Freezer Meals

Diamond_Doll

While I've got some time on my hands this summer, I'm trying to get some freezer meals together, so that things will be a little easier during the school year. I'm pre-cooking some shredded chicken and twiced baked potatoes, but most of the other meals I find are fatty pastas or casseroles or soup (which just doesn't seem easier than making a crock pot of soup, which I do once a week). Any ideas for healthy freezer meals?

MBMcC421

My friend posted this link on FB last week -- it might be something you'd be interested in:

http://onceamonthmom.com/

law67

The thing with freezer meals, at least for me, is that if they are filled with fresh veggies or fruit or the healthy, good for you stuff in general it just doesn't freeze right or taste the same once thawed. You can always take recipes that are not as healthy and change some of the ingredients to make them more figure friendly. Because the freezer meals I make are not always super healthy I try to freeze them in small portions. My favorite freezer meals are individual turkey meatloafs, mini casseroles with turkey or chicken, fat free soups and whole grain pasta, and individual baked pastas. By making smaller portions I just pull out 2 or 3 (depending on how much Jay wants) and supplement them with healthier, fresh sides.

lneuner09

I don't do a lot of freezer meal for a few reasons, some of which Law posted above.  The things I do tend to keep on hand in the freezer:

- spaghetti sauce.  I make a HUGE pot of it from scratch (adapted from Scott's Italian grandmother) and put it in containers that will go with like 8oz of pasta.  Super easy to pull it out in the morning to drefrost, then to heat it up and boil some pasta.

- in the winter, soup and chili.  Even if it's a crock pot recipe, I'll make a huge thing of it, that we would never eat all of.  I'll freeze half of it.

- burger patties.  I'll buy a big thing of ground beef, make the whole 3-4 lbs into burgers (we all grill seasoning, onion soup mix, worchestershire sauce), portion them out into patties.  I'll individually wrap them in press n seal, throw them all in a big freezer bag.  That way it's easy to pull out 2 burgers for dinner.

- I also shred a TON of zucchini and bag it for the freezer.  Easy to pull out some in pre-measured portions for zucchini bread or fritters.  Not really a meal, but an easy side or breakfast. 

And that's pretty much it for us.  I don't have the freezer space for much more.

melpfaff

Turkey meatballs, turkey meatloaf, Rachel ray chicken spanikopita burgers

I like to freeze berries so that when you are sick of apples, you have them for desserts, smoothies, or oatmeal in the winter.

melpfaff

Oh, and I have also made mini omelettes in muffin tins.  Mix eggs milk with whatever fresh veggies you have, cheese or ham if desired.  Pour into muffin or mini muffin tin and bake approx 20 min. Put them on a plate or tray to cool, and put plate in freezer.  Once they are frozen, put them in baggies.  You can reheat them for 45 sec to 1 min.

Can be a great way to use extra eggs or veg.