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I think my number one dm right now is
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like when are you going to be trigging
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about your freezer stash okay I'm aware
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that this is not ideal lighting or an
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ideal setup but I have a 4- week old
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sleeping on my lap this is what we're
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working with maybe if I go this way just
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a little okay so about 5 years ago I was
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a mom of one and I was struggling big
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time to just make meal times work it
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seemed like an absolutely unattainable
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task and then I had three more children
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over the next four years and basically I
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I was forced to sort of figure it out
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key to meal times and cooking and eating
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with four small children without losing
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my ever loving mind was bulk meal prep
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over the past few years I've really
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learned a lot about how to bulk prep and
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bulk store food to save myself time in
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the kitchen make meal times at least a
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little less crazy at least a little less
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crazy as it can be with four small
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children I want to share a lot of my
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favorite meals what are my favorite
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things to put in the freezer how I make
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time to like stock up my freezer my
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favorite tips tricks tools and all of
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it we're going to start with freezer
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prep and freezer storage so first up I
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just got a basement freezer this summer
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it was like the number one thing that I
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wanted before my fourth baby arrived
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like I wasn't looking at Baby equipment
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I was like I need a freezer but I've
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been um stashing stuff in my freezer and
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sort of learning about how to bulk prep
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food for the last 2 years or so and I've
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just us been using the normal freezer
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inside of my fridge so you definitely do
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not need to have a basement or garage
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freezer to get started doing this now
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obviously I stock it with a lot of my
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favorite freezer meals and I will have
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have a link in the description box down
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below that will take you to a post on my
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website with like all of my favorite
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freezer meals but I'm actually not just
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doing meals I feel like when I first
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started doing freezer prep and like bulk
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prepping Foods I thought it was all
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about just having freezer Dinners Ready
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but I've actually found one of the most
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helpful things to do is more um like
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single ingredients or like um bulk items
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that I might need for meals and not
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fully completed meals so we're talking
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about like some of your kitchen and
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cooking Essentials so these are things
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like shredded chicken chopped veggies
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broths chicken cutlets pizza dough
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sauces cooked veggies these are
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basically Essentials that you can have
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prepped to cut time significantly when
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you want to pull together a quick dinner
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so you want to think about the things
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that you cook and eat a lot in your
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house this is going to vary for
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everybody what my essentials are
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wouldn't necessarily be your Essentials
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what are the things that you find that
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you're cooking a lot that you're having
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to prep a lot and then you're just going
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to bulk do that and freeze some so that
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you have it ready so some examples I
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always bulk cooking is rice I find rice
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like such an annoying thing to cook when
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I have to have a dinner that includes
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rice cuz I just feel like I don't know
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it takes like 25 minutes and then
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sometimes I forget to cook the rice if
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I'm going to cook rice I cook a big old
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pot of it and then I'm going to freeze
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it and my favorite trick with a lot of
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foods like Rices or pureed vegetables is
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you're going to put it flat into a
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freezer bag and then you can just sort
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of scour it with your hand to create
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sections this way once it's frozen you
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can just crack off sections and you have
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like a single serving of rice when you
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need it and and you don't have to go
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boiling another pot and making up a
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bunch of rice say there's sauces that
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you eat a lot or you make a lot like
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marinaras or I use a lot of chicken
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broth and of course I do also make
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freezer dinners personally My Favorite
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Things Are Crock-Pot dump meals these
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are exactly what they sound like you
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dump everything into a freezer bag you
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freeze it and then when you're ready you
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just defrost it toss it in your slow
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cooker and you are done these are
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perfect for busy nights I typically do
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one dump crack pop meal a week somewhere
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in the middle of the week cuz it just
