Believe it or not, we have gone through all of the freezer cooking essentials. Now comes the fun part…planning our freezer cooking day! I’m a stickler when it comes to planning out my freezer cooking days because it keeps me on budget and helps ensure that I will use up the food I already have in my stockpile.
5 Steps to Planning a Freezer Cooking Day
1. Approach
2. Budget
3. Pantry
4. Sales
5. Recipes
Approach
There are three common approaches people use for freezer cooking days-double/tripling meals, cooking day, or freezer meal co-op/group. There is no right or wrong way, it’s just whatever works best for you.
1. Double/Triple Meals
a. A great place to start
This is a great way to get your feet wet if you are new to freezer cooking. You can try it out and see how you like it-without committing to eating a whole month worth of meals.
b. Doesn’t require much time
It only takes a few extra minutes to double a meal for the freezer. If you are really short on time try doubling 3 meals a week…before long you will have a nice stash of meals in the freezer.
c. Saves money
Buying in bulk can really save you money. This is especially true for the small family who has a hard time finishing a whole casserole or pot of soup. Enjoy it for dinner and freeze the rest.
2. Cooking Day
When I talk about a “cooking day”, I find that a lot of people assume that I spend a whole Saturday in my kitchen cooking up a storm. You most certainly don’t have to spend a full day in the kitchen (unless you want to) and it doesn’t have to be a Saturday (again, unless you want to). If we all wait for a completely free Saturday we probably won’t ever do it…because we are have a million other things to do. You would be surprised at how much you can accomplish in just a few hours in the kitchen.
3. Freezer Cooking Group/Co-op
a. Cook together with friends
To form a cooking group you just need to find some friends to cook with. Set up a budget, divide up shopping list/costs, divide up prep work, and get together and cook. I often cook with my best friend and we have a blast…we can work and chat at the same time. I like cooking alone, but cooking with a friend is definitely more fun!
b. Cook alone and meet to divide up meals
Let’s say you form a group with six friends. You would make six of one meal, and they would do the same. When it was all said and done you would meet up and come home with 6 different meals in your freezer. The nice thing about this that you only have to make one type of meal…which is a lot quicker than making several meals.
Over the next few weeks I’m going to go over each step I take in detail…next week is setting a budget for freezer cooking!
What approach do you take when freezer cooking?
Do you multiply meals, cook alone, or are you a part of a freezer cooking group? I would love to hear what works for you!
If you are new to The Cutting Back Kitchen or freezer cooking, grab a cup of coffee and dig into a whole lots of freezer cooking info here!
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I am loving Freezer Cooking Fridays, even if it’s Saturday before I read it.
It get me all excited about Freezer cooking which I truly, truly love and enjoy. Over the holidays, my freezer was my life saver as it provided us with yummy foods and time savers for mama. Now that the New Year is here, my freezers are looking a little bare, but I am excited to get back to re-stocking them with my best friend. 
I use all of these techniques. And I would agree with you, freezer cooking day for me is rarely on a Saturday, normally it’s broken up into a coule of hour chunks of time throughout a week. Like you said, I am amazed what I can do with an hour or two and a game plan!
My freezer is looking bare when it comes to meals, but is loaded with my cow. We need to get to planning a cooking day
I’m going to see if I have any friends interested in either a cooking group or co op!
Good luck, Kate!