Freezer Cooking: Pancakes & Homemade "Uncrustables"

My mom got to visit me for the weekend, so I didn't do any freezer cooking the last several days. Today I decided to donate another hour to this new adventure. I chose to cook lots of pancakes & make homemade "uncrustables". And guess what? I really did finish this in an hour... but it was in two 30 minute segments today to allow for time with my toddler. And I also opted for a nap instead of completely cleaning up my kitchen, since Levi was napping. The 3rd trimester pregnancy fatigue definitely comes in waves!

I made a quadruple batch of pancakes: 2 batches of "silver dollar" pancakes, and 2 batches of "large" pancakes. I used the basic Bisquick pancake recipe (x4):

- 2 cups of Bisquick
- 1 cup of milk
- 2 eggs

I buttered the pancakes while they were still warm, then let them cool. I layered them in gallon size freezer bags, with wax paper in between each layer to help them not stick to each other so much. They just have to microwaved for 30 seconds when ready to eat! (and Levi & I might have taste-tested a few in the process...)

Then I made homemade "uncrustables", but I didn't cut them round. I just slightly trimmed off the crust for fun and left them square. As suggested in the recipe, I put peanut butter on both pieces of bread so the jelly wouldn't make the bread as soggy. I tried to crimp the edges with a fork (since I don't have a fancy "sandwich maker"), but it was not wanting to look nice, so I decided my two "men" (hubby & son) wouldn't care if the edges would crimped! I individually wrapped them in baggies, then put them all in a gallon freezer bag. Now those will make quick snacks or lunches!

Have any of you done some freezer cooking? How is it going? Here are some of my other experiences with freezer cooking in an hour:


- Why I decided to jump on the "Freezer Cooking in an Hour" Bandwagon
- Starting Small & Simple: Banana Bites & Breakfast Egg Sandwiches
- Freezer Cooking: Chicken Stuffing Casseroles

Check out other great freezer cooking ideas over at Money Saving Mom!

Freezer Cooking: Chicken Stuffing Casserole

(If I had taken a picture, it would go here...)

I did another session with freezer cooking yesterday (I have a huge motivation to do this throughout my week right now... a little girl will be joining our family in about 9 weeks!). I'm getting braver about doing this, and gaining courage to tackle new recipes! I went with two more recipes tested & found good from the Money Saving Mom website: chicken stuffing casserole and corn dog muffins.

I'll just say up front I only did the chicken stuffing casseroles and never got to the corn dog muffins. So my freezer cooking session ended up only being 31 minutes from start to finish, instead of an hour. I ran out of steam, and had planned on making the corn dog muffins while one of the casseroles was baking for 30 minutes. Instead I decided to go sit down and watch a little bit of Finding Nemo with my toddler (his favorite movie and a treat when he gets to watch part of it!). It was just one of those days! :-)

However, I did double the recipe for the chicken stuffing casserole, and since it called for cooking it in 13x9 (which usually means a lot of leftovers for our family of three), I made four 8x8 casseroles instead. I baked one for supper & froze the other three. I bought foil pans at a local store for $.30 each (including a lid) so we have less dishes to do with a newborn around. I will try out the various methods of freezing in a casserole dish lined with plastic wrap or wax paper sometime, but right now is just not my time for that.

Freezer Cooking in an Hour: Started Out Small & Simple

60 minutes. One hour. That's all the time I set aside this afternoon to prepare a few new things for my freezer. I decided to stick with small & simple. I chose three things:

1. Frozen Banana Bites*
2. Breakfast Egg Sandwiches*
3. Homemade "Uncrustables"* (PB&J sandwiches)

The ingredients for all three of these things I already had on hand, which meant I didn't need to make a grocery store run. I did make a list of other recipes to try this coming week and what supplies I will need for those... I used the "fancy" printable planning pages from Money Saving Mom. Such simple ideas and instructions there, so I'm not going to re-create or battle through something!

I made my "prep" list of things I was going to tackle, step-by-step:

(no, the handwriting at the top isn't mine, it's the printable I told you about...) The session went good, but had a few hiccups, of course!

I preheated the oven, sprayed my muffin tin (I used my Texas-size muffin tin instead of a regular, but either works) Then I put the eggs in... notice the size difference in yolk? The eggs from Aldi's were way bigger than the Walmart eggs!

While the eggs were baking, I started the bananas. Of course the Pyrex cup I wanted to use was dirty, so I had to wash that. Then the chocolate I thought I had I couldn't find, but I finally found some. Then the measuring cup for the peanut butter was dirty, too (I have done a lot of cooking this week!). But finally things were underway!

Halfway through the banana dipping process, I realized I hadn't taken the english muffins out of the freezer to thaw out. So I grabbed those and thawed them in the microwave. Then put them on the cookie sheet to get toasted in the oven. The eggs took a few minutes longer to cook, since I wanted to make sure they were cooked all the way through and no egg yolk was runny. I finished dipping the bananas and put them in the freezer.

Then I put the egg breakfast sandwiches together. (don't those look delicious?)

Because of those small delays, by now I only had 10 minutes left of my hour, so I decided to scratch the "uncrustables" off my list, and tidy up my kitchen instead. The best part? I had already thrown together supper in my crockpot this morning, so I wasn't going to have to come back to the kitchen to cook later! I tried another recipe recommended on the Money Saving Mom website called "Taco Chicken Bowl"*. It was REALLY easy, and my husband approved tonight when he ate it for supper!

* I provided the direct links to the recipes recommended on Money Saving Mom, because while her site is where I saw the idea, she gave all recipe credit to the original sources of where she found the recipes. So these are the links to the recipes I found on Money Saving Mom website, and I'm referring y'all directly to the original recipe blogs as well!

My New Adventure: "Freezer Cooking in an Hour"

I love good homemade food. I like feeding my husband and son good, healthy food. I do not like cooking all day every day. I like simple, quickly prepared meals that taste wonderful... Growing up in the country, we used a deep freezer on a regular basis because we couldn't just "drive to the store" real quick. When my husband and I got married, I started freezing extra meat, leftovers, etc... to help save money and diversify our meals (cooking for just two is difficult!). After I started my couponing/deal-finding adventure a year ago, I immediately decided we should start saving for a stand-up deep freezer so I could really start doing more freezer cooking. We paid cash for our wonderful deep freezer last fall, and I have used it quite a bit, but never to it's full capacity.

I am now 30 weeks pregnant and am ready to start stocking up that wonderful freezer with breakfast foods, snacks, already put-together meals, and more. Except since I am in my 3rd trimester, and chasing a 19m old boy, my energy levels are lagging... Money Saving Mom (one of my top three favorite bloggers) introduced me to the idea of "Freezer Cooking in an Hour", and it's finally time for me to start tackling this project! "Freezer Cooking in an Hour" basically challenges us to all set aside one hour a week (or a couple times a week) to prepare/cook a few recipes in bulk. I will probably be doing it a couple times a week since I have a special goal in November, but for some of you, once a week would be what works for you.

Money Saving Mom has some great worksheets to print off (for grocery lists & planning the hour), and shares  once a week what she has been up to during her "Freezer Cooking in an Hour" session. I am totally going to start off by trying out the recipes she shares, and make this new adventure the least difficult on myself that I can! (why reinvent the wheel, right?) Seeing what others try, seeing pictures, price cost, etc... all help my out when I'm deciding the new things I should try. So I will share my experiences with it, but most of the links will be for the ideas & recipes over at Money Saving Mom (or where she got the recipe).

Here's to a new budgeting adventure!