Another 30 meals...another success

To follow up from this post on my first attempt at cooking 30 meals in one day...well, we liked the meals, I liked that I didn't have to cook, so I did it again. It was the perfect day that I picked because outside it was FREEZING (well actually below freezing) and looked like this:

So I did this....(see this site for more details on this book)

I had picked out 4 slow cooker recipes for this time, so two of them were 5 hrs each, so it was perfect- stuck the ingredients in before we headed to church and these meals were well on their way to being done by the time I got home and off to cooking more...brilliant. Did I mention I LOVE crockpots? A lot.

So I did a little bit of cooking (as you can see for my ingredient break out below) and watched the three part Taylor Swift Fearless special on the HUB. See her there? She's so cute. OH and a shout out to her because she just turned 2-1!!

And wowsa- check out all that cooked chicken. Had 5 more lbs of chicken, 4lbs of beef stew meat, 5 lbs of lean hamburger and one pound of italian sausage. Yum.

A new update from the previous time I did this was I bought the software that is available for this recipe book. And I have to say- worth every penny. Last time I had to write out all the ingredients from the recipes I picked and add them up. Not this time, I just clicked on the recipe's I picked out in the book, added them to my December menu and then a shopping list populates for me. Um...amazing. Better yet, it's organized by grocery departments. Yep, so fast and easy! And then it prints recipes for you (so you are not flipping through the book trying to keep it open, etc while cooking) and even...my favorite...recipe labels. Print off 2 copies (since I cook 15 recipes and then split them) and then stick them on the freezer bag/foil pan and DONE. The directions to heat up/cook the meal is right there. Ah, efficiency. I love it.

Ok, a few other tips that you might like to know. There are a few necessities when you are cooking so many meals and sticking them in the freezer. Here they are

1) Plastic container that is big enough to fit your gallon size freezer bags over. It makes it 30 million times easier to get your food in the bags with no mess!

2) Freezer bags with the zip lock to ensure an easy close of the bag!

3) Finally...tennis shoes or any comfortable, supporting shoes. I made this HUGE mistake last time and wore slippers. Horrible idea because you stand for at least 8-9 hours in the kitchen and last time my back was killing me. This time I wore my work out shoes and I felt great!

While I cooked- here is what the rest of the family did :)

Milly- relaxed in the sun and tried to stay warm!

Willy - was a little sneak and peered in the kitchen non-stop and made several attempts to get any remnants of food.

Toby- got his haircut (looked so cute and smelled so good) and chilled in the kitchen. He did get 1/2 a cup of cooked chicken, but luckily I made extra. The little devil.

And finally...Jimmy. He played play station, changed the laundry once, watch the Chiefs lose to the Chargers....and made some little smokies in the dining room since I forbade him from coming into the kitchen and taking up any counter space.

Overall- another successful day of cooking, with a full freezer full of delicious food :) If anyone is interested and checks out this book and wants to know our favorite recipes so far (some are better than other and I have a few other tips too), just let me know! I'm happy to share!

Happy cooking---and the best part, eating!