Freezer Meal Prep

Kinipela7 · January 2014

Anyone plan on preparing meals and freezing them for when baby comes? I'm trying to decide if I want to do that or not. Wondering if it's worth it!

If you do plan on doing it, how many meals are you making?

Care to share a recipe?

lclark79 · January 2014

Yes, absolutely. With DD I really didn't prep, I thought it would be easy to just make something when we got home. I was wrong. We were exhausted and I couldn't even think straight to order a pizza. So this time, I'm going to have at least 4-5 meals in the freezer just in case. I know we may have people bringing over food, but I don't want to depend on it. I'll probably make a few quiches, soup, and a chili. It's easy and freezes well.

k2k2tog · January 2014

I am! My best friend did it and said it was a total lifesaver. She's a Martha Stewart and still couldn't find the energy or desire to cook from scratch.

I don't know how many. Would love to hear some opinions on that from the rest of you. I only have a little fridge freezer, no chest freezer, but if we did have a huge freezer, I feel like I'd want to make enough for a full month. That's probably ridiculous, but I have a feeling that the less cooking I have to do after the baby comes, the better!

Definitely lasagne, shepherd's pie, soups, chili, stews, maybe meat sauces for pasta.

elsa1688 · January 2014

I always think I should freeze things but seem to have an aversion to ever using anything in my freezer...

chickpea912 · January 2014

Here is the now-defunct blog I started a while back when I was pregnant with M - on the right side are 6 recipes that I made and froze in advance before she was born.

https://thefrumkinfamily.blogspot.com/

PinkKEL9 · January 2014

I want to! No plan yet but I've been looking on pintrest and they have tons of ideas! I love using the crockpot because its so easy so I'm sure I will do a lot of stuff that can just be thrown in there.

Laurelyn2012 · January 2014

I'm worried it will be to hot in my place to even think about turning on the oven or any appliance inside. I do plan on having a few easy frozen meals to throw onto the BBQ if needed.

MNOpea · January 2014

I didn't with my first but will be this time as we will have just moved (most likely across country) and will not have any family or friends near by to help. When the government was shutting down and there was that few days where it was unclear if military would be getting paid, we made enough stuff to freeze for a month, and it was pretty cheap. I made meatloaf muffins, cheese manicotti, chicken and cheese enchiladas, and a few other things that I can't remember now. I will probably do similar foods this time too

Mowill59 · January 2014

I definitely plan on doing this!! I know I will have no energy to make dinner with a newborn and a 3 yo. We've been searching for a freezer chest for awhile and finally found one in our budget. I plan on freezing sauces, lasagna, some crockpot meals, and not sure what else. I'm going to try to make enough for a few weeks to a month.

LovetoLive614 · January 2014

I really want to but I have never made and then froze anything and we have a tiny freezer. But I plan to try this recipe - Cheesy Cracker Chicken and there's a few other ideas in the comments.

https://www.blessedbybrenna.com/2014/01/freezer-cooking-cheddar-cracker-chicken.html?m=1

nunzchucks · January 2014

Burgers are super easy to make and freeze to have on hand! Also, if you randomly have a bunch of friends that would get together, Tastefully Simple will do freezer meal parties. I've done a few and they are fantastic.

babygabe614 · January 2014

I definitely plan on having soup, chili, lasagna, and burgers on hand. I know my mom will be coming over almost daily to help me out, so thankfully I won't need to put too much into our tiny freezer. I also plan on utilizing the crockpot, like PPs mentioned.

clee2009 · January 2014

All of these are great suggestions. I freeze meals every winter. I work crazy hours during this time of the year and I would prefer my kids eat a meal that is little healthier than a hotdog (hubby's go to meal).

I would recommend freezing individual meals for when it is just you and the baby. I made chicken/rice wraps for the past two pregnancies. I wrapped single servings with aluminum foil and then put them in a freezer bag. Whenever there was nothing else to eat in the house I would just nuke one in the microwave for a few minutes and be good to go.