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makes it easy for me to have like a
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really super easy meal that I don't even
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have to think about again links in the
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description but a few of my go-tos are
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chili green chicken chili taco bowls
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various stews lots of different soups
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and basically what I do is when I make
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these I will sort of like quadruple the
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recipe and I will freeze up like four of
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them so I can put one in the crock pot
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now and then I have three or four that
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are ready for me in the freezer down the
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road now let's talk about freezer meals
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for kids as well this is sort of what I
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dipped into in like my second year of
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bulk meal prep when I realized wait I
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can meal prep a ton of stuff for my kids
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I mean these kids are just eating all of
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the time it allows me to maybe make
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something that's a little bit more
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healthy and homemade but I'm not being a
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short order cook every single night and
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I also do this for lunch boxes as well I
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like making mini sandwiches sandwiches
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freeze really well muffins or pastas and
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meatballs that I can pull out and put in
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the kids um thermoses I always have
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freezer stash of uncrustable peanut
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butter and jellies for my kids and you
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can freeze a lot more things than you
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would think that you can freeze um if
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you're ever unsure I would literally
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Google like can I freeze whatever and it
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will tell me if I can freeze it okay so
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when it comes to actually stocking up my
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freezer I feel like when I originally
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shared the clip of my freezer this is
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what got everyone like so excited like
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holy guacamole how did you prep so many
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meals I feel like we've seen these
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videos where it's like make 30 meals
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with me in one afternoon I don't have an
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afternoon to just make 30 meals but I
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was still able to very successfully fill
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up my freezer and I'm able to
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successfully keep my freezer quite well
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stocked by using some of these tips and
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tricks now first up whenever you cook
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something that is something you eat a
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lot and that's something that you can
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freeze go ahead and double it or triple
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it or quadruple it if you are taking the
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time to chop up the vegetables for that
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to open the recipe to follow the steps
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if it is something that then can be
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frozen do it and this goes again for not
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just full meals like if I'm making
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lasagna on a Sunday I'm going to make a
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couple of them and stick them in the
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freezer but this goes for like just
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prepping Foods as well if I'm going to
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cook up a bunch of chicken and then I'm
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going to pull out my KitchenAid to shred
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it you better believe I'm going to be
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freezing some of that because that's a
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big pain in the butt to pull out the
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whole KitchenAid to do that if I'm going
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to cook up a bunch of sweet potatoes and
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then puree it because I like to mix this
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into like my kids mac and cheese you
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better believe I'm going to be cooking
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up a bunch of it and then freezing it so
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I don't need to be doing this every
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single time so it's really not about
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taking these big chunks of time or
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having an entire day where I'm filling
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up my entire freezer it's just if I'm
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already cooking something I'm going to
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cook a little bit more of it so then I
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can freeze it and that is how I really
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successfully sort of stash up my freezer
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and then keep my freezer pretty well
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stocked as well it's basically about
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like cooking one to eat now and cooking
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one to eat later and as you get into the
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habit of it you'll find that you'll just
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sort of do it almost habitually that
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you'll sort of extra cook things so that
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you can stock your freezer with it later
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okay let's move on to some supplies that
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I really like I think when it comes to
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prepping freezer things definitely
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having some of the right tools and
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supplies can make it a lot easier I
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don't think that you need to have all of
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the right tools and supplies to get
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started you can definitely start with
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what you have but I want to share some
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of the best ones that I have found that
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I like using the most over the last few
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years first are these dishwasher
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microwavable safe plastic containers
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they come in a variety Siz and they are
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just really easy to pre-portion meals
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you can also wash and reuse them um and
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it just makes going from cooked to
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freezer very very easy there's no like
