No matter how you do your Freezer Cooking session, you are bound to wind up with a few days where you aren’t sure what to make. Why not create some sauces to freeze, and you can then just add them to some noodles, or rice, or even over some meat, and you have a meal in minutes.
Here are a bunch of my favorite sauce recipes.

Lemon Garlic Sauce

1 tbsp margarine or butter

1/4 tsp minced garlic

1 tbsp plain flour

1/2 cup milk

3 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp parsley or other herbs

salt + pepper to taste

Melt margarine with garlic, remove from heat. Add flour and combine. Slowly add the milk a little at a time, working out lumps as you go. Add lemon juice and bring to just under the boil, or until the sauce thickens. Add herbs and season to taste.

White Sauce

3/4 cup butter/ margarine or Canola oil

3/4 cup flour (up to 1/2 whole wheat is fine)

6 cups milk

2 tablespoons chicken or beef bouillon granules or 6 bouillon cubes

Use a large heavy bottomed saucepan or stock pot, melt the butter or margarine over low heat. Add the flour and stir until the mixture is smooth then cook until it begins to bubble. Do not let it brown! Gradually add the milk.

When the sauce is thickened (be patient a double batch will take 30 minutes) stir in the bouillon granules or cubes. Don’t make any more than 2 batches at once or the granules or cubes will not combine. Freezes well!

Spaghetti Sauce

makes 36 Cups

6 pounds ground beef — browned and drained

1 pound ground Italian Sausage — browned and drained

4 onions — chopped

6 cans mushrooms (or 2 pounds fresh, Saute) — drained

Italian seasoning

7 jars spaghetti sauce (Approx. 180 ounces)

3 cans tomato — diced

1 cup chopped peppers

1 can tomato paste — large can

Brown beef, onions, peppers, sausage and Italian seasoning (2 pounds at a time). Drain well. Put in stock pot, add mushrooms, sauce, tomatoes, tomato paste, and remaining seasoning, simmer.

Meat Sauce

5 pounds lean ground beef

3/4 cup instant minced onion

1/2 cup sweet pepper flakes

1 1/2 quarts tomato paste

1 3/4 quarts water

1 1/2 teaspoons pepper

2 tablespoons sugar

3 tablespoons salt

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper — optional

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

Line four 8×8×2-inch baking pans with heat-resistant freezer wrap. Allow enough extra wrap to fold over top. Use one pan for each six servings or one-fourth of the recipe. Baking pans are not needed for food to be served without freezing.

Crumble beef; cook until lightly browned. Stir in onion and pepper flakes. Drain off excess fat. Stir remaining ingredients into meat mixture. Cook slowly, stirring occasionally for 1 hour or until flavors are blended.

Pour each part to be frozen into a baking pan. Pack food tightly to avoid air pockets. Cool for 30 minutes at room temperature. Complete wrapping by pulling paper up over top of food. Put edges of wrap together and fold several times so paper lies directly on top of food. Fold ends of freezer wrap over the top and seal with freezer tape. Label with name of food, date of freezing, and last date the food should be used for best eating quality (about 4 months). Freeze immediately for 10 to 12 hours before removing packages from the pans.

To heat frozen sauce, Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Remove freezer wrap. Place food in baking pan. Bake 1 1/4 hours or until mixture is bubbly at edges and center is hot.

Mushroom Sauce

3 tablespoons butter or margarine

1/2 cup canned mushrooms — sliced

3 tablespoons flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups milk

Melt butter. Brown mushrooms lightly in melted butter. Stir in flour and salt. Add milk slowly. Cook until thickened, stirring constantly. Freezes great!

Vegetable Sauce

3 tablespoons butter or margarine

3 tablespoons flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups milk

3/4 cup mixed vegetables — cooked

Melt butter. Stir in flour and salt. Add milk slowly. Cook until thickened, stirring constantly. Stir in vegetables. Heat to serving temperature. Freezes well!

Oh, the pure agony. Most of us have been there if we practice freezer cooking. You are standing in the kitchen, you have sweat pouring down your face, you forget which towel you have used to wipe the sweat away, your stove top and oven are working overdrive, you have food, ingredients and a huge mess all over the counters and you aren’t even half through with your freezer cooking session. How do you possibly beat the heat of freezer cooking in Summer months?

It’s too late for me to tell you what I usually do, but for planning for next summer, I have some advice. Plan ahead.

And while I plan to give you some advice on planning ahead, I have some relief for those of you who didn’t realize how bad it would be, and what you can do for the rest of the summer to help aleviate the heat and the long sessions in the kitchen.

Planning Ahead – If you can, plan ahead. During the late Winter months, and all through the Spring – I am usually found making a bit more than I need each time. Rather than doubling or tripling a recipe, sometimes I go further than that. If you have a large spare freezer, this will work for you and don’t hesitate to fill it up. Of course I also recognize that not all of you have a spare freezer, so I have some tips for you and those of you who didn’t plan ahead.

No Storage Room – No Planning Ahead – All hope is not lost for you. There are several options. When you are preparing a nightly meal for your family, double the ingredients or if you are daring – triple them. Then store the second and third meal in the freezer for the following week. Use zip top baggies to store, because they allow for more room and can be stacked easily.

You might also consider meals made up of cold ingredients – cold pasta salads, cold sandwiches, raw veggies and my favorite tip in the summertime – make your meals in the crockpot. That little kitchen appliance doesn’t produce much heat which allows for the use of even multiple crockpots at the same time with no change of temperature.

We use three different crockpots during any one freezer cooking session. It allows me to prepare more meals at one time, and keeps the heat down. Check out garage sales, freecycle and other resources for used crockpots. Clean well and add to your collection. You can use as many crockpots as you have spare outlets in your kitchen. Just be careful not to blow a fuse. Also remember that if you own a toaster oven, it doesn’t produce as much heat as the conventional oven does. Depending on size, you might be able to use it to prepare a meal or two during a freezer cooking session without using up a lot of heat.

If you do decide to use your kitchen oven, try to find a couple of dishes that need to cook at the same temperature, for the same length of time. Put them all in together and add about 15-30 minutes of cook time, checking frequently after its standard cooking time to be sure you don’t overcook. If you precook these meals, they can be reheated in the microwave, even from a frozen state.

One last tip that helps me everytime – if you have extra fans in your house, no matter how small or how large, consider placing them in the kitchen while you are cooking. They will help tremendously and if placed correctly, might help push some of the hot air out of the kitchen.

If you have any tips to share on ways to beat the heat in the kitchen when you are doing a freezer cooking session in the summer, be sure to share.

If you have been checking my site out for any  length of time, you already know I am a major “cook from scratch” kinda mom. It saves money big time, but I will admit, isn’t always quick on time. I don’t usually make anything from scratch that takes more than about an hour total to prepare (unless its a little prep time the night before). This is a super easy to make, quick on time and low cost casserole that my kids ask for time and time again. It tastes exactly like lasagna, without all the fuss.

Cheesy Ravioli Casserole

1 jar spaghetti sauce
1 pkg. frozen cheese ravioli, cooked and drained
2 c. small curd cottage cheese
4 c. shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 c. grated parmesan cheese

In a 9×13 casserole dish, spread about a half cup of spaghetti sauce on the bottom. On top of the sauce, layer about half of the cheese ravioli, then top with about 1 to 1 1/4 c. sauce, 1 c. cottage cheese and 2 c. mozzarella cheese. Repeat layers again starting with the ravioli. Sprinkle the top with parmesan cheese and bake, uncovered at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes or until bubbly. Allow the dish to stand for about 5-10 minutes before serving.