Realwomen.co.nz

Wet miserable day here and I promised myself that apart from going out (thesedays meaning downstairs, 15m from the lift) for the Sunday papers, I would stay home and rest. Rest being necessary as I have been on crutches but am finally on holiday and able to slow down.

But now that I have Sky and have become addicted to the Living and Food channels, almost the only ones I watch, I wanted to do a big batch of cooking for my ~ but mainly Mr Suse's ~ freezer.

Dragged myself off the couch at 3pm after ODing on Sunday papers and hours of Food TV and put the apron on. All over, save for the horrible cleanup job.
Made:
* a huge oven tray of herby roast potatoes,
* huge oven tray of mixed baked veges (kumara, carrots, red onion, pumpkin),
* big pan of mincy mix (kg of mince, 2 tins mexican tomatoes, 2 tins mild chilli beans and lots of chopped mint) ~ good with the veges for with corn chips and cheese
* beef and mushroom/bean/capsicum stirfry
* rice ~ no effort!

All of this produced 16 plastic containers of meals. Have just pulled out the Countdown docket ~~ I usually shop at P&S as much cheaper but not currently as accessible as Countdown. Ingredients, excluding the rice which I had, came to $27 which is less than $2 a meal.

While I enjoy cooking on many levels ~ creative, restful, a means of showing love, necessary!!! ~ I hate having to come home each day after work to cook. Much prefer these large-scale productive energy bursts.

What are your tried and true winter freezer meals?

Actually, told a wee fib there. the thin beef shnitzels (sp?) I used for the stirfry had been in the freezer for ages. Can't recall how much they cost but probably only a few dollars.

I like to cook in batches too but tend to stick to things like soup, mince and muffins. Am not a big fan of casserole frozen and eaten later. My freezer is quite small so can't fit too much in it either. But it certainly sounds like you've been busy today Suse.

Like AJ, my freezer is small and is currently packed to the brim. It was quite a feat getting everything into it last shopping day (yesterday) and now I just know we will have to eat what's on top first or I'll never get everything back into it again. Am tempted to eat the biggest (2kg chicken pieces) first to make space, but then I would have to freeze the leftovers and where would they go? However, I do love producing big batches of food, a hangover from my days of cooking for DH, me, my Dad and eight kids every day. Can't seem to get used to smaller feeds.

I can certainly relate to something that each of you has written so far.
Yesterday was a perfect day for 'cooking up a storm,' as Suse did . Good on you Suse - it is lovely to come home tired from work mid-week and be able to produce a lovely meal with no real effort. I used to do it all of the time too.
These days, over winter months, I am a soup-a-holic, and I have many , many different soup recipes and I do like to vary them.
I can relate to Faye's comment that, so used to cooking for a family that she cannot 'do' small batches. Therefore, I have always got cartons , and cartons of different soups in my freezer. Because I live alone, I tend to freeze them in single meal packs. A short time ago when I found myself in agony and laid up for days with sciatic nerve problems, I was so thankful that I did have a good supply of ready food and I made a big dent in my stores at that time. Ususally though, I have that other problem that Faye mentioned.... trying to fit in those extra bargains I spotted in the meat department last shopping day !
Apart from soups, I also like to cook up things like the mince sauce for a quick Lasagna, Bolognese or the basis for a nice chilli or curry.
It was funny yesterday though. The weather was raging outside almost all day without a let up, and I took the opportunity to have a good guilt free read, but then, I started to think about how, on days like that when the kids were young, we used to spend the day in the kitchen cooking things they liked to cook. Chocolate cake... fudge, and peanut brownies and afghans - they were the favourites ! Oh how I wanted to get up and go out into that kitchen and cook up a large batch of fudge! I kept reminding myself that I would only pig out on it, and end up making myself feel horribly sick, so I fought to resist any urges for Chocolate fudge or cake! Some time later in the day, I developed a craving for a cheese scone !. That is wet , wild , horrible weather for you - it leaves you with time on your hands to start dreaming about these things, and as there were no cheese scones left in my freezer, I did end up making a small batch of them I made them really cheesy too. It is strange how ones "fancies" can change from sweet to savoury just like that. At least mine can.. I love both savoury and sweet things. My mouth was salivating as I mixed them and I cooked them really well - I like my cheese scones to be slightly scorched and crunchy !
So that was my lunch eaten at around 2 p.m. Two cheesy scones with a bowl of thick pea and ham soup out of the freezer!
I will have a couple more of them today I reckon... the weather is not much better than it was this time yesterday. And, what a night a was !! I was awake nearly all night listing to the wind howling and the rain thrashing against my windows and half expecting my roof to lift off !. WHaaaaa! .

All this talk of homemade food! I'm afraid I'm not organised enough to cook ahead, usually. But this has made me think a bit. I have to go to a funeral either Fri or Sat in Napier, and I'm driving down. I'll probably be away a couple of nights, so I guess if I cook some stuff in advance, Ian won't starve!