Anyone else preparing freezer meals??

SHOPPRINCSS · February 2012

Is anyone else preparing freezer meals before baby? This is our second and I am having another c-section and want to prepare at least 1-2 weeks worth of meals for my husband to be able to just pop in the oven. Does anyone know of the best site or fav recipes? I have been using pinterest but haven't found a lot of dishes that sound good...may just be the pregnancy

Kdrake8 · February 2012

I am! I'm trying to do lots of crock pot meals, where I can just defrost a bag overnight and dump it in the crock pot in the mornings.

Right now, I've cooked pork, shredded it (for pulled pork) and froze it plain so I just have to dump in the BBQ sauce and other ingredients... Same thing with chicken - shredded it for both BBQ sauce and also for a good Mexican shredded chicken taco recipe.

I put together beef stew bags with the veggies and meat frozen. I've frozen half casseroles, lasagna, and bags of spaghetti sauce and meatballs.

I honestly think the crock pot ones will be the easiest to still appear "fresh" when they're prepared.

Kdrake8 · February 2012

Also stuffed pepper soup! I forgot that one!

speckledfrog · February 2012

I got a couple books from the library. One of the ones I flagged the most recipes in was Idiot's Guide to Easy Freezer Meals.

hewinked · February 2012

I've honestly just been googling and saving things that sound good. Also doing some crock pot things, like a stew. I'm making spaghetti, chicken tetrazzini, ham and potato soup, a roast. I did a few of those things after I had DS, and it worked out so great. I've been a cooking machine lately.

PrayThenWait · February 2012

I recently found 5dinners1hour.com and prepped the sample menu, 3 of the 5 need eaten that week, but the other 2 we're freezing. It really did take only an hour to prep them, and for our family of 3 we'll probably get 10 meals plus some lunches out of them all. Haven't eaten any yet to know how good they'll be.... but they all sound and look great to me.

She has a weekly subsciption that is similar, as far as some to eat now and some to freeze, or you can purchase an ebook that is a year's worth of recipes and could pick out just the freezer ones. The third chioce would be an ebook of crock pot recipes, and I assume a bunch of these could be frozen. Oh and at least the weekly subscription includes the grocery list divided among sections at the store (meat/freezer/produce, etc).

Also mamaandbabylove.com is a blog with several freezer and crock pot freezer meals. Haven't tried them out yet, but it's next on my list.... as nesting has set in at my house Smile

PrayThenWait · February 2012

I recently found 5dinners1hour.com and prepped the sample menu, 3 of the 5 need eaten that week, but the other 2 we're freezing. It really did take only an hour to prep them, and for our family of 3 we'll probably get 10 meals plus some lunches out of them all. Haven't eaten any yet to know how good they'll be.... but they all sound and look great to me.

She has a weekly subsciption that is similar, as far as some to eat now and some to freeze, or you can purchase an ebook that is a year's worth of recipes and could pick out just the freezer ones. The third chioce would be an ebook of crock pot recipes, and I assume a bunch of these could be frozen. Oh and at least the weekly subscription includes the grocery list divided among sections at the store (meat/freezer/produce, etc).

Also mamaandbabylove.com is a blog with several freezer and crock pot freezer meals. Haven't tried them out yet, but it's next on my list.... as nesting has set in at my house Smile

lindsayandjamie · February 2012

Last week I made chicken enchiladas, lasagna, and cheesy chicken breasts for the freezer- at least 9 meals. I also have 2 chicken lasganas, chili and spare ribs in the freezer so another 5 or more. I found my freezer meals on Pinterest.

Jillibean85 · February 2012

I'm probably one of the few people here that doesn't plan on freezing any meals... For some reason i don't like the way something tastes once cooked/thawed/re-heated (the texture or taste always seems off)... On top of that, my DH can cook meals, so i don't see the point in it, i guess.

WildcatPrincess · February 2012

This is my site of choice. I think it was the included shopping list and lack of precooking that did it for me, but they do require a Crock Pot.

https://melissafallistestkitchen.blogspot.com/2011/09/freezer-cooking-slow-cooker-meals.html

greengirl0909 · February 2012

I was absolutely overwhelmed with the birth of DS1. I can remember thinking okay, I'll cook today, and it absolutely did me to in. To chop veggies/do multiple steps was just killer. Particularly when he was nursing so often, it was really tough. DH can and will gladly cook, but I wanted to be prepared for balancing 2 and keeping our schedule going and whatnot.