Also, I found to save space that Gallon size Freezer Ziploc bags work wonderfully. If I make a soup or spaghetti to freeze I will dump it in a bag, flatten it on a cookie sheet and then place into the freezer. I am able to get a lot of meals stuffed inside with no wasted space that way.

Kinipela7 · January 2014

Okay you guys made me realize I totally need to do this! I'm going to make 10 recipes (a month or so before my due date) and then see how much room I have left. I plan to fill up the freezer. Here is one of my meals - yummy!

BBQ Chicken and Veggies

-2 green peppers chopped
- 2 red peppers chopped
- 3 onions chopped
-6 red potatoes chopped
-1 lb chicken cubed
-15 oz can tomato sauce
-1 tbsp brown sugar
-1 bottle BBQ sauce

Put ingredients into gallon sized ziploc bag and freeze

Take out 24 hours before you cook it to thaw

Cook in crockpot on HIGH for 4 hours

Unknown · January 2014

This content has been removed.

k2k2tog · January 2014

Kinipela7 said:

Okay you guys made me realize I totally need to do this! I'm going to make 10 recipes (a month or so before my due date) and then see how much room I have left. I plan to fill up the freezer. Here is one of my meals - yummy!

BBQ Chicken and Veggies

-2 green peppers chopped
- 2 red peppers chopped
- 3 onions chopped
-6 red potatoes chopped
-1 lb chicken cubed
-15 oz can tomato sauce
-1 tbsp brown sugar
-1 bottle BBQ sauce

Put ingredients into gallon sized ziploc bag and freeze

Take out 24 hours before you cook it to thaw

Cook in crockpot on HIGH for 4 hours

Sounds delicious! Do you cook the chicken first or let the crock pot do that?

MississippiCatfish · January 2014

I did about 30 before I had DS.

I did easy stuff - spaghetti sauce with meat, taco meat, BBQ chicken, fajitas, some soups. Gosh, I'm drawing a blank! I do think it's kind of helpful.

This time, for the month before my due date I'll probably just prepare each meal doubled and put half in the freezer if it's something freezable.

MNOpea · January 2014

MississippiCatfish said:

This time, for the month before my due date I'll probably just prepare each meal doubled and put half in the freezer if it's something freezable.

This is how I do most of my freezer meals, if I'm making enchiladas for dinner I just make 12-16 instead of 4-6 and then freeze in foil pans before cooking, etc. I also freeze most of our left over casseroles etc, we almost always have meals in the freezer!

almendarez · January 2014

I didn't even think to do this but it is a great idea! www.eatingwell.com has a lot of good make-ahead casserole recipes and they give you tips on how to adjust the recipes for freezing and reheating and how long you should freeze it for (max), etc.

Kinipela7 · January 2014

sempre_staccato said:

Kinipela7 said:

Okay you guys made me realize I totally need to do this! I'm going to make 10 recipes (a month or so before my due date) and then see how much room I have left. I plan to fill up the freezer. Here is one of my meals - yummy!

BBQ Chicken and Veggies

-2 green peppers chopped
- 2 red peppers chopped
- 3 onions chopped
-6 red potatoes chopped
-1 lb chicken cubed
-15 oz can tomato sauce
-1 tbsp brown sugar
-1 bottle BBQ sauce

Put ingredients into gallon sized ziploc bag and freeze

Take out 24 hours before you cook it to thaw

Cook in crockpot on HIGH for 4 hours

Sounds delicious! Do you cook the chicken first or let the crock pot do that?

