Freezer Meal Game Plan

As I was pondering how I wanted this birth to go, I thought back to some things that would have made life a little bit more easy with Charlie's birth and after math.  Life will be a little different this time around because of the extra responsibilities I now have.  As  far as the Bishop and I have discussed they plan to keep me as the RS President after baby comes.  We will keep the lines of communications open after she's comes and if things become too overwhelming we will have a serious discussion.  I believe that if I am meant to keep this calling then The Lord will open the way and make it doable.  We are going forward with faith.

Anyways, in light of what I have learned from having three and how busy life gets now, I decided I was going to dedicate plenty of time to freezer meals to help ease the burden of the first little while after the birth of a new child.  With Charlie we just didn't have it in the budget for this large of scale and I was on bed rest during the time I had planned to prepare meals.  This time somehow we have the budget and I have time!  How that's possible............I don't know but it is definitely a blessing from Heavenly Father.

So I'll start with what I've done so far.  First, I went through cookbooks (my sister in-law gave me a freezer meal cookbook I asked for for Christmas) and pinterest.  They were both great resources on tips from moms who have tried and true recipes.  I was able to come up with this list of items to make:

BEEF:
Meat pies
Sloppy joes
Beef Chimichangas

CHICKEN:
Chicken pot pie
Chicken Chimichangas
Chicken Enchiladas
Cheesy Chicken Penne
Chicken Stir Fry

SOUPS:
 White Chicken chili
Crowd Pleaser Mexican soup
Crockpot Chicken Tortilla Soup

BREAKFAST:
Breakfast Burritos
Baked Pumpkin and blueberry french toast
Blueberry and peach baked oatmeal
Farmer's Breakfast Casserole
Cinnamon Rolls (still on the fence if I'll have time)
Smoothies

DESSERTS:
Monster Cookies
Brownies
Orange Frozen Dream pie

BAKED GOODS:
Ham and Cheese braid
Homemade frozen pizza
Biscuits
French bread
Rolls for sloppy joes (Still on the fence about these too)

Once I made a list of all that I wanted  make, I decided how many of each. I'm only doubling everything because we like a little variety.  I also did a lot of chicken dishes because I plan to cook the chicken in a big crock pot, except for the stir fry. I originally had planned to do all the cooking in one day but Dan talked me down to breaking it into 3 days (smart man.) I then made a list in Microsoft Word that had all the ingredients listed under each recipe.  I then compiled 3 master lists for my three cooking days. I also plan to see what I have on hand to cut back on the cost.  I also plan to make my own dough and french bread for the recipes.I also plan to take the day before so  I can bake french bread for the baked pumpkin and blueberry french toast can be done the day before.

Here's how I decided to break up my three days:

Day 1: Chicken Recipes
Day 2: Beef Recipes and other main dishes (Ham and Cheese braid and pizzas)
Day 3: Breakfasts, Baked goods and Desserts

I'll let you know how the whole process goes.  I've been trying to be super organized about it to make it less stressful and to actually be able to tackle this big project!  My first shopping and cooking days will take place the 18th and 19th.  The rest I'll do once per week during the week. I am hoping this will give us 2-2 1/2 months worth of freezer meals. That combined with hopefully a few meals the first week after baby comes home we should hopefully be able to make it through the first three months.  Of course this is all just a theory and we will see how it goes.