We have been enjoying our monthly freezer cooking nights, the fellowship is great and we have all have been enjoying easy dinners, more time in the evenings, and less time in the drive thru or restaurant.  Some of us are stay at home moms and some are  working moms. Our goal at this point is not to be cooking most of our month’s meals in one day like some people do but we do want to have a few fast easy meals for the days we don’t have much time or creativity. We meet on Friday nights and don’t start till around 6 so we aim to be done by 9, and at this point our goal is to only spend $50 a month each (this month’s menu was $42 a person). We meals to feed at least 4, we all have small families and small children.

We have the cooking night at my house and since I don’t work outside of the home (other than a few hours a week for my husband, so I do all the prep work). Before the actual cooking night here is a list of things I do.

Everyone brings something from this list to keep cost down: olive oil, freezer bags, foil, butter, salt, pepper, garlic salt.

• Week before 
  • Get final head count on who is coming and if anyone has any requests.
• Week of
  • Make menu
  • Make grocery lists
  • Do grocery shopping
    • I usually go to Sam’s Club, Aldi, and Kroger (this month I only did Sam’s and Kroger)
• Day before
  • Begin prep work (thawing meat, soak beans etc)
  • Roast garlic for Hummus
• Day of
  • I let half of the chicken thaw just a little so I could slice each breast into 4 thinner pieces for the basil chicken.
  • Slice pork loin into about 1/2 inch thick slices (I got a large pork loin at Sam’s instead of getting pre sliced and we got twice as much for our money)
  • Cook beans
  • Pull out any special tools, pans, etc that will need to be pulled out

This month the week leading up to the cooking night was crazy for me and I was leaving the next day for vacation so we did not do as much “COOKING” this month’s was more getting items ready to cook and items that needed little prep time on my part.

This months Recipes.

• Easy Pork Chops — all uncooked ingredients in freezer bag, can be put in crock pot frozen, or  cooked in the oven or on stove once thawed. (this is repeat from month 1 and we made 2 of these for each person)
• Garlic Basil Chicken — Prior to cooking night I cut chicken breast into strips, then we place all  ingredients in a freezer bag, to cook needs to be thawed then grilled, baked, or cooked in a pan on the stove. (this was a repeat from month 2)
• Chinese Chicken — all uncooked ingredients in freezer bag, can be put in crock pot frozen, or  cooked in the oven or on stove once thawed
• Chicken Burgers
• Brown Rice
• Fajita Seasoning
• Burger and Fry Seasoning
• Roasted Garlic Hummus — 2 batches per person were made, one to freeze and one to remain fresh.
• Chickpeas for Roasting — or for more hummus later. each person took home 2 quarts of cooked chickpeas.

Here you can check our our other  cooking nights!

• Month 1
• Month 2