It is getting chilly here in Texas, reminding me that the busy holiday season is fast approaching!  I have found that if I don’t start getting ready for it now…I will be stressed and overwhelmed for most of November and December.  So what will I do?  Stock the freezer of course!  There was a time when I could carve out a full day to do some holiday freezer stocking…but these days I have to think about things I can do one day at a time.  Here are some things I do that might help you be ready as well:

• Next time I am going to make meatballs for a family spaghetti and meatball meal…I will quadruple the recipe and have the kids help me roll a bunch of meatballs for the freezer.  I have a deep 11×14 dish I can load up with a lot of meatballs at one time and get a few batches baked in an hour or so.  After dinner, the family will help me put the cooled meatballs into gallon freezer bags. 
• These can then be turned into fast appetizers: put the frozen meatballs into a slow cooker on low with some bbq sauce (great with HG Baconcheeseburger meatballs), sweet and sour sauce (great with HG Old Fashioned Meatballs) or spaghetti sauce (greaat with HG Italian Meatballs) and serve at a party buffet. 
• Of course…when making HG spaghetti Sauce…this time of year I will never make a single batch…I will make at least a quadruple batch and keep it in gallon and quart sized freezer bags for a quick sauce on a variety of meals and appetizers. 
• things like: HG lasagna for a fast and easy dinner party (and if I make one of these….you can be sure I will put together 2-3 more to freeze and bake later), the meatballs appetizer, topping for baked or grilled chicken breasts, and for a crowd…spaghetti and meatsauce.  Not to mention the variety of meals I can make in the slow cooker with the sauce, like Italian Mozzarella Roundsteak.
• I will start making 3-4 batches of our family’s favorite 4 meals in 4 minutes recipes this time of year to be sure I have enough to serve a crowd for a planned (or unplanned) party, or to pull out and use on those hectic days during the holiday season that makes meal time a challenge.  I am able to do this by simply planning on making extra on the day I am serving the meal to my family…this uses time I had planned to cook anyway to go ahead and stock up for the future.  
• Fresh baked Cookies this time of year are always a treat.  The next time I make our favorite HG cookies…I will make at least 3-4 batches.  While the cookies I want to eat that day are baking, I will scoop up the rest of the dough into balls and place them on a large cookie sheet or 2 (they can touch…so I put as many as I can on a pan).  I will then tightly cover with foil and place in the freezer.  An hour or so later….when I have 10 minutes…I will take those off the pan and place the frozen cookie dough balls into freezer bags, label with type and baking time and put back in the freezer.  Now I can make fresh cookies at a moments notice when friends and family drop by, when I am off to a holiday party and want to bring a gift to the hostess, when I am having a party myself and need a fast dessert, or just on a cold day after school to take a break and share warm cookies and milk with the kids. 

There are other things I will do this time of year to be ready to serve a crowd, get ready for gift giving needs, bring a pot luck dish at a moment’s notice, or just have a meal to enjoy with the family on a non-stop day.  As I do these things…I will be sure to share them with you…one at a time!  What do you do to get ready for this busy time of year?

God Bless,

Tami

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 24th, 2006 at 1:27 pm and is filed under Planning Your Meals, General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.