Easy
Freezer
Meals
Ideas and Recipes
What are
Freezer Meals?Easy
freezer meals are just homemade meals that are prepared ahead of time,
wrapped
up and frozen for another day. It is days like today when
I've taught a home school preschool group and I'm worn out that I love
easy freezer meals.
Or perhaps even more the days
that, what is on the menu plan for the day, isn't really what I want
to eat that night. I love being able to pull something out of the
freezer one hour before dinner time and place it in the oven to cook.
It is for reasons like these and more that making freezer meals is
worth the little extra effort.
Here are some more ideas how
easy freezer
meals can help.
How
about saving money on your food budget? It will also
cut back on those last minute, don't know what to eat, let's go get
fast food moments. Instead you can pull out a spaghetti pie from the
freezer and just add garlic bread or a salad to go with it.
It
is much
healthier than choosing fast food.
If you don't have time to spend in the kitchen every day,
having things ready to go in the freezer is a great time saver. I found
when my kids were young toddlers and babies it was especially helpful
to not have to spend an hour in the kitchen around the "dinner hour."
How about all those tempting (expensive) convenience products
available now a days? I'm thinking of marinated prepackaged meat or
chopped shredded chicken. It is so easy to buy several pounds of meat
and separate it into smaller portions yourself. You can add seasoning
of your own place in a baggie, seal and freeze. Cook roast chickens and
shred the meat or use chicken breasts and chop and cook. Freeze in
baggies to be pulled out for your freezer recipes. Voila, you have your
own convenience foods at a minimal price.
Doesn't Freezer Meals Take a Lot of Work?
Freezing meals doesn't have to be a difficult time consuming
process. Many people spend one day a month cooking A LOT of meals and
freezing them. My favorite freezer cooking method, which I think makes
for easy freezer meals, is to just double or
triple recipes every night or whenever I think about it. I figure if
I'm making one quiche or homemade pizza I mind's well make two or three
and freeze for another day. Sometimes a combination of both methods
works great, too.
Don't think you have to have a
freezer
meal every night. Almost
everyone is busier some nights more than others. Busy nights are
perfect for easy freezer meals and not so busy nights can easily be
used for cooking fresh or dinners that are good for the freezer.
What if
I Don't Have Room in my
Freezer?
If you don't have a large freezer just use plastic freezer
bags. Make
sure all the air is out and lay flat on your freezer shelf. Once frozen
you can stack 5-10 on top of each other. This will work for soups and
marinated meats also, if you be careful the bag is sealed. Take dinner
out of the freezer the night before.
Freezer
Cooking
Tips
- Label what your freezer meal is.
- Rotate
your freezer meals. New goes on the bottom of the
stack or back of the freezer and older gets moved up.
- Don't
place your hot food directly in the freezer. Let it
cool slightly, at least 30-45 minutes on the kitchen counter.
- If
you are adding your meal
from the freezer to
the oven, you will need to increase the cooking time.
- If
you are using potatoes combine with a liquid or moist
ingredient. Potatoes don't always work well in freezer meals.
- If
you are including rice or noodles in a freezer meal, leave
them out and add before cooking. Or under cook them slightly and make
sure they're included in a sauce before freezing.
- Include
frozen vegetables, bread rolls, loaves of bread or dough for side
dishes to your freezer recipes.
Freezer
Recipes and Freezer
Cooking HelpHere
are some freezer meal ideas and freezer meal recipes to help in
your future homemade freezer meals.
Breakfast
freezer meals
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