Freezer Meals

I’ve been asked about freezer meals.  I LOVE them!!  In fact my sisters and I swear by them.  The idea, make the mess once and eat for as long as possible.  This is tons more fun when I make the mess with my sisters but can be accomplished on my own.

 

Freezer meals happen in a few ways.

1. If I’m making something like lasagna, I make two instead of one.  You can cook twice the meat and twice the noodles at the same time and make 1 mess.  Prepare both.  Cook one and wrap the other up for the freezer.  This works well with any meal.

2. Freeze the leftovers.  For example the other day I made a ton of BBQ meatballs (YUM!).  We ate them for two meals over the course of a couple of days.  I can eat leftovers forever, but my hubby is done with them after the second go-round.  So I froze the rest. 

3. Pick a day and spend it making a bunch of things and messing up your entire kitchen (treat yourself to a meal out that night).  Here’s what my sisters and I have frozen:

·        Meatballs: with or without sauce.  Plain ones we freeze on a cookie sheet so they don’t stick together and then put in ziplock bags

·        Meatloaf: mix it up, don’t bake, wrap up and freeze

·        Casseroles: works well with just about any casserole.  Most of the time we don’t bake first, just freeze

·        Chicken enchiladas: pick your favorite one, put it together and freeze

·        Taco casserole: instead of having to put together tacos some night, just layer the tortillas, meat, cheese, everything you like minus the lettuce.  Freeze and serve with lettuce when you bake it

·        Lasagna: baked or not

·        Banana bread or muffins or any other breakfast breads or muffins

·        Soups: any soup I would think would work.  I usually do soups like I mentioned in number 2.  I make a ton of soup when I make it and freeze left overs. 

·        Cupcakes (instead of cake): make them, bake them, freeze them.  Then you have them when you want a treat, need treats for your kids’ school events etc.  It also helps with portion control since you take out what you need when you need them. Frost after defrosting.  Frosting doesn’t freeze amazingly well.

·        Homemade cookies: Mix up, scoop out and place on cookie sheet, DON’T bake, freeze.  Store in ziplock bag in freezer.  Helpful in all the same ways as cupcakes.

4. Prep ahead:

·        Brown up 5 or 6 pounds of hamburger and then freeze in pound or 2 pound packages.  This saves TONS of time, and a dirty frying pan, on week nights when you forget to take something out ahead of time. 

·        Cut up veggies for a pot roast (by the way I also LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my crockpot) and freeze those ahead.  Things like potatoes may discolor some, but I don’t care, and they don’t last months in the freezer, but it still saves me time in a few weeks and that’s all that matters.