Only me Posted January 31, 2015 Share Posted January 31, 2015 I've had a really tough month healthwise and most nights im lucky to get a decent meal on the table. My kids are happy to help when they can but are also short of time many nights due to sports etc. I'm thinking of trying to stock a few freezer meals. I thought when I'm having a relatively low pain day I could work on making those meals I will admit I'm not a very good cook. It also seems like anything I freeze gets freezer burn and everything I cook in the crockpot gets tough. I would appreciate a few recipes to get me started or even a title of a good cookbook for freezing meals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Denise in Florida Posted January 31, 2015 Share Posted January 31, 2015 I will be hanging out looking for ideas. :tongue_smilie: I am looking for a few great recipes for freezer cooking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slache Posted January 31, 2015 Share Posted January 31, 2015 What you're contemplating doing is exhausting. I do once a month (actually it's like once every 3 months) cooking and it takes 2 days. Some super easy, but not freezer meals: Chuck Roast - Toss a chuck roast in the slow cooker and cover it in marinara sauce. The sauce is super acidic and just leaves the meant so amazingly tender and tasty. I serve it with steamed broccoli or a salad. Taco Soup - 3 cans of beans (drained), 2 cans of stewed tomatoes, 1 can of diced chilies, 1 can of corn, 1 can of water. Mix it, heat it, top it with corn chips and cheese, eat it. Beef Tips In Wine Sauce - 1 lb of beef tips to 1 package of french onion dip/soup stuff to one can of cream of mushroom soup to one can of wine. This is the ratio but it's amazing so we make more. Serve over egg noodles with a veggie on the side. I have more, but I'm busy and I don't want to lose this so I'll post again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momof3littles Posted January 31, 2015 Share Posted January 31, 2015 Chili, meatballs, meatloaf, burgers are all easy to make larger amounts of. Eat one and freeze the rest or whatever works for you. You can also just reuse the same bowl and do a 2nd round of something similar but different (so make meatballs but then toss together meatloaf with some of the same ingredients/seasonings). Soup Grill a bunch of chicken breast, flash freeze, put in freezer containers. Have you considered a food saver? You can turn that into salad, quesadillas, fajitas, etc. I do quite a few dutch oven throw it together recipes. My kids aren't picky, so YMMV. Boneless, skinless thighs, a jar or two of kalamata olives, some greens, a pack of grape tomatoes, etc. in the dutch oven until the chicken is done is very easy and my kids like it. They are really not picky though, so again, this may not appeal. Sometimes I put some lentils in the bottom and add some chicken stock. Capers are good in it too; include some brine from them or from the olives if you happen to try it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
City Mouse Posted January 31, 2015 Share Posted January 31, 2015 The Big Cook and The Big Cook II are my favorite freezer meal cookbooks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DawnM Posted January 31, 2015 Share Posted January 31, 2015 I just did the 20 crockpot meals for $150 from Costco. I only did 13 of them as I didn't have time to do them all. We didn't like any of them! It was awful! And I don't consider myself to be a bad cook..... All that to say.....don't just do a bunch of meals you haven't tested out......learn from my mistake. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slache Posted January 31, 2015 Share Posted January 31, 2015 Freezer Meals: Many people choose to make a dish one night and freeze one or two of the same dish on that same night for another day. This is how I got started. Chicken Chile - 2 frozen chicken boobies, 1 can of drained and rinsed black beans, 1 can of corn, 1 can of diced tomatoes, 1 package of ranch dressing mix, some chili powder, some onion powder, and a block of cream cheese. Put in a freezer bag or the slow cooker. Cook on low for 6 hours. Serve over rice. Sausage Soup - Cook and slice up some sausage (we like chicken basil), dice cabbage, carrots, tomatoes, celery, onion, garlic, all that good stuff. Add a can of marinara sauce. Put in a freezer bag or the slow cooker. When you cook it use broth instead of water. Make 8 Meals in One Hour (not my blog, but good stuffs) 10 Meals in 90 Minutes Another Easy Meal: Sour Cream Chicken - Lay fresh (or thawed) chicken breasts in a pyrex. Smother in 1 part cream of mushroom soup, 1 part sour cream. Bake for 45 minutes to an hour at 350. Serve over rice. After all of that I'm hungry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SparklyUnicorn Posted January 31, 2015 Share Posted January 31, 2015 I just did the 20 crockpot meals for $150 from Costco. I only did 13 of them as I didn't have time to do them all. We didn't like any of them! It was awful! And I don't consider myself to be a bad cook..... All that to say.....don't just do a bunch of meals you haven't tested out......learn from my mistake. I don't like crock pot food. Sometimes I use it when in a pinch or for making broth, but I never think the food tastes quite right. Even something like chili in the crock pot is barely tolerable to me. I don't know what people see in it. But damn what a bummer all those meals didn't turn out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erica in OR Posted January 31, 2015 Share Posted January 31, 2015 I only made a brief foray into freezer meal cooking to stock up our freezer before a baby was born, but one tip—make sure you try out a recipe first (including cooking it from frozen if that's how you plan to store it) to see if you actually enjoy eating it before making multiples of it. We had a recipe or two that just bombed for our family, but I hated to throw out all that hard work. Erica in OR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
