Making freezer meals is one tactic I use to stretch our food budget and save me time…but not in the way you might think. Let me share with you the way I use freezer meals and why it works better for me!
When you think of making freezer meals you probably think of getting some recipes together that look good, taking a shopping list to the store to buy all of the ingredients, and then prepping and freezing multiple family dinners at home in a few hours. This is kind of backwards to how I do it. I like it more simple and natural. I already make meals I know our family will eat, and it is really hard for me to set out 3 hours of time just to “meal prep”which can turn into 6 hours with my kids around and possibly food going bad on the counter with me trying to get it all done at once.
SO, the way I use freezer meals is quite simple. When I am making a dinner I try to make 3-4 times the amount I normally would. This way I have 2-3 extra heatable, healthy meals I can stick in gallon bags in my freezer. This only works if I have enough of the ingredients, right? I am always looking at the store for good deals on the foods we already buy so I can do this once in a while. I look at the ads and I know which store usually has the cheapest prices on the staples we buy. For example, I go to Costco for the best price on lean ground turkey. If I spot it for cheaper at Smith’s one day on clearance, though, I will swipe it up because I know it’s potential for a healthy frugal meal is limitless in sloppy joes, chilli, tacos, and I can even make my own “turkey burgers” with it.
There’s no point in buying food that’s an awesome deal just to have it go bad, right? That’s like throwing money away because you’ll end up throwing the food away. Sometimes I buy a lot of something that’s an awesome deal, thinking we will be able to eat it in time (like bell peppers) but it isn’t getting used up like I thought. When this happens, I prep the food into a more usable form and freeze it. For example I would chop or slice up the bell peppers and freeze them in quart bags so I can just throw them into an omelet, use them in my sloppy joes, or toss them in with the fajita meat. It saves the food from going bad AND makes an easier meal for me when I do use it. Foods like cottage cheese can be frozen if it’s going bad but the texture changes once frozen so you can only really use it in recipes where it gets cooked like making crockpot lasagna or pan manicotti later. However, it’s easier to use if it’s measured out before frozen so you don’t have to thaw a whole bag. If my crockpot sloppy joe recipe calls for 1.5 cups of cottage cheese, I’ll freeze it in 1.5 cup increments.
My goal with a family of 6 and a food budget set in stone is to stretch my money and save time as much as possible while keeping healthy food a priority. Freezer meals are time-savers as you get the ingredients out once, chop anything you need to at one time, and only do dishes once. By saving time they save you money, because we ALL realize too late that we haven’t planned dinner and we reach for expensive fast food or unhealthy processed stuff like macaroni and cheese. Dinners made from scratch are always cheaper and healthier. Another benefit is that if you want to help someone who had surgery, etc. you are empowered to be able to do it without too much sacrifice or extra funds.
You of course can do meals in aluminum pans or disposable containers, etc. but I’ve found that freezer gallon bags
Freezer meals are best used within 6 months so keep track of what’s in your freezer! I usually dig around and see what I have in mine every month so I can compile a list of meals we need to eat first. The more airtight a container is the better to prevent freezer burn.
If you decide to make a bunch of freezer meals of a new recipe, I recommend making only one or two meals of it first so you can see the feedback your cuties and husband have to the meal before you buy a ton of ingredients and get stuck with eating it over and over! Also, make sure you have enough freezer space for all of the meals you will be making.
The recipes that tend to freeze the best for me are:
Chilli
Sloppy Joe Meat(see recipe below)
Spaghetti/lasagna sauce
Sour cream enchiladas
Fajitas or taco meat
Creamy chicken over rice (rice actually freezes decently well if you want to prep ahead of time but I would use it within 3 months)
Soups and stews (my favorite is curry!)
One hangup I have is remembering to thaw the night before. 4-6 hours is the normally recommended time for a thawed freezer meal. If you forget to thaw NO BIGGIE. Just put it in for 6-8 hours and make sure you can stir it at least once during the day. if it’s a frozen casserole and you forget to thaw the night before, the tip I usually follow is to add 50% more baking time (example 1.5-2 hours if thawed time is 1 hour) and lower the normal temp 25 degrees to avoid burning the edges.
One awesome idea I love is putting smoothie ingredients into freezer bags for quick, healthy breakfasts. I have never tried this but plan to VERY soon since my husband’s weight loss competition and I will do a post on how it goes. Here are a few of my most used freezer meals. I hope this post has gotten ideas flowing for you and been helpful in some way. Make it a great day, friend!
Jexi
Creamy chicken over rice
-3 lbs raw chicken breast
-1 pkg cream cheese (neufchatel is an excellent healthier substitute found right next to the cream cheese, looks and tastes exactly the same)
-3 chicken bouillon cubes
-1 can cream of chicken soup
-4 Tbs melted butter (or flavorless coconut oil)
Put all ingredients in freezer bag. When ready to use, dump in crockpot and cook on low for 8 hours. Serve over cooked brown rice. Delicious!
Sour cream enchiladas
-3 cups shredded chicken (you can cook and shred yourself or use canned)
-3 cups Monterey Jack OR pepper jack cheese, shredded (if you don’t have these you can do mozzarella cheese as long as you do have the green chillies on hand)
-8 flour tortillas, taco size (100% whole wheat for a healthy version)
-3 Tbs butter, melted (can substitute with flavorless coconut oil)
-4 oz can green chilies (optional if using pepper jack cheese since it already has chillies in it)
-2 cups sour cream (AWESOME healthy substitute is Fage plain yogurt, 2% fat)
Mix chicken and cheese, spoon into tortillas and roll shut. Place in pan or freezer bag. Mix melted butter, green chilies, sour cream together and pour over top. Thaw overnight, Bake 350 20-30 min.
Sloppy joes
-4 lbs ground beef (can substitute up to half with ground turkey which is healthier and usually cheaper. I found the healthiest cheapest version in my town at Costco. The flavor and texture of the sloppy joe is different if you substitute more than half the beef.)
-1 diced bell pepper
-1 med onion
-1 can tomato sauce
-2 cans condensed tomato soup, undiluted
-1 cup packed brown sugar, you could substitute with some honey for healthier version
-¼ c ketsup
-3 T Worcestershire sauce OR bbq sauce
-1 T mustard
1 ½ tsp chili powder
1 tsp garlic powder
Cook beef, diced onions, diced bell pepper in pan and drain. Add remaining ingredients and stir. Put in freezer bags to eat later, or put into crockpot on low for 4 hours to eat today. To cook freezer meal, remove bag and put meat mixture into crockpot, cook low 6-7 hours.