Cooking Marathon

In anticipation of not feeling like cooking, or having the time to do so once the baby arrives, Joe and I figured we should start stocking the freezer full of prepared meals. We had been talking about buying a small freezer for the basement, as our side by side fridge doesn't leave much space for casseroles, frozen pizzas, etc, and consequently, when things go on sale at the grocery store, we aren't able to stock up simply because we don't have enough usable space. After looking around and weighing our options (new vs. used off craigslist, upright vs. chest, etc) we decided to go ahead and get a 12 cubic foot upright freezer. Nebraska Furniture Mart had them on sale, so we went yesterday afternoon, picked one out, bought it and scheduled it for delivery... today! Perfect timing, as I had decided that today would be the cooking marathon day, and was getting nervous about trying to rearrange the freezer once again to cram as much in as possible.

After the freezer was delivered at 8:45am, 15 minutes earlier than our 2 hour time frame we were promised (when does that ever happen??), I started my grocery shopping trip, hitting up Aldi's, then our local grocery store, the Dollar Store for disposable foil containers, and Walmart to round out the shopping. I started cooking around noon, and it's now 5:15 and my feet and back are demanding a break. I still have a few more recipes to make before I'm finished.

I found this website, www.onceamonthmom.com that has menus planned so that you can do a lot of cooking all in one day (or weekend) and stock the freezer. I combined a few of the months to make my own schedule, along with a few of our own favorites, and have been pleasantly surprised at how easy most of these recipes are - not too much cooking, but rather a lot of prep, combine everything, cover with foil and voila! Ready to cook meals! I decided to do a handful of typical dinners, a few breakfast foods, and some quick to heat snacks/lunches, since everyone who has had babies recently said they looked for easy to heat/eat with one hand foods during the day (and night)!

Here's what I've made so far...
2 8x8 pans of Farmer's Casserole (a breakfast/brunch eggs/potato/ham dish)
2 8x8 pans of Layered Chicken Enchilada Casserole
2 large pans of Chicken Cordon Bleu
8 servings of Asian Chicken Salad for pita sandwiches
1 9x13 pan of Green Chile Enchiladas
8 Chicken Taco Wraps (with more to make... I ran out of tortillas!)

Here's what I have left to make...
2-3 8x8 pans of Beef and Cheese Manicotti
2 8x8 pans of Baked Ziti
2 8x8 pans of Chicken Parmesan
2 Chocolate Chip Cream Cheese Coffee Cakes
some muffins, yet to be determined - maybe apple strudel, maybe blueberry & lemon.... we'll see.

I'm hoping to have the dinners finished tonight, and if I still have energy I'll bake the coffee cakes and muffins. If not, I'll save those for tomorrow.

The best part? Between the savings of shopping at Aldi's and some great sales on chicken and beef, I'll have spent about $115 on the groceries and supplies for everything listed above - not too shabby for the number of meals we'll have ready and waiting for us to eat!