Grocery Shopping:

Plan to do you shopping for freezer cooking on a day OTHER than the day you plan to cook. Cooking for a month at a time is a big job! Shopping for all of that food is a big job! Save yourself the stress by not trying to do this in one day.

Ideally, you should pick up your groceries (be sure to use a list, otherwise you will find you have forgotten important ingredients) a few days before hand – or even the weekend before if you have a chunk of time to do it. Also — try planning your menus around what is on sale. This is one of the ways that freezer cooking will save your grocery budget!

Pre-Prep:

Don’t forget that pre-cutting veggies can save you LOTS of time on your cooking day!
Also any meats that you can cook before assembling your meals do it ahead of time. If you have 5 meals that require a pound of ground beef each — cook 5lbs together! It only takes a couple more minutes to cook 5lbs than it does one pound.

Then Get To Work:

Put on your comfy clothes and apron and SENSIBLE shoes!! Be sure you have hand towels. Ready, Set, Go……

I like to cook my meals in stages. Start with beef meals and then move onto chicken, and lastly vegetarian meals. I crank up the tunes or watch a movie or two while I am working.

It is a lot of work while you are in the process — but just think of all the time you will be saving during the month and how much money you can save by always having something available so you can avoid the expense of the last minute take-out.

My next freezer meal posts will be some of my favorite freezer recipes.