Monday, April 24, 2023

Ideas for Easy Freezer Cooking



I love the idea of freezer cooking but you don't want to spend all day in the kitchen cooking? Easy freezer cooking is for you. Well, like a lot of other things, the the thought of one day in the kitchen cooking for a month is absolutely overwhelming to me.



Here is how I cook ahead with easy freezer cooking:

1. Whenever I cook a meal that is freezable I make at least two and sometimes three meals so I can cook one that night and freeze the others. Tonight it is lasagna. Of course having a small freezer our garage makes this possible. Now that there are only 4 of us in the house I can easily make two meals and pop one for later in the freezer.

lasagna

2. Set up an assembly line and make everything twice or three times. As for the recipe I just use the one on the box of noodles.
I boil the noodles and cook the meat so all the dish requires is heating in the oven.
One box of lasagna noodles perfectly makes two pans of lasagna.

lasagna, make ahead dinners

3. After I'm done, the best way to store your freezer meals, is to cover first with a layer of plastic wrap and then foil and write the date and what it is on the top and send one of the kids out to the garage to pop it in the freezer. I use these dishes on nights we are busy and I know I won't have time to cook. I take a sharpie pen and write the date what the item is and to remove the plastic wrap before baking. I often use these meals to give to someone who may need an easy dinner or some dinners if they are not feeling well.

Any casserole type dish will work well for freezing and soups are great too. If you don't want to put the grated cheese on something you can just grate that and place in a small Ziploc bag and tape to the foil and freeze it along with the dish. It is nice to have dishes made for last minute pot lucks or to give someone that you want to make a dish for. Now it is already in your freezer to just grab and go.

Freezer Meals Recipes - Some of our favorites:
Homemade Meatballs (great for spaghetti or meatball sandwiches)

2 comments:

  1. This is a great idea. :o) Since we do not eat a whole lasagna at one time, we usually only eat about half and that may include lunch for my husband the following day, so I will freeze the other half for a future meal. :o)
    A friend of mine will keep a container in her freezer for just vegetable left overs. As she cooks vegs and there are left overs, she just keeps adding them to the bucket. When it fills up, she makes a big pot of vegetable soup. :o) I have not tried that yet, but thought it was a good idea. :o)

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  2. I love freezer meals. I used to have a collection that I would make for new parents. I would drop them off frozen so they could thaw and eat when needed.

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