni another) each week without getting bored. Dad isnt a big pizza fan, so I will also have some ziplocs frozen with chicken wings "dumped" with either hot wing sauce or bbq sauce...ready for the oven. Add a salad and we are set. The best part? I am making time to bake with my kids every Friday afternoon by having such a simple meal day.

Saturday- Grilled night. I have an indoor grill that I love and this day ends up usually being Steak night (daddy and mommy date night...so its just like a restaurant) or Hot dogs (organic) night. I also like to leave it open for take out which is nice.

Sunday- Bean night- I designated this night as bean night for many reasons. One being that they are easy. Soak them on Sat, put in crockpot on Sunday morning till they are ready. The other reasons are because we go out to eat after church sometimes or hubby will cook what he wants. It ensures me rest either way and I am good with that. We dont just eat ONE kind of bean meal either......there are a variety of ways to eat them and that is what I aim for when I cook them.


Having those "theme" days enabled me to plan my meals and still have lots of variety in what I make. We do eat a lot of similar meals throughout the month, but having little ones, being pregnant and a hubby that works a lot (as is picky about his food) will make you stick to what works ;) You'll notice my meals don't contain any ground beef and mostly everything is made from scratch with a whole foods type of approach. I will be adding in fresh veggies and fruits daily (that will be bought weekly) but that is the extent of my weekly shopping for the most part (which makes me happy!) I try to really minimize the amounts of junk I put into my kids bodies and those weeks where I will be nursing around the clock are an easy way to get stuck in a rut with fast food or worse, so I am hoping that this becomes something I can do often to help with the transition of a growing family.

Below are the meals I will be making in the next week by doubling or quadrupling, using the "dump" method or just planning and making sure I have ingredients on hand (from Mon-Mon).

• HM Chicken Pot Pies X 4 (prepared and frozen)
• Whole Chicken w/ veggies x 4 (dump method, frozen in ziploc)
• Chicken Fried Rice x 4 (prepared and frozen)
• Chicken and Dumplings x 4 (dump method, ready for crockpot ,partially cooked)
• Beef Pot Roast x 2 (dump method, frozen, ready for crockpot)
• Steaks x 2 (marinated and frozen)
• Slow cooked Pepper steak x2 (cooked and frozen)
• Beef and veggie soup x 2 (dump method, frozen & ready for crockpot)
• Spaghetti x 4 (sauce pre-cooked and frozen in batches, noodles stocked in pantry)
• Fettuccine Alfredo x 2 (will make sauce again in Dec for another 2 batches) (made and frozen)
• Shredded beef tacos or burritos x 4 (bulk batch of shredded beef made and frozen)
• cheese enchiladas x 2 (made ahead and frozen into casseroles)
• Taco Salads x 2 (fresh ingredients bought that week, use froz refried beans and shredded beef)
• Chili (bean night) x 2 (planned and ingredients in pantry)
• Rice, beans and cornbread x 4-( bean night) (pre-planned, ingredients on hand)
• Puerto Rican Rice and Beans x 2- (bean night) (Sofrito made and frozen, ingredients on hand)
• Refried beans x 8 (these WILL be precooked and frozen for burritos, Mexican night and lunches)
• Pizza x 4 (this will be using premade sauce that is frozen)
• Hot wings x 4 (with pizza night and will be prepared with the "dump" method.

I will be sharing my to do list daily (as well as links to recipes) as I am making things and also a post on a baking day I plan on having next Saturday- making some breakfast items and pre-measured dry mixes to add to my dinners (like cornbread, dinner rolls, dumplings, and pizza dough).

I actually have a full week this coming week, but with the way I have things broken down I feel I can get a lot accomplished. I would ideally like to be done with this all in one week, but am leaving myself the option to have another week if I need it being that I am 8 1/2 months pregnant and just standing isn't so easy anymore! LOL
I will be doing my grocery shopping tomorrow and Monday but will post Monday's to do list tomorrow night.

Have a great Sunday!

Bulk Cooking Day 1- part 3 (finally done)

Ok so I am tired! LOL Took about 7 hours (with breaks here and there of course) but I am done and pleased with all I got done! I did not have enough eggs for my Brioche dough (I used 2 dz eggs today!) so I will probably just get some regular artisan bread dough ready next week to keep on hand in the fridge for meals. I also haven't started my yogurt yet, but that is because my beans are not cool enough to take out and freeze yet...that will get done in a little bit..but everything else is DONE! This is what is going in my after-the-baby freezer stash so far:

*13 egg, cheese and salsa breakfast burritos (made with homemade WW Tortillas)- 4 meals (3 each meal)

*12 mini spinach and cheddar quiches-6 meals (only mom likes these) I flash froze these and stuck them in a ziploc.




