Freezer Meals

I first got into freezer cooking in the months before Gee's birth. After we found out about his spina bifida, I went into a frenzy of preparation in reaction to the uncertainty I felt about his birth. (This included making homemade Christmas gifts for everyone in the world and cleaning and sewing and revamping my house for an extended stay by my mother and my sister.) We also bought a chest freezer to put in our basement, and filled it with meals and meat and bread. You'd have thought we were preparing for the apocalypse, the way I went about getting ready for that boy's birth.

(To be fair, we really didn't know what to expect. There was no way of knowing if Gee would have to be in the hospital for weeks or even months. As it turned out, he came home 5 days after his birth. Even Hebs took longer than that, what with his bilirubin and hematocrit troubles.)

Anyway, the point is this: freezer cooking turned out to be something pretty cool. I truly enjoy having meals in the freezer, ready to be thawed, cooked, and eaten by my family or someone else's family. I admit to being a dabbler, though--I've done the "spend all day cooking so you have 10 meals in the freezer", and I hated it. But I don't mind making an extra casserole or twice as much sauce, and sticking the leftovers in the freezer. And I adore having already-cooked chicken or hamburger just waiting to be thawed and dumped into the mix.

So yesterday I taught a Relief Society class on freezer cooking. We had a good turnout--probably 15 people--and I had prepared three freezer-meal samplers (and smoothies!) for refreshments. We had a great time sharing ideas and just talking things over.

I made some handouts with recipes for the class--you can download it here, if you are interested.