For about two weeks now we've been eating anything I could put together from leftovers in our freezer and our pantry. Let's just say there was a lot of tuna fish and breakfast for dinner. This past weekend the time finally came to fill the freezer. For me this starts a few days before with a making a list of everything I want in the freezer. I have a few favorite go to options but this summer I was focusing on two things.
The first was to make the contents of the freezer clean and paleo compliant. The second was to ensure that everything could be cooked on the grill or stove top in case of really hot weather (kind of like the kind we are having now). With those parameters in mind I opened a few cook books and had some fun time on Pinterest. When the list was complete we (the kiddos and I) headed to a few stores, Trader Joes and Costco in particular, to load up on all the necessary elements. I wanted a balance of poultry, beef and pork. Enough delay already.
This is what is filling our freezer for the summer:
- Greek Chicken
- Pepper Jelly Pork Chops
- BBQ Chicken
- Hamburgers
- Uncle Kip's Meatballs
- Steaks
- Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts
- Chicken and Apple Sausage
In the process of making the food I had big plans to take a lot of photos. Sadly, that was before I became more focused on ensuring there was no cross contamination. I like to pretend that this process was a well oiled machine but I have a feeling that the kitchen looked like a bomb exploded.
What I did do was start the things that required cooking first. I got the taco meat going and the meatballs in the oven. I sauteed a ton of onions to use in the recipes. This time around I made my own BBQ sauce to use for the chicken breasts and to save for future pulled pork and pork ribs.
I cooked, did some flash freezing, and filled bags with meat and marinade. Total I made about 30 meals that with leftovers will last even long. The chicken breasts will be a nice treat for some crock potting.
More recipes and details of the above will be coming...as well as a menu plan for the remainder of he summer.