*Chicken Fajitas with peppers and tomatoes- 2 meals (either lunch or dinner)



*Already pre-cooked pinto beans to be used for chili, refried beans, etc etc- 4 meals PLUS dinner for tonight.

*Granola- This makes ALOT! I will get MANY breakfasts and snacks out of this batch.

*Healthy oatmeal cookies - I was sort of disappointed with these..came out not very "cookie" like to me..but they taste good and the kids like them. We ate some already and froze enough for snacks - 4 dozen

* One loaf of WW Oat bran bread- will last a day or two :) We are eating on this now!



*Yogurt- not done with this yet but will be enough for smoothies everyday and/or snacks with fruit and granola.


SO all together I have about 16 meals for the freezer for future use, breakfast and snacks made for the week next week (granola, fruit and yogurt, smoothies with yogurt, HM bread with jam- yogurt and fruit on the side) and dinner for tonight!

I am very happy with the way things turned out today and am already planning my next bulk cooking (OAMC) session! Wanna share any good recipes iwith me that freeze well??? Leave me a comment!

Bulk Cooking Day 1- part 2

I am about 2 1/2 hours into my bulk cooking day and am taking a much needed break to update my progress. Here's what I have done so far:

*Beans are going in the Crockpot

*WW bread is on its last rising...almost ready to be baked

* I made 18 WW tortillas from scratch:







*Scrambled a dozen eggs for the burritos

* Filled the WW tortillas with the eggs, some salsa, and cheese. Folded them up and then are now flash freezing on a cookie sheet to be ready to put into a freezer bag for later. These will last us a month if we eat them once a week (which is the plan) after the baby gets here.



After my break I am going to stick the WW bread into the oven, make up the mini quiche and bake them, start chopping my veggies for the fajitas and get my chicken breasts sauteing in some olive oil. By then the dc will be ready for lunch. I was planning on having fajitas but don't think they'll be ready so we'll have some good ol' PB&J today ;)

Bulk Cooking Day #1- Part 1

This is the first post of a few for today. I am having my first session of bulk cooking or (O)nce (A) (M)onth (C)ooking to stock my freezer with after-the-baby breakfasts, lunches, snacks, and dinners. I will be keeping an inventory right away so that I know how many meals I have frozen and when they'll be used if possible. I am also going to add my list of meals that have been already prepared and frozen to my blog sidebar, as well as some I am brainstorming as the weeks go by. I am giving myself about 5-6 weeks to complete around a month to two months worth of meals and hoping to do this with once a week sessions.

Here is my plan for today:
Most of the recipes linked will be tweaked..let me know if you want *my* version when I am done ;)


1) a loaf of WW bread (not for freezing, just for the next few days)
2)Artisan Bread-Brioche Dough for the week (mixed up and refrigerated)
3)Breakfast Burritos with Homemade WW tortillas
4)A dozen Mini Crustless Quiche for those days I need protein and the kids want cereal.
5)Beans (for dinner tonight) and some frozen for meals later. (put these to soak last night)
6)Chicken Fajitas- for lunches (and today's lunch)
7)Granola (hopefully for the month or next couple of weeks)
8) Homemade yogurt
9) chopped pre-cooked chicken breasts (made these earlier in the week for pizza..need to chop and freeze, will be used for various other recipes during my cooking sessions)
10) Healthy Oatmeal cookies for snacks during the week, and possibly some for the freezer

I may get to all of this..I may not. I do have those on my list that are priority and sshhhh don't tell my kids but the cookies are not one of them ;) See ya soon....I'll post as I get a chance to today!

OAMC mini session and other "nesting" going ons..

I have been flying around my house the last couple of days "nesting" or whatever you'd like to call it. I got a sudden burst of energy yesterday and cleaned my entire house. I am usually struggling to just stand at my sink and do dishes without my back killing me...but yesterday was different. I did pray and asked for the strength and endurance to get the things done that needed to be done...and HE answered. So for that I am grateful!

For today I have a few more things on my list that need to be done so I can feel content. I would really like to resume doing more school next week...or at least until I go into labor. We have been just doing the basics..and when the kids were sick this week...we didnt do anything but read.

I am hoping to have a mini OAMC session today...and this is what i am planning to make:

3 lbs of taco meat
a huge crockpot of Chili ( I have a 6qt..so I am going to fill it up) for 3 Chili and cornbread dinners, chili cheese baked potatoes, and whatever's leftover for chili fries :-)

Doesn't sound like much but I already have chicken meals in the freezer along with sloppy joes and a few other things that I had double the recipes on.

My goal is to have a week or two worth of dinners premade for whenever the baby gets here...AND to use up what we have without going to the grocery store this month..except for the usual milk, bread, diapers , etc.

I hope to meet my goal of spending only $200 this month on food...
I'll do another post on that later :-)

Pics of chicken..or is that me running around like a chicken?

