To save freezer space, I line the pyrex dishes with foil , leaving enough on each side to fold the foil over the contents. Then label the contents, and freeze the entire dish. Once frozen, remove it from the dish and place in a ziploc bag, They take up less space and can be stacked. Then to use, remove from freezer, thaw in refrigerator, and place in original pyrex dish to bake. Easy cleanup as it can be served right from the pyrex dish.
Oh my goodness, it's BECKY!!! I love her...she inspired me to start gardening. One thing Becky said in one of her bulk cooking videos that stayed with me is when you look through the freezer section of the grocery and see all the different meals use those as inspiration for the things you love to cook that can be frozen.
My two most frequented channels! Love seeing you guys together. I love how you make this lifestyle manageable and understandable for someone who is making generational changes.
Yes thanks for drilling Becky Caroline ;), love both your channels 💕 (similar ingredients for bulk cooking but adding different spices I so needed to hear that.
I also watch both of these wonderful women. I have been cooking since I was 9 years old and started baking at 12. I'm a senior citizen who still loves to learn new recipes and techniques in cooking and baking. Thanks to Becky and Caroline for helping me too be creative in the kitchen! Debbie
Because of Becky, I planted my tiny garden. I grew flowers “from scratch” from seeds. I grew squash, tomatoes, chilies, green beans. I’m actually teary eyed right now thinking about all she has inspired me to do. She can’t even imagine the “seed” she planted in me to get off my hiney and do something useful. I have a long long way to go but Becky and now Josh, her mom and dad are always welcome in our home and new uploads bring smiles to our faces. She’s a blessing to my family. She’s a blessing to me.
I've been watching Becky since COVID when she first started. She's so relatable and she is inspiring. She can grow some food and I know for sure that her food is delicious. Baby girl does not skimp on seasonings 🤗
I loved this chat! Here's my tip for freezer cooking. You don't want to leave your frozen lasagnes or whatever in the freezer for 7 months so not only do I label my items, I write on my calendar say: Eat freezer lasangne today. I space out the same kind of meal on my calendar weeks apart so we're not eating the same thing too often. You don't have to eat the meal that day, just try to eat it that week. That way it doesn't get forgotten.
Because of Becky, I've started looking for Pyrex dishes at Goodwill.. most are $6, new in the store is about $15. Same with canning jars if they're priced good. Now I'm on this mission to shop second hand as much as possible
Goodwill is a ripoff these days! Saw one and it was $14.99, they even have dollar tree items for $3! It's getting ridiculous for them to get it all for free!
My Goodwill locations here in S.Florida have caught on and are charging crazy prices, $2.50 for a single pint mason jar and $15-20 for Pyrex dishes,sad to say Goodwill is no longer the deal they used to be.
I'm retired (older) and I know I can do more if I stop and take a nap after I garden. I get up around five so I can get out while it is cool, work as much as is comfortable, take breaks and I can get about four hours in each day. Shower, eat lunch and then a two hour nap! The late afternoon is for housework inside, reading or RUclips, depending on what I'm trying to learn. Diner, around six thirty and a little more garden time to set up hoses to water, or other short chores. I find it hard to sleep more than six hours at a time, so my afternoon nap is great! With canning or freezing produce coming up soon, I just save my reading until late evenings or winter. It's like using each season for it's best purpose, I try to place my work into the best hours of the day for each chore. The laundry doesn't get harder doing it at the hottest time of the day and the dishes can wait until after my nap!
That's brilliant! You coordinate the rhythms of your body, the day, and the seasons. How long did you have to experiment to figure this all out? Where did you start? Any tips you can give would be hugely appreciated.
We are seniors also and we take afternoons for napping and rest during the hot part of day. I do the most important which is dishes-laundry-toilet,and the rest can wait till I cant stand it or it rains.All summer time is for the outside getting maintenence done and gardens. We built our Hoophouse last year,this year a shade house and another larger Hoop greenhouse going up in the spring. Another large garden area we are building now while we fix the roof runoff water problem at the same time..bought a Dehydrator-have canning supplies if I ever want to learn it-but I freeze it all right now. We read and listen to volumes of material year round but tons during wintertime..
What I love about Becky is that she uses real ingredients to make the freezer meals, some you tubers just dump a whole of of processed food in a bag or container and call it done. We prefer to eat real foods and love the freezer meals
Absolutely love Becky's Acre Homestead videos. I love the energy, enthusiasm and the fact the videos are long enough to enjoy and watch when I'm busy in the Kitchen or resting after being busy. She's really inspiring.
I do a lot of canning but here is the most awesome part-i cook double the amount, drop the extra servings into a jar. They go into the fridge until I have enough to fill the canner!! I have been doing this about 4 times a week and we now have 2 full shelves of complete meals ready to heat and eat.
My dream garden would be about 2 acres but wow, keep sharing because I’m always with my pen and notebook watching you guys. So, thank you for your unselfishness
When I was younger, the kids in school, home alone I would put the stereo on, chop, cook, etc. all the while singing and dancing around the kitchen. I would do this for big cleaning also. It made everything fun!
40 years ago before youtube I use to have to make freezer meals for my family because I worked during dinner hours. I used Sunday afternoons to make many meals. I used the protein to make the meal list. chicken--stir fry, chicken pot pie, baked chicken with pot & vegies, chicken noodle soup etc. The most important thing I found was to freeze the ingredients seperately then add them together for the freshest tasting.
