Nothing this year has gone as planned or been “easy”. We have had so many hard hits this year, aside from Covid-19 turning life upside down. Each month seems to have it’s own theme of terrible events or health emergencies. I am not entirely sure when it happened, but earlier this year I had a breakdown. I just couldn’t anymore. Waking up felt like a monumental task, which made all other tasks related to being a mother, wife, business owner, friend, etc. seem absolutely impossible. So I was, for quite some time, a shell of my self. Drifting through the day until I could go back to sleep. I know that I am not alone in going through this, but it seems like something that is rarely spoken about. It’s dark, but it’s real.

I am better than where I was, but not yet where I want to be. (I have stopped using the phrase “back to normal” because honestly, what I considered normal before needed some fixing too. So I am better than I was, and on my way to where I want to be.) I know now that the unexpected will certainly happen, and that I may not be in the best mental/emotional/physical health when it does. Something that brings some calm to the chaos, for me, is to feel “in control” or prepared. But I am having to learn where I can control and where I need to submit to my Higher Power and let go.

So I made a list and started sorting. One thing that was overwhelming me every. single. freaking. day. was figuring out meals for my family. Meal planning was once something I did well, but now I was floundering and had no time to put towards this. We would get takeout or buy convenience food to fill that gap. But that can only happen for so long before it affects someone’s health or pocketbook. So I decided to start here, with freezer cooking. I will add more posts that show other actual meals I have made and put in our deep freezer, but today I want to focus on the easiest one to do… freezer sandwiches.

These are easy to put together, cheap, freeze well, and are a life saver on the crazy days. I made peanut butter/jelly, ham/cheese, and turkey/cheese. There are a few tips that make for a better sandwich, in my opinion…

1. If making pb&j, cover both slices of bread with peanut butter, and jelly on one slice. The peanut butter layers act as a barrier to keep the jelly from making the bread soggy and weird.
2. When making meat/cheese sandwiches, I do not add condiments. I am a serial “packet saver” so I have packets of sauce from every place you can think of and we just use that when the sandwich thaws. If you are normal and do not collect sauce packets, you can either add your condiment of choice after the sandwich has thawed, or you can add it between the meat and cheese layer and freeze (unless it’s mayo, that gets weird frozen). Keeping the mustard or whatever between the meat and cheese layer creates that barrier so the bread doesn’t get soggy.

I set up a sandwich making “assembly line” with all of my ingredients and get busy. I prefer wrapping the sandwiches individually in the fold top sandwich bags and then storing them in a bunch inside of a gallon bag. I label the date and type of sandwich on the gallon bag so I can keep track of what I have.

So, is this gourmet cooking? No. Is this “brag worthy”? Also no. Will this allow you a little bit of breathing room when your children are bugging for food, you just got home from work, and your kitchen is wrecked? Yes it will. Grab a sandwich, throw some pickles or chips or whatever on a plate, and call it a night.

*** Yes, I know… I could let my children make sandwiches… but that would require a different kind of effort and energy. These are survival sandwiches and I am not a housewife.

-Renee’