Freezer Foods Friday

It's Freezer Foods Friday again! Today, I'm not sharing a recipe but some helpful hints. When I taught this as a class these were some of the things I talked about. It might be "old news" to you, a refresher, or a new slant. However you receive it, I hope there is something you can use and add to.

There are many types of "freezer cooking" methods. There's the OAMC (Once a Month Cooking); TAMC (Twice a Month Cooking); Mini Sessions, preparing meals by categories, the methods and lists are as vast and varied as individual's tastes.

Whatever "style" you adopt, the most important rule is organize your recipes!

You can have a card-file system or notebook file system. I use the notebook pages because I can have each recipe printed on an individual page, put in a page protector and place in a three ring binder.

Before cooking day, study each recipe to decide on the order in which you'll prepare them. It may sound like overkill, but it really helps the process run more smoothly. Once you've decided, put the pages in order in which you will prepare them. The page protectors are great because I almost always spash! All I have to do is wipe these clean.

Menu - You might like to fly by the seat of your pants, but you really need to do a menu. You don't really want a month of all Mexican, or Italian food do you? There are all sorts of sites with good forms to print out for menus and I've used a lot, but in a pinch, I like the old, take a sheet of notebook paper, fold it in half, fold it again, and again. Unfold and you've got 8 blocks. Yeah, I know there aren't "usually" 8 days in the week, contrary to what the Beetles said! (I'm showing my age aren't I). Just fill in the 7 blocks with a day's menu. Tah-Dah! giggle

Try only a few new recipes each month. (That way if it flops, it was only one meal!) Your menu should be mostly ones your family already likes.

If you're not sure a family favorite will freeze well, when you prepare the dish, take out a portion and freeze it. "Test" it in a week or two to see if it passes the test. If so, great! You've got another freezer-food to add to your list. And, well, if it doesn't, you haven't wasted time and money.

ok, this is getting kind of long, and I don't want to bore you this week. Next week, I promise a recipe. Actually it's going to be good. A bunch of marinades and ideas for those. I love doing these, just buy the meat, dump it in the ziplock bag with the marinades... that's it. And when it's thawing - it's marinating!

Now, it's your turn. Got a tip, idea or recipe for making ahead? Come join the party!
Please link to this site so everyone can enjoy!