Flash Freezing

Tuesday I got another 40 pound box of fresh (never been previously frozen) boneless skinless chicken breasts for $1.58/lb. These chicken breasts are so big! They are at least twice the size of Costco's frozen chicken breasts. Last time I got the chicken I made 16 meals and froze them. With the remaining chicken I portioned it into amounts our family would eat and froze those portions in freezer bags. I really liked doing it that way, but if we had someone over for dinner I had to thaw out another bag, even if I only need half of it.

So this time I decided to try flash freezing. I'd never done it before, I just knew that frozen chicken (or other foods) from the store have been flash frozen first so that the chicken isn't stuck together in one big clump, thus allowing you to use the right amount of chicken or other food for each meal. I looked it up on the internet and all it said was to use cookie sheets and put wax paper over the cookie sheets, then place the desired food on the wax paper, being careful the food is not touching, then freeze until completely frozen (2-24 hours). Sounds easy enough, well it was!

The first batch I froze, I portioned into meal sizes and added in the bags either BBQ sauce, Italian dressing, or an oil/honey/soy sauce/garlic marinate. I ended up with 9 meals. Now I am so excited to fire up the grill!

The second batch I cut the breasts either in half....

or in strips....and froze them. Then I put them into freezer bags. I ended up with three gallon size bags of halved breasts and one gallon bag of strips. My freezer is so full of chicken now. Not only do I have this 40 pounds, but a few weeks ago frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts were on sale at Safeway for $1.69/lb so I got 28 pounds then. The same chicken is on sale again at Safeway this week, I am seriously considering getting another 20 pounds. Am I crazy? I don't know...we do eat way more chicken than any other meat... and I do have room in my freezer for it...but then I wouldn't have room for anything else if there was a great sale on another food item.

Chicken and Freezer Meals

I was able to get 40lbs. of boneless skinless chicken breasts for $55.20. That's only $1.38/lb! So Saturday afternoon, I made 16 meals to freeze and I still had enough chicken to freeze in individual meal sizes and have enough for 17 more meals.

I made 4 different meals: white chicken chili, cheesy chicken and rice casserole, chicken enchiladas, and chicken artichoke casserole.

My next task is to make and freeze home made pizza pockets, rolls, and other "dough" meals.

Now if I could only find a great deal on ground turkey, so I can make and freeze meat loafs, meatballs, and other "beef" meals.

Freezer Meals

Last night I went to a freezer meal night at someone's house whom we go to church with. I made 22 meals for only $56.00! It was actually 11 meals that go in 9"x13" pans, but since we don't eat that much in one meal, I split each meal into 2-8"x8" pans. The meals vary from Mexican lasagna to twice baked potatoes to chicken divan to white chicken chili. I am really excited to try all these new recipes!