Freezing Cookie Dough

So you commit to making cookies. You make a mess of your kitchen making cookie dough, and after filling up one cookie sheet (sometimes your one and only!) you pop them into the oven, you wait while they bake.....maybe clean up the kitchen, relax on the couch etc...Cookies are done, and your over the excitement of baking them. After all, you already had one, so your craving is fulfilled. Then you realize you probably still have about 2-3 more batches to make. So you finish them, and by now you are tired and don't really feel like doing much else productive...except maybe eat more cookies. Not to mention, the pressure to eat them before too many days pass and they lose that fresh-from-the-oven softness that started your craving in the first place. If this sounds familiar to you, then you will really love this post!

I use to always think freezing food was silly. Between my husband and I, when we would cook, we would just divide it up and eat what we wanted. Well usually when food is sitting in front of you, you are not going to listen to your body and stop eating when you are full. I also use to be 40 lbs heavier... Until I started freezing leftovers. Obviously, I lost weight from other methods as well...but freezing food helped tremendously!!
1. Out of sight, out of mind. After getting a normal serving amount, and your wanting to clean up dinner, it goes to the freezer, you realize your not hungry for more after-all when you see that there is no more food on the counter to be eaten.
2. Those cupcakes I have leftover from a party, they aren't sitting on my counter, they are frozen and I don't really want to wait for them to thaw.

Think about the money you save on groceries when you have leftovers still to be eaten in the freezer...sometimes 2-3 more nights of dinners! Even better, you don't have to eat these leftovers every night of the week, so you appreciate it as much as the first time you had it.

Well I'm letting my excitement of freezing get carried away and off subject here. This is about freezing cookie dough!

After making cookies one day, I really didn't feel up to rolling more balls of dough and baking them. We are just a family of three, how many cookies do we really need around here? I have a husband and toddler who will gladly eat them up, but that isn't healthy and I was trying really hard to maintain my weight watcher points, I could have a cookie...but could I really just have ONE?  Yeah right. So after just the one batch, which on my cookie sheet, was about 7 or 8 cookies--plenty. I took the rest of it, shaped it into a loaf, wrapped it in saran wrap and put it into a freezer bag. Wrote the baking instructions on the bag and voila! Pre-made homemade cookie dough for another day! It gets even better...

Few weeks pass, I come across another cookie to try out. I used the same freezing method with the leftovers and now I have 2 different kinds of cookies to choose from in my freezer! Clearly, this could go on and on... 

So this is great because now anytime you want cookies you can choose from what you have in your freezer, let the dough sit for as long as it takes to preheat your oven, slice off a chunk of it, roll them into balls (or shapes if using sugar cookie dough) and bake them. You can literally have home made cookies from start to finish, in 20 min (including preheating time), and the only clean up you have is your cookie sheet. You could even just bake one cookie if that's all your wanting or mix and match (which is what I usually do, husband likes chocolate chip, son likes m&m cookies). I hope you will try this tip out, it will change your life!!!!!   Here is a link for Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies that are in my freezer now ;)