Confession time.
I have not been keeping up on my once-a-month cooking lately. To be honest, it can be difficult to find one entire weekend each month to dedicate to it. Some months I just don’t have the time. And even when I could make time, the thought of spending two twelve-hour days on my feet in the kitchen makes me want to give up and run to the nearest Hot & Ready pizza joint.
So I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. I really don’t want to lose the benefits of once-a-month cooking. Not only do I save time throughout the month, but it puts the pleasure back in family dinners for me. I can enjoy the lingering conversation with my family without the nagging voice in the back of my head telling me I should be scrubbing the pots.
Stupid nagging voice.
Plus on those occasions when I just don’t feel like doing dinner, I’m not tempted to order in because I have so many easy choices on hand. Which saves me money!
Long story short, I’ve come up with my own Gradual Make-Ahead Method™. I cook dinner each night as usual…except I make enough meat for 3-5 meals instead of one. I divide the meat into meal-size portions and freeze the extra.
Last night, I took advantage of a huge sale on chicken breast and bought 10 pounds! We cooked all 10 lbs worth on the grill, sliced it all up and used one 2-lb portion for dinner. Then we divided the remaining 8 lbs into 4 freezer bags to be used for future meals!
If you’d like to give this a try, I recommend using only basic seasonings (or none at all) when grilling. This way, you can pull the chicken out of the freezer and use it in a variety of recipes.
I am happy to report that it resulted in only a small amount of extra work to and clean-up, and the reward is that we have four extra meals worth! Here’s what we had the first night for dinner. I’ll be sharing more ways you can use grilled chicken from the freezer in the coming weeks!
CHICKEN FAJITAS RECIPE
Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 lbs grilled chicken breast, frozen
- 1/4 tsp cumin
- 1/4 tsp chili powder
- 1/4 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp garlic salt
- 1/4 tsp mesquite seasoning
- 3 T water
- 1 medium onion, sliced
- 1/2 – 1 green pepper, sliced
- tortilla shells
- fajita toppings of your choice
Directions:
- Add frozen chicken breast, onion, green pepper and water to skillet. Mix in seasonings. Cover and simmer until chicken is heated through. Remove cover and simmer for an additional 2-3 minutes.
- Assemble fajitas and enjoy!
Posted in: Meal Planning
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
I did the same thing over at my blog with 50 pounds of chicken, http://momonamission.me/?p=1282. I don’t enjoy long hours in the kitchen either, instead I double, triple and sometimes quadruple easy recipes, like sauces, and freeze. I definitely like to prep meats for easy 15-minute meals. Thanks for posting.
The gradual make-ahead method is by far the best way to go! I don’t cook too many things without tripling the recipe. I made 3 pans of BBQ Chicken Enchiladas last night, 3 batches of spaghetti sauce the night before and today I have a crock pot full of pinto beans on. I may have to do chicken fajita meat next– they look yummy! Doing it this way only involves a little more work upfront and the payoff is huge!
Stefanie – Need BBQ Chicken Enchilada recipe. Yum!
Jackie – Can’t wait to check out all your recipes!
Sure…. I found it at http://www.feelslikehomeblog.com/2011/03/bbq-chicken-enchiladas/
The only thing I did differently is that I let my onions caramelize and only used 2/3 of the listed amt of oil in my enchilada sauce. I also used homemade BBQ sauce (gradually made ahead!) from allrecipes http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Big-Als-KC-Bar-B-Q-Sauce/Detail.aspx
Hope you enjoy them… they were delicious and I had a left over one today for lunch— even better today!
I used to do the once a month cooking thing as well and it was just too much. I started doing batch parties with friends and it made things go so much faster plus we could hang out while filling our freezers. There are a few posts about it on my blog http://ithappensatdinner.blogspot.com/2009/11/big-batch-cooking-our-adventures-part-1.html . You can kind of see how the process has evolved, but we can get a full freezer pretty quickly.
I have thought about trying that, but wondered how often I’d end up with freezer meals that no one in my family would like. Does that happen to you very often? We’re not all that picky, but I’d hate to waste food. I couldn’t really say, “Hey, your recipe sounds gross. Please don’t make it.” LOL!
LOL- we have had that happen a couple times, but normally everyone says “Hey, I am thinking of making this, would you guys like it?” So then you can say, “eww no that’s gross” and its ok. HAHA
The few times we have ended up with things I know my family won’t like, I have either traded it out with someone who does like it for one of their least favortie dishes or given it as a recovery/ new mom meal to someone that would like it.
This mass cooking of the meat is the best thing I’ve ever found (it was by accident when I bought 2 whole chickens that wouldn’t fit in the freezer, so I cooked them both, and took all the meat off and froze that meat–it was the best accidental find ever! More people should try this, even easier than once a month or batch cooking!!
I love the idea of throwing it on the grill! That makes clean up even easier!
Looks like a lot of us are on the same page:) Here is my post about it back in November.
http://joyfulcreations2.blogspot.com/2010/11/freezer-friday.html
Beef Goulash sounds yummy, Joyce. Gotta try that.
The grill was awesome for cutting down on clean up.
Great idea! I think I should buy more chicken than I already do when it goes on sale.
I’m your newest follower! Stop by my blog sometime–I’d love to have you as a follower, as well!
morrowsunshine.blogspot.com
I dislike cooking ground beef or turkey on the stove! My favorite new way is to cook it in the slow cooker right when I get home from the store with it…very easy to cut up and no splatters!
I’ve always wanted to try this and your recipe looks great! You site is awesome! I’d love for you to come link up at DIY Thrifty Thursday @ Thrifty 101.
http://thrifty101.blogspot.com/2011/03/diy-thrifty-thursday-9.html
Looks great and such a good idea to plan ahead!!
This would be great for my Foodie Friday linky party – if you have a sec pop on over and link up!
Oh, and I found you on Sugar Bess Crafts!
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