Food!

I came across the concept of freezer cooking the other day and decided I'd like to give it a go.  The basic idea is that you get all your ingredients together for several meals at once (meat, veges and flavourings) and bag them up and freeze them.  I think I've seen something similar elsewhere a while ago too, but I think they were preparing a whole month of dinners or all the meals sounded too similar and like they wouldn't quite work in my house.


Anyway, today was my trial day.


The Little Big Fella went off to daycare then I went and did some grocery shopping.  I came home with a whole tub full of veges!  Actually, I ended up with WAY too many carrots (one recipe was a bit vague and I obviously misread the quantity or something), and an extra beetroot (which we rarely use), and a massive sweet potato extra too.  Ah well, I guess I can always cut and freeze these for future use.


Unfortunately shopping took longer than I expected so I didn't get home until about 11:30.  My best "working" time is in the morning so I was feeling a bit under pressure.  I decided that I needed to have lunch to fortify myself then put on some nice loud music and got to work.


I made 5 different meals (double batches, and one of four), most of which will go in the slow cooker.  I chose these meals with the move in mind - I'm pretty sure I won't want to be cooking much over the next few weeks, but I still want to make sure we have plenty of healthy, nutritious, delicious food available.  It's cheaper and better and easier than take aways!


Including breaks to talk to my hubby on the phone, hang and fold washing, and just have a drink of water and a sit down, I was food prepping for about 3 hours.  Which felt like a long time!  But if I normally spend about half an hour preparing dinner each day, that would be 5 hours for 10 meals (but I ended up with 12 meals so that would be 6 hours) so it's definitely a time saver there.


Add that to the fact that I didn't have a toddler running around at "witching hour" and I like this idea a lot!  Also, it's the kind of thing the Big Fella and I will probably do together in the future, so that'll be even quicker and easier.


So now all I need to do is pull out a meal and defrost it in the fridge overnight.  Then in the morning (or lunch time, depending on the meal) throw it in the slow cooker.  Some of the meals are served with rice or noodles, but basically, it's slow cook and serve!


Fingers crossed the Little Big Fella likes at least some of them!!!  If he does, I think this will become a regular part of my meal planning.  I think I'll still have the meat and veges meals (like steak... mmmmmm), and next time I'll also cook up some mince with onions and diced tomatoes for semi-instant pasta sauce, for an extra element of variety.


Assuming I end up going back to work after we move, this could be a real life-saver too, especially on the nights when the Big Fella is doing afternoon or night shift.


So there's my domestic experiment of the day!  I'll let you know how it goes!