I have 15 meals either frozen or the crock pot ingredients ready to go. My mom is coming tomorrow and we're doing 15 more. The website I found most useful was:

https://www.momsbudget.com/freezercooking/index.html

achoward16 · February 2012

Mmmm some of those meals sound delicious! I am just now starting to plan what meals I may want to make ahead and freeze, so far I've only decided on meatballs! I'm thinking I will also make some shredded chicken to use for tacos/tostados, maybe a casserole or two and definitely something to throw in the crockpot!

92405bride · February 2012

We just made a ton last weekend - here's my blog post with tips and recipes:

https://erinkristine.blogspot.com/2012/02/freezer-meals-take-2.html

lbwsimpson · February 2012

DH and I are planning on making a kick-ass thing of lasagna tomorrow. I'm holding out on making some things because I'm hoping my mom will feel sorry for us and make us her homemade chicken tortellini soup. ;-)

frostnoel · February 2012

So far, I have some breakfasts (pancakes, muffins, cinnamon rolls and monkey bread) and soups/sauces frozen. I want to prep some Crock-Pot recipes too, but our little freezer doesn't have much more room.

MrsLindinger0905 · February 2012

This is a bit of a stretch, but if anyone has a friend who sells tastefully simple get with them and ask about their freezer meal workshops! Basically you pay for a few TS ingredients (spices mostly) and you get instructions on how to put together a ton of meals.

jeffsjayme · February 2012

I just make my usual meals as freezer meals when possible. Soups/stews work well when frozen as well as lots of pastas.

I tend to like freezing components that make a meal easily. So freezing a bunch of spaghetti sauce in ziploc bags. Then I only need to reheat and add noodles. Or browning a whole bunch of taco meat (like 5 pounds worth) tino "1 meal" sized bags. Then I can take out the meat and have tacos or use in another recipe.

You can freeze alot of things - even noodles. About the only thing that I know I don't freeze is green onions. I heard they get all wonky.

jess&mike071005 · February 2012

Here are a few sites I bookmarked from a previous post like this. Haven't done any yet, still a few months from delivering, but thought I would share too...

https://onceamonthmom.com/ This one is nice...has tons of sections for 'diet cooking' baby cooking, traditional receipes, vegetarian, gluten free....

https://www.makeaheadmealsforbusymoms.com/

the 'make ahead' link and 'link up...the theme is...' looked good. the theme one goes through receipes along the same ingredients or cooking style...crock pot...soups...apples....

Christina_Diane · February 2012

Jillibean85:
I'm probably one of the few people here that doesn't plan on freezing any meals... For some reason i don't like the way something tastes once cooked/thawed/re-heated (the texture or taste always seems off)... On top of that, my DH can cook meals, so i don't see the point in it, i guess.

I am with you on this one. I think freezer meals and casseroles are gross. Also, MH is the cook. He will continue cooking meals after LO is here.

llc730 · February 2012

I never got around to freezing much for DD. We made it through just fine with a couple meals from my mom and MIL. A couple of giftcards from Christmas(applebees, subway, etc), and some quick fix stuff like jarred spaghetti sauce and noodles.

This time I did freeze a few things. Basically at about 32 weeks I just started making double batches of things that would freeze well. I have a couple of soups, a few casseroles, some pancakes, and a few crockpot recipe ingredients. Otherwise we will just survive like last time. My mom runs her own business and has already told her customers that she will be taking minimal jobs for the first couple weeks after LO arrives because she will be on "Oma leave"

hortensiasp · February 2012

So far I've prepped the ingredients for no-peek beef (to be cooked in the crock pot), made meatballs, and chopped veggies for curry (quick and easy to cook once the prep is done!). Next up is assembling some chicken pot pies and making pulled pork. I think that will pretty much max out the space in our little freezer.

bracystake · February 2012

I haven't even figured out what I'm making for dinner tonight, let alone 3 weeks from now. *sigh*

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