Joanne's Method for Easy Home Cooked Meals
 (With a few additions by me.)

Initially, when you follow this method, you will have to spend some time cooking.  But once you get going, you will only have to really cook about once or twice a week.


1. Cook things you can freeze.  If you are wondering whether or not something can be frozen, use the freezer section at the grocery store as a guide.   Thinks that don't freeze well -- mayonnaise, cream cheese, cream.  However, I have several casserole recipes that I make which include these ingredients and they freeze just fine.  Sometimes you just have to figure it out by trial and error. 


2.  Double or Triple the Recipe When You Cook, and Freeze in Gallon Size Zip Lock Freezer Bags.


Any time you cook something that you can freeze, triple,  the recipe, then  freeze what you don't eat that night for dinner.  For example:  If you make spaghetti sauce,  make a HUGE pot of sauce, and a huge pot of noodles.   Serve that meal for dinner that night, then freeze the remainder (after it has cooled) in zip lock freezer bags with all the air removed. (Freeze the noodles and the sauce separately).  If you place a gallon size zip lock freezer back inside a plastic drink pitcher, you can use a measuring up to transfer the sauce into the bags without a huge mess.  Using a measuring cup allows you to figure out how much you need to add to a bag to feed your family for 1 meal.  (I have a family of 4 -- two adults and two teenagers.)  I need about 6 cups of sauce for one meal.  That's how much sauce I measure into each bag.)   Make sure you don't overfill.  There should be room at the top so you can properly seal the bag.  (Note:  If you have a large family, I suggest quadrupling the recipe.)


Seal the bag leaving a little 1 inch opening so you can remove the air.  Push all the air out of the  bag and seal it tight.  Remove the bag from the plastic picture and label it permanent magic marker.  Lay it flat in your freezer so you will be able to stack all your meals and save freezer space.  If you do this, you should be able to get about 40 meals in a small freezer.


Do not cook this recipe again until you have eaten all the freezer meals for that specific recipe -- in this case, don't make spaghetti sauce, until all of the frozen sauce is gone.


Once you have cooked 5 or 6 different recipes, you will have an assortment of frozen meals you can pull out and serve on days that you are too busy to cook.  Then, when you are ready to use a frozen meal, all you have to do is take it out of the freezer, let it thaw, and reheat.  Buy a bagged salad kit, and toss it, or cook your favorite vegetable.  Then you are pretty much done.


I buy roasted chickens at Costco (4 at a time) and when I get home, I pull all the meat off the bones and freeze it.  I put about 2 cups in each freezer bag as most recipes call for that amount.  But, if you have a large family, you will gear the amounts you freeze in each bag towards the number of servings your family eats at a meal. When you lable the freezer bag, write how many servings or cups are in the bag.  With chicken, I can make casseroles, burritos, nachos, tacos, salads, etc.


You can also prepare hamburger in bulk.  Buy  10 pounds and divide it up. Use it to make meat loaf, meatballs, hamburger patties.  Freeze them uncooked.   You can cook part of the meat with onion, freeze it, and use it for taco meat, sloppy joes, spaghetti, or casseroles.


If you make spaghetti sauce, you can also use it for meatball subs, lasagna, baked shells, calzones, etc.


You can also make double or triple recipes of soups, casseroles, and pot pie filling and cookie dough.


2.  If you run have trouble planning meals because you don't know what to make, hold a weekly family council.


Get your family together on Sunday night or any night that works for you.   Ask each person what they would like for dinner that week, and ask them what they have scheduled (sports practices, school activities, meetings, work, etc.).   If necessary, give them a list of the things you have in the freezer at the time you are planning and ask them to pick something from the freezer section.  Pencil the dinner requests on a calendar along with the activities your family will be involved in that week.  Then, make your shopping list based on the menu your family has planned.  By the groceries you will need for that week, and put any frozen meals you will be using in the refrigerator to thaw.  Doing this saves tons of money.  You only buy what you need, you waste less food, and you don't eat out as often.  Use frozen meals on nights that your family is really busy.  Only cook when you need to.  


3.  Get your kids involved in the kitchen.
One thing that has inspired my kids to try new things is getting them involved in the kitchen.  Once or twice a month, I tell them to look up a recipe that they would like to cook.  It has to be something they haven't tried before, and it has to be a main dish, not just cookies or dessert. (Hopefully it will be something that freezes well.)  When my kids were little, they would bring home cookbooks from school library, and the public library.  Now they love to get on recipe internet sites and find new recipes there.  They prepare the shopping list and my husband takes them to the store to shop.  It's really fun.  My kids have eaten every single thing they have made.  We take a vote after dinner and decide if the recipe is worthy to go into our family cook book -- most make it, but some don't.   They have become confident cooks, and we have fun together in the kitchen.


3.   Have dinner at the same time every day, and make sure everyone is home at that time to eat.  Plan your time, so that you can serve dinner at the same time every day. This isn't always possible when kids work, or have extracurricular activities after school.  But, if you get kids into the habit of stopping what they are doing at a specific time (television, playing outside with friends, computer, etc.), they will come for dinner.  


4.  Turn off electronics and television. Have meaningful conversations at the dinner table.  Talking with your family is important, especially in this age when most teens communicate through texting.  The dinner table is a great place to do this.   Not only will you forge stronger bonds with your children, it will help them to be confident socially.  My friend Julie gave me the idea to make a "table talk" jar to sit on our dining room table.  It's full of questions that help get people talking and a fun way to learn things about each other. You can find instructions for the Table Talk jar by clicking here.


5.  Have everyone help with cleanup.   Everyone eats, so everyone should help clean up.  The more hands that help, the faster you will get done, and your kitchen will stay clean.   Enough said.


If you would like a few easy recipe ideas, check back in a week or two.   I am in the process of posting them.