Time Management and Toddlers--- Can the Two Co-exist?!

In an effort to streamline our home life (or make it somewhat relative to efficient), I have embarked upon exploring some freezer food options. So far, so good! The fish sticks seem to have set up very well and we will see how the flavor is when B has them tomorrow for dinner! Tomorrow will be pancake making day, so I am making several batches of pancakes and freezing individual servings. Loving my press and seal!!!!

For those of you who are intrigued, I have been making individual packets of pre-cooked servings to freeze for B. If something needs a firm shape before making packets of several pieces of one type of food, I flash freeze the pieces on a small cookie sheet (as soon as they are frozen, take them out immediately and transfer to proper freezer storage). Then, I cut squares of press and seal, place each serving in between two squares, and seal it off on the edges. I place all of the servings in large freezer bags, labeled with the date and food type. They take up much less space in the freezer once they are in the food bags rather than freezer containers. Plus, your containers are free for cooking and don't have to be "held hostage" in the freezer until they are empty again. You can even wrap packets with foil and make your job one step easier---  once defrosted (if I need something for dinner on a Tuesday, I put it in the fridge on Monday night.) they are ready to go into the oven to bake-- in the foil packet! (Put the packet in a baking dish of course, but still-- less messy dishes because the mess remains in the packet once the food is cooked!)

I will post more on this once I have tried the various recipes in the freezer, but so far the pancakes, quinoa muffins, arrowroot cookies and merry muffins all survive freezing quite well. The only one of these mentioned recipes that I freeze BEFORE baking them is the cookies. I layer the unbaked cutout cookies in between wax or parchment paper and freeze in stacks. I bake 8-10 at a time, or however many I think I will need for the week. Keep posted-- more to come!!