When you are making meals for the freezer, freeze them in a Pyrex dish and then put them in a ziplock bag frozen..then when you pull them out and put them in the same Pyrex to thaw. It saves on Pyrex and since the food is frozen you can reuse the bags!! Just wash them out! They stack well in the freezer as well!
I don’t have batch cooking days but I usually cook 2 of everything and then freeze one, spaghetti bolognaise, lasagne, curry, shepherds pie, if I’m making sweet and sour chicken I do one portion of chicken ready to use for next time etc. really great when you are rushed for time after coming home and the 4 kids look at me as if they have been starved all day lol xxxxxx
I do that too, I make too much on purpose so I have something to put in the freezer for when I work n don't want to cook. Simple things like mashed potatoes and spaghetti noodles pre made make a big difference to me.
Funny, cuz I’ve been doing freezer meals for a family of 4 for 45 years now. My future self loves the freezer meals. Think, take out the frozen meal, put it into the oven, set the oven to cook so it’s ready when we walk in after work. Huge benefit and no waste. Cost effective & very little waste. Thanks ladies.
You two are the best multi-tasking, hard working and knowledgeable Homesteaders. It is awesome to see that you can learn from each other and reap the benefits of tried-and-true methods. Yay for technological cooking inventions like a freeze dryer that give you more options and make your lives easier. You go girls !
So happy to see you guys together. I wish we could mix our weather as a recipe. Equal parts wet and cool from your region gently folded into our triple digit heat and long extended dry spells. We could make a beautiful growing season. I can say my peppers are so happy. My husband also used his gas post hole digger so I could plant my tomatoes and peppers extra deep this year. It has made such a difference with this dry heat. They aren’t struggling with their roots stretching so deep.
I'm in northern Montana. I just moved my family here from Washington to start my homestead. In the last month we got cows, chickens, and planted a 1/5 acre garden. This cold, wet weather has made gardening so hard here, too. It's been a discouraging season and I thought I was doing a poor job gardening until I realized how hard it's been for everyone this year. I'm not giving up though! I just started some different things indoors and will do a greenhouse next year to protect my more delicate plants. This is a lifestyle. You can't just give up if mother nature throws a hard year at you.
OhMyGoodness! My two most favorite homesteading ladies!!! Thank you so much for getting together and providing an informative and most enjoyable Pantry Chat!!!🥰🥰
Talking about waste, the average American family throws away 30-40% of the food they purchase and around the world the household food waste number is 61%. This is why I went viral on instragram when I started teaching produce hacks to reduce food waste. The average family really needs these skills. Love you ladies, 2 of my favorite youtubers that I watch weekly.
Y'all need to watch That 1870s Homestead too! Rachel doesn't do "freezer meals" per se but she cans a lot of prepped ingredients that then become "dump n go" meals. My favorite is her canned tomato sauces: Italian flavor, Mexican flavor, creole flavor and plain, you can turn those into so many different dishes with just a few added ingredients. All you ladies inspire me in so many ways THANK YOU.
Thank you for getting Becky on, I love her channel, yours too. Both yours and Becky's enthusiasm for what you do is infectious and I really don't like to miss your videos. I'm from the UK and find both channels the most informative for my needs and wants with regards to preserving and using the foods that you grow. I also admire the ethos you both have on life.
Many times I have made too much of something and because it's only me and my husband we have a lot of leftovers. We may eat on it a couple days, but then I put the rest in the freezer in amounts that we would eat in one night. I have been thinking of making more freezer meals and now that I have watched this video I'm ready to do just that. Will have to get me more containers to put them in and, of course, I'm going to check out Becky's recipes and it looks like she has some great ones! Thank you Carolyn for having Becky on the Pantry Chat!
Becky, you are evolving into a celebrity of your own right, who other youtubers will try to figure out your magic and copy you. You are original, down- to- earth, and undupicateable. Be yourself always and don't be distracted by anyone else.
I'm at the Grandma stage of life and I soooo wish I'd found a community like this when I was young. Thanks for the chat, ladies! You're both great! I have a ton of eggs to use up right now so I'll be looking for some breakfast freezer meal recipes. We're in the process of moving from farmyard to farmyard(welcoming the next generation in to the big farm house) and mornings, I'm never energetic enough to get a big meal going like hubby would like to see. He grew up on big breakfasts so getting some into the freezer to toss into our sparkly new air fryer will be great!
So happy to see Becky from @Acre Homestead on the Pantry Chat!! Great insight from Becky how to be more organized so that you can successfully do a massive freezer meal cooking day! Thanks Becky!!
What a treat!! I have been watching Homesteading family for so long. I love your courses and free PDFs. Becky is a fairly new channel to me and I love her too. So fun to see my favorite homesteaders together.
As I watch this video I have been up all night cooking and canning up 10 turkeys. Also preparing 20 pounds of ground venicine to make into chili to can. I processed the deer on my own and from a wheelchair. I am 61 years old and just became a great grandmother for the third time this week. I am exhausted, I have been running this rat race for a couple of years. It is difficult to get all my chores done on my own. It does make for quicker meals for myself, dogs, cats and chickens. Yes they eat what I eat.
