Convenience Foods - Freezer

Homemade convenience foods, that is.

Although I cannot say that a box of Mac & Cheese or Ramen Noodles have never graced my pantry shelves, we do try to stay away from those types of foods.  But there's a reason those types of foods are so popular.  Because they are convenient, duh!

Cooking from scratch is one of the best things you can do for your family.  But it is also a very time consuming activity; planning out your meal, grocery shopping, finding recipes that everyone will like, making the menu, cleaning up from making the stuff on the menu, frying / baking / broiling / smoking / or otherwise cooking the meal, serving the meal, cleaning up from serving the meal and then more cleaning up.  And Paul thought it was a chore to just "Get Hay".  Ha!  Try making something as "simple" as a chicken dinner with all the fixings and then tell me what's easier.

There are only three of us here, one being under the age of three.  But I still cook for a family of six (don't believe me? take a look at my thighs.).  I just can't make small meals.  But that's ok, becuase not only do we actually eat leftovers (can you believe some people just can't fathom the idea of leftovers?  How weird.)  but because I'll pack one container for Paul to take for lunch the next day and one container to freeze.

Stack o' frozen dinners ready to heat 'n eat!

I also try to bake items like bread and cookies in duplicate.  I can bake all the cookies at once, then freeze them, or just freeze the dough in little "logs" to use when we want hot-ott'a-the-oven cookies.  Sunday I made enough Cinnamon Rolls to feed the entire county.  Of course, we each had one right out of the oven, and I put four more out on a plate for the week (as if they'd last 'till Wednesday), but the rest went into the freezer:

Breads also freeze very well.  I just took one out of the freezer a few days ago and when I was munching on the last piece, I actually had to think about where it came from because I knew I didn't make any lately. 

"Fresh" frozen bread, ready to defrost & slice!

Next time you're making bread, or cookies, or just about anything that freezes well, try making a double batch.  And soon enough you'll have your freezer stocked with REAL convenience foods.

But if you have no willpower like I do, make sure you freeze those extra cookies right away or they'll be gone before they can become convenient for next time!