Freezer Cooking-I'm in love {again}.

Years ago {pre-littles} I did once a month cooking.  I LOVED it.  It was one crazy chaotic Saturday a month that actually started the night before with two crockpot chickens.  I loved all the smells that filled my house.  I loved cutting up all those veggies {and snacking on a few while cooking}.  I loved seeing my freezer FULL of yummy meals.  I especially loved having extra time in the evenings.  I worked full-time job, Bo was traveling a lot, and Nathan went to daycare.  I appreciated any extra time I got to spend with my guys. 

After just a few months of all those wonderful pre-cooked meals, I found out I was pregnant with Kaleb.  I was SICK!  Not just regular morning sickness for me....I had all-day and all-night sickness.  I thought I was dying.  Not only did I stop OAM cooking, I stopped cooking all together.  Nathan and I had a lot of take-out!  I got out of the habit and just never got back into it.  I tried a few times later on but it never stuck.

So last week I read this blog post about making whole wheat chocolate chip pancakes and thought "hey I can do that!"  I already had all of the ingredients except the chocolate chips on hand.  So this weekend I made sure to pick up a couple bags of chocolate chips (although I just used one bag) I also scored a MAJOR deal on some chicken breasts....I bought all that was available!

Then today I read this amazing blog post and immediately jumped up and ran to the kitchen.  

The first thing I did was trim, quarter, and separate into NINE individual {meal-size} zip-lock bags all that chicken I bought this weekend.  I didn't pre-cook it because I'm sure it will all go on the grill. {We make about 90% of our meals on the grill during the summer.}  After adding some veggies and maybe some brown rice, the total cost per meal for our family of six is about $2.50!!  An added bonus: there should be just enough leftovers for my husband's lunch!

Then I mixed up a quadruple batch of whole wheat chocolate chip pancake batter.  This looked a little overwhelming but only took about an hour with my mom's griddle.  I made about saucer plate size pancakes. Sometimes my littles will eat two each but other times they'll barely finish one so I put eight in each ziplock bag {2x4} for a total of TEN bags.  One of those bags was consumed right off....they HAD to try them!  So nine breakfast meals....teamed up with some fruit and milk comes to about 75 cents a meal!!

Eighteen meals for only $30!!

I didn't get a picture of the chicken.  Nathan had already loaded it all into the deep freezer before I thought of my camera.  This isn't even all of the pancakes.  He had taken a couple to the freezer with the chicken. 

Oh I have been totally bitten by the OAMC bug again!!  Starting off small, but I'm looking forward to doing more and more each time.  I'm already making a grocery list for next week!