Freezer Friendz: Happy 3rd Birthday Freezer Friendz!

Monday, March 14, 2011

Happy 3rd Birthday Freezer Friendz!

I couldn't let this month pass without acknowledging our 3rd birthday! I can't believe it's already been that long!

This has been a fun year. We have gone up and down in the number of gals in our group, due to sports, etc., but we continue to swap meals monthly and love it!

This year we had the opportunity to share about freezer cooking with the MOPS group I used to be involved with and we had a great time doing that. We would love to share with more groups, so let us know if you are interested.

We continue to be amazed at the number of readers we have and at the fact that we have readers all over the world. It's funny since, when we started the blog, it was just to share our recipes and comments with each other. We LOVE being able to help other families have a more peaceful mealtime. :)

We love to hear from our readers, so please comment if you'd like.

Happy Birthday Freezer Friendz and Happy Freezer Filling to the rest of you!

4 comments:

StaceyMarch 14, 2011 at 8:59 PM
Happy Birthday! A group of friends just started an informal freezer meals group here. Sunday will be our second month. I am following here to get some ideas for recipes. Informal means we bring what we want (within some size limits) and we take the same number of meals home. (if we bring 4 meals we take 4; if we bring 1 we take one) Thanks for providing a resource for those of us starting out.
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JCDesigns02March 14, 2011 at 11:22 PM
You are so welcome Stacy! I'm glad you are finding success with your group. FYI: The reason we use categories for our meals is for the sustainability of the group. A friend told me that she started a group like this and it fell apart after a while because everyone started bringing ground beef casseroles and no one wanted to have a freezer full of ground beef casseroles. We chose categories to avoid that sort of thing.
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MagsMarch 16, 2011 at 8:54 PM
H A P P Y B I R T H D A Y , my freezer-cooking friendz!!!

:) Mags
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JenniferMarch 25, 2011 at 4:35 PM
Happy Birthday Freezer Friendz. My freezer group uses a lot of your recipes and has found the categories to be extremely helpful!
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Freezer Cooking Quick Tips

When wrapping meals for freezer: make sure to double wrap to prevent freezer burn. Using one layer of plastic wrap and a top layer of foil is best.

Freezer Bags: Use GOOD freezer bags! Don't skimp on cheapo freezer bags or your food will taste like plastic!

Meat in Freezer Meals: Thawed meat must be cooked before it can be refrozen. Frozen cooked meat can not be refrozen once thawed.

Freezing Soup: Pour soup into gallon size Ziploc bag. Lay bag of soup flat on a cookie sheet in the freezer until frozen, then remove cookie sheet. Doing this allows soup to freeze flat, so it can stack easily with other meals in your freezer.

Flash Marinade: Put raw chicken or beef in a ziploc baggie, pour in your marinade, then freeze. In the thawing process, your meat will be infused with the marinade and ready to cook!

Cooking Noodles: Cook noodles only 3 minutes, drain and immediately run under cold water to stop the cooking process. Noodles will freeze well and not turn to mush if done this way. Tip from freezerchicks blog site!

Slow-Cooking Chicken for the Freezer: You can fill crock pot with chicken breasts and pour a can of chicken broth over meat. Cook on high for 4 hours. Another method that gives the meat more flavor is to layer 1 sliced onion in the bottom of slow cooker. Top with chicken. Sprinkle with seasoned salt, pepper and garlic powder. Cook on low for 4 hours or until done. With either of these methods, you need to keep an eye on your meat to make sure you do not overcook. Shred or dice and freeze in 2 cup portions for use in casseroles, tacos, etc...

Freezing Cooked Ground Beef: You can boil ground beef, then freeze it - it will be easy to thaw and use for tacos or something similar! To do this, add raw ground beef to large pot. Add onion, salt & pepper. Fill pot with water until water is 1" above the top of the meat. Boil, stirring occasionally to break up chunks. Meat is finished when no longer pink. Drain off the water (which drains off the fat).

1lb. raw ground beef=12 oz. cooked ground beef=2 - 2.5

Freezing Sandwiches: You can make lunchmeat sandwiches ahead of time and freeze them. Just assemble the meat and cheese on bread and place in ziploc sandwich bags. Place all bagged sandwiches into a large ziploc freezer bag. I did this once with cheap sandwich bags and the sandwiches tasted like plastic; however, they taste fine if you use Ziploc bags. **PBJ works too, if bread is a higher quality wheat bread.

Freezer Efficiency: If your freezer isn't full, fill empty milk jugs 3/4 full with water and place in freezer. This helps your freezer not have to work so hard to stay cold, saving you money.

Substitutions: Here is a great source for figuring out substitions for your recipes when you start making something and realize you are missing an ingredient: http://allrecipes.com/HowTo/Common-Substitutions/Detail.aspx

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Monday, March 14, 2011

Happy 3rd Birthday Freezer Friendz!

4 comments:

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