Becky she has opened my eyes so much on food prep and freezer meals. It has saved us so much money and less time in the kitchen. Doing the freezer meals helps me with my anxiety and depression. She is so amazing and I can't thank her enough. I do a lot of her recipes and my entire family is obsessed with her sweet treats.
Exactly! Time management versus guilt versus the 'you're-never-done' homesteader mindset. For the past 3-4 years I've said to myself, 'have a smaller garden and get in more time in the saddle, work on my novel in the summer, etc.' Well, then all of the events happened, and I didn't dare ease up on growing most of my own food. But, last January I 'cheated', and bought large bags of baby carrots and canned them. So, this year, I may plant one row of carrots instead of four, and I'm leaving out beets. I can buy pickled or Harvard beets, and find deals on carrots in the fall. Summer is toooo short to be a slave, so I'm compromising and I will NOT feel guilty!
Hi Becky! 👋 I recently subscribed to your channel. So happy to see you on pantry chat. It's been in the high 30s at night and 50 to 60 here in Maine with Misty rain. My garden is so sad. Everything is growing in slow motion. Y'all stay safe and God bless you my friends. 🌱🐇🐄🐐🐖🐓🌱 Lisa
i love to hear other homesteaders from cold/rainy Washington. I'm also from washington and have 6 acres. I only use about 2 acres with garden, house, and animal pastures.
I am constantly looking for Acre Homestead and Roots & Refuge videos, they are my favorite. I have learned so much about long term meal planning from Becky!! I re-watch her freezer meal videos all the time!!
I make thick vegetable soup (using fresh vegetables from the shops or the garden) with small pasta and I don't blend them. We like it thick and chunky. Its great in winter. When veggies are at the end of season, I will use frozen mixed vegetables. Quick meal.
2 of my favorite channels coming together! Love it! Love you ladies! Just got our freeze dryer 2 weeks ago and been loving it! I’m the mother to 3 young boys, homeschool, garden, have chickens& ducks, have beef cows on occasion for our own meat, and I raise and breed Australian shepherds @ Australian Shepherd Homestead here in Michigan! I absolutely love hearing about family views of homesteading and I absolutely learn so much from cooking and preserving from you both! Thank you for sharing all you both do. You do make a difference in our family!
Hi, I have been following Homesteading Family & Acre Homestead for a while now, I still need to catch up on both, but Becky has already had a baby and is in the process of her garden landscaping. and you are due to have baby
I love you both!!! Hearing you talk about your cool weather made me want to cry…we’ve been having close to 100 degree days routinely. It’s like a blow dryer in your face constantly- AHH!! Dreaming of 60’s weather :) thank you for your chat!
We started making batch breakfast burritos {every other Sunday night} years ago when my husband had a long commute to work. He really liked the homemade burritos because it was something he could eat in the car on his way. I really enjoyed seeing the two of my favorite girls together on one show. We grew 52 pepper plants last year and had to get creative on the multiple ways to preserve them. I like the idea of making stuffed peppers. That's one I never tried before. Thanks for that suggestion Becky.
This was so awesome!! My 2 favorite gals on u-tube!! Thank you Caroline and Becky for your hard work, your knowledge, and then sharing it with us all. I really appreciate what you do.
I have been watching Becky for two years and just learned about your channel on her video, under one of her comment sections. Glad I came over to your chanme today, it was a good video.
Just wanted to stop by and say, as a small hobby farm, we so appreciate that you guys are always so kind & so realistic about farming/homesteading. I've learned SO much from your videos, podcasts, and conversations. Thank you!!!
Agree that small garden spaces can be very productive! A small well cared for space is better than a huge garden that gets away from you when the heat sets in. And yes, freezer meals ready to pop in the microwave are sanity savers.
My two favs…Love both your channels and recipes, always learn something new. Caroline inspired me to get a pressure cooker and learn to can and such a great teacher and Becky inspired me to freeze more meals especially for those crazy busy days and is so industrious! Thank you so much for this honest chat!
As with Becky, we are a family of 2, so large casseroles just don't work for us. We do leftovers but with a 9x17 dish, we would have to eat this for 4 days. I usually try to freeze things in smaller batches. Containers are the hardest part, but I found some smaller containers that might work. When I make spaghetti I make a quadruple batch and freeze just the sauce. For breakfast meals, I take a roll of breakfast sausage, cut into rounds and freeze on a cookie sheet, then I put them into a bag so I can take out as many as I need to make for breakfast. You can buy sausage patties, but they are way more expensive when the stores package them. I cook an entire package of bacon then freeze it, so I can take out what I need and microwave them for 30 seconds. I also buy "Grands" biscuits in the bag, so I can just take out 2 or 3 to make instead of wasting an entire tube of canned biscuits. Yes, I can make biscuits and have tried, but I haven't found a recipe that is as good.
