OAMC - freezer cooking

[kristijoy]

Any one work with the Once-a-Month cooking idea? Cooking entrees and assembling meals in your freezer? I've started doubling some of the recipes I normally cook and putting extras in the freezer. I'm a vegetarian so my recipes are a little different than normal. So far I've done: black bean soup, stuffed shells, sweet potato soup, curried quorn 'chicken', vegetable burgers, potato & spinach fritatta. Next week I'm going to start eating my creations!

Comments, feedback, suggestions?

[Darcy Baldwin]

To me, that's a much more effective way to do it. I did OAMC for awhile, then switched to batch cooking, basically what you're doing. You're more likely to eat that food, you can take greater advantage of seasonal sales, and it's not so labor intensive LOL.

Our freezer is usually full of prepared meals, prepped meat concoctions (taco meat, general meat mixture for casseroles, marinading chicken, etc). Then things like mashed potatoes, cheese mix for stuffed shells, etc. If I make it, I generally double it and freeze the excess.

OAMC was too labor intensive for me. I also seemed to end up with a lot of meals we just didn't like a lot. That's my fault for choosing the wrong meals, but still. I'd prefer to base my bath cooking on items on super sales at the grocery store, stock up on menus we love, and like our food more!

[Tracie Stroud]

I've never attempted OAMC. I just don't have the patience or stamina to be in the kitchen all.day.long. lol. I do lots of batch cooking though. Anything I make that can be frozen, I do 2 or 3 times the normal amount and freeze the rest. I really need to get in full swing again soon so I can have a freezer of food when the baby comes.

[Julie Billingsley]

I'm really intrigued by the idea. I'm concerned about how well things taste after their time in the freezer though. Any GOOD recipe books on starting this?

[4noisyboys]

This has been around for a long time. I actually looked in to it about 20 years ago, but knew that I couldn't be in the kitchen that long! I started doing what Darcy is doing...the cooked meats, marinated chicken, steak strips, etc...Something that I can just take out and know that it's almost all ready for dinner! Even making rick and freezing it in baggies is such a time saver. I don't do it as often as I used to, but I've always got something in the freezer...and I do love that I can take advantage of sales that way.

[Darcy Baldwin]

Originally Posted by Julie Billingsley

I'm really intrigued by the idea. I'm concerned about how well things taste after their time in the freezer though. Any GOOD recipe books on starting this?

Julie - food usually only has that freezer taste if it's been in there for way too long, or was packaged incorrectly.

• Make sure something is cooled completely before packaging for freezer
• Make everything airtight (except for liquids when you need to leave a little head-space for expansion
• Package properly. No air no air no air no air. Can't stress that enough. Air is where freezer burn and nasty freezer taste comes from
• Use freezer appropriate packaging - freezer zip top bags, foodsavers, plastic or foil (but dont' use foil against tomato based product as it can react).
• Freeze in the containers you wish to recook in, remove from container, wrap in plastic wrap and freezer paper or pop into a zip top bag.
• Use a straw to suck out the air of zip top bags to get ALL the air out.
• Flash freeze items first, then package. (things like slices of banana bread or meatballs or strawberries, etc.
• Undercook noodle dishes, make sure sauce covers all before freezing. Almost nothing worse than soggy soggy pasta dishes reheated from being overcooked before freezing except for that hard noodle that was frozen and reheated and wasn't covered (think of really bad tv dinners)

I'm sure others will chime in on tips.

My biggest one, though, is freeze what you already love. If you guys love tacos..freeze up a bunch of taco meat for quick meals down the road. If you love marinaded chicken breasts. Freeze some meal sized portions in bags with different marinades. As they thaw, they marinade for you..and are then ready to throw on the grill. Soups, stews, chili all freeze really well.

Dinner's in the Freezer, Prevention's Freezer Cooking, 30 Day Gourmet, Frozen Assets

The Prevention one has been one of my favorites because it went beyond the typical fat laden meal (cream soup based) to things that we ate and could freeze.

