Freezer, Again

Four and a half years ago, as part of our preparation to go back to school for Bryan's MBA, we bought a chest freezer. I loved it. I used it all the time. Then, just over a year later, we had to move to Wisconsin and all our belongings went into a storage unit. Expect for the freezer, because it simply didn't fit. We gave the beloved appliance to Bryan's aunt and uncle, which softened the blow of parting company with it.

For the past month I've toyed with the idea of doing one of the "Make Forty Freezer Meals in Four Hours" projects that get shared on Facebook and Pinterest. Our afternoons are full, not with extracurricular activities, but with homework and piano practicing and (while the weather is lovely) playing at the park. This has left little time for dinner prep. But such a project would mean buying another freezer, and I wasn't sure I was ready to commit to such a big purchase. Then we learned that mice were living in our oven. That made slow cooker freezer meals sound more appealing. 

Our landlord came by to clean out the oven a week and a half ago. It didn't go so well and, in addition to still being nervous about the cleanliness of the oven, we discovered that two of the burners on our stove stopped functioning properly. That night I announced to Bryan that the girls and I would be buying a freezer from Costco the next day.

And we did.

I even hauled it from the van into the dining room with Phoebe as my cheerleader. Then I set about finding freezer meals to make to put inside our lovely new acquisition.

Concerned about the burners, particularly the strong odor of natural gas that filled the kitchen when we turned them on, we contacted the landlord again. He came this past Sunday morning before church and opened the top of the stove to investigate. That caused the gas lines to completely detach from the burners, thus breaking the stove. Bryan turned off the gas to the entire unit, just to be safe.

The good news is that our landlord gave us a credit voucher to go buy a new oven. The bad news is that it might be two weeks before we actually get the oven. This makes me extra thankful that I spent ALL DAY Saturday making those freezer meals I'd been planning. I only made twenty-three meals and it definitely took longer than the few hours the internet promised. Of course, the bloggers who created these lists may not have had four children running through their house the whole time they were cooking, so that might have thrown off the estimate a bit.

During the week leading up to the project I gathered recipes and labeled the freezer bags. I also bought the ingredients, which included crazy amounts of meat.

I chopped all the produce at once. This was my first food prep step. Not shown: two red onion and two white potatoes.

After the fruits and veggies were bagged, Sophie acted as my sous chef and helped me bring all the spices and sauces to the table. This step (adding the ingredients to the bags, not carrying them to the table) took a loooooooong time.

Here are the meals, all ready for meat. After we got the kids in bed for the night, Bryan took the lead on cutting chicken, pork, and beef while I read directions and added the final ingredient to each bag. We spent about two hours doing this.

The final result.

So far we've eaten Parmesan Honey Pork Chops (which were delicious and will be made again) and Orange Chicken (which was just okay and will probably be replaced with a different recipe). I was hoping that the meals would last a few months if we spaced them out between simple meals like pasta, pizza, and salad. Now that we're eating them every night I'm afraid we're going to blow through them pretty quickly, but at least we won't have to eat fast food during our two weeks without an oven.