Freezer Cooking Guide: Tools for Successful Freezer Cooking
To be successful with freezer cooking it's important to have the right tools. Some of these things you likely already have; others you may need to purchase in order to make your freezer cooking go as smoothly as possible.
1. The Right Freezer — Although you can use the freezer over your refrigerator, it may be difficult to fit a lot of food in there. We like to purchase meat in bulk, and we also freeze fruits and vegetables during the growing season, so our freezer tends to not have much room left over for freezing meals. We purchased a frost-free freezer from Sears so that we would have room for all of our bulk purchases and bulk cooking sessions. You could try searching on Craigslist for a used one, but I recommend getting a frost-free freezer. We had one that was not frost free, and got really tired of defrosting it all the time!
2. Large Bowls — When you are preparing food in bulk, your job will be much, much easier if you have large bowls in which to mix your food. Shoot for at least a 32 cup mixing bowl.
3. Large Pots — If you're going to cook large amounts of food, you'll need large pots in which to cook it! 16 qts. is a good size; although you may like having more than one.
4. Freezer Bags — Freezing food in bags and laying them down flat is a good way to optimize freezer space. Just make sure you are using freezer bags, and not just plain plastic ziptop bags. The freezer bags are much thicker and will prevent freezer burn.
5. Glass Baking Pans — If you're going to double, triple, or quadruple a casserole recipe, you'll need enough pans in which to cook it! You can buy disposable aluminum pans, or just invest in several glass baking pans that you can use over and over. (If you want to have meals in the freezer that you can take to sick or bereaved friends at the last minute, use aluminum so that they won't have to wash dishes or remember to give your pan back.)
6. Permanent marker — You need to label all your food, and a sharpie works best for writing directly on the bags. If you don't want to write directly on something then buy some masking tape, write on that, and stick it to the dish.
7. Quality knives — Don't skimp on the quality of your knives. You want to be able to cut veggies easily and quickly.
8. Two Large Slow Cookers — Use one for a freezer meal and a second one for dinner the night you're cooking all that food for the freezer. You'll thank yourself at dinner time! (I prefer an oval shaped slow cooker, because I can fit larger items in it, such as a long roast.)
9. Ice Cube Trays — Great for freezing left over broth and stock to use in recipes later.
10. Mesh Colander — I prefer mesh for draining since very little other than water can go through.
11. Large Food Processor — If you are going to be chopping large quantities of vegetables, a food processor will make the process go much faster!
12. Cutting Board Set — Having cutting boards dedicated for meat and vegetabes will keep you from contaminating your food.
13. Apron — This is not a necessity, but it's nice to have something clean to wipe your hands on instead of your clothes. Plus, it's fun to put on an apron and get into the mood to cook.
14. Comfortable Shoes — You're going to be standing for a while, so you need to wear something that will keep your feet from aching. I have these and wear them all day, every day without any foot pain. My favorite shoes ever!
Take the time to ensure that you have what you truly need before giving freezer cooking a try. It will be so much easier with the right tools!
Be sure to check out the other posts in the Freezer Cooking Guide:
4 Reasons You Should Be Freezer Cooking
Apparoo App of the Week
I've partnered with Apparoo, the app discovery service for busy moms, to bring you a new App for kids each week!
Each week I'll be sharing the ‘Apparoo App of the Week' with you. Very often they've negotiated to bring you great paid apps at heavily discounted rates and sometimes even free.
This week's app:Â Rio Read and Play 
Shake your tailfeathers and join blue macaws Blu and Jewel for a colorful read-along adventure set in Rio de Janeiro. This delightful app, featuring characters from the popular animated film Rio, will appeal to fans of the film and newcomers alike. The narrated storybook will encourage your child’s reading skills, the coloring tools will foster their artistic talent – and the bonus activities will grant you peace and quiet over at least two extra states on your next cross-country flight. A feast for the senses, this bright, fun-filled app is like a tiny little Brazilian vacation on your iPad!
Download the app here. (Free for a limited time!)
Disclaimer: I know nothing about this app personally, so I am not necessarily endorsing it by posting here. You'll have to check it out for yourself and determine whether it's right for your family.
Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Apparoo.
Save Money on Toilet Paper
Want to help with a project that will save us all money?
I'm on a quest to find the cheapest and the best toilet paper. But there are so many kinds to compare! If you're willing to share some information about the kind you use, I will compile all of the results to help us determine which is truly cheapest and best.
(Some kinds cost less, but they don't last as long. Some kinds cost less, but are horrible quality. We're going to figure out what kind to buy to get the most bang for our buck!)
Need Some Homemaking Motivation?
Last Friday I live posted on the Facebook page different assignments to help you get your house in tip-top shape for the weekend. We all worked together and got our homes clean in a hurry!
Everyone seemed to really enjoy the challenge, so we decided to create a group to keep each other on our toes to keep our homes clean and organized.
