Freezer Cooking

As I mentioned in my previous post, I have a goal of having at least two weeks’ worth of dinners in the freezer, ready-to-go, as well as some breads and muffins. I’d rather prepare the stuff myself rather than rely on convenience foods because, well, it’s a lot cheaper and healthier! Some of the things I plan on making  and freezing are:

– London Broil in marinade (just defrost & grill)
– chicken breasts in Italian marinade (again, just defrost & grill)
– chili
– stuffed pepper soup
– brown a couple pounds of ground turkey to save time when making tacos
– baked oatmeal
– banana bread
– raspberry muffins
– cook & freeze a couple pounds of bacon for sandwiches, salads, etc.
– beef & bean enchiladas
– Swiss chicken
– meatloaf
– twice-baked potatoes
– homemade pre-made pizza (maybe 1 pepperoni and 1 BBQ chicken)

Those ideas are just off the top of my head, but they’re tried & true recipes and things I’ve successfully frozen before so I know they’ll be eaten. I think I’m also going to steal Jess’s idea of freezing some calzones (she mentioned it in the comments section of my last entry). That’s an awesome idea! Naturally I’ll be focussing on my nutrition and trying to eat healthfully since I’ll be nursing and trying to lose the baby weight at the same time. I can guarantee I’m not going to feel like heading to the gym and jumping on any ellipticals for a while, so I need to stay away from the junk food and make sure I have plenty of nutritious, easy to prepare, yet tasty food on hand. I think that’s going to be the challenge! At least it will be summer and grilling season, so it should be easy enough to at least throw a steak or some chicken breasts on the grill and have that with a salad. (Oh, I can’t wait for our CSA to start back up!) I figure that it can’t be too bad — after all I made it through the last two times and everything worked out just fine!