Power Freezing...

So I've blogged lots about Power Cooking and the benefits of prepping meals in advance. I will continue to support this as a way for working moms (or anyone really) to save time, money and EFFORT in prepping home made meals that are (somewhat) nutritional for your family. However, it's important to note that you should have the following:

1. A group of trusted cooks to share PC duties with
2. Time to prep and cook all these meals pre-freeze
3. Time to cook meals post-freeze

What I've learned is that many of our PC recipes require the meals to be cooked/heated for up to an hour the day it is being served. By the time I pick up the kids, drive home, get everyone out the car, listen to stories, take a potty break, change clothes, and take a deep breath, the clock is already at 6pm and dinner still has to cook.... those are not fun nights in the King household.

So the solution...

POWER FREEZING  (I'm working on getting it trademarked ;))


What is power freezing you ask? Well, it's essentially the same thing as Power Cooking, except you don't actually have to cook anything. If you do, it's crockpot goods that you freeze just to throw into the crockpot to reheat.

Step 1: Gather ingredients (yes, all good recipes involve ranch and cream cheese)

Step 2: Chop any needed vegetables

Step 3a: Pour ingredients in respective crockpots

Step 3b: Or combine ingredients, place in ziplock bags and freeze

Step 4: Enjoy the fruits of your labor now and for weeks to come

The day I did this my mom and I made 10 meals for $60. Four meals are fully cooked and need to just be thawed and reheated either in the crockpot on warm all day or just popped into the microwave to serve. The remaining meals just need to be thawed and placed in a crock pot all day to cook.

It has been awesome to have this as I returned to work. I still want to power cook with my friends, but since we all seem to have crazy schedules, this is something easy that you can do alone and still reap all the glorious benefits!!

Recipes:
1. Parmesan Honey Pork - This is DELICIOUS. I cooked it first and then froze it, but I think next time I will just combine the ingredients and freeze and then cook. We served it on sliders with mashed potatoes and brocolli. The kids even ate it up!
2. Teriyaki Chicken - I wanted this to be sweeter than it was. I think I cooked it too long, but we just served over rice. Ryan loved it lots, the kids have liked stuff better.
3. Healthy BBQ Chicken - This was SOOOOO good. I was skeptical about chicken on a bone, but after being in the slow cooker all day they just pulled right out. We did drumsticks. The kids gobbled this up. We served with cornbread and all those veggies just snuck right in there!
4. Baked Creamy Chicken Taquitos - We are keeping these stocked in our fridge. Easy prep and can just be microwaved like the taquitos you buy in the freezer section but much tastier and healthier. We eliminated the cilantro for the kids version. A big hit with the Kings.

I did one more recipe but I can't find it (which makes me sad bc it was also yummy).

So, friends ... go forth and freeze. And then enjoy the time you save with your kids, spouse, friends, or self! :)