Making time to get stuff done....

Chicken & Spanish Rice

The past few weeks have been loaded with chaos.  The kind of chaos that makes you want to sit and stare at a wall for a while.  With no children around you.  No noise.  Just.....quiet.  I'm not going to whine about it.  I've decided I'm going to start taking Mondays off in an attempt to get "family stuff" done.  One of the things on the list is cooking ahead.  Even if it's just cooking that will serve my family for the current week, ahead is ahead.  I'm so sick of scrambling at 7pm trying to wrap up the loose ends of dinner.  Even with my weekly dinner menu planned, it's so much nicer to have some of the items prepared & ready to roll.

Use those baby spinach containers!

Now, this cooking ahead thing is something I used to do on a regular basis.  Life throws curve balls.  Things change.  Schedules change.  Tastes change.  Kids get older.  Pickier.  It's time to get back into the groove of what works for my family. Cooking and freezing ahead does take a wee little bit of planning.  For instance, today, I pretty much focused on working with chicken.  I like to focus on one thing & hammer it out.  It makes for a much easier clean up, in my opinion.

Today, with determination & 3 hours of time, I...

• ...threw 24 frozen chicken breast tenderloins in 2 gallon zipper seal bags.  One bag got doused with BBQ sauce.  The other with salsa.  Into the freezer they went.  Two main dishes are now ready to roll.  All I need is to either thaw & grill....or toss them frozen into a slow cooker (great for shredded chicken tacos or BBQ sandwiches).  Easy.  No thinking involved. Just yank it out of the freezer & go with whatever floats your boat that day.  I love having options.
• I also made a giant batch of Spanish rice.  Brown rice, a jar of salsa, chicken broth, salt, pepper, garlic powder.  Again, easy.  Once it was done cooking, I spread it out on a jelly roll sheet to cool quickly.  Then I dished it  up into quart size zipper seal bags.  I can either counter top thaw it or nuke it in the microwave.  We eat a LOT of Mexican food, so this will be so handy for me.
• I also cooked down a 5 pound chicken for homemade chicken broth (because I like it better than store bought).  Now I have tons and tons of chicken meat off the bone, ready to add into recipes.  I bag both the broth and the meat.  [Yes, you can bag broth.  It's strange looking, but thaws quickly if you lay it flat while freezing.]
• Oh, and I made  banana pumpkin bread (made a double batch so I can freeze one loaf to eat in the future).  I had to swap the flour(s) listed for my special gluten free stuff, but I can't wait to try it! [recipe link] 
• And a couple of pots of soup that can be frozen for quick lunches.
• I almost forgot about the rice casserole.
• I also chopped 24 green bell peppers, bagged them into zipper seal bags, tossed them into the freezer.  Perfect for cooking with during the fall & winter months when peppers tend to get expensive at the store!  I wish I would have chopped them into smaller pieces, but I was in a hurry 7 doing my best to get it all done today.  :)

Need a couple of tips for getting the biggest bang as far as freezer space goes?

1. I keep all of my baby spinach containers from Costco & use them for storing small freezer items. Especially baggies of stuff.  Like the bell pepper I chopped today.  It allows me to keep the deep freeze fairly organized.  I blogged about it a couple of years ago.  Read about it here. [tip link] 
2. Label your bags BEFORE filling them!  With a Sharpie, write what the dish is, how many servings, the nutritional info, etc.  Everything you'd want to know come serving time.  
3. I do my best to freeze all of this stuff flat before loading the bags into spinach containers.  Broth, casserole fillings, pasta, rice, diced veggies, etc.  I even freeze my cooked steel cut oats in zipper seal bags!  No kidding.  It makes for easy stacking.  I can even set the frozen bags upright in those spinach containers if I want.  Just squish out as much air as possible before you seal up the bag. Place the flat bags on a cookie sheet & stick the whole sheet of whatever you're freezing into the freezer overnight.  From there, you can organize it however you wish.   Yes, a frozen baggie of cooked oatmeal looks strange, but it tastes good once it's warmed up!  :)  Check out what I'm talking about as far as the "flatness" of freezing stuff flat...

Quart size zipper seal bag with 1 cup steel cut oats.

Same bag shown from the side.  Very flat & stack-able!

PHEW.  I'm tired.  I did a lot of cooking today, but I did forget to cook one thing.  Tonight's dinner! lol  Guess I better get crackin' on that.  It's breakfast for dinner night.  I'm sick of looking at chicken.  I've looked at it all day.  I agree with my kids....pancakes are sounding pretty awesome right about now.

I would love to know what "think ahead" things you guys do that help you stay on track with healthy eating.  Fast food & convenience meals are really not options for my family now that I can't have gluten.  Plus, it's expensive to eat out with teens! Oh my GOD they eat a lot.  Please share your ideas.