MelanieC Rotating shifts drove me nuts. Do you like tacos,spaghetti. chili, hamburgers and other ground beef dishes? I fried up tons of ground beef. Use the 1#, 2# plastic deli receptacles used for macaroni salad etc,.If you figure your choice dishes (lasagna etc) and want spices, you canput in while cooking. ex: taco. Can you invest in a stand up freezer? Save space by eliminating the fat, just unfreeze, a real time saver!!! Label ! (pizza) (meat loaf pre-formed) There’s a book “365 days & recipes for grd. beef” Ham loaf is great, grocer wil grind for you. Chuck roasts chop up well for stew meat., noodles and beef. . Pork etc. slices and chops etc freeze well. Cut up your own chicken (not hard) use the pieces (breasts) legs etc in plastic quart , gallon bags. Just add quick rice for baked casseroles.The cooking ? 20-30 minutes.. Pick the recipes you like, break them up into ingredients, shop for 1 week’s worth at first. Aluminum foil for baking where you can, disposeable pans save time, effort. Canned veggies fruits soups will save time- sales are good (10 for $10.00). Tuna’s good (after baby Dr. says) Melts, sandwiches, casseroles.Boy am I hungry right now.! You don’t have to be a great cook (ask my family).Plan ahead ! If you get good at it you can clip coupons. just don’t keep forgetting them. The US Gov”t has brochures on how to freeze, length of time to keep etc. Have computer? It’s a treasure trove. Please try to relax-no one will starve.. Enjoy the baby . In 20 years they won’t remember what they ate, but the fun around the table. is a life-long memory. Happy days!

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here are some web sites i hope they are helpful

Darlin, if’n you don’t like to cook, why bother. Go to Costco and buy everything already frozen that you can just microwave.

On the other hand, cooking can be great, great fun. No task is more gratifying than serving a fabulous meal to your family. Watch a few Emeril Live shows. He makes cooking fun, and most everything is fairly easy. Rachel Ray, (The Queen Of Eating Alone) has great easy recipes. As far as freezing goes, if it’s only in there for no more than thirty days, a simple ZipLoc bag will do. Be sure and get as much air out of the bag as possible.

cook a great big pot of home made stew. then you can either put it ziplock bags and freeze it, or can it in a pressure cooker. it’ll last for years canned and tast like you just cooked it. theres cook books that give info on this type of stuff. i learned all of this from my family, my parents grew up poor and ate out of their garden. the put up food all spring and summer, enough to last all winter. we mostly can.

Here are some websites to get you started.

…/Frozen-Food-Recipes/Main.asp

The best things to freeze are large batches of chili, soups and spaghetti sauce. I avoid anything with potatoes, because they get watery after freezing. For these, I freeze in quart sized ziplock-style freezer bags. Freeze laying flat, then you can stack them or line them up like books.

Meatloaf or meatballs are easy to freeze as well. I’d just wrap them well in freezer wrap.

Casseroles are another good choice. You can slightly freeze in the casserole dish, then remove from the dish and wrap well. Lasagna can be prepared, refrigerated, then cut into single portions squares and wrapped well before freezing.

There are so many good recipes out there; I’d recommend cruising the internet. cooks.com is a good site.

You may want to start out cooking once a week and freezing. It’s much less daunting a task, and you’ll have more variety in your freezer.

Congratulations on the coming addition to the family. You’re wise to plan ahead now.

I am not experienced in freezing things except for one tip I know works well. You can make a lasagne and instead of putting it all in one pan, use 3 of those foil loaf pans. You just layer the lasagne like you normally would except in 3 pans instead of one large one. This way you don’t have to thaw an entire lasagne when you’re just feeding 2 or 3 people.

Good luck and congrats on the new house and baby! What an exciting time this is in your life!

LifeHacker.com just featured a guide on freezer cooking not that long ago.

First of all, I would start with a good cookbook. One I can reccomend is “Frozen Assets”. This book explains everything in great detail. Another is the “Thirty Day Gourmet”.
They also do a good job of explaining and have great kid and budget friendly recipes (you MUST try the peanut butter balls!).

In those two books will be all you need to get going, truly. I have a degree in Home Economics and have been doing my once a month cooking for years now. It is a Godsend to say the least!

One GREAT tip which comes to mind, freeze all casseroles and such in gallon ziploc bags laying flat. Once frozen, you can stand them up like books and save a TON of space!

If you have any questions, feel free to post on our website, we’re always glad to help!

Oh..did you realize that by cooking once a month you can shave literally hundreds off your food bill? It usually saves me at LEAST a hundred dollars but I have fed my entire family of four for two hundred for a months worth of meals. I swear, it’s stunning. I’m not saying you won’t be awful tired on your cooking day though!