I desperately need to replenish my freezer!  We have used up just about all our freezer meals.  I still haven’t figured out what day(s) I’ll cook next week.  I plan to make crock pot chicken on Sunday to use in a few meals and make dinner easy next week. 

I’m sticking with a few simple meals and making easy lunchbox fillers.

Banana Nut Muffins
Freezer Mashed Potatoes– found a decent price on Yukon Gold at the commissary
Chewy Granola Bars—anyone have another recipe???
Chicken, Black Bean and Cheese Burritos
Chicken Broccoli and Rice Casserole
Chicken Baked Ziti
Bread Machine Cinnamon Rolls–time permitting

If there is a good price for tortillas; I’ll also make Brown Bag Burritos

I need to add more dinners into the mix, so I might do some more cooking later in the week.  This is everything I’ve made from my plan so far.

3 1/2 “cans” of refried beans (in the containers)
11 “cans” of cooked pinto beans (cooked in crock pot)-too many I think 🙂
Banana Nut Muffins
Chewy Granola Bars with nuts and chocolate chips
Homemade Taco Seasoning
2 meals of Chicken and Black Bean Burritos

I didn’t make my burger patties for the freezer yet.  We’re having my husband’s grandparents over for burgers on Saturday, so I figure I’ll make a quadruple batch then.  I’m not exactly sure of the recipe I made up last time.  I’ll update with a separate recipe post this weekend.

Possibly my Burger Recipe:
~2 lbs lean ground beef
1 egg
¾ cup bread crumbs
2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 gloves garlic, minced
1 small onion, finely chopped
s/p to taste
(Did I add Olive Oil?)

I’m getting ready to do a small Freezer Cooking Day.  I need to organize my inside freezer, so space is limited.  If we can find a good deal, Derrick has agreed it’s time for a garage freezer.  We already have the fridge/freezer, but we’ll be adding a much needed stand alone freezer in the garage too.  It’s about time.  That extra grocery money has been burning a whole in my pocket!

Refried Beans
Cooked Pinto Beans
Chewy Granola Bars
Chicken, black bean (I think) and cheese burritos
Burgers for the grill-will mix and make into patties.  (recipe to follow)
Banana Nut Muffins
Homemade Taco Seasoning

I’d like to add in 1 or 2 more items-I need to search through the other link ups for more ideas.  I’ll let you know when I post my results

It took me over a week to complete last week’s menu plan, but I’m finally DONE!  We did eat 1 of each of the meals last week if you’re wondering why there is only 1 dinner of each in the freezer. 

The problem I find with freezer cooking in the summer is that most of the meals I freeze are casseroles and pasta. These seem to be heavier winter meals to me.  I’m more of a throw the chicken or fish on the grill or eat a salad type of girl in the summer.  The good news is that having these prepared meals in my freezer will save me time and money later.

Results:
Chicken, Broccoli and Rice Casserole (1 meal in freezer)
Jambalaya (1 meal in freezer)
Brown Bag Burritos (3 meals worth)
Grilled Ratatouille-not intended for freezer but it made a TON of food (separately froze pasta and veggie mixture)
Meatloaf-didn’t end up with any in freezer, but have a few lunches for me
Spaghetti with Meatballs (1 meal in freezer)—-all in big pot in photo
Freeze Mashed Potatoes made with only milk, butter and s/p (2 pans in freezer)

*I considered making chicken, salsa, black beans and cheese burritos for the freezer, but the kids really like the Brown Bag Burritos.   I’ll possibly make the other type of burritos later this month if I get a good price on salsa and tortillas.

I also took an inventory of some of my “can” items in the freezer such as beans and stock.  I need to make more refried beans, cream of chicken soup and cooked pinto beans.  I’d also like to make a pot or two of soup and freeze in “can” portions.  I’ve decided I want to get 2-cup containers.  My problem is that I want them all the same so they stack nicely in the freezer.  I looked on Amazon because I can use Swagbucks, but it’s pretty expensive to purchase single-size packs versus multi-size boxes.  I need to do more research but that is my plan for the rest of the month.
 
Did you have a successful July Freezer Cooking Daze?