Eat From the Pantry Challenge- What I have learned

I mentioned at the beginning of the month that I would be participating the in the Eat from the Pantry Challenge.  It turns out that I have participated a little more than I anticipated.  It has been a crazy month for me.  Returning from the holiday break and trying to get back in the swing of things with work and blogging has taken a lot of time. We have eaten a lot from the freezer and pantry.

As I mentioned in my goals for the challenge, we have not been spending significantly less this month, but we have been trying a few new recipes and freezer cooking techniques.  Here are a few things that I have learned so far this month:

Italian Soup:
I posted about my Italian Soup Recipe.  This was a perfect recipe for January, and It helped us use some of our Hamburger Helper stash. 

Homemade Rolls- from the freezer:
One of the freezer cooking techniques I have experiemented with is freezing rolls.  I LOVE homemade rolls fresh from the oven- but I do not have the time to make them everyday.  Also, with only 2 of us, we cannot eat a whole batch of rolls before they go bad.  My mom taught me a trick over Christmas that has worked great for us this month.

Freezing Rolls:  Once a month I make a batch of my favorite rolls, I posted the recipe here.  We cook 4-6 rolls, depending on how hungary we are. The rest are put on a baking sheet in the freezer.  I let them freeze, then put them in a freezer bag.  The freezer bag takes up much less space in the freezer!  I had tried freezing a whole pan of rolls before, but I had problems with freezer burn.  Also, freezing a whole pan takes up more valuable freezer space!

The Thawing Proccess:

Ideally: get the number of rolls you want from the freezer & place them on a baking sheet for about 1 hr. to thaw & rise.  Bake as normal.

Quicker version: place baking sheet with rolls in the oven on 170 (lowest heat) to thaw and rise (about 10 min).  Remove them from the oven and pre-heat.  Bake as normal.

I am excited to learn a few more things in the next couple of weeks!  I am planning on doing a mini freezer cooking day this Saturday.  I will be researching a few recipes to try out this week.  If you have any ideas, they are welcome!