Freezer Cooking Day Preparations

Day 1 is going to start bright and early at 7:00 a.m. My daughter usually wakes up between 7 and 8 everyday. And my son doesn't wake up until after 8 most mornings. I figured if I can get a jump start on the day's activities, I might be able to get more done. Here's the plan:

Instead of making multiples of the same meal, I'm planning to do multiple meals using the same ingredient.

Shredded Chicken (10 lb leg quarters $3.90 at Kroger a few weeks ago) I've planned 7 meals using shredded chicken. ($.56 per meal for the chicken)

Waffles: I've planned 5 meals so we'll need about 20 waffles (quadruple the recipe)

Pinto Beans: Cook them on the stove top and then turn them into Mexican Chili Beans. I've planned 3 meals using these beans. I need at least 10 cups of beans when it's done, so I'm going to start out with 4 cups dried beans. This will be an experiment since I've never made Mexican Chili Beans from scratch. I found a great cookbook called More-With-Less Cookbook (World Community Cookbook). It has a collection of recipes for food we normally purchase at the store for convenience sake. Most of the recipes utilize ingredients nearly every kitchen in American would have on hand. You can order the book through Amazon.com. Or you can view a couple of recipes similar to the one I'll be using Mexican Chili Beans or Mexican Beans

Pizza Dough: Enough for 4 meals plus 2 extra in case we want pizza instead of what's planned for dinner (we LOVE pizza!)

Granola Bars: Chocolate Chip and Chocolate Chip with Dried Cherries. I'll make a double batch and put dried cherries in one pan (my picky eater doesn't like cherries)

And here's a time line:

Monday night - soak beans for Tuesday morning

Tuesday
7:00 - Start chicken in slow cookers
7:30 - Rinse beans from night before and add fresh water and cook for an hour on stove top
7:45 - Prepare pizza dough - let rise 2 hours
8:00 - Prepare granola and bake in oven
8:15 - Press granola and continue to bake
8:15 - Prepare waffle mix and cook them during the morning when I have a minute to pour and remove them
8:30 - Remove granola, press again and let cool
8:30 - Start "chili" part of Mexican Chili Beans - add beans and cook another hour
9:30 - Mexican Chili Beans are done and ready for storage containers in the freezer
10:00 - Punch down pizza dough, divide and let rise another hour
10:30 - Freeze granola bars in pan for about an hour
11:00 - Pizza dough is done and ready for freezer storage baggies
11:30 - Granola Bars are done. Remove granola bars from pan, cut and wrap them to be stored in freezer
LUNCH BREAK :) and baby down for nap
1:00 - Chicken is done. Shred chicken and put them into freezer storage baggies (I guesstimate about 1 to 1-1/2 cup shredded chicken per bag.
Hopefully by now the waffles will be done too. If not, I'll finish up Wednesday morning. I'm sure at this point I'll be pooped and ready for a nap!

Don't forget to follow the hashtag #oamc on twitter to see everyone who is participating in Baking/Freezing Day.

Stay tuned for tomorrow when all the fun begins. I'll try to post pictures as I go to show our progress - boy, that's optimism!

Enjoy!