Batch Cooking Parents Night

I was thrilled to get out and about last night to attend a batch cooking demo class hosted by Kindermusik with Lisa McCann. Last nights special guest was Amy G., with a background in culinary arts and a ton of knowledge to share I learned a lot about batch cooking, menu planning and what you can freeze. She also was kind enough to share some of her own recipes with us and I'm hoping that she will be a guest on Kawartha Bargains in the future to share some of those fabulous dishes with you! In the meantime here were some of my favourite top tips:

• Tape a piece of paper to the freezer door listing what you have frozen AND how to cook it that way if hubby dearest feels the urge to get dinner going (you never know) he will know what is in there and how to get it going
• Freeze soups, stews, chilis, etc in freezer bags and lay them flat in the freezer. This way you can stack them on top of each other to save space
• Ever open a can of tomato paste for a recipe that needs just 1 scoop? Instead of throwing out the rest freeze the leftovers in ice cube trays!
• Freeze extra smoothies in mason jars (leave some space at the top for expansion when freezing) and then take the jar out to defrost and you don't even need a new cup!
• Make your own frozen pizzas! You can even put them on a pizza tray and just cover and freeze!
• Freeze cookie dough in logs and then you can just slice and bake! 

What other things do you like to prepare ahead? What are some of your freezer fav's?