Deep Freezer Organization Tips

A couple of weeks ago, we bought a 1/8 of a cow.  It was a big ass cow.  Our 1/8 was 99 pounds of meat.
We split the cow with several other people and my friend did all the organizing and picked the meat up from the butcher, which was so helpful.


We paid $324 for 99 pounds of beef.  That includes all the butchers fees.  So it came out to be $3.27 a pound.  And if you buy grass fed, organic beef from the grocery store, you know that is an AMAZING price.


We mostly got ground beef and chuck roasts, but we did get several steaks and ribs.   I am very curious to see how long this much meat lasts us.


When we got the meat home, my deep freezer looked like this:

NOT OK, in my organized OCD home.  Something had to be done, not only because it makes my skin crawl, but when you have organized home and know where everything is, you save time, eliminate stress and have more time for fun stuff.  


Organizing things happens to be fun for me, but I digress.


I decided to organize my deep freezer like it was organized when it was full of breast milk (at the peak, the deep freezer and our inside fridge freezer were full to the MAX).  


My husband, the Engineer (also a bit OCD), had the genius idea of putting the bags of breast milk into plastic containers and sorting them by month.  Then placing them in the deep freezer oldest at top (to be used first).


So I did the same thing this time, but organized it by cut.  So all my ground beef is one container, all my roasts in another etc.  I labeled all the containers and made an inventory list.  I will be able to glance at the list and know when I am getting low.


I have all my bags of slow cooker freezer meals in there as well, and I just lay them flat where I can.  Then I have odds and ends (salmon, pastry dough from Miami to make empanadas, etc).  I also put all those small odds and ends  into a container, so I don't have to pull out 50 million things looking for what I need.

We also have a fridge in the garage, with a freezer.  It houses all my homemade stock.  And our freezer in the house, stores all my frozen fruit to make Penelope's smoothies, her smoothie jars themselves and the random pint of ice cream for my husband (I am a cookie girl).


What is your best freezer organizational tip?  I am always looking for ways to take my organization to the next level! 





Or on Facebook!

Breakfast Freezer Meals: Individual Quiche

I am a big fan of Weston A. Price and I make eggs and sausage or eggs and bacon, every single morning for myself and Penelope and sometimes Peter if he has enough time before work.  It gets pretty old.  Not the taste of it, pastured eggs from a local farm, are delicious, but the making a full meal, using the stove, cleaning up in the morning, is just time consuming.  

I was looking for a way to streamline my morning breakfast routine without giving in to eating something like cereal and milk.  I saw someone who had made and frozen breakfast burritos on Pinterest and then I remembered something my friend Bethany did years ago, I used both as inspiration and came up with my own little, frozen, breakfast meal idea.

I basically made a simplified version of my quiche.   I did 12 eggs, some raw milk, a package of sausage (from a local pork farmer, cooked and chopped before adding in), a little bit of cheese and salt and pepper. I didn't measure anything, I just eye-balled it.

Then I poured it into a cupcake cooking pan.  I made the HUGE mistake of not lining them with paper cups or at least buttering the pan.  I had to throw the pan out, after three days of soaking and scrubbing, I still could not get it clean.  Don't make my mistake!

I cooked them at 350 for about 20 minutes.  Actually, I am not too sure on the time, I check on them and when they look and smell done, I stick a knife in to see if any egg sticks to the knife. If the knife comes out clean, they are done.

And then you have little individual servings of an egg and sausage breakfast!  I froze them all after they cooled, I put them on a cookie sheet to freeze them, sort of like how I freeze blueberries.  Then after they were frozen a little bit, I bagged them into small, individual, freezer bags.

I pull two out the night before I want to eat them in the morning.  It is defrosted by the morning and then I zap them in the microwave for 30 seconds.  You could warm them in your toaster oven or regular oven if you wanted to avoid using a microwave.  You should if you can, it really is bad for you, to use your microwave, but I am lazy.

Enjoy!  If you have any questions let me know.

Orange-Beef Stew, Chicken n' Cherries, French Beef Dip Slow Cooker Freezer Meals

My new recipes are finally here!  It has been such a joy having an increase in readership these last couple of weeks and meeting all you wonderful new readers that found me because of my original post on slow cooker freezer meals.  I love that you all have stuck around and started to read my posts on other topics.

Last week, I put together three new recipes and I think you will really like them.   Before I give you the recipes I wanted to take a moment to address some of the questions that you had about the other recipes.

• Several people had concerns about mixing raw meat and the veggies in one bag.  I am no expert, but I think because you are putting the ingredients in the bag and immediately putting it in the freezer and then the day you cook it, straight from freezer to slow cooker, that it is not a problem.  I prep all my veggies the night before and make labels.  Then the day of, I assemble all my dry ingredients into sections, then put all veggies, sauces, dry ingredients into the bags. The very last thing I do is put the meat in.  So there is very little time that the meat is out, before I put it in the freezer. 