You can also google freezer cooking, bulk cooking, batch cooking or OAMC and get a ton of sites.

[Julie Billingsley]

thanks Darcy! I appreciate it! I'm thinking I should start doing this We are becoming so busy with Logan in soccer this year that dinner time could start meaning lots of fast food unless I jump on a proactive plan like this. I'm sure I'll be asking lots of questions!

[kristijoy]

One thing that seemed vital in the books I've been looking through is that it doesn't sit in the freezer that long. With OAMC the oldest something is would be one month. I think using what you've actually put in the freezer is key! Tthis has been my big thing! Putting something in the freezer and then forgetting it for MONTHS!

The OAMC books suggest writing out meal plans for a month and then putting things in the freezer according to that plan. I'm going to try a little card file. Each index card will represent one meal in the freezer. It will have the name and date it was put in. Then I'll file it by date. So instead of looking through the freezer for UFO's, I can look at my cards! I'll let you know how it goes.

Another thing that happens with OAMC is that you do emtpy your freezer at the end of the month before each batch cooking. So then you have a chance to clean it out and find all those UFO's!!

[kristijoy]

I also agree about putting food in you like. I've been looking at books from the library in order to help convert my own recipes. Especially since as a vegetarian alot of the recipes from the standard books aren't that helpful!

[scrap2day]

I have to echo the only make what you like sentiment. Picky eaters here, including me, so if it isn't what we would normally want it isn't going to get eaten.

I'm a batch cooker also. I double what I'm making and/or freeze leftovers. If I make a huge pot of soup from scratch I freeze in individual bowls. Or lasagne, whatever I make.

I also have a bunch of "pieces" that I throw together for soup if I'm eating alone. I open a box of broth (or use some frozen broth if I have that) and then start adding cooked meat that has been frozen and frozen veggies. I also freeze parsley and like that in my soup too. Oh, and I prechop veggies before I freeze them just so I can take a handful or so and throw it in the pot.

I find that I usually prefer to have pieces predone and frozen (i.e. chopped veggies, cooked/seasoned meats, etc.) and then put them together quickly for dinner instead of making up a meal ahead of time and freezing. But we don't embrace menu planning so it is usually easier for me to put out a few options for "what do you want for dinner?" that I could throw together.

This is my "we have picky eaters" disclaimer, but I've been told that when I buy the frozen chicken "it is yucky" but if I buy fresh chicken, prepare, then freeze I don't seem to get as many complaints. Of course for the vegetarian families this wouldn't matter. I also freeze grated cheese. If you use it in cooking it doesn't really matter.

[rach3975]

I double and freeze a few things, mostly pasta based dishes. I'd like to do more, but I've never known what would freeze well. I'll have to check out a few of these suggestions. I never bothered with OAMC because I knew 75% of the meals wouldn't work for us. It's so hard to find things that we will all eat. I'm a vegetarian and DS2 isn't a big meat eater, DH and DS1 don't eat casseroles or other 1-dish meals, and DD is still in the unpredictable toddler stage where she loves something one day and then won't eat it the next.

Originally Posted by kristijoy

I'm a vegetarian so my recipes are a little different than normal. So far I've done: black bean soup, stuffed shells, sweet potato soup, curried quorn 'chicken', vegetable burgers, potato & spinach fritatta. Next week I'm going to start eating my creations!

They sound great to me! For the Quorn, did you cook and refreeze or just make curry to later cook with the still-frozen Quorn? I think most foods aren't supposed to be refrozen once thawed, but if you have a work around or if it doesn't matter for Quorn I'd love to know! Thanks.

[MamaBee]

I've done OAMC... and plan on doing it again in the next couple of weeks, once I can make room in the freezer. Luckily, my hubby will eat anything... and can't stand wasted food. I do have to say that we've only had a miss on two of there recipes in the OAMC cookbooks... but I do have an idea of what it will taste like just by reading the recipe. It is a lot of work... but my hubby helps me and we have so much fun together. We don't do a full month, maybe 14 meals or so and we can do the prep and cooking in 4 hours.

