OK so we've all seen the pins, the blogs, and the articles about freezer meals, but HOW do you actually do it? That was my question. The idea of getting over 100 meals in one weekend boggled my mind, especially since I was in school full time when I wanted to do this. So if you get nothing else out of this, I want you to remember is that YES, YOU CAN DO THIS.
* Will it require time? Yep
*Will it be easy? I try really hard to make it easy.
*Will it be worth it? Um yes. Absolutely. You know those days when you have no idea what to have for dinner and hate cooking? Say adios to those days. They are gone. Vanished.
So let's get started. There are two approaches to freezer meals that I've found. The first is that your meals are prepped ahead of time and then you cook them the day of in a crock pot. The other approach is that your meals are already cooked and you just re-heat them. My freezer meals take the second approach; I was commuting 3 hours a day, had hours of studying, and just wanted everything to be as easy as possible. There is absolutely nothing wrong with meal prep (I highly encourage it actually), but it's just not what I wanted. So I always do the following steps when I begin:
1st Step: Decide how many meals you want approximately. My first time I wanted about a month's worth of meals that could be used for lunch and dinner. This time around I wanted at least two months.
2nd Step: Find your recipes and estimate how many servings you will get from each one. I tend to be conservative on this estimate. It's always better to get more than less.
3rd Step: Make your grocery list; I’ll walk you through this step-by-step so it's organized and clear for you.
4th Step: Pick your cooking days; each time I've done this it's taken me about two days. If you don't have a weekend, then you can still do this! You would just make an additional meal each night or every other night until you have the meals that you want.
5th Step: Gather your equipment- in other words if you do not have a Crockpot, please go buy or borrow one, or two or three. I LOVE my Crockpot and could not do this without them. I use two, but again you don't have to. You are in complete control of when and how you do this.
Here is my equipment list:
2 Crockpots
1 Large Pot
2 9x13 pans (I use glass)
Basic pots and pans
Mini chopper or Food Processor (this is great for when you're doing large quantities of chopping/dicing)
Cutting boards
Knives
Ziploc Freezer Bags (I cannot stress this enough. These are all I use and I love them).
Cling Wrap (Again, please invest in this. You will thank me).
Sharpie for writing down the name of the dish and date
This list does vary based on what I'm cooking, but this is what I normally use every time. Please remember that you don't need all of this to make freezer meals. You can use normal pots and pans and only use some of these items. This is one of the reasons I love freezer cooking; it can make anyone's life easier!
6th Step: Shop, Cook, Freeze, and Admire the fruits of your labor.
Common Questions
How many meals do you get and how much do you spend?
First of all I shop almost exclusively at Aldi. I seriously love that store; I want to write notes to it that say, "I like you, do you like me?” It is great for my freezer cooking because I can buy almost every single there and spend under a $100. I go to other groceries to supplement what I can't get there.
This time I wanted about 2 months worth of food that could be used for dinner and lunches since we'll be home with baby girl. This time I was able to 157 single serving meals. I want to stress the single serving for a minute. Yes there are two of us, but we don't always eat these meals together. Sometimes I'll have something for lunch and Steve will have something else for dinner. It also allows us to watch our portions and calorie intake (something I'll desperately need to do once she's here... my 10:30 PM baked potato snacks will need to stop...sigh). Since we LOVE soup we will sometimes add a sandwich or salad to go along with our already prepared meals Again, it's so much easier to make a sandwich or throw together a salad than it is to make a huge pot of soup. So please keep that in mind when you go to plan out your meals.
As for spending, we spent $165.33 on groceries this time (this does include our Ziploc bags & Cling Wrap from Sam's Club) and each meal only cost us $1.05 per serving once we were done. I don't know about you, but I think that's awesome. We struggled a lot our first year of marriage because I wasn't big on cooking and we didn't see a lot of each other so we ate out a lot. Our grocery budget was crazy and our spending needed to be roped in. Not to mention the weight I gained (25 lbs. anyone? I'd like to pretend it was all due to love, but really it was due to the numerous trips through the drive-thru or calls to Pizza Hut). It's really worth the effort for me to do freezer cooking for our family. I love knowing that we have healthy meals already prepared that are TONS cheaper than fast food. Don't get me wrong, the Pizza Hut app is one of my favs and there days when a girl just needs a chalupa from Taco Bell, but overall this has done wonders for our budget and health.
How do you store your food? Do you need a huge freezer?
I did a lot of research on this and the Ziploc Freezer Bags work great for us! We let everything cool and then measure all of our soups into a bag. We flatten them out and then seal them. They are then laid in the freezer flat; it is a great space saver! We also use them for our lasagna, breakfast sandwiches, and burritos. We will put non-soup items in the Cling Wrap and then put 2-3 servings in one bag. This helps keep us organized. I have never needed to use any other sort of container. I may invest in some in the future depending on what I make. If I do, I'll use the Chefland Reusable containers; they can be frozen and microwaved.
No, you do not need a giant freezer! We used our normal freezer all last year for the two of us. If you have a larger family, then you might want to consider it. This year we did decide to purchase a smaller freezer. This was because I knew I was going to cooking a lot and I wanted to have plenty of room for any breast milk I might need to store.
Please, please let me know if you have any questions or if anything isn't clear. I really want to help you and make your life easier! If you have done this before and have any advice, please feel free to share. I still search for ways to improve the process!