No need to pre-cook! Crock Pot does all!

kittenslove · January 2014

I plan to as well. I am not sure what recipes I will use, as I usually freeze items with my summer produce. I am not doing too many as I will still have my CSA share this summer, and it is a lot of food for DH and I, but at least enough individualized meals to give me "off" twice a week through the summer. I plan to do more at the end of the summer before going back to work. I always freeze a lot of produce at that time, but my sister is planning to help me freeze meals as well - to help with the transition back to work.

hotsaucencake@live.com · January 2014

I plan on it! Lasagna, soup, sloppy joes, pizza crusts and calzones, and probably some kind of casserole. And don't forget cookie dough balls! Use a cookie scoop to portion out cookie dough and freeze it in little balls. Makes it so easy when you just need a sweet!

kellyjayne · January 2014

I definitely plan on freezer meals. I was thinking that, starting in February, I would pick one weekend a month and try to make 4-5 different meals to get in the freezer. That way, by June, our freezer would be pretty stocked and it wouldn't be an overwhelming battle of trying to get everything made at once. As PP's mentioned, I plan on making quite a bit of taco meat and shredded chicken for quick and easy tacos/burritos/wraps, spaghetti, lasagna, enchiladas, chicken and rice casseroles, pizza dough and sauce, and probably a few other pasta sauces to keep on hand.

Bozzy2 · January 2014

I plan on it but it's gonna be difficult as we are moving in May. So I don't know if I should start making them sooner than that and try and move them or wait and just pound them out in May and the beginning of June. Anyone with a suggestion? I have to share a freezer right now as well.

tbmadeamistake · January 2014

I warn you all..freezer meals only work if you actually use them!! Ask me how many I just threw away...C is 20 months.

Kinipela7 · January 2014

Lilygrace48 said:

I warn you all..freezer meals only work if you actually use them!! Ask me how many I just threw away...C is 20 months.

How many did you make?

jacksoha · January 2014

I plan on it! I've been doing freezer meals for a while now and I absolutely love it! I've frozen meatballs, meatloaf, spaghetti sauce, and crock meal which all have worked out great. I've also done pancakes and waffles. Another thing I did this past summer, which may work for us since we are having babies in the beginning of the summer, is to make smoothie baggies. I froze yogurt in my muffin tin or ice cub tray and then I put servings yogurt in ziploc baggies with whatever fruit I wanted, all cut up. It worked perfect throughout the summer! I would just dump a baggie in my blender with milk/water/juice and I had a smoothie!

Also blogs I follow to get freezer meal recipes are:

https://www.ringaroundtherosies.net/freezer-cooking-2

https://onceamonthmeals.com/

MarciP83 · January 2014

If any if you are on Pinterest, you can find my boards (MarciP83) and under my Dinner Is Served board I pinned several crockpot freezer meals. I prepped and froze the one that's titled something like 44 crockpot freezer meals, and they've all been pretty tasty so far. I did it when I first found out I was pregnant bc I was anticipating some crazy nausea/vomiting like I'd had with my girls, and I thought it would be great to be able to throw stuff in the crockpot and have hot meals for the fam while I was feeling like death. Lol. Worked pretty well though! I hope to do it again before baby boy arrives.

PinkPrettyKitty · January 2014

I'm totally doing it! I usually do it but I want to up the amount in the freezer before baby comes.

I'm making a plan of what I want to make according to the different meals we eat during the day: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Snacks, Dessert. In order to get all of this done, I'm getting some friends together to help me make them! Plus I will do my normal one's on my own.

lellymine · January 2014

We don't have a huge freezer so I'm only doing correctly portioned meats. Enough for a few meals of spaghetti, tacos and lots of frozen chicken for stir fry, crockpot soups and then plain chicken to grill. My local store usually has a big sale on salmon in April so I'll grab some and freeze it. Plus, we just bought part of a cow so we'll also have steaks to freeze. Besides that I'm just stocking my pantry with lots of side dishes and the other ingredients to make quick meals.

allrightmeow · January 2014

yes we will be doing this. We brought a big stand allow freezer before I got pregnant and I hope to have it filled by June.

colllydon · January 2014

My only fear is what if it is super hot outside and I don't want to turn on the oven?

tbmadeamistake · January 2014

Kinipela7 said:

Lilygrace48 said:

I warn you all..freezer meals only work if you actually use them!! Ask me how many I just threw away...C is 20 months.

How many did you make?

I think all in all I made about 15...I just threw out 12 of them.