If you need some accountability in this area, come join us! We have a new habit to work on every two weeks, as well as a focused project to complete each week.
Click here to join the group.
Help for Disorganized People: What to Do When You Get off Track
Last week I shared a number of tips to help you overcome your organizing roadblocks, but no matter how good your plan is you may occasionally find you have slipped back into old habits. Or perhaps something threw you off your schedule, such as illness or another emergency. However it happens, you will sometimes find yourself back into your old habits of disorganization and procrastination.
Here's what to do when you get off track:
• Don't give up — You can choose to let the interruption cause you to fall off the cliff or you can grab control and start from now climbing your way back up the mountain.
• Be honest with yourself — Determine what caused you to lose your focus. Are you overly tired; are you eating right; is something else wrong causing you to go back to your old ways of procrastination and disorganization? Or are you just being lazy?
• Start small — Tackle one small thing to get it reorganized. It's especially important to go back and reorganize the things you've already organized that have gotten off track. Don't tackle anything new until you've at least gotten back to where you were.
• Go back to your calendar — The easiest place to start is your calendar. If you've been writing things in it, even the minutia, then you should have a place to start right there in today's date. If not, start writing in your calendar again.
• Let go — Don't beat yourself up about falling off the path. The important thing is that you're willing to admit your mistakes and start again from where you are. Baby steps will get you there just as well as leaps and bounds.
• Do what works — If you've discovered a way to do something that works, stick to it. You don't need to reinvent the wheel or try to force someone else's methods upon yourself. If it works, it works; so do it! (Just be mindful that you're not letting disorganization and procrastination be what works!)
If you've gotten off track with your organization efferts, take heart! You've realized you have a problem and that fact alone will help you take the steps to correct it. You can take control again simply because you've accepted that you need to. Even if all you do is start with something small like organizing your purse, filling in your to-do calendar, or cleaning off your desk at work. The fact is, starting is half the battle.
Have you gotten off track with your organizing? Where do you need to start to put yourself back on?
How to Get Your Blog Posts Shared (And What To Do When They Are)
How to Get Your Blog Posts Shared – it's something every blogger wants to know.
Every time you publish a new blog post, you hope this will be “the one”. This will be the one that really takes off. Everyone will share it and your traffic will increase to numbers you've never seen before.
And when that doesn't happen you wonder why in the world not.
If you're wishing for that share by the blogger with the huge following or for your own followers to spread your latest post like wildfire, here is what you need to know.
Note: this is not meant to be a tutorial on how to make your blog posts go viral. No one can make that happen. But you can definitely make it more likely by making sure every blog post is share-worthy.
1. Content, content, content
First, your content must be awesome. I didn't say good. I didn't say great. I said awesome.
What makes a blog post qualify as awesome?
Content will resonate with people for a number of different reasons including:
- “Why didn't I think of that? That was so clever!”
- “That really moved me emotionally.”
- “I wish everyone else knew this. It's so important.”
There are literally millions of blog posts out there. Make yours the best; otherwise it will get lost in the endless sea of blog content.
2. Headline
After the main content of your post, your headline also needs to be amazing. Which is going to more likely to compel people to click if they see your post come across their Facebook feed: “Frugal Living Tips” or “The Secret to Debt-Free Living”? What about “Pumpkin Recipes” as opposed to “25 Mouth-Watering Pumpkin Recipes”
If you need help coming up with compelling blog headlines, you can try out HubSpot's Blog Topic Generator. It won't necessarily always work perfectly for your topic, but it will at least give you some great ideas to get your creative juices flowing.
3. Blog Design
If you want people to take what you say seriously, your blog needs to look professional. Even though every content creator is just a normal person, people naturally give more credence to a blog that looks professional. If you can't yet afford a professional design, at least keep your blog clean, without a lot of gizmos and gadgets.
4. Share buttons
When people see your awesome content and have one of those “Other people need to know this!” reactions, make it easy for them to share it! Your blog needs to have obvious sharing buttons available for people to share your posts.
5. Call to Action
Okay, so someone shared your post and you're getting a lot of traffic! Instead of just enjoying the nice little spike and then going right back to where you started when those visitors leave, make sure you have a clear call-to-action on that post so you can keep those visitors around for the long-haul.
Make it obvious what you want people to do – and don't give them too many options or they will not do any of them.
You may want people to:
- Sign up for your newsletter
- Like your page on Facebook or follow you on Pinterest. (I actually talked how you can decide which of these to do in this post.)
- Click around to related content
- Buy something
Whatever it is, make it clear and obvious.
If you're hoping to get your blog shared and read by thousands, make sure you have all these things in place! They're all crucial elements to growing your blog!
Is there anything you would add to this list?
If you're looking for more blogging help, be sure to sign up for my email list and/or join my Facebook group, The Busy Homemaker's Guide to Blogging for Profit. I offer regular tips to help busy bloggers earn some income while keeping their families first.