60 Minute Freezer Cooking: Chicken Quesadillas, Tacos, and Grilled Chicken

Yesterday I had 4 hours of alone time. Yes you read that right 4 hours! However, instead of being productive and making a freezer full of meals I wasted about 2 1/2 hours attempting to make another video for Skinny Mom’s Kitchen. It has since been deleted for the fear of someone finding it and using it as blackmail when I become rich and famous. Hahahaha…but seriously I will just stick to writing and taking pictures for now.

Anyway, at 3:30pm I did not have one freezer meal put together and with my alone time being up at 5:00pm I knew I needed to move fast.

My inspiration to freezer cook in 60 minutes came from Crystal at Money Saving Mom (one of my favorite blogs) who started a freezer cooking in an hour series. With that series in mind I decided to try it out. I set my phone for 60 minutes and got to work. I have to admit I kind of felt like I was on the Food Network show Chopped though there was no $10,000 prize at the end.

This is what I put together in 60 minutes.

3 pounds of black bean and taco meat. This is enough for 3 family dinners and most likely a couple lunches if there are left overs.

2 bags of chicken for chicken quesadillas. This is enough for 4 meals.

4 grilled chicken breasts. I made these for our chicken curry cashew sandwiches this week and extra for salads. A total of 4 meals.

That is a total of 11+ healthy home-cooked freezer meals.

Here was my strategy:

1. Get out and set up my pans and indoor grill right away.
2. Triple batch an easy recipe. Taco meat is super easy to make and is a family favorite so every time I put together that recipe I double or triple batch it. I just happen to buy 3 pounds of ground turkey so off to the pan it went
3. Multitask. My husband does not believe in multitasking, I have my own theories as to why, but for me to move fast through freezer cooking it is essential. While the turkey was cooking on the stove I put the chicken breasts on the grill and then started to chop up the rest to cook up for the quesadillas.
4. Have freezers containers ready. While everything was cooking I set up all the freezer containers so they would be ready when needed.

Now I have to admit it was actually like 75 or 90 minutes if you include cooling the food down and clean up. However, 11 + meals in 90 minutes is still really good and shows that it does not take a lot of time to prepare meals ahead of time. Freezer cooking in 60 minutes (or 90) was a fun challenge that I will for sure do again.