May Guest Cook: The How of Freezer Cooking and Breakfast Burritos

As I do with all my guest cooks…. I ask them some fun random questions. I think it helps us best see their personality.  Once again here is Kara Curfman from the blog 5survivethedrive.

Kara’s Favorites
Movie:Courageous or Get SmartDessert:anything chocolateVacation Spot:Mountains or lake (We LOVE to go on houseboats)!Hobby:What? I have 6 kids? Diapers, apparently. I love to share ideas to help other moms simplify and make life more fun!Her claim to fame: Freezer Cooking and foster parentingIf I got to spend 1 month on a beautiful tropical island all by myself, what 3 things would I take with me: Ipad (to read my Kindle books), chocolate and mascara!

KARA’S HOW’S OF FREEZER COOKING:

The HOW is a rather lengthy so I will only give bits and pieces.If you need more details feel free to check out my blog.I am adding lots of details all the time.We cook with only 4. No more and no less.There are several reasons for this number of women and yes, it has been tried several ways.You will need to decide what works for you.4 families x 6 recipes is a doable amount of meals to cook and the space in our church’s kitchen is set up perfectly for 4.When you consider the amount of groceries it takes to make 100 mealsthat takes up space rather quickly.Not only in the kitchen, but in the car and in the carts!You must be prepared for not only the cooking space, but the storage space and for THE SHOPPER and how much she can handle!!!We have two who shop and two who prep. More on that later.Our meal are all geared for 8.We range from 2 kids to 6.Each family can choose to cut the meals in half before they are frozen or use them for leftovers.There isn’t a chicken dish I can’t turn into fajitas!JOnce we have scheduled our date we email 6 recipes to each other for approval.Each meal must be adjusted for 8 and then adjusted for 32 since we will all make our 6 recipes 4 times. Once the recipes have been adjusted, our SHOPPER makes an Excel spread sheet.This helps her to shop and to check our non perishable items that she stores in her home (spices, etc).She is also able to make a PREP list for those of us who PREP items. All recipes must specify if they need to be PREPPED on the recipe. The spread sheet from left to right has columns that have amount of item, item, location is store, PREP or not, recipe name, one cooking it, bag or 9×13, how many it’s for…which is 4. The goal is for each meal to be less that $9 per meal. That is a little over $1 per person per meal.We have gone as high as $10 and some change and we were disappointed, but for the most part we stay under $9 per meal.We turn in receipts and pay the day we cook.Below are the pages I need to create:*a document of the ORIGINAL recipe and where I found it*adjust the recipe to serve 8*adjust the recipe to serve 32 (this is the recipe for 8 x the 4 of us).* labels with very simple cooking instructions.This is x 4 with one being x 5. This is printed on regular typing paper, not actual labels.***When going to the cook, I only need the sheet with the adjusted recipe for 8 so that I know how to putit together and I also need the labels.We get most of our meat from a meat processing place here in our area.We call it in and they pack it and load it into the car.You must remember we cook 100 meals in around 5 hours!That’s a LOT of meat. The rest is purchased from Sams or Walmart.We also call in our order at Sams to save time as well.Our shoppers are good with the budget, good with math (ounces, TBSPs, etc.) and have large vehicles and teenagers to help with loading the items into the church.When we reserve the church, the large double fridge has to be ready for us.Shoppers load it in the day before or sometimes the day of. A normal fridge WILL NOT WORK!