I had my first freezer cooking day in the new house yesterday and it went pretty smooth aside from the part where I had to run to the store for more tortillas, peanut butter and brown sugar!

Here's the room where I spent my entire day (or at least what felt like it...)





I spent about 6 hours cooking; the first 4 flew by, but a couple friends briefly stopped by and it was about that time I started running out of steam (and my feet were starting to hurt), but I managed to get everything done that I planned on doing plus 1 extra meal - here's what I made:

2 dinners worth w/ leftovers for lunch of homemade Macaroni & Cheese
2 dinners worth Chicken Tetrazinni
25 breakfast burritos (egg, hash browns, little bit of bacon pieces, and shredded leftover turkey)
8 dinners worth of mashed potatoes
homemade Bacon Ranch Pasta salad (ended up eating some for dinner)
homemade maple syrup
cookies
cinnamon rolls
big batch of Granola Bars
2 dinners worth of Southwest Roll-ups



I have had many baking days before, but this one officially wiped me out! This has been the largest of them all by far, but I will most likely continue to have these big cooking days if it continues to save time during the month.

I was doing really well with washing all the dishes as I used them, but somewhere near the end things started getting too hectic and I ended up with a pretty big pile of dishes to take care of (I forgot to take a picture before I cleaned up). I already knew this was hard work, but too much time must have gone by since the last one because this one felt like running a marathon!

Have you tried batch cooking? What were your experiences?

Click here to download the Thanksgiving Hotline Cookbook from Martha Stewart!

More recipe downloads:

33 Hearty Slow Cooker Recipes

Quick and Easy Chicken Casserole Recipes

27 Secret Restaurant Copycat Recipes

Have you signed up for the Land O Lakes Newsletter? If not, you should because it is loaded with recipes and helpful ideas for the upcoming holidays!

Right now in the Member Offers section they are offering a free copy of Homemade for the Holidays recipe guide, coupons, free printable gift labels and coloring pages, not to mention all the great recipies they have on their site year-round!

Sign up for their Simple Rewards Club here!

Free Holiday Recipe Guide from Carnation - You can have them mail it to you or you can download it to your computer!

In my house the 5:30 - 7pm time frame is probably the most hectic. Trying to fight traffic to get home at a decent time, getting dinner and laundry started, catching up on email, to-do lists, appointments for the next day and talking about the day with my love don't leave me with the ability to spend 2 hours in the kitchen cooking dinner. These time saving recipes will fit in very well on the days that I need a quick go-to meal that is still healthy and delicious. Check them out for yourself!

Costco publishes cookbooks and hands some out at the stores each year for their members, but not many people get them since they run out pretty quick. I found out that Costco publishes all of the books from last year and earlier as an ebook on their website - go here and they are on the right side of the page. Bon Appetit!

Yesterday was supposed to be Movie night Monday but my love had to work late and I had a big batch of bananas that were overripe, so I ended up having a mini marathon in the kitchen baking.

The time just flew by, before I knew it, my love was walking in the door to the smell of fresh baked goodies! I transformed those bananas into some of our favorite breakfast foods!

Banana Crumb Muffins (recipe to follow later today or tomorrow)
Whole Wheat Waffles
Banana Bread
and chopped bananas to use in smoothies

2 egg whites
1 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup skim milk
1 tbs. brown sugar (packed)
1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce
3 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt

Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl. Spray an electric skillet or griddle with non stick cooking spray. Use 1/4 cup batter for each pancake. When air bubbles form, flip only once.

This recipe makes approx. 10 pancakes