Thinking About having a Cooking Session.

I am seriously thinking about doing this, although I think that I will do up a hamburger plan, chicken plan along with a Potato plan.

I have been surfing the internet (Big shock there eh? lol) and one trick I picked up for say making meatloaf is when you have your mixture made up don't bother putting it in loaf pans right away. Put your meatloaf mixture in a freezer bag and when you are ready to use it just thaw in the fridge overnight and the next day dump it in a loaf pan, pack it down and bake. I like mixing up a sauce for ontop of the meatloaf though which consists of : 1/4 cup brown sugar,1/4 cup of ketchup and 1 tbsp. prepared mustard and whisk it up. Cover the mixture ontop of your meatloaf.

Another trick which I have done in the past when I make Meatballs is instead of baking them I have ready a pot of boiling water and as I make the round shape of the meatball I drop them in there, once I have the last meatball in the pot I keep them on a low boil for about 10 minutes. They do not brown and crisp this way like baking in an oven but, when you take them out of your freezer and pop them in the oven till heated they will brown up then.By cooking the meatballs that way it is much quicker opposed to baking them in your oven. Meatballs are great because you can use them with sauces over rice or noodles, have meatball subs or serve on potatoes.

I have also in the past done up batches of taco meat which can be used for; over french fries (I like to add sour cream,salsa and lettuce on top) enchiladas, taco salad,on top of Potato, burritos,in soup, nachos and whatever else one can think of lol.

I haven't figured out what I would make up for a chicken plan yet however. I need to keep surfing for recipes there. I have in the past bought bulk chicken thighs onsale and preboiled them and then put them in the freezer, I did this for the bbq season which was great. A lot of times when having chicken I will make a double batch and freeze for future soups, chicken and dumplings, chicken pot pie etc.

For a Potato plan I would like to do up twice baked potatoes. I have done this in the past too but not for a couple of years now. I have seen a couple of recipes for mashed potato to freeze so I would also like to give that a try.

For baking deserts such as cakes I will double and sometimes tripe the recipe and bake them up in bread pans to freeze in that size. I find it easy to store in the freezer this way and also it is perfect for taking out and cutting up for lunches.

For cookies I usually just roll the dough into balls and flash freeze before putting them in freezer bags so that they won't stick together. All I do there when wanting to bake up a batch is take out say a dozen at a time but I leave them in the oven to bake for a couple of extra minutes then I would if they were not frozen. I have also baked them up prior to freezing but I find it is kind of special for the kids and dh to have freshly warm baked cookies for their lunches that day. The cookies seem to last longer that way too lol.

Pizza, yummmmmm. I have 6 round pizza pans and yes, I have made these up ahead lol.I use the recipe out of my "Not Just Beans cookbook" by Tawra Jean Kellam and it is excellent! I use her idea and once my uncooked pizza dough is in the pan; "Bake for 5 minutes in an oven at 400 so the dough does not become soggy. Cover with pizza sauce. Add your choice of toppings and cheese." Once I have finished adding the toppings and cheese this is where I wrap it up first in saran wrap or wax paper and then I cover it with tinfoil and set the pizzas in my freezer. When I am ready to have a pizza night I just pop it in the oven frozen and bake at 375 for about 20 to 25 minutes. Because we cook two at a time I have one pizza on my bottom rack in the oven and one on the middle rack. Half way through I change them by putting the one on the middle rack to the bottom and the bottom pizza onto the middle rack.