My first... and last day in the kitchen!

When I say "day in the kitchen", I mean ENTIRE day!  We finally broke down and bought a new AC unit.  So, I thought to myself, today, your first day with central AC all summer, would be a great day to make a bunch of dinners to freeze.  With this idea in mind, I headed to the grocery store with only Calvin in tow at 6:30 am.  It was 9:30 pm when I finally finished cleaning the kitchen.  Maybe I'm just a wimp, but I was hurting.  Bad.  Oh, and I was sweating a lot, too.  Every time I checked the thermostat it said 78 ir 79, and that was in the living room.  I bet it was about 85 in the kitchen where I was working.  I called my husband at one point and said it seemed really hot to me.  He said to call the AC guy and turns out our unit had frozen over and wasn't working!!  No wonder I was hot.  It was a scorcher yesterday and I spent all day in the kitchen cooking with no AC!  In retrospect, not a good idea.  Anyway, I got a lot accomplished thanks to the book Fix, Freeze, Feast.

I love that this book includes re-heating labels that can be copied and affixed to the freezer meals.

When I normally think "freezer meal", I think casserole.  I'm just so tired of transferring frozen block-of-ice casseroles into our oven for 2 + hrs in order to enjoy a break in the kitchen.  This book has lots of ways to use the freezer to plan ahead. Sometimes the meat is cooked and sometimes it isn't.  I don't know why, but I'm just happy to follow the directions of somebody who knows what they're doing!  It feels so good to have so many meals planned, even though I will have to do a few last minute things on the evening we eat each dinner.

 

Here's what I put away yesterday:

3 X Chicken a la King- sauce with chicken and mushrooms and also chopped bell pepper.
2 X Cashew chicken stir fry- Raw, cut chicken in marinade with veggies and cashews in separate bags.
3 X Ana's pork chops- Our local grocery store had a by one get one free on these yesterday.  The chops are raw in marinade- ready to thaw and throw on the grill. 
1 X Sticky Ribs- Actually I made two and we at the other one last night!  They were finger licking good!  Boneless ribs in marinade, ready to thaw and cook.
About 30 Beef and bean burritos, individually wrapped.  I'm hoping these will be good for an easy lunch option.  Oh, and I made my own re-fried beans.  Actually, I made non-fried smashed pinto beans.  It was my first time to work with real beans.  Measle was my official smasher.  (We don't have a food processor, nor do I think we need one with a Measle around.)

I didn't get it all finished.  I still have 6 lbs of hamburger meat in the fridge for making 60 meatballs.  I'm not looking forward to that.  Maybe tomorrow :).