Prep Thanksgiving with Freezer Tips
Thanksgiving dinner is a huge undertaking. With many dishes to cook, it’s easy to get stuck in the kitchen for the entire holiday! To keep the stress out of Thanksgiving I’m sharing my favorite Thanksgiving prep freezer tip. I’m so blessed to be part of a very big extended family. We start eating on Thursday and don’t stop until Sunday, while making the rounds of family Thanksgiving events. I don’t host Thanksgiving dinner (whew!) but I do a lot of cooking, bringing our share to multiple pot-luck style gatherings.
Thanksgiving is one of the rare times I insist my crew walk out the door dressed nicely (and coordinating, if I can pull it off), hair brushed, and REAL shoes on their feet. Lets just say that getting out the door can be stressful! Rather than adding hours of cooking to the holiday weekend, I often plan ahead to make yummy, but easy dishes. One really great way to keep those dishes stress-free is freezing ahead of time. I’m already choosing the dishes for all of our gatherings and penciling in days to prep and freeze each one.
This week my 10-year-old and I got started with the most important part of Thanksgiving dinner- dessert! We made big batches of our favorite cookie dough recipes- Chocolate Chip and Oatmeal Chip. Yum
To freeze my cookie dough, I fill baking dishes with dough balls, and freeze the cookie sheets overnight. The next morning place the pre-made, uncooked dough balls into Hefty Slider Freezer Bags labeled with the type of cookie, the baking temperature, and the cooking time.
When I need fresh-baked cookies for Thanksgiving dinner, I’ll just cook the frozen cookie dough balls for a delicious dessert! I love baking cookies from frozen dough, when the cookies bake from frozen, they keep a prettier round shape. Try it! Just add 1 to 2 minutes to your favorite recipes cooking time to bake the frozen cookie dough balls. How do you make Thanksgiving cooking less stressful? I hope you’ll use this Thanksgiving prep freezer tip to keep the stress out of your holiday!
Thanks for these tips! We have a big, busy family, too.
I think making stuff ahead is a great idea. I host Thanksgiving every year.
Wow – 6 kids? Ok, I have NO excuse to not be organized for the holidays! I love your idea of freezing ahead of time, and using the Hefty freezer bags? Genius 🙂
Making stuff ahead of time is the only way to go! Those big freezer bags are so versatile and I’m always running out of them! I need a 50 pack!
We try to prep as much as possible in advance. It makes cooking the day of so much easier.
I love to make things ahead of time. It makes the day less stressful!
I think this is a great idea! It would definitely cut down on cookie prep time when you just need a fresh batch and quickly!
These are great tips. I’m happy that I will not be hosting Thanksgiving this year!
I like the idea of cooking .. it lessens the preparation time . Those hefty Bags are really convenient to write on
I totally need to start doing that. I always end up in a hustle before Thanksgiving dinners.
As a busy mom of 5, I can truly appreciate a time-saving tip like this! Freezer bags are staple items in my house.
I make the turkey breast the night before – it is a lot easier and only have to worry about the sides.
Definitely a great way to prepare in advance! Hefty is a great brand for all storage needs!