When I worked full-time I used to take one afternoon a month and put together multiple meals, stashing them in the freezer. I worked until six o’clock everyday and had a 40 minute ride home; this of course meant that we ate dinner either very late or it wasn’t that healthy. Neither was good for my overall wellness!
Having meals in my freezer was a lifesaver for me.
Yet I had to muddle along by myself before I found blogs that helped me out.
Over the past few years I’ve had seasons of life where I was very focused on food preparation and made sure I had meals in the freezer, and seasons where I routinely fly by the seat of my pants. Lately it’s been the latter, which is something I’m not too thrilled with. So this fall I had planned on getting back to my menu planning and batch freezing meals to make sure that we always have healthy meals and snacks available.
One of the resources I’ve been using is my friend (and affiliate partner) Stephanie’s Slow Cooker Freezer Recipes eCookbook*. I love this batch freezer cooking ebook because it not only focuses on meals that freeze well, but they also go in the slow cooker! Plus, she has very much the same dietary guidelines I do for my own family so I know I won’t have to do any testing different ingredients or substituting ingredients I don’t find healthy.
I’m looking at purchasing a new slow cooker in the next week or so (have a good recommendation?) as I use one constantly over the fall and winter. Especially during Michigan’s main harvest time where I’ll be spending hours in the kitchen prepping, freezing, and canning all the produce I can get my hands on. How nice will it be to grab dinner from the freezer and let it cook all day in the crock-pot?!
I’m also way, way behind on my own schooling. Working at my own pace on a master herbalist program has proved to me that I need someone to light a fire under my butt. So I’m scheduling time in my personal life to make sure I’m able to read through and finish my lessons in a timely fashion. Having meals prepared ahead of time will really help free me up to do so, because I have a problem focusing when there are to many things on my daily to-do list.
Our food budget has also gotten slightly out of hand over the last year or so and preparing meals in advance will help me out in that aspect as well. I’m hoping to cut at least 10-15% off of our current grocery bills.
I had meant to write this post last week. Because Stephanie has a sale going, but only until Thursday the 15th! So if you need help with batch cooking like I do, you can grab a copy of this ecookbook for only $4.99*.
One of my favorite things about Stephanie is that she’s super honest. She says these types of folks won’t want to buy her book:
Anyone who hates their vegetables soft. I’m sorry but if you cook with a slow cooker your veggies are going to be soft. There are ways around it, you can add your veggies the last 30 minutes of cooking or cook them separately, but in general if you have texture issues you may want to stick to crisp stir fry (but do it with healthy oils)!
Anyone who is a French trained chef. If you are ambitious and a perfectionist when it comes to cooking, just pass this on by. This eCookbook is for tired and busy women who want to get a pretty darn good meal on the table for their family, and they are not entertaining fancy people.
Since I am neither of those, but a busy women looking to feed her family (and herself!) good foods, I’m all about this ebook.
Stephanie also released a brand new mini ecookbook last week (inspiring the sale). If you purchase her newest ebook, Back To School mini ecookbook, (priced at $4.99) you’ll get will also get her Slow Cooker Freezer Recipes Tips + Tricks PDF and a 2 hour audio lesson FREE.
So you can buy both of her slow cooker ebooks for less than $10.00* and get a couple of great freebies at the same time.
Do you do freezer cooking? I’d love to hear how it works in your life!
Donielle Baker
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Where did she get those cool freezer reusable bags in the picture on the top??
I don’t know! I was wondering the same thing myself so I shot her an email to ask. I’ll let you know when I find out. 🙂
Yes knowing where she got the reusable freeze bags from would be helpful!!! I really really need to do this!!! It seems like it suddendly becomes 6pm at night and I’m searching the fridge and cubbords for something to make for dinner EVERY NIGHT! I’m soo tired of that. I’d live to get up in the morning, look in the freezer, pull it out and have it ready to eat by dinner. That way too.. it’s not the same easy, quick thing for 3 nights in a row. I’ve also hear of “freezer parties” where you have a group of moms make 3 different meals in freezer bag, then get together and trade, so that everyone has something different. they also plan out where they will make, and trade recipes.. they judge each new recipe and decide if it will be a meal that they will continue to make on a monthly basis or not… all as a group. sounds really cool to me!!
She said they are Neat Os bags. Stephanie said “I tried several different brands in the last year and they are the best! They are not leak proof or air tight though, so you can only have them in the freezer for 3 to 4 months as opposed to 6 to 12 months with a ziploc freezer bag.”