Mar 1, 2011
Twin Survival Tip #8: Cook meat in advance.
I know this is probably something many moms rely on, but I’ve found it very necessary in this season of twin babies to
COOK MEAT BEFORE I NEED IT!
(Also, if you have twins, this doesn’t apply to you in the first 3 months. If you’re just eating a lot of frozen pizza or takeout, that’s okay!)
Here’s what I do:
CHICKEN
- I buy boneless, skinless chicken breasts when they’re on sale. I typically buy 2-3 large packages.
- I bake mine on 2 large pizza pans.
- Let them cool.
- Cube about half, shred about half.
- Bag it in 3 & 4 cup quantities in quart-sized freezer bags.
- Great for lots of different soups, fajitas, enchiladas, casseroles (or hot dish if you’re in Minnesota), chicken pot pie.
[from Kimberly Belle on Flickr]
*Last time I did this, I was just going to do shredded chicken, so I used my crock pot with a little bit of water in the bottom, and they were so tender, I was able to shred them with my (clean!) fingers. Super easy!
GROUND BEEF
- Buy a few large packages when they’re on sale.
- Typically I try to cook it with diced onion (I have a Pampered Chef chopper thingy and that makes onions easier). Since most recipes that call for ground beef typically call for sauteed onion as well, I just do them together from the get-go.
- Freeze in quart-sized freezer bags in 2 & 3 cup quantities.
- Great for spaghetti, tacos, taco soup, chili, shepherd’s pie, sloppy joe’s.
[from Mike on Flickr]
HAM
- Buy a half-ham when they’re on sale.
- Since they’re already cooked, you just slice it, cube it, whatever!
- Freeze in quart-sized freezer bags in 1-2 cup quantities.
- I use this for ham & bean soup, wild rice soup, egg bake.
[from Deb on Flickr]
Notes
*Make sure you write the quantity on the bag. Very helpful!
*I keep the kinds of meat separated in my deep freezer in plastic shopping bags. It’s just easier than rifling through the freezer when the time comes. And then you don’t lose any down in the abyss of the deep freeze!
Basically, if I didn’t do this, we wouldn’t eat. I know there are probably greener and/or cheaper ways to do it, but this is how it works for me right now.
This has really cut down on my cooking time. What other pre-cooking hacks have you found helpful with multiples or many young children?
Don’t have twins…but I still think this would be very helpful!
I’ve done chicken before, but it never crossed my mind to pre-cook the ground beef and at the end of the day, that “step” is sometimes the very excuse I use for avoiding a decent recipe.
Thanks…
My new love: Turkey breast. In the crockpot. Seriously amazing and so easy. I buy about a 6-7 pound breast on sale for $10-15 and it feeds us for days and days.
Our dinners survive on pre-cooked meat too, and I just have 1 kid! I basically do everything you do. Great tip about separating the ziplock bags into shopping bags! Also write the date!
I like to buy the bone-in skin-on chicken when on sale for $0.99/lb instead of the boneless/skinless. I pre-season under the skin and roast in a pan, then chop/shred. I feel like I get more meat for the price and I don’t have to pre-trim the raw chicken (I hate cutting raw chicken!!!) Also the seasoning stays on better and result is juicer. The only time I can’t use pre-cooked is if we are making stir fry that calls for browning in a pan. Man, what a pain! :)
Instead of quart-sized bags I use gallon and portion the cubed/shredded meat into 4 sections with my hand on the outside of the bag. Then I pull out 1, 2, or 3 of the portions to use for however many servings a recipe calls for.
Other times I flash freeze the cubed chicken and throw in the bag so I can pull out a few pieces for my almost 1-year-old. I love that he gets good protein that takes no effort on my part – just nuke frozen cubes of chicken or let thaw in fridge. Most of the time my son just eats it cold from the fridge. (I do this with fruits and veggies for him too – chop and store in baggies in the freezer. No chopping on the spot, plus I tend to waste less by letting the produce go bad in the fridge.)
I’m also starting to cook pasta and beans to freeze. Chicken noodle hotdish could NOT be any easier!! And yes, it is HOTDISH!!!
I only have one child right now, but my best tip for when you have a newborn was to have my husband put a meal in the crockpot after he got home from work and let it cook through the night. Then the next morning it was done and we had food for the day!
Once or twice a week when you cook, make a double batch and freeze half. Just don’t forget to defrost the day before you want to eat it!
Always have ingredients for a couple of SUPER simple dinners on hand. My go-to quick meals are tortellini soup, bean and rice burritos, chickpea curry, and pita and hummus.
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Totally!!! Great ideas – I never thought of doing ham… I started doing this too when my twins (#3 and 4) were born, and I think I may be permanently hooked. I make a lot of “bulk” sandwiches in the crockpot too – I use pork tenderloin roasts or beef round roasts when they’re on sale – turn them into BBQ pork or beef, or Italian beef, or pot roast. Make 3-4 lbs at a time and I’ve got several meals to freeze. Warm the meat, add buns and a bunch of grapes, and dinner is on the table in 5 min. flat. :)
I double every freezer-friendly meal. We eat one that night and put one in the freezer for later. I have invested in a few inexpensive casserole dishes so that I don’t miss the ones that are in the freezer. It’s amazing how easy it is to simply cook double the amount, and I love having a freezer stocked with (clearly labeled) homemade meals!
I cook my meat ahead too and have found great deals on meat ends at the deli counter. I can buy good quality ham for 99 cents a lb! I also have cut up peppers and onions in the freezer to toss in whatever I’m making.