For me this is awesome in the winter... I don't want to go out and it's nice to have something "made" in the freezer that I know is healthy. In the summer, we got away from it... but I did cook up and shredded 10 lb of chicken and 8 lbs of beef... have those in the freezer in quart size bags to quickly make up a dish for supper.

[Tracie Stroud]

One of the best investments for me was a Foodsaver. I was skeptical, but it really does keep stuff longer and gets all the air out. I never get any of those crystal-ly freezer-burnt parts when I put use it.

[MissKim]

I just prep everything. I have done OAMC, but now I'm at the point where my older kids can throw things together, so I'll grill chicken and chop it into pieces, brown ground beef, buy in bulk and repackage. Freeze it all. Saves us a lot of time and in the end, money. We don't eat out when we've got the freezer and pantry full of food, ready to go.

[kristijoy]

Originally Posted by rach3975

They sound great to me! For the Quorn, did you cook and refreeze or just make curry to later cook with the still-frozen Quorn? I think most foods aren't supposed to be refrozen once thawed, but if you have a work around or if it doesn't matter for Quorn I'd love to know! Thanks.

For the recipe I did, I mixed up a marinade (including a jar of chutney, vinegar, curry powder, onions...and a few other things). Took the frozen Quorn out of the box and put it in a quart size freezer bag and then dumped the marinade on top and stuck it back in the freezer. I didn't actually thaw or cook it.

When I prepared it. I thawed it first and then baked it in a baking dish in my toaster oven for about 40 minutes. I like the idea of the freezer doing alot of the 'prep' work ahead of time, but then on eating day it's still freshly cooked.

I've tried several marinades for chicken recipes on Quorn. The two main things I've found is that 1) because Quorn doesn't release fat/juice when it's cooking (like chicken) the dish might need a little more liquid. I put a little water in the bottom of the baking dish and covered the whole thing with aluminum foil. 2) again because Quorn doesn't release fat/juice when it's cooking the sauce could be a little too strong/astringent. The curry marinade worked well because it was served with rice, but I think next time I make it I might add just a little bit of oil to the marinade to balance the flavors a little.

Hope that helps!

[kristijoy]

Originally Posted by psalm149

One of the best investments for me was a Foodsaver. I was skeptical, but it really does keep stuff longer and gets all the air out. I never get any of those crystal-ly freezer-burnt parts when I put use it.

That's for this tip! If I get into this method, I just might consider one of these!

[scrap2day]

Originally Posted by psalm149

One of the best investments for me was a Foodsaver. I was skeptical, but it really does keep stuff longer and gets all the air out. I never get any of those crystal-ly freezer-burnt parts when I put use it.

Oooo. I'm glad to read your positive review of the Foodsaver. This has been on my wish list for awhile.

[profiler_mar]

I totally agree with Darcy. I only get paid once a month, so we do all of our shopping the first week of the month. Since we are trying to eat more fresh food, it has been hard, but I prepare a lot of the meat dishes ahead of time and store in the freezer. Makes it super easy when we don't feel like cooking!

[Darcy Baldwin]

Originally Posted by scrap2day

Oooo. I'm glad to read your positive review of the Foodsaver. This has been on my wish list for awhile.

I like it, but only use it on longer term food storage items...things that will stay in the deep freeze for awhile. Things that will be out in a week or two I still just use a straw and ziptop bags.

But it's great if you get the canister attachment! you can get canning jars, use the food saver on it and reseal the jars!!!

[rach3975]

Originally Posted by kristijoy

For the recipe I did, I mixed up a marinade (including a jar of chutney, vinegar, curry powder, onions...and a few other things). Took the frozen Quorn out of the box and put it in a quart size freezer bag and then dumped the marinade on top and stuck it back in the freezer. I didn't actually thaw or cook it.

Great idea-thanks! I'll have to try something like this. I usually use Quorn on salads, in wraps or burritos, or as chicken parmesan. I'm going to have to check out some marinades next time I'm at the store.