ETA: But they were giant sized as they were meant to last at least two to three meals each (cook once, eat leftovers a bunch).

Mindyvl · January 2014

I had ankle surgery about a year and a half ago. I had to be non-weight bearing (basically on bed rest) for 8 weeks. In anticipation of that I made 120 freezer meals to have on hand for DH and I. He works from home, so that was lunch and dinner, every day for two months. It was a bit of overkill, for sure, but it was great to have those meals on hand. It really only took me a long weekend of cooking to prepare all of those. I used a couple of cookbooks that were a huge help, the link below is the first and they have a follow up edition as well. Everything came out wonderfully.

https://www.amazon.com/Dont-Panic-Dinners-Freezer-Great-Tasting/dp/0800730550/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1389839571&sr=1-1&keywords=don't+panic+dinner's+in+the+freezer

MississippiCatfish · January 2014

Lilygrace48 said:

Kinipela7 said:

Lilygrace48 said:

I warn you all..freezer meals only work if you actually use them!! Ask me how many I just threw away...C is 20 months.

How many did you make?

I think all in all I made about 15...I just threw out 12 of them.

ETA: But they were giant sized as they were meant to last at least two to three meals each (cook once, eat leftovers a bunch).

I didn't throw any of my 30 away...but I did get sick of looking at them every time I looked in the freezer!! I remember just wanting to be done with the stash so bad. I'll definitely do a lot less this time.

hotsaucencake@live.com · January 2014

jacksoha said:

I plan on it! I've been doing freezer meals for a while now and I absolutely love it! I've frozen meatballs, meatloaf, spaghetti sauce, and crock meal which all have worked out great. I've also done pancakes and waffles. Another thing I did this past summer, which may work for us since we are having babies in the beginning of the summer, is to make smoothie baggies. I froze yogurt in my muffin tin or ice cub tray and then I put servings yogurt in ziploc baggies with whatever fruit I wanted, all cut up. It worked perfect throughout the summer! I would just dump a baggie in my blender with milk/water/juice and I had a smoothie!
Also blogs I follow to get freezer meal recipes are:

https://www.ringaroundtherosies.net/freezer-cooking-2

https://onceamonthmeals.com/

Yes! Smoothies! I must add that to my list.

Mztwilson · January 2014

We change our minds about what to eat so much that I can see these not getting eaten. But I'll still probably make a few for the first week atleast. With this baby coming over summer vacation and having 3 kids at home plus baby I don't see much sleep in my future

hollygb22 · January 2014

i did and it was a huge help. I didn't do it until I was just about due..maybe 2-3 weeks before.

It helped us have healthy easy things on hand vs. ordering take out, pizzas etc. It just helped getting right back on a healthy track when losing baby weight was on my mind. I'll definitely be doing it agai.

I made alot of recipes off of www.skinnytaste.com

I made tons of her marinara sauce, baked pasta, spinach lasagna rolls, chicken pot pie soup, big batches of chilli, meatloaf, etc. I also made a ton of banana bread, pumpkin bread etc for quick breakfasts and snacks.

hollygb22 · January 2014

one thing that helped too...I froze them in small portions so DH and I were eating the same thing for a week and it was easy if I wanted to defrost something for lunch etc. I think it would've gotten old if I had to defrost an entire lasagna or large portions of things.

k2k2tog · January 2014

Lots of people have mentioned lasagna, and I'm assuming most of you already have a favourite recipe, but, in case you don't... I've made this one twice now and it's AHmazing.

https://www.foodnetwork.ca/recipe/ooh-la-la-sagna/8419/

The first time I made it, I used two cans of pasta sauce instead of a can of pasta sauce and a can of tomato sauce, which I would recommend... the can of tomatoes made it runnier than I like. But still delicious!

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Freezer Meal Prep

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Married DH 7/30/11

CSC arrived 5/7/12

CHC arrived 6/2/14

Married DH 7/30/11

CSC arrived 5/7/12

CHC arrived 6/2/14

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