So, lets just say cooking isn't my favorite thing to do while being pregnant. By the time it's time to make dinner, I'm crabby, exhausted and done for the day. I'm starving to the point of nausea, but nothing sounds good. Don't have energy, so going to the store isn't successful; therefore, nothing to make an easy meal is never in the fridge. So, we've eaten things like bean burritos, gone out for dinner, pasta and if we're lucky some chicken. Jared is awesome. He just smiles and says thank you if I scraped it together or runs out and picks something up for us. Thomas isn't complaining, he likes mac n' cheese or nuggets every night! However, this couldn't last much longer, but the solution had to be easy.
The solution was presented to me by a friend and her mother-in-law. Alison's mother-in-law has been "pre-cooking" her meals (along with a friend) to go in the freezer for the last several months. She loved it so much she insisted on coming down and teaching Alison and two of her friends how to do this. How in the world could I turn something like that down?! So, about a week ago we got together, picked 12 meals and then she and her mother-in-law, Jo, and her friend, Norma, came down all the way from Oregon to do the shopping and the teaching!
I turned out to be awesome!!! I helped with a little bit of the shopping and then the 5 of us got together on Saturday (after Norma and Joe had prepped some, made meatballs, mashed potatoes and pre-mixed some of the ingredients Friday night) to cook away! We started in at 9, took a break for lunch and were done with the cooking and clean up by 3:00. We all left with some leftover groceries, 13 main dishes and the mashed potatoes. Something to add is that most of the meals will provide enough for dinner and left-overs. Some will be 2 complete dinners with lunches as well. They'll all be different and so far tasty.
My freezer is stuffed and my husband is happy!! I have a checklist and cooking instructions to consult whenever a meal is needed. I simply defrost it, cook it and make a side dish. So far we've had two meals and they've been wonderful. Jared quite contentedly pointed out, "we even got a real meal for Sunday night!" (that's usually popcorn!) If it really proves to be economical as well, I just might be sold on the process!
2 comments:
I can't wait to have a cooking day up here!!! :) This is what I've been wanting to figure out how to do for a while!
Consider doing this a couple weeks before baby arrives too. I made several meals before Nathan was born (including homemade breads and cookies) and stocked my freezer. With the meals people brought that first week and our stocked freezer, I didn't have to cook the whole first month. I hope to get around to doing it again this time. Sounds like you girls had a fun and productive day! PS. We eat popcorn and apples for "dinner" some Sunday nights too.
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