Freezer Cooking Extrazaganza!

Welcome! Be sure to enter our giveaway for DrinkBands!

This week is turning into the week of sickness. Monday morning Jack woke up with a fever and a cough, and today Anna woke up with it. Lily, Max, and Luke all have coughs and runny noses, so I'm kind of anticipating everyone catching this virus by the time the week is over.

So, instead of sticking to our normal schedule this week, we are just focusing on taking it easy and getting everyone better.

Since the kids are just wanting to lay down, sleep, and watch movies, I decided to try and do some freezer cooking today.

I decided to make applesauce bread, blueberry muffins, chocolate chip breakfast cake(because some mornings you just need chocolate, am I right?!), and chicken stock.

{If you look closely at this picture, you can see Lily's portrait she drew of me. :)}

Muffins and bread are some of my favorite things to freeze. I just let everything cool, then put the muffins and sliced bread in freezer bags, and they're ready to go in the freezer. When I'm ready to use them, I'll just pull out however many muffins or bread I need and stick them in the oven for about ten minutes. You could also microwave them, but our microwave is broken, so I just use the oven for everything.

For the breakfast cake, I wrapped saran wrap tightly around the pan, then I just wrapped some aluminum foil over that. When we're ready to eat it, I'll probably let it thaw on my counter top overnight, then put it in the oven for about 20 minutes the next morning.

{20 cups of broth just waiting to be frozen}

I get asked quite a bit how I make my chicken broth. There's a lot of ways to make it, but typically I just fill up a stock pot with water, throw a chicken carcass in the pan, and let it cook for 24 hours. When there's a few hours left before the 24 hours is up, I add some carrots and onions to the pot. Right before I turn the oven off, I add some salt(I've heard a good rule of thumb is 1 tsp of salt for every 2 cups of broth.)

Once it cools(which will take awhile), I strain out the bones and vegetables into big mixing bowls. Then I measure out 4 cup portions and place them in freezer bags. I've tried to use mason jars before, but every time I do the mason jars end up shattering, so I stick with freezer bags. I'll usually label the portion size on the bags, and mark the date.

When it's time to use the broth, I *try* to remember to set it out that morning, that way it's thawed and ready for dinner. However, there are plenty of times I forget to do this, and I end up pulling out a bag of frozen broth at the last minute, cut the bag open, and melt the broth on the stove. Hey, it works.  :)

Do the rest of you enjoy freezer cooking? What are some of your favorite things to freeze?

Be sure to enter to win some DrinkBands!

If you enjoyed this post, I would be honored if you subscribed to my blog via email, or "liked" my page on facebook. Thank you so much for stopping by!

Linked to Wise Woman Builds Her Home, Walking Redeemed, Raising Arrows, Raising Homemakers