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extra steps involved I always have these
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handy and I especially like them to
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portion out single serving so if I'm
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going to make a soup for dinner I will
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double the recipe and then I will
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portion out maybe three or four for the
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freezer which just makes like an easy
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lunch or dinner for my husband or I down
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the road for Crockpot meal dumping goes
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I use freezer bags I'm in the process of
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moving over to reusable bags um so I've
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been testing out a few different
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reusable freezer bags if you have a
00:07:03
certain brand that you really like let
00:07:04
me know in the description box down
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below but like I said you start with
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what you have um really good reusable
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freezer bags aren't super cheap you know
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so I started with just regular freezer
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bags that you can get at the grocery
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store I also love these bag holders this
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holds open um any sort of like plastic
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bag so you can fill it up especially
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great for your dumbing go crockpot and
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sheet pan meals another product that I
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really love are super cubes these are
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perfect for portion out soups sauces or
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or even individual meals and stews you
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can freeze the food into pre-portioned
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cubes and then store them in a larger
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bag or container these are really great
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for single servings of broths that you
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want and pre-portion sizes okay a few
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more quick tips to success when it comes
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to freezer prep first always label
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everything trust me you not going to
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remember like you think you're going to
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I always include the date and often
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cooking instructions so I don't have to
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look it up later it just makes the whole
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process of having a freezer meal easier
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when all information is right there
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second freeze things flat when possible
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so that storing and stacking them are
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easier lots of times I will prep food
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and then I freeze it in my normal
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freezer because I can lay it flat and
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then I take it down to our basement
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freezer and I can sort of Stack it up
00:08:09
that way and finally again don't forget
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that you can freeze more things than you
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think so again you can always just
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Google if something can be frozen okay
00:08:16
so like I said basically this is how I
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stocked up my freezer and I keep my
00:08:20
freezer pretty well stocked without
00:08:23
having to take like a copious amount of
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times to do it I'm basically just sort
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of doing it as I am already cooking and
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you can use that same mentality just for
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prepping food even just for the week
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even if you're not somebody who wants to
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have a huge stash in your freezer so an
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example here that I always share a lot
00:08:38
is I prep my kids lunchboxes sometimes 2
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to 5 days in advance um lots of things
00:08:43
store well in the fridge longer than you
00:08:45
think that it will if I'm going to wash
00:08:47
and cut a vegetables put in their lunch
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box I'm going to just do it for the week
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so whenever I'm sort of prepping one
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thing if I'm already taking that food
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out I'm already getting out the cutting
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board or whatever utensils I'm going to
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need to wash and cut and prep it I say
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can can I do more of this to save myself
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time down the road even if it's just 2
00:09:04
or 3 days from now even if it's not
00:09:06
going into the freezer and like I said a
00:09:07
lot of things store in the fridge longer
00:09:09
than you think that it will so peanut
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butter and jellies other sandwich
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rollups I like to make snackbox lunches
00:09:15
for my kids so this would be like some
00:09:17
meat some Cub cheese some crackers some
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raisins that will stay fine in the
00:09:20
fridge for many many days so you could
00:09:22
easily prep an entire week of your kids
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lunch boxes on one day and be done for
00:09:27
the entire week and I do the same with
00:09:29
dinner so say I'm making like salad
00:09:30
dressing for dinner I'm going to go
00:09:32
ahead and make extra because now I have
00:09:34
homemade salad dressing that I can use
00:09:35
for my lunches if I'm cooking up pasta I
00:09:37
might cook a little extra for another
00:09:39
meal down the road or to use in my kids
00:09:40
lunch boxes while I'm always cooking
00:09:42
food and always sort of thinking okay
00:09:44
can I make more of this for it to go in
00:09:45
the freezer I'm also always thinking
00:09:47
like 2 to 4 days ahead if I'm cooking
00:09:49
something now that I'm going to eat in
00:09:50
the next week can I just cook it all now
00:09:53
and prep it all now and that way I don't
00:09:54
have to like make my kitchen dirty twice
00:09:57
or take the extra time to do something
00:09:58
twice and again once you really start
00:10:00
doing this it just sort of becomes a
00:10:01
habit the more you sort of find that you
00:10:03
can sort of double something or do
00:10:05
something a little bit more now and save
00:10:06
yourself time down the road you'll find
00:10:08
that you just sort of start to do it
00:10:10
habitually so I hope that this sort of
00:10:12
helped you guys out and it gives you a
00:10:13
little insight into how I stacked my
00:10:15
freezer some of my favorite things to
00:10:17
stock my freezer with and how I really
00:10:18
use my freezer super successfully
00:10:21
obviously my freezer was a little extra
00:10:22
prepped because I was like getting ready
00:10:23
for newborn life but even if you have
00:10:25
just a small fraction of what I did it
00:10:27
just makes meal time so much easier and
00:10:29
it just saves you time again at the end
00:10:31
of the day what it really come down to
00:10:32
for me is like if I'm going to cook
00:10:34
something once why would I cook it two
00:10:35
or three times if I can just do it once
00:10:38
now and then I'm done with it as always
00:10:40
thank you so much for stopping by and
00:10:41
watching I hope that you enjoyed this
00:10:43
video I hope that it helped you out
00:10:44
inspired you to do a little bit of meal
00:10:46
prepping or freezer prepping or whatever
00:10:48
it is remember to be kind to yourself
00:10:49
and others and I will see you all in my
00:10:51
next video
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