Yes! I need to get back to the precooking meat/freezing thing, but I also have done peppers, onions and carrots. Way cheaper to buy fresh and chop myself. I toss the frozen peppers on pizza and it comes out perfectly. NOT having to chop onions when I need them is also a lifesaver. I’ve never frozen garlic, though. I wonder if that would work?
Great ideas! I think that doubling meals for the freezer is also helpful (I do that, too.), but just cooking meat solves several problems – deciding what to cook, wanting to eat it again, having all the ingredients, needing to feed more people than you fed the first time, etc. Now when the meat is on sale just cook it and worry about the rest of the meal another time. I like it because it’s like planning and procrastinating at the same time! :)
I should have added this to my list of things a new mom should plan for when I recently spoke to some moms of many:
http://lifeisdifferenthere.blogspot.com/2011/02/tale-of-three-women.html
I do this but I get a complaint from dear husband that the meat tastes “refrigerated.” Does anyone else have this issue? Usually the freezer is better but he is still reluctant to eat it (just like he is reluctant to eat leftovers! what a shame since I like to cook in epic proportions!)
My husband and I can tell the difference, too. :( I have to be careful to not keep the food frozen for too long or the taste gets even more “frozen.” Thankfully, my husband and I both agree that in this season of life it’s better to have a decent meal that tastes ‘refrigerated’ than take out or cold cereal! lol.
GREAT idea Molly! I only have one (for another 4 months or so…) but I might do this just to make life in general easier. Love reading your blog! :)
The cookbook, “Cheap, Fast, Good.” is just along these lines with batch cooking and then, it includes recipes to go along with the meat you’ve already prepared and/or frozen…..I love it. It is available on amazon for $4. I got this cookbook about 2 years ago and we use it every week! It’s a staple and helped me feed my family way better than I had been! And for cheaper too!
Love the hot dish reference! My husband’s parents are from Minnesota, so once when I made a casserole dish, he was like, “oh, I grew up with this. It’s hot dish.”
That’s great! I’m single, so I don’t need a lot of meat for my one “real” meal I make a week. I do try to only use half a pound of beef when I do, and then save the other half for another recipe in a Ziploc in the freezer.
Molly – how long do you the cook the chicken in the crockpot for? And how much water do you use? I don’t have kids yet, but this is the greatest idea ever. My least favorite part of cooking is cooking the meat, so this would be way better – just get all the meat cooking done at once! Thanks!!
while i didn’t have twins, my kids are very close together (15 months between the 1st & 2nd and 20 months betweent he 2nd & 3rd) i found that making a weeks worth of meals each saturday while my hubby was home to help. it is alot of work on saturdays i won’t deny that, but that helped to keep me sane at supper time through the week
Thanks! These are helpful tips for all of us busy moms! I don’t have twins but many days I feel like I have TRIPLETS!!!
great tips! i’m going to link your post as a feature on my organizing FB fan page soon!
~h
to view FB pg
http://www.operationorganization-mn.com
I have SO much to learn. I need someone to come to my house and teach me how to do this stuff. Great great ideas and tips.
I cook ahead meat, as well as dishes. Meatloaf is a super easy one to double to eat one and freeze one. I also chop and freeze a lot of veggies (especially at the end of summer/early fall when everything is abundant and cheap) like onions, tomatoes, green peppers, and celery. When they thaw, they are already softer so they take a lot less time to cook in soups or stirfries. I’m moving out of the having 4 preschoolers into having 4 busy school agers season, so I’ve also become a huge fan of preplanning all of our meals two weeks at time based on what activities we have each night (not as easy to do when all your kids are little because your days hardly ever go as planned :O)). This makes grocery shopping easier, but I HAVE to go without kids or there’s not enough room in the cart. I have also come to love the timer on our oven…I can prep dinner, put it in the oven set the start/end cook time and temp, and it’s ready when we get home from soccer games, gymnastics, or whatever.
Great ideas! I like to do beans this way so I can avoid the canned kind whenever possible. Give the beans (dried lima, black, kidney, cannellini, black-eyed peas, etc) a quick wash, soak different kinds of beans overnight and then without throwing out the soaking water, cook for about 20-30 mins, until al dente. Great for soups, fajitas, salsas, chilis…
Molly, how often do you pre-cook your meat? I have heard of once a month freezer cooking before. I’m due with my 3rd baby in June and since I’ll have three kids three and under this really seems like a time saver!
Then, you fill your crockpot with beans and cook it all day, and during naptime you pop in some frozen precooked ground beef and some frozen prechopped onions and green peppers (and maybe a few cups of frozen corn) from the freezer and have a big ol’ batch of chili! :)
All this food on your website reminded me that you guys have a slew of food in our freezer. I forgot about it until last week when I opened the freezer.
DId you forget about it?
Hey there!
This tip is even easier than pre-cooking, it’s pre-tossing-it-in-there… We have developed a Sunday routine for non-company-after-church Sundays. Throw frozen chicken breasts in the crockpot with a jar of salsa. Optionally, you could add canned beans (drained), olives, diced green chilis, etc. But, we usually just do frozen chicken and salsa. Put it on high for a few hours. Come home and warm up some tortillas and have a little cheese on hand and/or sour cream. Serve with a quick side like sliced apples.
I’m just thinking that having a Sunday go-to plan is super helpful with multiples. :)
PS: Make a big batch of rice while you guys are eating lunch, and throw in any leftovers (from the Crockpot) with the rice. Stir it up, and you have lunch for the next day.
Molly, I love your twin tips so much I’m putting you on my blogroll! I’ll be passing your url along to a friend who will soon be a first-time mom to triplets. Hopefully your experiences will make smooth her transition!
Thanks!
http://www.thewifeofleisure.com
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