I am the same with the small family. I have found small foil casserole pans on Amazon and I will do her large meals but put them into 6 casserole dishes. Yes, it takes up freezer space but I have 6 months worth of some meals so I do her occasional casserole, the marinated meats in smaller ziplock bags, breakfasts, breads, etc. I love the ideas and doing it, I just package it for my family
We must have gotten all your pre-summer temperatures here in middle Tennessee. The whole month of June, except 2 or 3 days, we were in the late 80's to mid 90's. Hotter than the last 7 pre-summer month years. Freezer meals sounds like TV Dinners. Kind of great to make. I like Becky's "letting things go on the way side" philosophy of prioritizing. I am also, so glad, you admitted that not all things get done, Carolyn. It makes me feel better about my decisions and how my place is left on the wayside, and I live in an apartment. I have had to take more time for my health. Thank you for all the information, both of you. :)
Thanks for introducing me to Becky. She has a lot of down-to-earth wisdom on making freezer meals. I used to do a big batch of freezer meals every few months when I was working. Now that I'm working at, from, and in the home I am finding new reasons to get back to freezer meal assembly. The feeling of knowing that there are prepped meals ready to go in the freezer is so NICE. 🌸😊🌸 Michele
Ive started making 'pepper casserole' instead of stuffed so you dont end-up with big bites of just pepper and I use all colors of peppers and lean toward mostly red because I've heard they have the best nutritional value. Great info! Thanks ladies! God bless ❣️
This is great information. It's so awesome I've done this all before when all my children were at home. It's great to see your passing the information to others just starting out with their families is spectacular. Thank you
I'm glad I found this video. Becky has been an inspiration to me. I've started making my own bread with her recipe, and starting to do some canning, and also making extra meals that can go in the freezer when making dinner.
I never thought of the decades of putting food in the freezer as "freezer meals". Another good way to make stuffed peppers is to cut up the peppers as well. The bechamel sauce would be great on that. Thomas's English muffins with a slice of cheese, scrambled egg &sausage patty, frozen Is a good one. Make the innards for the breakfast burrito, but keep the tortilla as the fresh component.
We are just hitting the very beginning of the 'garden lull'~~hallelujah! We wait and wait in early spring for warm soil and weather....then we plant like crazy, then we put infrastructure in place, then we weed after spring rains.....then we have a lull. Whew! I do a bit of freezer cooking for my Mom. i just made lasagna last night. I make big batches and then parcel it out in small containers for her freezer (She has mobility issues and can't stand to cook for long periods.) I also make a year's worth of soap in about a week. I make 1-2 batches per day and stop when I hit about 300 bars (providing for our home, my Mom, and gifts...). I'm about to start soaping in a week or so (during the lull, so is it really a lull? lol) The 9x13 pan thing...I need more! I made lasagna last night and wondered where all of my pans were...I'd forgotten that I made 2 big desserts for Father's Day and they were being used, so I had to use less favorite ones. lol I love Becky's channel! Great info and she's so sweet. She's soothing to listen to. Great interview!
I follow you both , but Becky longer, and I call her wonder woman because of her gogogo. I'm surprised to have found you both on a video together ❤️ ❤️ it's a real treat
Garden lull that was curriculum development and lesson planning time of the school year coming for me. So, more of a working vacation. Breakfast burritos are so special if you have the time to reheat them in the air fryer. They will pick up beautiful colour.
To save freezer space, I line the pyrex dishes with foil , leaving enough on each side to fold the foil over the contents. Then label the contents, and freeze the entire dish. Once frozen, remove it from the dish and place in a ziploc bag, They take up less space and can be stacked. Then to use, remove from freezer, thaw in refrigerator, and place in original pyrex dish to bake. Easy cleanup as it can be served right from the pyrex dish.
Thank you! What a great idea!
genius
Great idea! Thank you
Yes this is what I do too! I hate having my dishes tied up in the freezer!
Great idea
I love Becky's freezer meals because they are "scratch made"!!! Not full of ingredients we don't eat!!!!
She is so awesome , absolutely love her
Oh my goodness, it's BECKY!!! I love her...she inspired me to start gardening. One thing Becky said in one of her bulk cooking videos that stayed with me is when you look through the freezer section of the grocery and see all the different meals use those as inspiration for the things you love to cook that can be frozen.
I love her too
She rocks
I enjoy watching Becky. Look she can’t sit still she’s itching to go gardening, gotta love her.
My two most frequented channels! Love seeing you guys together. I love how you make this lifestyle manageable and understandable for someone who is making generational changes.
I was about to say the same thing about my two most frequent channels!
Yes thanks for drilling Becky Caroline ;), love both your channels 💕 (similar ingredients for bulk cooking but adding different spices I so needed to hear that.
Love them both
I also watch both of these wonderful women. I have been cooking since I was 9 years old and started baking at 12. I'm a senior citizen who still loves to learn new recipes and techniques in cooking and baking. Thanks to Becky and Caroline for helping me too be creative in the kitchen! Debbie
Same for me!! I find both of them so inspiring
Because of Becky, I planted my tiny garden. I grew flowers “from scratch” from seeds. I grew squash, tomatoes, chilies, green beans. I’m actually teary eyed right now thinking about all she has inspired me to do. She can’t even imagine the “seed” she planted in me to get off my hiney and do something useful. I have a long long way to go but Becky and now Josh, her mom and dad are always welcome in our home and new uploads bring smiles to our faces. She’s a blessing to my family. She’s a blessing to me.
I've been watching Becky since COVID when she first started. She's so relatable and she is inspiring. She can grow some food and I know for sure that her food is delicious. Baby girl does not skimp on seasonings 🤗
In fact, I would rather see her on tv than Rachel Ray
@@Mommyofcurlies 💯
Same here
@@Mommyofcurlies You are so right. I can only imagine how delicious it must all taste 😊
I loved this chat! Here's my tip for freezer cooking. You don't want to leave your frozen lasagnes or whatever in the freezer for 7 months so not only do I label my items, I write on my calendar say: Eat freezer lasangne today. I space out the same kind of meal on my calendar weeks apart so we're not eating the same thing too often. You don't have to eat the meal that day, just try to eat it that week. That way it doesn't get forgotten.
