Remind me never to be this productive again

Before I start, let me just say that being this productive has been a work in progress.

I have been fully inspired by this blog post: http://www.aturtleslifeforme.com/2011/06/freezer-meals-on-cheap.html, and although I am still not completely this organised, I am well on my way, and I think it will be worth it.

And so it was that I spent my Sunday afternoon doing the following:
(the carrot and pineapple was made last week, but I've included some of the pics here)

1. Making parrot chop

About 4 weeks worth of parrot food

2. Chopping up the fruit that didn't make it into the mix - either to give to my parrot frozen, to use in infused water or for smoothies

If you freeze the fruit in ice trays individually first and then put them into bags, it prevents them from sticking together.

 

3.Chopping up veggies for the month

Corn and cauliflower - these are "dry veggies" so if you freeze them in ice-trays, they will crumble when you take them out the ice tray. If you want them to hold their ice-cube shape, add a bit of water to the veggies before you freeze them

Green pepper and onion - these are "wet" veggies, so they will retain their ice-cube shape when you take them out. If you don't want to use them in ice-cube sizes, then you can always place them on a baking sheet in the freezer and flash-freeze them this way before moving them over into a ziploc bag.

Grated and chopped carrot. These are also dry veggies, although previous experience has taught me that grated carrot will hold its ice-cube shape without water. I did add a bit of water though, just to make sure. The chopped carrot I left dry.

Once I put the chopped carrot in the bag, I bashed it up a bit with the end of a wooden spoon to break up the cubes.

I also made up some veggie mixes for future meals

4. The onions were the last veggies I chopped up, then I took a tea break to clear my kitchen of the onion fumes which were making me cry.

5. Chopping up all the meat for the month.

Before and after - I always like to write the dates on the packs

6. Because I was feeling industrious, I also marinaded some of the meat before freezing

And after that, I was full-on exhausted. I don't know if I will ever do this again! 

But if I do: I will start with the meat, so that I can make the chicken stock while I do the rest of the food. As it is now, I still have to make chicken stock sometime this or next week. On the other hand, I don't have much space left in my tiny freezer, so maybe it's a good thing to wait until next week.

If I ever decide to do this again, and do it all in one day, I won't do it on a Sunday afternoon because I was pretty much done energy-wise and I didn't have a chance to recover before hitting work on Monday. Definitely would prefer doing this on a Saturday afternoon or even a Sunday morning, so that I have some time to relax and recover.

Although I was pretty exhausted afterwards, I was pretty happy with myself. Joking aside, I think I will do it again, and maybe I can even prepare some of the sauces beforehand as well - either to freeze seperately or to marinade with the meat.

One more thing I like to do when making sauces is to make double, and freeze half, save myself a bit of time and energy next time around.

So this may (or may not) be my last kitchen / food blog for a while. Now that I have learned all my important lessons and organised my kitchen for the month, I intend to focus my energy on some other things for a while.