• Texture.  Several people said the texture was soupy.  Pretty much all my recipes are a form of a stew.  I always serve my recipes with rice or cous-cous, or make a sandwich with it (usually for lunch).  I like it that way, but I realize that is not for everyone.

• Adding in last minute ingredients.  If a recipe calls for broth, I add it the day of and do not put it in the bag with the other ingredients.  I will do a better job of describing which items go in the bag to freeze and what items you toss in the day of cooking.

• Doubling. The recipes below have already been doubled, but if you have a large family, you might want to double them again.  Each recipe below, yields me two bags of food.  So if it says 2 cans of pitted cherries, that would be one can per bag.  Each bag, usually yields us two dinners and a lunch.  We are a small family of two adults and one toddler.  

• I use gallon size bags.  I hand write a label with name of recipe, date I freeze it and any thing I need to add the day of like, broth.  Then I double bag it.  I am working on getting some super cute labels made so you can print out your own labels (my gift to you!) to go along with each recipe, so stay tuned for those!

After I assemble the ingredients, I lay the bags flat and get all the air out.  As I am getting the air out, I mix everything up in the bag, so all the veggies and meat are coated in the sauce/spice mix.  Then I place them in my freezer flat, so they freeze like bricks, just like I do with breast milk storage bags.

So, without further adieu, the  September Mama and Baby Love Slow Cooker Freezer Recipes!!  And remember, if you sign up for my newsletter, you will get a sneak peak of recipes before anyone else does.  

Chicken n' Cherries

5 pounds of chicken breast ( I used chicken strips, it saved me time on cutting up the breasts)
2 cans of pitted cherries (glass jars are better, even organic cans have BPA in them)
Chili Sauce ( I used a couple of tablespoons in each bag, because the sauce I bought was super spicy, so add as much or as little as you want in accordance with your families taste)
1/4 cup brown sugar

Assemble all ingredients into freezer bags.  Place in freezer.   Day of cooking, place in slow cooker.  Cook on low for 8 hours or on high for 4.  You can shred chicken if you want, or leave in chunks.  Serve with rice or cous-cous or make sandwiches.

French Beef Dip

5 pounds of rump roast or bottom round beef (cut into smaller sections, not tiny, just enough to fit into the bag, you can cut them up more after they are cooked)
4 packages of portobello mushrooms, leave them whole.
2 14 ounces of beef broth (add day of)
2 onions chopped

Assemble all ingredients(except broth) into freezer bags.  Place in freezer.   Day of cooking, place in slow cooker and add broth.  Cook on low for 8 hours or on high for 4.  You can shred chicken if you want, or leave in chunks.  Serve with rice or cous-cous or make sandwiches.  This recipe makes extra liquid, for dipping if you make sandwiches.


Orange-Beef Stew

4-5 pounds of flank steak (cut into smaller sections, not tiny, just enough to fit into the bag, you can cut them up more after they are cooked)
2 cups orange juice
2 tablespoons of cornstarch
2 tablespoons of soy sauce
1 tablespoon of sugar
2 tablespoons of minced garlic
8 green onions chopped

Add day of cooking:
2 packages of frozen spinach
1 8 ounce can of water chesnuts
2 teaspoons of beef bouillion 

Assemble all ingredients (except spinach, water chesnuts and beef bouillion) into freezer bags.  Place in freezer.   Day of cooking, place in slow cooker and add spinach, water chesnuts and beef bouillion.  Cook on low for 8 hours or on high for 4. Serve with rice or cous-cous or make sandwiches.

So there you have it.  I love all the feedback from the other recipes, so please tell me if you have any ideas and how you like the flavor when you make it.

By Best Kids Health Blog

Freezer Cooking with Slow Cooker Recipes

Welcome, Pinners!  Please be sure to check out my Real Food tab at the top to find more slow cooker freezer meals!


Like I mentioned in my post the other week, the last time I did a big cooking day, I had big ah-ha moment.


Although, I had a blast with Lauren, it was logistically very difficult to accomplish, between the juggling of cooking and childcare, the prep work, organization and scheduling, it can be overwhelming.


So this latest big cooking day, I did it by myself and only did slow cooker recipes.  Basically, all I was did was chop vegetables and assemble ingredients.



Even with doing it this way, it was still a 3 hour affair, but during this time I was able to finish all the cooking AND the cleaning.  Most importantly my feet didn't ache at the end like they normally do.  I also didn't have any sort of panic or anxiety leading up to the big cooking day like I normally do. HUGE.

