Bulk Cooking

Way back in August before the start of the crazy fall sports season and the start of school I did some bulk meal prep. Some recipes worked , and other recipes not so much. I made cookies mixes, brownie mix, pancake mix , muffin mix, baking mix, and a lot of dump chicken.

The first step is to make a plan on what you want to prepare and find recipes that you like or want to try.Then it's on to making a shopping list, I do not stop and bulk prepare food in the same day so a Friday afternoon was allotted to shopping, and the last free Saturday I would have for awhile was set aside for the bulk cooking. 

On the bulk cooking day I had my husband take the kids out for the day, I work best at a cooking this much if I am home alone. 

I pre printed out my recipes into a notebook and used sheet protectors so the recipes might have a chance of surviving the day.

I made 10 sugar cookie bags, 10 pb cookie bags, 10 oatmeal cookie bags and 10 chocolate chip bags. This recipe worked great prepared out of storage for the first 2 months, but toward the end I think the baking powder got old. So in order not to waste the food I  use 2 bags, a bit more flour and baking powder and bake in a baking dish to make  more of a bar cookie.

Cookie bags all ready for the pantry

Next up was the pancake mix which worked great and I loved being able to use 1/2 whole wheat and 1/2 white four to make a pancake mix the kids enjoyed. The muffin mix I kept in a big tin and that worked great for making muffins quickly I just added pumpkin, apple, banana, blueberry for what ever flavor muffin we wanted. The baking mix was ok, not the best but it worked.

Someone must have come early from the trip out with dad. Just in time to help Mom clean up the baking mess and get ready for the chicken mess.

Next up was the bags of chicken, I used a 40 lb box of boneless chicken breasts. First I set out all the spices, and other items that I was going to need.

Then I labeled all the bags with what was going into them, and began to cut up the chicken into serving potions and most bags were made for 8 people eating dinner.

Then it was on to seasoning all the bags.

When this was done I stacked them all flat into a basket and placed into the freezer  This was dinner most Tuesday when we had not only field hockey for Kat, three different soccer teams for the boys but also piano lessons  I just tossed in the crock-pot in the morning before work and then set up the rice cooker before piano lessons and we would have dinner ready to go at 6.

It's been five months since I have done this and we are just finishing it all up, so time to make a new plan and budget and re fill the freezer in Feb.