That's a fantastic idea. Thank you.
Because of Becky, I've started looking for Pyrex dishes at Goodwill.. most are $6, new in the store is about $15. Same with canning jars if they're priced good. Now I'm on this mission to shop second hand as much as possible
Me too! I’ve never thought of doing freezer prep like that before and once I seen her doing that, I have to do it!!!
I bought my first 9-13 a couple of weeks ago £5. I've only had round ones before.
Except in the store new for $15 you get the lid. Goodwill you dont.
Goodwill is a ripoff these days! Saw one and it was $14.99, they even have dollar tree items for $3! It's getting ridiculous for them to get it all for free!
My Goodwill locations here in S.Florida have caught on and are charging crazy prices, $2.50 for a single pint mason jar and $15-20 for Pyrex dishes,sad to say Goodwill is no longer the deal they used to be.
I'm retired (older) and I know I can do more if I stop and take a nap after I garden. I get up around five so I can get out while it is cool, work as much as is comfortable, take breaks and I can get about four hours in each day. Shower, eat lunch and then a two hour nap! The late afternoon is for housework inside, reading or RUclips, depending on what I'm trying to learn. Diner, around six thirty and a little more garden time to set up hoses to water, or other short chores. I find it hard to sleep more than six hours at a time, so my afternoon nap is great! With canning or freezing produce coming up soon, I just save my reading until late evenings or winter. It's like using each season for it's best purpose, I try to place my work into the best hours of the day for each chore. The laundry doesn't get harder doing it at the hottest time of the day and the dishes can wait until after my nap!
That's brilliant! You coordinate the rhythms of your body, the day, and the seasons. How long did you have to experiment to figure this all out? Where did you start? Any tips you can give would be hugely appreciated.
We do the same. Living in Southern Arizona we have to get up at 4 am to do our outside work until around 9am. We're celebrating early monsoons!
I like to put laundry in before I go to bed and dry it when I get up in the morning. With only 2 of us we don't make that much laundry anymore.
We are seniors also and we take afternoons for napping and rest during the hot part of day. I do the most important which is dishes-laundry-toilet,and the rest can wait till I cant stand it or it rains.All summer time is for the outside getting maintenence done and gardens. We built our Hoophouse last year,this year a shade house and another larger Hoop greenhouse going up in the spring. Another large garden area we are building now while we fix the roof runoff water problem at the same time..bought a Dehydrator-have canning supplies if I ever want to learn it-but I freeze it all right now. We read and listen to volumes of material year round but tons during wintertime..
What I love about Becky is that she uses real ingredients to make the freezer meals, some you tubers just dump a whole of of processed food in a bag or container and call it done. We prefer to eat real foods and love the freezer meals
Exactly!! Her baby is going to be so well fed!!!
Absolutely love Becky's Acre Homestead videos. I love the energy, enthusiasm and the fact the videos are long enough to enjoy and watch when I'm busy in the Kitchen or resting after being busy. She's really inspiring.
Hello Denise how are you doing?
I do a lot of canning but here is the most awesome part-i cook double the amount, drop the extra servings into a jar. They go into the fridge until I have enough to fill the canner!! I have been doing this about 4 times a week and we now have 2 full shelves of complete meals ready to heat and eat.
My dream garden would be about 2 acres but wow, keep sharing because I’m always with my pen and notebook watching you guys. So, thank you for your unselfishness
Thank you for watching!
So glad to see this collaboration!! Becky has been inspiring me for a long time!! She is not afraid to try new things and show you real life!!
When I was younger, the kids in school, home alone I would put the stereo on, chop, cook, etc. all the while singing and dancing around the kitchen. I would do this for big cleaning also. It made everything fun!
Love Ms. Becky she's remodeling a new home and still handling the craziness of her current home plus doing a FULL garden
Becky has helped me SO much with my crazy life and to avoid my ugly face crying breakdowns LOL Freezer meals for the win!!!
Loved this! You two are my favorites along with RoseRed homestead. Thanks for all you do!!
Same for me!
Literally ditto!!
Becky is such a breath of fresh air and it is amazing how far her reach is across all age groups.
40 years ago before youtube I use to have to make freezer meals for my family because I worked during dinner hours. I used Sunday afternoons to make many meals. I used the protein to make the meal list. chicken--stir fry, chicken pot pie, baked chicken with pot & vegies, chicken noodle soup etc. The most important thing I found was to freeze the ingredients seperately then add them together for the freshest tasting.
When you are making meals for the freezer, freeze them in a Pyrex dish and then put them in a ziplock bag frozen..then when you pull them out and put them in the same Pyrex to thaw. It saves on Pyrex and since the food is frozen you can reuse the bags!! Just wash them out! They stack well in the freezer as well!
I don’t have batch cooking days but I usually cook 2 of everything and then freeze one, spaghetti bolognaise, lasagne, curry, shepherds pie, if I’m making sweet and sour chicken I do one portion of chicken ready to use for next time etc. really great when you are rushed for time after coming home and the 4 kids look at me as if they have been starved all day lol xxxxxx
I do that too, I make too much on purpose so I have something to put in the freezer for when I work n don't want to cook. Simple things like mashed potatoes and spaghetti noodles pre made make a big difference to me.
