One of the biggest challenges of raising a big brood is the never ending question…what’s for dinner? I was truly struggling with the dreaded dinner hour until about 2 years ago. I started freezer cooking (once a month cooking) with a friend. We started small, we each made 3 main dishes and 1 side. Needless to say, like anything, it has grown into an obsession. For a while before the discovery of gander 6’s allergies I was involved in 2 freezer exchanges and still cooking with the same friend every 2 months. Each of the freezer exchanges consisted of about 6 mom’s cooking enough of a single meal to feed 6 families (about 6-8) servings each. That would give me 15 or so meals in the freezer each month. This was enough with leftovers and one made-from-scratch meal a week to feed us for the month. It was fun to have new dishes to try and I enjoyed the variety. Everyone else missed the goose’s cooking though.
I have a couple of tried and true websites and cookbooks I use pretty consistently.
You might wonder how to begin freezer cooking. I usually start by looking through my stack of favorite cookbooks and websites. Depending on the season we have some favorites. For example as we are heading into warmer weather I am thinking about things that can be put in the crockpot or grilled outside, marinades are really good for this. I recently started a freezer cooking binder where I keep my favorite recipes printed off the Internet as well as notepaper with my monthly list of freezer meals and where they can be found (the name of the cookbook, page,etc). This has been a great help and certainly streamlined things. Once I have a few ideas I start watching the ads for sales on meat, which usually narrows down my recipes. I won’t be making 3 chicken recipes if I can’t find chicken breast on sale somewhere for example. I have become strict with myself and try not to buy chicken breast unless it is below $2 a pound and when it is I stock up the freezer. I usually email back and forth with the ladies I am cooking with until we all get our recipes decided. We all try to keep our numbers of beef, chicken,pork,soups,marinades,etc. as even as possible so we don’t have 6 beef meals and 3 soups.
On cooking day everyone is usually at my house by 10:00 am and we are usually finished by 4:00 pm. Depending on whether we have little babies that need attention or are 9 months pregnant which does happen amongst my crowd more often than not, we sometimes make a meal or two ahead of time to make the day go more smoothly. We usually stop for a quick lunch somewhere in the middle and we all share in the clean-up.
I am back to cooking once a month with my dear friend who has 4 little ones in her brood. We have similar cooking tastes and styles and really enjoy our Saturdays cooking and chatting. My sister-in-law has since joined us to help cook for her brood of 5. So I still get plenty of meals in the freezer and more time to spend cuddling, reading or playing outside with my brood in the late afternoon.
The last few days have been busy ones. I have canned 8 pints of strawberry jam and 6 pints of strawberry rhubbarb jam . Last night I steamed and froze 3 gallons of spinach. Three gallons of spinach sounds like a lot until you steam it and measure it out into 4 pint sized bags! I didn’t mind because it was all free (from my grandma’s garden). She even washed it for me before she delivered it! I planted a whole packet of spinach and have nothing to show for it. I wasn’t surprised, the same thing happened last year. It apparently doesn’t like my soil. I have a good crop of lettuce ready to pick though.
. It is really yummy and healthy! I haven’t been able to eat this granola since the discovery of gosling 6’s allergies so I decided to try a new recipe that is a little more gluten/dairy free. 
. I have a “talent” for always slightly altering every recipe I come into contact with, it drives my gander CRAZY! His theory is if there is a recipe it should be followed, mine is if there is a recipe there is probably a better way to do it!
