A lot of people enjoy cooking every night, but it can become boring. If you have a busy day, having to think about what to make for dinner can be stressful, especially if you are going to have very little time to cook that day.
The easy solution is to cook once a week or once a month, divide the food into portions and freeze it. Another name for this once a month (or week) cooking is freezer cooking. Imagine spending one day making a month’s worth of dinners and then having twenty nine days where you do not have to cook. Looking at it like that, it is easy to see the appeal of once a month cooking.
The Best Recipes for Once a Month Cooking
Many different foods can be frozen and they taste nice when you thaw them. Cooking a lot at once can be a timesaver and if you have a busy day, you can simply thaw your family’s meals in the refrigerator and warm them up in the evening.
When you are buying in bulk, you can often get good discounts. Buying a big pack of boneless chicken pieces rather than a couple of boneless chicken breasts works out cheaper per pound. You might see pork on special offer one week or minced lamb the next.
There are all kinds of meat, poultry, and fish recipes to choose from if you want to cook in bulk and freeze it. Meat or chicken in sauces keep for five to six months. Perhaps you fancy making some classic family favorites like beef lasagna, chicken stew or a curry chicken recipe. Fish tacos, beef bourguignon, and cannelloni are other good choices.
Tips for Freezer Cooking
Pick a day when you will not have many commitments or interruptions. Make sure there is enough space in your freezer and make sure you have all your necessary ingredients ready. Remember too that you can save time buying other frozen foods on special offer like precooked meatballs or cooked shrimp. Simply add these to your thawed meals to liven them up.
You can either cook one kind of meal at a time or have several on the stove or in the oven, depending on your cooking experience and what you feel comfortable with doing. When you cooked meals are cool, divide them between freezer bags or plastic food containers, seal them, and wipe the edges clean. You will be able to fit a lot of meals in the freezer if you store them flat in zippered food bags.
Make sure you have enough freezer bags or plastic food containers before you start to cook. You will also need a marker pen to write the meal name, the cooking date, and any special cooking instructions on the freezer bags.
Leave out any ingredients, which do not freeze or thaw well. Thawed potatoes do not have a good texture so either add fresh ones when you defrost the meal or use a replacement ingredient like barley or slightly undercooked pasta. Cream and milk do not freeze well so leave them out of the recipe and add them when you reheat the food.