I am subscribed to Becky, have loved her a long time!! She helped me to get brave in my garden.
I love your pantry chat.
Funny, cuz I’ve been doing freezer meals for a family of 4 for 45 years now. My future self loves the freezer meals. Think, take out the frozen meal, put it into the oven, set the oven to cook so it’s ready when we walk in after work. Huge benefit and no waste. Cost effective & very little waste. Thanks ladies.
You two are the best multi-tasking, hard working and knowledgeable Homesteaders. It is awesome to see that you can learn from each other and reap the benefits of tried-and-true methods. Yay for technological cooking inventions like a freeze dryer that give you more options and make your lives easier. You go girls !
OH, MY GOSH--MY TWO FAVORITES CHATTING IT UP!
This will literally count toward our homeschooling today. 😊
Love you both oodles. 💓
Hello JanuaryLisa how are you doing?
@@davidospina5216 just great!
@@JanuaryLisa That’s good to know. Where are you from?
@@davidospina5216 Mars, originally. Where are YOU from?
@@JanuaryLisa I live in Oklahoma City but I’m currently working here in Syria.
Where do you live?
So happy to see you guys together. I wish we could mix our weather as a recipe. Equal parts wet and cool from your region gently folded into our triple digit heat and long extended dry spells. We could make a beautiful growing season. I can say my peppers are so happy. My husband also used his gas post hole digger so I could plant my tomatoes and peppers extra deep this year. It has made such a difference with this dry heat. They aren’t struggling with their roots stretching so deep.
I'm in northern Montana. I just moved my family here from Washington to start my homestead. In the last month we got cows, chickens, and planted a 1/5 acre garden. This cold, wet weather has made gardening so hard here, too. It's been a discouraging season and I thought I was doing a poor job gardening until I realized how hard it's been for everyone this year. I'm not giving up though! I just started some different things indoors and will do a greenhouse next year to protect my more delicate plants. This is a lifestyle. You can't just give up if mother nature throws a hard year at you.
You two are my FAVORITE homesteaders ❤ I absolutely love both of y'all! ❤❤❤
Wow, thank you!
OhMyGoodness! My two most favorite homesteading ladies!!! Thank you so much for getting together and providing an informative and most enjoyable Pantry Chat!!!🥰🥰
Talking about waste, the average American family throws away 30-40% of the food they purchase and around the world the household food waste number is 61%. This is why I went viral on instragram when I started teaching produce hacks to reduce food waste. The average family really needs these skills.
Love you ladies, 2 of my favorite youtubers that I watch weekly.
Y'all need to watch That 1870s Homestead too! Rachel doesn't do "freezer meals" per se but she cans a lot of prepped ingredients that then become "dump n go" meals. My favorite is her canned tomato sauces: Italian flavor, Mexican flavor, creole flavor and plain, you can turn those into so many different dishes with just a few added ingredients. All you ladies inspire me in so many ways THANK YOU.
I enjoy watching you both so seeing you together is so much fun! Thank you for doing this video 💜
Thank you for getting Becky on, I love her channel, yours too. Both yours and Becky's enthusiasm for what you do is infectious and I really don't like to miss your videos. I'm from the UK and find both channels the most informative for my needs and wants with regards to preserving and using the foods that you grow. I also admire the ethos you both have on life.
Many times I have made too much of something and because it's only me and my husband we have a lot of leftovers. We may eat on it a couple days, but then I put the rest in the freezer in amounts that we would eat in one night. I have been thinking of making more freezer meals and now that I have watched this video I'm ready to do just that. Will have to get me more containers to put them in and, of course, I'm going to check out Becky's recipes and it looks like she has some great ones! Thank you Carolyn for having Becky on the Pantry Chat!
Hello Rose how are you doing?
Becky, you are evolving into a celebrity of your own right, who other youtubers will try to figure out your magic and copy you. You are original, down- to- earth, and undupicateable. Be yourself always and don't be distracted by anyone else.
I'm at the Grandma stage of life and I soooo wish I'd found a community like this when I was young. Thanks for the chat, ladies! You're both great! I have a ton of eggs to use up right now so I'll be looking for some breakfast freezer meal recipes. We're in the process of moving from farmyard to farmyard(welcoming the next generation in to the big farm house) and mornings, I'm never energetic enough to get a big meal going like hubby would like to see. He grew up on big breakfasts so getting some into the freezer to toss into our sparkly new air fryer will be great!
Hello Wild Nature Farm. How are you doing today?
So happy to see Becky from @Acre Homestead on the Pantry Chat!! Great insight from Becky how to be more organized so that you can successfully do a massive freezer meal cooking day! Thanks Becky!!
What a treat!! I have been watching Homesteading family for so long. I love your courses and free PDFs. Becky is a fairly new channel to me and I love her too. So fun to see my favorite homesteaders together.
As I watch this video I have been up all night cooking and canning up 10 turkeys. Also preparing 20 pounds of ground venicine to make into chili to can. I processed the deer on my own and from a wheelchair. I am 61 years old and just became a great grandmother for the third time this week. I am exhausted, I have been running this rat race for a couple of years. It is difficult to get all my chores done on my own. It does make for quicker meals for myself, dogs, cats and chickens. Yes they eat what I eat.
