Some of you expressed interested in my freezer-stocking project (I've since learned that this is called Once a Month Cooking) a few weeks back, so I thought I'd give an update with my assessment, now that some time has passed.
SCALE: I found it to be too exhausting to shop, prep and freeze a month's worth of dinners. If I could recruit some helpers and had a larger freezer, I might consider it again for the future. KD says that she's been quite successful cooking three meals each Sunday, and then storing them for use throughout the week. I think I might try something along those lines. Possibly cooking 1-2 meals on Sunday and then freezing the for future use.
STORAGE: The recipes in the mailer that I purchased were designed for a family of four. Since I was concerned that JR might find the portions small, I prepped the entire recipe, planning to have leftovers. In the future, I will store everything in single-serve portions. Although this will probably take up more space in the freezer, I think it will be more useful to me, since there are many nights when JR doesn't make it home for dinner.
RECIPES: So far, we've consumed about half of the recipes that I prepped and I've only found one that I loved enough to repeat. None have been bad (JR said that he wouldn't mind having any of them again) but I haven't enjoyed them as much as my favorite recipes. The other problem is that most still require a bit of cooking. I think I'd like to focus on freezing meals that are either completely cooked and just need to be reheated, or just need to be popped into the oven for cooking.
Overall, I'm glad that I gave it a try. I do love a good project. Now, we just need to eat the rest of these meals, so I can have an empty freezer to try my modifications! If you have any recipes that freeze well in completely cooked or oven-cooking only form, please email them to me.
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