What We're Eating This Month

a week or two ago, I did another big cookday similar to what I did in September where I cooked large amounts of a few basic foods, packaged them in single-meal portions and stuck them in the freezer. (Here is the link again to the whole plan.) Despite that, I have only dug into my freezer stash a few times since then and have been cooking a lot more one-offs as I call them (meals that I cook the same day we plan to eat it, how novel). But the food in the freezer is more of a security that if I don't make it to the grocery store or just plain don't feel creative enough to come up with a meal, I can easily reach into the freezer and find something delicious and quick to eat.

my freezer full of one- and two-cup
portions of meat, rice, roasted veggies
and simple tomato sauce.

Having meal-sized portions of pulled pork or baked chicken strips already cooked and ready in the freezer is much easier than having a full, uncooked pork loin in the freezer (which I also have) because of the amount of time it takes, or doesn't take, to have dinner on the table. On Saturday I made Brunswick Stew with Mister Man on my hip in the amount of time it took Deputy Handsome and Little Miss to run to the grocery store for a fresh loaf of artisan sourdough.
So now that I have cooked for the month a few times, doing both full make-ahead meals and building blocks, I'd say that my favorite way to have my freezer stocked is with a little bit of both! To have a blank canvas of cooked meat and sauce for some meals, but on other days when I can't even manage that, it's great to be able to pull out pre-made burrito filling, or dump a pre-measured bag of ingredients into the crockpot.