LOL..so here's what I have accomplished in the last few hours..did ya miss me?
I have been in my kitchen for about 2 hrs..most of that time was making homemade crusts for my pot pies...sadly I had already quadrupled the dough so I was done by the time I was going to get to the apple pie..so we are going to leave that for science next week some time ;-P We are going to make a "world cake" tonight (from MFW..an atlas of the world put on a cake with frosting) and YES i am going to use a box cake and Jiffy frosting...BLASPHEMY! But I think I have had done all that I am able to today...Mama needs to put up her feet..kwim?
So this is what I got done...I am still waiting on the beans in the crockpot..arrgg..I pre-soaked them overnight and put them on at 9:30 this morning and they still aren't done :-( My sourdough bread came out great...HOWEVER..I was at the Kohl's early bird sale and asked my lovely husband to take the bread out of the breadmachine when it beeped...OH he did alright...and him and his accomplice..aka..my son...decided to eat all but a 1/4 of the loaf (they were so generous to save that for dinner..lol).so no pics of the mangled bread on my blog :-P

But I did manage to make the 4 Chicken Pot Pies..from scratch..and the 2 Broccoli and cheese casseroles...With the help of my dd...who happens to like eating raw crust XD




I put the top crusts onto the pot pies along with the gravy that goes into it and am flash freezing them now...I will food saver them after they are frozen. Look for more next week when I do a ground turkey day (enchiladas, burritos, taco meat etc) and another day wille be Lasagne and a few other things :-)

OAMC Session- Day 1 (Chicken and a few other goodies)

So today is my first mini session and the first time I am ever attempting OAMC. This has been many months in the making so after much planning and researching I am jumping in feet first :-) I am also attempting this while almost 37 weeks pregnant so i have planned out my day like this:

This is what i hope to have in my freezer atthe end of the day:
4 Chicken Pot Pies
2 13X9 Chicken and Broccolli casseroles
2 PR beans
1 Apple Pie
@ loaves of Sourdough bread

The chicken recipes come from here:

Last night:
Soaked about 4 cups of pinto beans (makes about 12 cups cooked) for Puerto Rican rice and beans (tonights dinner) and I will have about 2 or 3 dinners leftover from this? (not quite sure but will see)

This morning:
Put beans in crockpot, will add spices and veggies to beans in the middle of the day after they have cooked more (cilantro, onion, bell pepper, garlic, tomato sauce, salt etc..it's called sofrito..you blend it all together and add it to the beans..this is my FAVORITE meal of all time..I grew up on it). We will have Rice with this tonight (I will make this soon..I need about 6 cups of rice today)

Put Sourdough bread mix into breadmachine ( I am t4esting my machine out with a boxed bread mix because every homemade bread I attempt hasn't risen..so I am not sure if my bread machine is just not working)..Hopefully I will get two leaves from this..one to go with dinner and one to freeze.

Boil Chicken breasts ( I need about 8 cups of cooked chicken) while that's boiling, Put rice to cook.

Prepare 10 pie crusts (top and bottoms for 4 chicken pot pies and top and bottom for apple pie)

Make Gravy for pot pies, assemble and flash freeze..then stick into food saver bag and seal.

Assemble Chicken and Broccoli casserole and freeze.

Assemble Apple Pie and eat for dessert!

Freeze leftover beans in food saver containers.

So today isn't exactly stocking my freezer with 30 meals or anything but it is getting me started in the right direction ( 8 meals)..my goal is to have 30 by the end of next week...I have a feeling I will have more..lol. Look for more to come on my blog next week..God willing :-)

I will post pics of my finished products tonight...

OAMC....

So I got two books from our library today...
"Frozen Assets...cook for a day, eat for a month" by Deborah Taylor-Hough and "Once a month cooking" by Mimi Wilson and Mary Beth Lagerborg. I am hoping that i can get a good plan together and start at least with two weeks of meals to put in my freezer. My goal is to have a full months worth by the time I have baby #3 in Oct. I can't really be on my feet all day cooking but I know there's a method that i can master...so hence all of the "research"..lol. I want to think smarter and work less when it comes to this. Picture this on cooking day.....
2 crockpots going with roasts (borrow one of course)....which would make taco meat, stew, among other things. And chicken breasts boiling on the stove, chickens roasting in the oven....all while I am sitting on the couch ?!? Is that possible? right now I am in the "ignorant" stage of this (of course I haven't even opened the books yet..lol) but I am thinking that the assembling etc is going to be the hardest? I asked for a food saver for my bday next month specifically for this purpose..lol..and I'm defintely gonna put it to good use! I would love to have meals all ready to go for my family while in the hospital and meals ready for me and the kids when dh has to go back to work...although after my babies family and friends are very gracious in bringing me stuff :-D
So...here I am the *planner* about to overanalyze something that is probably really quite simple to implement..lol..OR it's gonna take me weeks to plan out my method for this and I'll have lots to blog about!