Thursday, April 18, 2013

Freezer Meal Cooking Day 1

I finally got a friend talked into doing a cooking day with me!!  And it is was quite successful.  We started off small with 4 recipes: Chicken Enchiladas, Chicken Pot Pie, Manicotti and Banana Bread (because I had to get rid of all those frozen, overripe bananas to make room for my freezer meals).

(Not the best pic, my 5 yr. old took it, but we are very proud of ourselves!)

I did the shopping this time, minus the pantry basics, we split the bill then with kiddos in tow my friend, Kelly and I started our morning at 10.  We were a little overwhelmed at first getting the 4 kiddos settled, trying to figure out the best approach, getting our caffeine ready for this cooking frenzy!  After the first hour we looked at the clock and what we had accomplished and thought we might have bitten off more than we could chew, fed the kiddos lunch then barreled through - we had to get done before naptime!  Because neither of us were giving that up.

Here are the steps we took for these recipes:
1. I started the bread, it was the only thing we had to put in the oven.
2. Kelly got the chicken breasts in the pot.
3. While Kelly waited for the chicken, she mixed up the manicotti cheese mixture.
4. Chicken done and cooling then shredded.
5. Once done with the bread, I mixed up the chicken enchilada mixture.
6.  Bread done, started wrapping enchiladas.
7.  Kelly boiled monicotti and peeled carrots for Chicken Pot Pie.
(At this point we realized that the pie crusts for the Pot Pie were not going to happen, that we would just make the cream sauce and when we get ready to use it we could purchase pie crusts or make a crust or biscuits)
8.  Kelly and I started stuffing manicotti....probably the most time consuming part but they are yummy!
9.  Packaged everything up to freeze and split our goods!

With the servings we made and how much the grocery bill was, I figured it is roughly .86 cents per serving, this did not include the bread and I did buy the pantry staples.  I still think that is awesome!

At 1:00 Kelly was out the door!


Here is our haul!