I chopped all the vegetables with Penelope in her Learning Tower before nap (which was really fun, I went through all the colors of the vegetables with her and talked about rainbows and made it a fun learning experience).


Then I assembled everything during her nap (thank you Jesus, I can now skip a pump session here and there and can do other things at nap time than sit in front of a computer) and finished cleaning up after nap, again with her in her Learning Tower.  


This time she played independently with a bowl of soapy water, she made a huge mess,  but the rags I used to clean up her mess where the same rags I used to clean up my mess so it wasn't that bad.

I just dumped the veggies into the gallon ziploc bags, then added the meat, then added the spices.


Once I was done and cleaned everything up, I felt like I had invented electricity!  I thought I was such a genius for finally (it took me over a year, people) getting once a month cooking down to an efficient and easy art form.

I am telling you it will change your life! Give it a try and tell me how it went!

Here are my recipes.  I use a ton of vegetables in each meal, because I don't tend to eat a lot of veggies through out the day, so I try and get them all in at dinner.  And Peter is more apt to eat veggies if they taste like barbecue or curry than as a plain side dish.


 
Healthy Mama Barbecue Chicken
3 medium unpeeled  sweet potatoes, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
2 large green pepper, cut into strips
1 large red pepper, cut into strips
1 zucchini, chopped
1 medium onion, sliced
1 tablespoon quick cooking tapioca
2 pounds chicken thighs or drumsticks
1 8-ounce can of tomato sauce
2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon yellow mustard (I wasn't sure if this meant actual mustard or the spice so I did a little of both)
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon salt


Dump everything into two gallon freezer bags, shake it up, seal, label and put in the freezer.


Stephanie's Goulash
3 cups chopped onions
2.5 cups coarsely chopped green sweet peppers
4 large beets, peeled and diced
2 cups of carrots
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 pounds beef stew meat, cut into one inch cubes
1 6-ounce can tomato paste
4 teaspoons Hungarian paprika or regular paprika (I used regular)
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
4 cups hot cooked noodles
1/2 dairy sour cream


Dump everything into two gallon freezer bags, shake it up, seal, label and put in the freezer. EXCEPT the sour cream, that is for garnish after the meal is cooked.


Chicken Curry
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
4 tablespoons curry powder
1.5 teaspoons ground cumin
1.5 pounds chicken thighs, cut into 1 inch pieces
2 cups chopped peeled sweet potatoes
2.5 cups baby carrots
2 cup coarsely chopped mango
1 cup chopped onion
1 zucchini chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 chicken bouillon
.5 cup raisins (for garnish)
.5 cup peanuts or cashews (for garnish)


Dump everything into two gallon freezer bags, shake it up, seal, label and put in the freezer.


To cook, take out of freezer and set on counter for about 30 minutes, then dump contents of bag into slow cooker. Cook on high for 4 hours, or low for 8 hours.

Or on Facebook!

January Freezer Meals

I swear, one of the best parts of cooking a ton of food in one day, is the satisfaction of laying it all out and surveying all of your hard work.

This Once A Month Cooking round, I did it at my friend Lauren's house.  She has an awesome kitchen and tons of toys and her husband works from home, so he was able to step in and pitch hit, when needed.  Although, in true husband form, he wasn't that helpful, but it was a nice idea.  She also has a learning tower.  I had been wanting one for awhile, but after spending all day in the kitchen and using hers it sealed the deal for me and we got one shortly after.

We made 6 recipes and doubled them, so we each got two containers of each recipe.  Two of the recipes, the Beef Stew and Apple Pie Porkchops, were big ah-ha moments for me. They were the only two recipes that were slow cooker meals.  So all you do is compile the ingredients, freeze it and then later dump it in the slow cooker.  How awesome is that?

Here are the links to the recipes we used:

Chicken Nuggets


Meatloaf (the recipe is in Nourishing Traditions, and its amazing).  Lauren had a great idea of smooshing the mixture into finger size portions instead of a big loaf, so that you can defrost them individually and serve to little ones for lunch.


Buffalo Shrimp


Broccoli Cheddar Soup


Beef Stew

Apple Pie Pork chops 

Has anyone else adopted freezer cooking as their main style of cooking family meals?

-Stephanie ;)

Cranberry Pork Roast

This is a such a yummy way to do a pork roast in the slow cooker. And such an easy freezer meal.


Here is a picture of the final product all lined up, labeled and ready to go in freezer!


Here is the recipe I modified.  I went the fresh cranberries route.

This is a picture of the roast I made right away. You just dump the pork roast in the slow cooker and the cranberry sauce on top. That is it!

For the freezer bags you do the same thing, dump it all in and seal it up!


This is a really yummy meal that freezes well, the only thing I would do different next time is double the amount of cranberry relish.