Nesting: the kitchen phase

To market to market......

Okay gang, per my last post I am on full tilt "kitchen nesting" mode. On Sunday I made a giant list of freezer friendly foods. I copied all the recipes from the various sites that I found them on into a word document and then I complied a shopping list of the things I would need from the ingredients list. I figure many of the recipes were going to be calling for the same ingredients so I could guesstimate bulk quantities this way. I am also going to tackle freezer that is a mishmash of frozen peas and Popsicles as well as the pantry with its dreaded "Leaning Tower of Tupperware" one night this week. I can't take it any more...

Today Daddy-O and I braved the lunch time Costco crowds and got most of the meat/cheese and dry goods that will be needed to actually create all these meals. We still have to go to the regular grocery store to pick up things that are ridiculous to purchase in bulk or that Costco just doesn't sell, but I am feeling good that we are on our way to "investment" cooking for the late summer/early fall season. If this turns out the way I am imagining it, I will have anywhere from 15 to 30 meals plus a few snackie foods thrown in the mix for good measure.

I am probably a little crazy, but I just know how hard it was adjusting when MrO came along. Despite being crazy hungry because I was nursing, I usually didn't have it in me to prep and cook a meal. The food that was brought in from friends and family was beyond fantastic to have around and made things so much easier on all of us. Pull it from the freezer and toss in a warmed oven, open a bag of salad or chop up so fruit and BAM you have dinner at the ready.

So are you interested to see what I am going to make?

1. 
   
   Sierra Sue’s Meatball2
2. 
   
   Calzones
3. Pesto (2-3 batches) 
4. 
   
   Red Sauce (I also bought a couple of jars to help make things go more quickly)
5. 
   
   Pizza/Calzone dough (3 balls for pizza/2 batchs for calzones)
6. 
   
   Mushroom Rigatoni Bake 
7. 
   
   Roasted Butternut Squash and Bacon Pasta
8. 
   
   Meatloaf 
9. 
   
   Breakfast Casserole
10. 
    
    Chicken Tetrazzini
11. 
    
    Mushroom and Turkey Casserole
12. 
    
    Sausage, Kale and White Bean Soup
13. 
    
    Black bean soup
14. 
    
    Twice baked potatoes
15. 
    
    Crispy Chicken Nuggets
16. 
    
    Chili
17. 
    
    Cereal Bars
18. 
    
    Granola Bars
19. 
    
    Granola
20. 
    
    Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough (freeze the dough for cut and bake)
21. 
    
    Strawberry Fruit Rollups

I would like to make these recipes available for you guys (and to give myself a quick reference for the future) along with any tweaking I may have done to the recipe. So here's the plan,  I will try to get photos shot of the food as I am making it, as it comes out of the oven or the pre-freezing process and then I will post the associated recipe with the photos in a "Freezer Food Friday" series over the next few weeks. I will also make sure to create a link in the "Recipes" tab up there at the top of my page so you can do a quick reference to it later.

Hopefully, this will be a fun and easy resource for you should you want to do a little "investment" cooking for yourself or someone you love.

PS the calzones are already up there in the Recipe page if you want to get started there :)