Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
What are your go-to freezer cooking meals?
I'm compiling a spreadsheet of meals to cook one Sunday a month. Whenever I cook casseroles, I always freeze 2-3 servings in a container, and then label it and put it in my outside freezer. Since we moved, we don't have much in the freezer except for a few things I've cooked, so I'm trying to make dinner easier on me. I'm usually so tired by the time we get home at night that I don't want to spend an hour prepping and cooking when I could be spending that time with Charlotte.
I am also looking for good freezer breakfasts...Char now has to be at preschool at 8 am, and I get tired of giving her cereal, yogurt, and bananas every morning (heck, I get tired of it for me, too).
Lunches and snacks are good, too. We're usually not home for lunch, but I'd like to have some stuff that we can grab.
So, basically looking for any recipes that you're willing to share! I've already got a bunch on my spreadsheet (thanks to weelicious!), but I would love some more tried and true recipes. Easy and relatively healthy are huge bonuses.
Thanks!
Re: What are your go-to freezer cooking meals?
I just posted some on my blog last week, I think.
I also go to www.onceamonthmom.com and hunt around her recipes and freezing directions. I'm actually doing the test kitchen for her whole foods recipes for next month!
Here are a couple of breakfast ideas:
http://ateacheratheart.blogspot.com/2011/08/back-to-school-breakfast-ideas.html
I also have made a large batch of french toast and frozen it, then taken out a piece when I need it.
As for go to freezer meals: Spaghetti Sauce, Pre-marinated meats (freeze with the marinade, then they do the actual marinading as they thaw), Chicken Enchilada's(http://www.jasonandshawnda.com/foodiebride/archives/1239), poppyseed chicken casserole, taco soup, chicken spaghetti.
I'm sure you know this, but I'll share it with you, just in case--I didn't learn this until maybe 5 years ago: if you need to freeze many things together in the same bag, like individual mini-pizzas, berries, etc., pre-freeze them. Put them separated on a baking sheet, freeze, THEN store them in the freezer bag. This prevents them all from sticking together.
With that:
Breakfast: Breakfast Tacos, fresh fruits for smoothies, pancakes, unbaked biscuits, quick breads, egg and cheese "muffins"
Dinner: Other than the usual casseroles: pizza (prepare as usual, par-bake the crust, cool, then add toppings and freeze--then when you need it, bake it the rest of the way, increasing baking time by 3-5 minutes); pre-formed hamburger patties, burritos, any kind of frozen cooked meat, meat sauce and pasta (separately).
I've made all of these: http://www.food.com/menu/chicken-little-oamc-3137 and liked them. In this thread, they list out this menu (plus many others) with an entire cooking plan including the grocery list and what to cook when.
I also like to have sloppy joe meat on hand, I use Rachel Ray's super sloppy joes.
Other than that, I usually just have frozen chopped onion and peppers as well as frozen browned hamburger meat that I can quickly turn into tacos or add to spaghetti sauce or whatever.
I saw a rec for this blog recently, but haven't tried anything from it:
http://makeaheadmeals.blogspot.com/
Those look great! I love "dump chicken" recipes which are pretty much like this - just dump frozen chicken and a sauce in a bag and when it's ready to cook you dump it in a crockpot or oven dish.