Becky is amazing!!! Girl has so much energy and organized!! Thank you for having her. I am a subscriber of both and love you both. Learned a lot!
I love it when my favorite inspirational people get together! Awesome pantry talk!
Becky started my homestead watching. Love that girl shes awesome
I Love Becky and Josh. They are so full of energy inspiring. I've been following her and you for a long time.
Becky she has opened my eyes so much on food prep and freezer meals. It has saved us so much money and less time in the kitchen. Doing the freezer meals helps me with my anxiety and depression. She is so amazing and I can't thank her enough.
I do a lot of her recipes and my entire family is obsessed with her sweet treats.
Exactly! Time management versus guilt versus the 'you're-never-done' homesteader mindset. For the past 3-4 years I've said to myself, 'have a smaller garden and get in more time in the saddle, work on my novel in the summer, etc.' Well, then all of the events happened, and I didn't dare ease up on growing most of my own food. But, last January I
'cheated', and bought large bags of baby carrots and canned them. So, this year, I may plant one row of carrots instead of four, and I'm leaving out beets. I can buy pickled or Harvard beets, and find deals on carrots in the fall. Summer is toooo short to be a slave, so I'm compromising and I will NOT feel guilty!
Hi Becky! 👋 I recently subscribed to your channel. So happy to see you on pantry chat.
It's been in the high 30s at night and 50 to 60 here in Maine with Misty rain. My garden is so sad. Everything is growing in slow motion.
Y'all stay safe and God bless you my friends. 🌱🐇🐄🐐🐖🐓🌱 Lisa
i love to hear other homesteaders from cold/rainy Washington. I'm also from washington and have 6 acres. I only use about 2 acres with garden, house, and animal pastures.
I don’t know where Becky gets her energy! I love watching her channel.
I am constantly looking for Acre Homestead and Roots & Refuge videos, they are my favorite. I have learned so much about long term meal planning from Becky!! I re-watch her freezer meal videos all the time!!
Loved how casual and REAL @AcreHomestead was in this video. Great job, ladies!
I make thick vegetable soup (using fresh vegetables from the shops or the garden) with small pasta and I don't blend them. We like it thick and chunky. Its great in winter. When veggies are at the end of season, I will use frozen mixed vegetables. Quick meal.
2 of my favorite channels coming together! Love it! Love you ladies!
Just got our freeze dryer 2 weeks ago and been loving it! I’m the mother to 3 young boys, homeschool, garden, have chickens& ducks, have beef cows on occasion for our own meat, and I raise and breed Australian shepherds @ Australian Shepherd Homestead here in Michigan!
I absolutely love hearing about family views of homesteading and I absolutely learn so much from cooking and preserving from you both! Thank you for sharing all you both do. You do make a difference in our family!
Hi, I have been following Homesteading Family & Acre Homestead for a while now, I still need to catch up on both, but Becky has already had a baby and is in the process of her garden landscaping. and you are due to have baby
I love you both!!! Hearing you talk about your cool weather made me want to cry…we’ve been having close to 100 degree days routinely. It’s like a blow dryer in your face constantly- AHH!! Dreaming of 60’s weather :) thank you for your chat!
Two of my favorite RUclips channels together! I love Becky and Carolyn! Great video!
I do follow you both. It’s been a treat to have you both together. Thank you!!! You don’t know me but you had helped me so much. God bless you both 🙏🏼
We started making batch breakfast burritos {every other Sunday night} years ago when my husband had a long commute to work. He really liked the homemade burritos because it was something he could eat in the car on his way. I really enjoyed seeing the two of my favorite girls together on one show. We grew 52 pepper plants last year and had to get creative on the multiple ways to preserve them. I like the idea of making stuffed peppers. That's one I never tried before. Thanks for that suggestion Becky.
So nice to see you both together!
This was so awesome!! My 2 favorite gals on u-tube!! Thank you Caroline and Becky for your hard work, your knowledge, and then sharing it with us all. I really appreciate what you do.
I have been watching Becky for two years and just learned about your channel on her video, under one of her comment sections. Glad I came over to your chanme today, it was a good video.
Just wanted to stop by and say, as a small hobby farm, we so appreciate that you guys are always so kind & so realistic about farming/homesteading. I've learned SO much from your videos, podcasts, and conversations. Thank you!!!
Agree that small garden spaces can be very productive! A small well cared for space is better than a huge garden that gets away from you when the heat sets in.
And yes, freezer meals ready to pop in the microwave are sanity savers.
My two favs…Love both your channels and recipes, always learn something new. Caroline inspired me to get a pressure cooker and learn to can and such a great teacher and Becky inspired me to freeze more meals especially for those crazy busy days and is so industrious! Thank you so much for this honest chat!
As with Becky, we are a family of 2, so large casseroles just don't work for us. We do leftovers but with a 9x17 dish, we would have to eat this for 4 days. I usually try to freeze things in smaller batches. Containers are the hardest part, but I found some smaller containers that might work. When I make spaghetti I make a quadruple batch and freeze just the sauce. For breakfast meals, I take a roll of breakfast sausage, cut into rounds and freeze on a cookie sheet, then I put them into a bag so I can take out as many as I need to make for breakfast. You can buy sausage patties, but they are way more expensive when the stores package them. I cook an entire package of bacon then freeze it, so I can take out what I need and microwave them for 30 seconds. I also buy "Grands" biscuits in the bag, so I can just take out 2 or 3 to make instead of wasting an entire tube of canned biscuits. Yes, I can make biscuits and have tried, but I haven't found a recipe that is as good.
