Adventures in freezer cooking

 A girl friend from the ward/neighborhood invited a few of us into a Freezer Cooking Swap. We were each to bring 6 freezer meals and we would each leave with 6 different freezer meals. Genius, right?! I have a few recipes that I double and make an extra for the freezer, but this was on a much bigger scale than I was use to. Moneysavingmom.com talks a lot about how freezer cooking works for her family, and so do a few of the other blogs I read. I don't think I could handle it in the same manner that they do it, but I love this idea.

 I found a recipe a few weeks back for Pesto Chicken Stuffed Shells on Pintrest and had already tested them and LOVED them. David and I agreed that they needed sauce to keep the shells from drying out, but the stuffing is delicious. Chicken mixed with cream cheese and pesto? Yes please. I did stretch the store bought pesto with my own simple version (olive oil, pressed garlic and basil), but other than that I followed the recipe. I cooked a huge dutch oven of chicken breast, and was able to have quite a bit left over for other meals for my family. I boiled a large pot of water and did the shells in shifts, scooping them out when they were done. We wanted about 3-4 servings (we all have fairly young families), so I did about 12-15 shells in each one.

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    I used 3 jars of store bought sauce only because I had too many dishes in the sink at this point to mix up my own. We like a little alfredo with ours, so I did a big scoop in each tray of that too, and topped with parmesan.

  Here they are all wrapped up and ready to go! I used cheap Walmart disposable trays, so they were NOT very strong. I even made an extra tray of shells for my family.

  We have decided to organize a group and do this at least once a month. This recipe was rather labor intensive- I think I was working, on my feet, for at least 2 hours- but others wouldn't be as bad. Maybe Spaghetti Pie? or a Tamale Pie or a Taco Soup? We each included our recipes and directions for reheating. I am happy to have a stocked freezer in preparation for this new baby.

   Oh, and I think it would be totally worth it to invest in the 6 square Pyrex dishes that we just switch around.