March Freezer Meal Madness!

Here it is-- my March Freezer Meal Madness!  

Meals I made (I'll link to each recipe as we try each meal):
1. Slow-Cooker Chipotle Beef Chili  (2 bags, ~4 servings each)
2. Grilled Pepper, Onion, and Sausage Calzones  (4 bags of two calzones each)
3. Baked Ziti  (2 trays, ~4 servings each)
4. Butternut Squash & Spinach Lasagna Rolls  (1 tray, ~6 servings)
5. Honey Lime Chicken Enchiladas (2 trays, ~3 servings each)
6. Pineapple Beef Teriyaki (2 bags, 3-4 servings each)
7. Slow-Cooker Tex-Mex Chicken (1 bag, ~4 servings)
8. Crockpot Hawaiian Chicken  (1 bag, ~4 servings)
9. Dijon Chicken  (1 bag, 2 servings)
10. Slow Cooker Smoked Pork  (1 bag, ~8-10 servings)
11. Ham, Broccoli, and Potato Meal  (1 bag, ~4 servings)
12. Bacon & Brussels Sprouts Hash  (2 bags, 2 servings each)


I had been eying up the make-ahead freezer meal movement for awhile, and I finally jumped on the bandwagon--if only for a day.  When I told Jeremy my plan to dedicate a full day to making stuff to freeze, I mentioned I might try preparing "4 or 5 recipes."  He said something like, "Whoa, maybe you should start with 1 or 2."    After much research and internet browsing, I settled on 12 different recipes.  Haha.  Somehow I went from "four or five recipes" to twelve.   I might have restraint issues...

My ingredient list (and resulting shopping list) was massive.  I felt a little ridiculous at the grocery store.  I felt even more ridiculous when I got home and spread it out on the counter:

I tried to make things efficient, so I made a nice mise en place of veggies first:

Next, I got the meat and poultry ready, using a different cutting board for each, and cooking it when the recipe called for it.  

Then the assembly started.  I made good use of my vacuum sealer:

 At the end, I had a lot of bags/trays of food.

 And we barely got it all to fit in the freezer (oops):

And here's the tornado zone.   Yuck.  I was so NOT in the mood to wash these dishes.