Winter hit our family hard this year. Some of my kids have been home from school for the best part of three weeks, but thankfully three of them are well enough to return to school tomorrow. I managed to get through most of winter bug-free, but last week I think I caught one of the worst of them and I was too sick to cook for three days. That can mean meal time chaos in a family this size, but luckily my husband came to the rescue and cooked some lovely meals for me.
It got me thinking though, how valuable a freezer stash can be in times of illness and general family busyness. I used to be an avid freezer cook, but these days making a stash of meals large enough to feed our family can cost a fortune in meat, so unless I get a really great deal from my butcher, I am less likely to have a major cooking day. But there is a way around this, and these days I prefer to double or triple a meal here and there and stash the extra meal/s away in my freezer for when they are really needed. At first when you gaze into your freezer only to see one or two spare meals staring back at you, you will wonder if it’s really worth the effort, but after four or five meals spread over a couple of weeks you will notice that in the end, that small extra effort really does go a long way, and before you know it you will have an extra week’s worth of meals at your fingertips.
Not sure where to start? Well, I started out when I discovered http://www.30daygourmet.com/. I was addicted to Nancy’s monthly newsletter, and it’s well worth looking back through their archives (I mean right back to when Nancy used to write the newsletters). You will find some great recipes and tips on how to plan your cooking day, and how to make sure your extra meals survive the process of freezing, defrosting and re-heating. In the meantime, I’m going to put together a post on some of my favourite freezer recipes (many of them appear regularly in my menu plan, even when I am not freezing them…….silly me!), so keep an eye out for that post. I was fortunate enough to have a couple of meals in my freezer last week, and it reminded me what a difference it makes to not have to worry about dinner when you are really sick, and I have already put a couple of meals in the freezer this week.
In the meantime, here’s this week’s menu. I’m feeling much better now and pleased to be back in my kitchen, so I’m trying out a few new recipes this week.
Week 34
Monday 27th August – Sunday 2nd September 2012
Monday – Chicken Stir-fry with Brown Rice (my husband is cooking)
Tuesday – Spaghetti and Meatballs with garlic rolls
Wednesday – Shredded Beef Tacos (doubling recipe)
Thursday – Steak with Peppercream Sauce, Rosemary Roasted Potatoes, carrots, snow peas and corn
Friday – Best Burgers with homemade chips
Saturday – Shanghai Wings with Fried Rice
Sunday – Chicken Parmigiana (the crumbed version) with vegetables and spiral pasta
Happy Cooking!
For more great menu ideas, go to http://orgjunkie.com/blog