Saving On The Essentials

If you are just joining us, you may want to read the previous posts in this series.

Now that you have planned your cooking day, shopped for your groceries, and prepared your ingredients – you are ready for your day of cooking!   Here are a few of the things that I have learned through my years of freezer cooking:

Start Early

When scheduling your freezer cooking day make sure you block off a good chunk of time early in the morning.   The earlier you start the better your day will go.  I like to begin a freezer cooking session around 8:30 or so depending on what is going on that day.  You may choose to sleep in and start whenever you get up.

However, I wouldn’t suggest staring a freezer cooking day at 5 o’clock in the afternoon after a full day of work.  Instead you may want to cooking on a Saturday morning in order to be fresh for the task ahead of you.

Wear Comfortable Clothing and Shoes

On your cooking day make sure that you are comfortable.  Since you will be dealing with a lot of different ingredients during your cooking session, you may want to wear clothes you don’t mind getting splatters and spills on.  An apron is a must too!

You will be on your feet…a lot!   So make sure to wear shoes that are comfortable.  I use to think that just going barefoot was the way to go, but quickly learned that was a mistake when, after a day of cooking, my feet throbbed!   Now I usually wear either my tennis shoes or crocs whenever I cook. Trust me, your feet will thank you!  ;)

Have your Recipes Ready to Go

Decide whether you will be using your recipes books during cooking day or if you are going to print copies of your recipes.  Either way, have those recipes handy and ready to go!  I have a three ring binder that I keep copies of recipes especially for freezer cooking.   I do not mind if these recipes get some ingredients on them and I do not have to worry about keeping them clean as I go.

If you are going to be using the recipe in books you can write the page numbers down when you write you recipe list so that you can find the recipes more quickly.

Take Breaks

Just like with any other work, you will need to take breaks.  Try to take 15 minute breaks after about 4 hours worth of work and you may even want to pull a chair into the kitchen so you can sit down while waiting for meat to brown, sauces to thicken, etc.

Clean As You Go

In order to help reduce the time you spend in the kitchen towards the end of your freezer cooking session, make sure to clean up as you go.   I try to wipe up spills and splatters as I go to avoid letting them dry on the counter (which makes it harder to clean later) and I usually wash dishes after each recipe is complete so that I won’t have a sink full of dirty dishes waiting on me once I finish cooking.