Freezer Cooking Day | Large Family Style! {Pancakes, Sandwiches, Muffins, Cooking Meat for the Month!}

Freezer Cooking Day | Large Family Style! {Pancakes, Sandwiches, Muffins, Cooking Meat for the Month!}

We jumped into a freezer cooking afternoon the day after my $620 Once-A-Month Grocery Shopping Haul. I knew I wouldn’t be able to prepare all of our dinners for the month in advance (although I’d like to work up to that point again). I figured if I could put in several hours over one afternoon, maybe two afternoons, we could get a great deal of meal prep and helps completed.

Five Freezer Gallon Bags of Pancakes

As you can see in my large family 4-week meal plan we have pancakes for breakfast once-a-week. I figured we’d need at least 4-gallon freezer bags full of Pancakes.  I put almost 10-year old Naomi on the griddle to cook up 4 boxes of Aldi’s pancake mix. She did great! She sat there with her assembly line and made pancakes for about 2-hours. We ended up with five-gallon size freezer bags of pancakes, compliments of Miss Naomi!

Questions About Freezing Pancakes

A few ladies have asked me how we keep the pancakes from sticking or having freezer burn. One thing to keep in mind is when we freezer cook we usually eat everything we prepare within 4-weeks. I don’t see a lot of freezer burn because items simply aren’t left in the freezer for months on end. I’ve only seen freezer burn (at least up to this point) when a bag has ripped unbeknownst to me.  To heat up these pancakes I just set a frozen bag in the refrigerator the night before. In the morning they reheat lovely in the microwave.

Six Dozen Corn Bread Muffins

Amelia and I made muffins. Then we made more muffins. After we made muffins, we made more muffins 🙂 We ended up making 6 dozen cornbread muffins to go along with our Family Chili and Beans and Rice.

10 Dozen Apple & Blueberry Muffins

We also made 10 dozen Apple/Cinnamon and Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins. Additionally, I made 4 loaves of Blueberry Oatmeal Bread.

*I know I will be in trouble, but I don’t have my freezer muffin recipes on the site yet. I have those filmed though and Lord-willing they’ll be up soon!

 200 Sandwiches | PBJ & Meat/Cheese

Making sandwiches ahead for the freezer is a big life-saver for us. It’s so nice to be able to grab a stack of sandwiches, along with a watermelon and water bottles, while heading out to the lake for the day. On this freezer cooking day, Zion made about 100 PBJs for the freezer. Jadin made right around 100 Turkey/Cheese and Ham/Cheese.

Freezing Sandwiches Questions

Q: “Jamerrill, can you really freeze Peanut Butter and Jelly? Won’t your bread get soggy?”

A: We’ve never had a soggy sandwich. We use wheat bread from Aldi at the moment. Before Aldi we used Nature’s Own bread that I’d stock up on when it was marked down to $1/loaf at the Dollar Tree. I believe white bread would get soggy since it has a lot of sugar.

Q: “Jamerrill, how to you defrost your sandwiches?”

A: We just stick a stack on the counter a few hours before we need them. Or we pull a stack from the freezer and put them in the refrigerator the night before.

Q: “Jamerrill, does the cheese get slimy on the meat/cheese sandwiches?”

A: I’ve never had slimy cheese. It works perfect! 😀

27 Pounds of Ground Beef + 8 Pounds of Chicken

Back in the day when I use to do freezer cooking I would get the bulk of my meat cooked for the month. Since I now use the slow cooker so much this step most likely isn’t fully needed. I still went ahead and cooked 27 .lbs of ground beef for my family meals for the month, along with 8 .lbs of boneless/skinless chicken breast. It has been nice to pop already cooked ground beef into my recipes and not have to fool with additional meat mess.

Freezer Cooking Clean Up

We ended up freezer cooking for four hours, from 3pm to 7pm. We stopped and cleaned up at various points through out the day. However the messes still piled up. Our clean up time took about an hour at the end. We worked together and got it done just in time to head out for Fireworks!

Large Family Freezer Cooking Day Part One | *so much* July 2016

Click here to watch the full Large Family Freezer Cooking Day Part One | *so much* July 2016 on YouTube!

My Slow Cooker Recipes & Vlogs

All Big Family Recipes (including Beans, Rice, and Cornbread 🙂

Everything Trim Healthy Mama my tips and slow and steady journey

Every Weekly Grocery Shopping Haul and my full list of Once a Month Grocery Shopping Hauls (lots!)

And finally everything in My Kitchen – updated weekly

FREE FAMILY MEAL PLANNER COLLECTION

Help meal time go smoothly at your house with the free family meal planner collection!

Enjoy this set of beautiful weekly, bi-weekly, and monthly meal planners. Also included are bonus grocery shopping lists and helpful recipe cards.