umsami Posted January 31, 2015 Share Posted January 31, 2015 The most success I've had with freezer meals is double cooking. So, if I'm making my families favorite meat loaf, I make two. One I cook, one I freeze. If I'm cooking ground beef in tomato sauce for this Egyptian dish kind of like lasagna, I make a double batch and freeze it. We've also found frozen food (prepared) that works well for our family. My kids really love frozen cheese ravioli. I can pick up a gigantic bag at Sam's Club or Costco for $10. It lasts two meals. I can boil it and toss with some butter and frozen peas...or toss with some jarred pasta sauce. Easy peasy. Dinner is done in like 5 minutes. I don't even heat the spaghetti sauce, just pour it over the hot ravioli. I have better luck buying a $5 rotisserie chicken from Costco or Sam's and taking the meat off the bone when it's hot and using that in recipes (you can freeze it) then cooking my own. It makes great fajitas...just combine with frozen red/yellow/onion pepper mix or add in fresh peppers/onions and either fajita seasoning (premade), your own, or just a bunch of cumin, onion powder, and garlic powder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DawnM Posted January 31, 2015 Share Posted January 31, 2015 I don't like crock pot food. Sometimes I use it when in a pinch or for making broth, but I never think the food tastes quite right. Even something like chili in the crock pot is barely tolerable to me. I don't know what people see in it. But damn what a bummer all those meals didn't turn out. We still ate most of it, but it was not easy to enjoy. I do like the crock pot for a lot of things......soups, chilis, stews, pulled meat, and even lasagna. But these meals were mushy from freezing them first......yuck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KungFuPanda Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 I would just start by doubling or tripling any recipes your family has happily eaten from the freezer in the past. No point in freezing anything if you guys don't eat it within a few months. Right now my freezer has 4 meals worth of taco meat. I quadrupled the ATK taco recipe last time I made it. I also like to soak beans overnight then put them in the crockpot the next day. Beans freeze really well. So does chili. I like to have easy meals at the ready for tough days. One of my favorites is pasta, jarred sauce, and browned italian sausage. The sausage adds so much flavor (I use the hot) that you don't have to worry about additional seasoning. I also like to keep a few Trader Joe's Chinese foods in the freezer for quick meals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan in TN Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 I make freezer meals, but not many for the slow cooker. Most of the ones I have tried from websites just taste very bland or downright yucky to me. Beef stew and pulled pork BBQ have worked well, though. I do make a lot of meals that simply need to be thawed and baked in the oven or heated on the stove. I don't have the recipes on me now, but my family loves "reuben casserole" and baked enchiladas. Also soups (tomato bisque and Kansas City Steak) and chili. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ItoLina Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 Whenever possible I cook enought for 2 meals at once and freeze half of it. Usually this keeps me with a pretty good stock pile of freezer meals for days I don't find time to cook. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Girls' Mom Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 The things that work best for me have been prepared meats thAt you can quickly cook pasta or rice with. In my freezer I have: beef sliced for fajitas with seasonings, onions and peppers Italian chicken (similar to the fajita mix with Italian seasonings and tomatoes) A bag of meatballs meatloaf shredded chicken beef stew ingredients (without the potatoes) Taco soup freezes well. Don't freeze recipes with rice, pasta or potatoes. It will turn out mushy. Squashes don't freeze well either unless it is something like shredded zucchini in bread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nemom Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 I always make triple batches of taco meat, sloppy joes, and chili meat. Eat one for dinner and freeze the other two. Even doing something as simple as cooking five pounds of hamburger or ground turkey and putting it in the freezer really cuts down on meal prep time. Make a double batch of pancake mix on Sunday and you'll have breakfast another day during the week. Large batch of scrambled eggs with favorite fixings for breakfast burritos-warm up leftovers one morning. I'm with a previous poster-crockpot meals just taste bland and yucky. I prefer my dutch oven. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baseball mom Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 Instead of a whole meal I just have precooked meat on hand. Brown ground beef, portion and put in freezer bags. Can go ahead and do some as taco meat, jut makes sure to label it. Cooked chicken...either shredded or in bigger hunks. Grill various meats and put in freezer. Make Italian Beef with aujus. Make extra..eat it that night then slice up the leftovers. Freeze the rest. Either all together or meat in one bag and aujus in another. Having the meats cooked helps me out a lot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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