Last week I got busy with a few freezer meals. I saw on a friends Facebook that she had pre-made meals so that on hot summer days she didn't have to worry about cooking. Pull it out of the freezer, bake, and voila! So I did a bit of searching on Pinterest for recipes, as well as used my own and came up with this list of meals:
CrockPot
Cheesy Chicken
Bake and Serve
Turkey Pot Pie
Lasagna
Reheat and Serve
Chicken Salsa
Ham Chowder
In total this list produced 26 frozen meals! On top of this I will be able to send Sandy out to the Barbecue and thus drastically reducing my number of evenings spent cooking!
A few of the recipes I found on the internet so try clicking on some of the recipes and they will take you to the website I found them on. Some of the other recipes I found in a company's coming cookbook (all about cooking with ground beef) and the rest are family recipes. You don't have to make "freezer meals" in order to freeze them. I made a lot of one dish meals like lasagna, pies, and casseroles. I basically prepared and cooked what needed to be done ahead of time and then stopped at the baking step. Instead of baking the dish I sealed it up and put it in the freezer (but of course wrote the bake instructions on the front of the bag first). I think you can basically make anything into a freezer meal! I have a nephew on the way in a few weeks and am going to make my sister-in-law a bunch of meals for when baby gets here, but I think I will try more slow cooker meals for her. Much easier to thaw, dump, and slow cook! Another thing I did was prepare all the meals in disposable baking dishes (the tinfoil round and square dishes) so that we can simply eat and toss. No muss to fuss!
Anyway that is it for my freezer cooking attempt number 1. I will DEFINITELY be doing this with baby number two, it just makes life so easy!
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| Prepping for the cooking frenzy! Laying out all the ingredients for each meal |
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| A few of the crock pot meals complete |
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| The grand finale! 26 meals later |
I love your blog, Jami!
ReplyDeleteYou inspire me! I love it all and it is helping me prepare for pregnancy. It's nice to have someone share their experiences, especially a first time mom.
Take care,
Jessy
Thanks Jessy! Im glad that you like it. It's a blind audience so I usually have no clue who reads! I hope you are doing well!!
ReplyDeletethank you so much!!!! I am so excited to get started!
ReplyDeleteI have been printing off reciepts this moring to make up my lists. I cant seem to connect to the link with healthy mamma bbq chicken. Do you happen to have a copy? Thank you again for all your help. You have really given my the push to get organized!
Have a blessed day!
Bridgette
brignoland@gmail.com
Hi Bridgette
DeleteTry this link and if it doesn't work I'll just type up the recipe
http://www.ringaroundtherosies.net/2012/02/freezer-cooking.html
Let me know if you still can't get the recipe :)
Hi I was wondering, for your salsa chicken do you add the rice before freezing as the recipe states to, and if so, how do you typically reheat this recipe once frozen? I am pulling together my list of recipes for my first attempt at freezer meals!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your feedback!!!
~Meaghan
Hi Megan
DeleteYes that is what I do and for the day of eating I just thaw and microwave for this one :)
Hi! I really like this blog! I can see how this is helpful with babies at home. I'm not a mom but I am a Grad Student, and I find it SO hard to make time to cook a real dinner for my family most nights ( my sweet little niece, my sister live w me and my boyfriend and I am the only cook!) So I am definitely going to try this before next semester starts next week...one question, and it might sound dumb...but the one dish meals, say shepard's pie (I make that a lot at home and would love to have it premade on a weekday) you put it in the tin throw away dish, and cover with? foil? or cling wrap or both? and do you double wrap? or anything special so no freezer burn? Thanks!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteHi Kerri
DeleteI usually put them in the foil containers, then cover with tinfoil and then put the entire thing in a large freezer ziplock bag!
Hope that helps
Hi Jami, I'm preparing for the arrival of baby #2 and trying my hand at freezer meals for the first time. I love some of your recipes but I'm a little confused as to which ones require cooking the meat (or other ingredients) ahead of time and which ones you can just throw the raw meat and ingredients into a bag and cook it all on the day you decide to eat it. The main one I'm a little confused on is Italian Crockpot Chicken and Rice. Also the Salsa Chicken, I got the impression that you'd freeze everything raw then cook in the slow cooker after thawing but a comment above made me question that. Any advice you can offer would be great. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteSorry that this comment got missed!! For salsa chicken it is one that I cook entirely and just freeze as a heat and serve meal. Warm up on the stove and eat day of. The Italian crockpot chicken I do freeze everything raw and then put in the slow cooker day of. Congrats on baby #2 and sorry again for not replying sooner!
DeleteI also am confused. Do you cook everything in the shephards pie and freeze it already cooked?
ReplyDeleteFor shepherds pie I pre cook the meat and potatoes and put then in the foil pan and then freeze. Day of, I thaw and then do the final baking as per the recipe.
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