Investment Cooking

While Jonathan was attending seminary, I was a classroom teacher (second grade). I was a new wife, eager to serve my husband in the home; but, I found myself frustrated as I tried to balance my full-time employment outside of the home with my homemaking and "help mate" role inside the home. I wanted to offer my husband a home-cooked meal each night (eating out being the exception), but after-school duties and errands often kept me from returning home early enough to prepare a meal from scratch. I expressed my frustration to my girlfriends during one of our Bible studies, and one of my slightly older, and much wiser, friends offered a solution. . .Investment Cooking. She explained that most meals can be frozen (prior to cooking), and by preparing meals ahead of time, you can just pull a main dish out of the freezer, throw it in the oven, and fix a couple of side dishes while it bakes. The "ahaa" light went on in my head, and I have been Investment Cooking ever since.

As I began to compose my grocery list for April, I thought I would share my love for Investment Cooking, as well as some helpful links. Investment Cooking has many names--Freezer Cooking, Once A Month Cooking, Batch Cooking, Mega Cooking, etc. Regardless of what you decide to call it, it is quite helpful . . . especially for busy moms! The idea behind Investment Cooking is to prepare meals (that freeze well) ahead of time and store them in the freezer "put together" and ready to cook/bake. There are several ways to go about Investment Cooking. I prefer to do mini-sessions (2 whole days of cooking always seemed a bit ambitious to me), where I prepare dishes that use all the same type of meat, or I will double or triple a recipe, and I will serve one and freeze the others. This will usually take a few hours. Here is what I like to keep in my freezer:

• At least one main dish (casserole, etc.) per week.
• 1-3 side dishes.
• Cookie dough.
• Pancakes for Hannah.
• Special breakfast food (Mini-cinis, breakfast casserole, etc.)

Investment Cooking is not for everyone, but I love the feeling of knowing dinner is (basically) ready a few nights a week. It also makes feeding company, or inviting a family over for lunch after church, a whole lot easier. While I have been doing this for about four years now, I am still learning new and more efficient ways to go about the whole process. So, check out some of the sites I have listed below. Here are some of my tips for Investment Cooking:

• Plan all meals you would like to freeze before making your grocery list.
• Write down all ingredients you will need before making your grocery list.
• Use cheap throw away aluminum 9x13's, etc. for storing and baking freezer food. This leaves your baking dishes available for other meals you would like to prepare during the month.
• Only prepare large batches of recipes to freeze that you have tried and know your family will eat. (Many of the recipes on the Investment Cooking web sites aren't very tasty. So, look at their recipes to get a feel for what freezes well and use your own tried and true recipes.)

Here are a few helpful links (there are many!):

• Robbyn's Friendly Freezer
• Southern Living
• Investment Cooking for Real People
• Organized Home