Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Time Saving Tips

My friend Katherine did a blog a while ago about how she cooks all her hamburger at once and then freezes it in one pound bags to cut down on prep time for meals. I did this last time I bought hamburger and that few minutes it saved me on dinner prep the other night was so nice that I was thinking of sharing this idea and a few other things that I do to make dinner time go more smoothly and wanted to see if any of you had some ideas to share about things that you do. One of the things that I do is when I buy fresh chicken I cut off all the fat (I'm kind of weird about meat fat ;) ) and then cut some of the chicken into chunks, some into strips and leave some as whole breasts and then I freeze it in individual bags with enough for me to cook a meal for my family. This way if I have a recipe that calls for chicken chunks, I all ready have some ready in my freezer and can through it right in the recipe or thaw it and cook it up really quick. Another thing that I do is I buy 2 or 3 loaves of French Bread at a time and cut it into slices and put it in large freezer bags. Then when I want to have garlic bread with a meal I pull out the number of slices I want and butter and season them then cook them in the oven for about ten minutes at 350 degrees. If you have any tricks that you use I'd love to hear about them.

4 comments:

Shannan said...

So that comment deleted was me. My comment was too long, so I deleted it, and I didn't know it was going to show up that it has been removed. So don't panic. I was just going to say I love all your ideas. I wish I would have seen this before I froze all my chicken I just bought this morning!

Meghan said...

Jay's mom gave us chicken in October that she canned at the cannery. It's just like shredded chicken, so it's great to use when you need that kind of chicken, and saves a whole bunch of time when I make dinner. I'm not sure how expensive it is or if she had to cook the chicken first and then take it to the cannery, but it's worth looking into.

Kathryn-nannygoat said...

I just finished cutting up a bunch of raw chicken for dinner tonight which is one of my least favorite things to do. I love your idea!!!!
I'm glad the hamburger idea helped you, it saves me soo much time and aggravation when I need to make dinner quick. Thanks for sharing your ideas, I'll definitely try them! :)

Ines said...

Another thing I do with the chicken is, that I slice it in serving pieces, then quick freeze them on a cookie sheet, sprayed with Pam. When it's frozen I take it off and put it in the freezer bag. That way the chicken isn't all clomped together, and I just take out what I need. When I prepare chicken in bulk, I also cook a few pounds and shred it before I put it in pint size freezer bags, about 1 lb. each. That way I have cooked chicken ready for any recipe.
I just love hearing your ideas. You were really little when I came into the family, and it's so wonderful to watch you becoming such great wives and mothers.