I am the same with the small family. I have found small foil casserole pans on Amazon and I will do her large meals but put them into 6 casserole dishes. Yes, it takes up freezer space but I have 6 months worth of some meals so I do her occasional casserole, the marinated meats in smaller ziplock bags, breakfasts, breads, etc. I love the ideas and doing it, I just package it for my family
We must have gotten all your pre-summer temperatures here in middle Tennessee. The whole month of June, except 2 or 3 days, we were in the late 80's to mid 90's. Hotter than the last 7 pre-summer month years.
Freezer meals sounds like TV Dinners. Kind of great to make.
I like Becky's "letting things go on the way side" philosophy of prioritizing. I am also, so glad, you admitted that not all things get done, Carolyn. It makes me feel better about my decisions and how my place is left on the wayside, and I live in an apartment. I have had to take more time for my health.
Thank you for all the information, both of you. :)
Thanks for introducing me to Becky. She has a lot of down-to-earth wisdom on making freezer meals. I used to do a big batch of freezer meals every few months when I was working. Now that I'm working at, from, and in the home I am finding new reasons to get back to freezer meal assembly. The feeling of knowing that there are prepped meals ready to go in the freezer is so NICE. 🌸😊🌸 Michele
It’s easy to see why Becky’s page has grown so fast. She is lovely and so relatable.
TWO OF MY FAVORITES!!! Love you both ladies! Becky is a phenomenal at putting together meals for the week/month! Great stuff!
You ladies are truly inspiring
Ive started making 'pepper casserole' instead of stuffed so you dont end-up with big bites of just pepper and I use all colors of peppers and lean toward mostly red because I've heard they have the best nutritional value. Great info!
Thanks ladies! God bless ❣️
My two favorite channels! This is great. Really love both your channels.
This is great information.
It's so awesome I've done this all before when all my children were at home. It's great to see your passing the information to others just starting out with their families is spectacular. Thank you
I’m learning quite a bit from both of you ladies. Thank you ever so much for sharing your lives with us
Thanks for watching!
I'm glad I found this video. Becky has been an inspiration to me. I've started making my own bread with her recipe, and starting to do some canning, and also making extra meals that can go in the freezer when making dinner.
Wonderful!
I never thought of the decades of putting food in the freezer as "freezer meals". Another good way to make stuffed peppers is to cut up the peppers as well. The bechamel sauce would be great on that.
Thomas's English muffins with a slice of cheese, scrambled egg &sausage patty, frozen Is a good one.
Make the innards for the breakfast burrito, but keep the tortilla as the fresh component.
Hello Janine how are you doing
You two are my two favorite people to watch, I can't believe I missed your chat. You both are amazing
Yay! So excited for this, I love both of your channels! Have a blessed day ladies and thanks for all the wonderful videos!
Love both your channels, thanks for bringing Becky on today. 😀
I love both of you! I’m waiting for my azure order to come in so I can make Becky’s breakfast burritos.
I watch Becky everyday and I still learned so much from the Q and A. Thanks so much ladies!
Love our Becky. She has taught me soo much as have you all!
My two favorite west coast homesteaders
Yes Becky is a favorite of mine that I always watch.
So funny I have always loved Homesteading Family and have been on Beckys for more than a year........
Hello D Harper how are you doing
Been enjoying Becky's channel for almost year now! Love her channel.
Oh yay! my two favorites together.
Two of my favorites! 🎉
Aww, 2 of my favorite garden homesteaders/teachers.
We are just hitting the very beginning of the 'garden lull'~~hallelujah! We wait and wait in early spring for warm soil and weather....then we plant like crazy, then we put infrastructure in place, then we weed after spring rains.....then we have a lull. Whew!
I do a bit of freezer cooking for my Mom. i just made lasagna last night. I make big batches and then parcel it out in small containers for her freezer (She has mobility issues and can't stand to cook for long periods.)
I also make a year's worth of soap in about a week. I make 1-2 batches per day and stop when I hit about 300 bars (providing for our home, my Mom, and gifts...). I'm about to start soaping in a week or so (during the lull, so is it really a lull? lol)
The 9x13 pan thing...I need more! I made lasagna last night and wondered where all of my pans were...I'd forgotten that I made 2 big desserts for Father's Day and they were being used, so I had to use less favorite ones. lol
I love Becky's channel! Great info and she's so sweet. She's soothing to listen to.
Great interview!
I'm obsessed with Becky she is such an inspiration!
Loved this video. I love the idea of bulk cooking. Once my kitchen is done, I will be doing this.
I love both of you gals!💝
I love Becky!!!!
I follow you both , but Becky longer, and I call her wonder woman because of her gogogo. I'm surprised to have found you both on a video together ❤️ ❤️ it's a real treat
Garden lull that was curriculum development and lesson planning time of the school year coming for me. So, more of a working vacation.
Breakfast burritos are so special if you have the time to reheat them in the air fryer. They will pick up beautiful colour.
LOVE< LOVE< LOVE this wonderful connection.
My two favorite ladies! How fun!
Yessss!!!!! Literally my two FAVORITE channels on all of RUclips! 😍😍😍
Great video - I what both of you - nice to see you both on one video.