Next up will be: Freezer Cooking Part 2: The Recipes.
Thanks for stopping by!
Amanda
* Will it require time? Yep
*Will it be easy? I try really hard to make it easy.
*Will it be worth it? Um yes. Absolutely. You know those days when you have no idea what to have for dinner and hate cooking? Say adios to those days. They are gone. Vanished.
So let's get started. There are two approaches to freezer meals that I've found. The first is that your meals are prepped ahead of time and then you cook them the day of in a crock pot. The other approach is that your meals are already cooked and you just re-heat them. My freezer meals take the second approach; I was commuting 3 hours a day, had hours of studying, and just wanted everything to be as easy as possible. There is absolutely nothing wrong with meal prep (I highly encourage it actually), but it's just not what I wanted. So I always do the following steps when I begin:
1st Step: Decide how many meals you want approximately. My first time I wanted about a month's worth of meals that could be used for lunch and dinner. This time around I wanted at least two months.
2nd Step: Find your recipes and estimate how many servings you will get from each one. I tend to be conservative on this estimate. It's always better to get more than less.
3rd Step: Make your grocery list; I’ll walk you through this step-by-step so it's organized and clear for you.
4th Step: Pick your cooking days; each time I've done this it's taken me about two days. If you don't have a weekend, then you can still do this! You would just make an additional meal each night or every other night until you have the meals that you want.
5th Step: Gather your equipment- in other words if you do not have a Crockpot, please go buy or borrow one, or two or three. I LOVE my Crockpot and could not do this without them. I use two, but again you don't have to. You are in complete control of when and how you do this.
Here is my equipment list:
2 Crockpots
1 Large Pot
2 9x13 pans (I use glass)
Basic pots and pans
Mini chopper or Food Processor (this is great for when you're doing large quantities of chopping/dicing)
Cutting boards
Knives
Ziploc Freezer Bags (I cannot stress this enough. These are all I use and I love them).
Cling Wrap (Again, please invest in this. You will thank me).
Sharpie for writing down the name of the dish and date
This list does vary based on what I'm cooking, but this is what I normally use every time. Please remember that you don't need all of this to make freezer meals. You can use normal pots and pans and only use some of these items. This is one of the reasons I love freezer cooking; it can make anyone's life easier!
6th Step: Shop, Cook, Freeze, and Admire the fruits of your labor.
Common Questions
How many meals do you get and how much do you spend?
First of all I shop almost exclusively at Aldi. I seriously love that store; I want to write notes to it that say, "I like you, do you like me?” It is great for my freezer cooking because I can buy almost every single there and spend under a $100. I go to other groceries to supplement what I can't get there.
This time I wanted about 2 months worth of food that could be used for dinner and lunches since we'll be home with baby girl. This time I was able to 157 single serving meals. I want to stress the single serving for a minute. Yes there are two of us, but we don't always eat these meals together. Sometimes I'll have something for lunch and Steve will have something else for dinner. It also allows us to watch our portions and calorie intake (something I'll desperately need to do once she's here... my 10:30 PM baked potato snacks will need to stop...sigh). Since we LOVE soup we will sometimes add a sandwich or salad to go along with our already prepared meals Again, it's so much easier to make a sandwich or throw together a salad than it is to make a huge pot of soup. So please keep that in mind when you go to plan out your meals.
As for spending, we spent $165.33 on groceries this time (this does include our Ziploc bags & Cling Wrap from Sam's Club) and each meal only cost us $1.05 per serving once we were done. I don't know about you, but I think that's awesome. We struggled a lot our first year of marriage because I wasn't big on cooking and we didn't see a lot of each other so we ate out a lot. Our grocery budget was crazy and our spending needed to be roped in. Not to mention the weight I gained (25 lbs. anyone? I'd like to pretend it was all due to love, but really it was due to the numerous trips through the drive-thru or calls to Pizza Hut). It's really worth the effort for me to do freezer cooking for our family. I love knowing that we have healthy meals already prepared that are TONS cheaper than fast food. Don't get me wrong, the Pizza Hut app is one of my favs and there days when a girl just needs a chalupa from Taco Bell, but overall this has done wonders for our budget and health.
How do you store your food? Do you need a huge freezer?
I did a lot of research on this and the Ziploc Freezer Bags work great for us! We let everything cool and then measure all of our soups into a bag. We flatten them out and then seal them. They are then laid in the freezer flat; it is a great space saver! We also use them for our lasagna, breakfast sandwiches, and burritos. We will put non-soup items in the Cling Wrap and then put 2-3 servings in one bag. This helps keep us organized. I have never needed to use any other sort of container. I may invest in some in the future depending on what I make. If I do, I'll use the Chefland Reusable containers; they can be frozen and microwaved.
No, you do not need a giant freezer! We used our normal freezer all last year for the two of us. If you have a larger family, then you might want to consider it. This year we did decide to purchase a smaller freezer. This was because I knew I was going to cooking a lot and I wanted to have plenty of room for any breast milk I might need to store.
Please, please let me know if you have any questions or if anything isn't clear. I really want to help you and make your life easier! If you have done this before and have any advice, please feel free to share. I still search for ways to improve the process!
Next up will be: Freezer Cooking Part 2: The Recipes.
Thanks for stopping by!
Amanda