Easy Freezer Recipes Needed

[Teresa in MO]

My dd had her 5th baby at the end of April and her oldest is 6 1/2.  They live about 4 1/2 hours from us.  I stayed two weeks after the baby was born.  My dd is struggling a bit, especially when it comes time to fix dinner.  They are coming here for the holiday weekend.  I would like to be able to send a few freezer meals back with her.  One will be lasagna, but I am drawing a blank on what else to fix.  They try and eat healthy, but pasta is fine.  I would appreciate ideas and recipes, please!

[Emba]

Meatballs freeze well, and then all that is needed is to boil pasta and heat up sauce.

 

Shepherds pie might be good? Go heavy on the veggies, leave the skins on the potatoes, that would make it healthier.

[Anne]

One of my favorite things is to have cooked pork and chicken in the freezer. I can then easily & quickly turn it into sliced pork dinner, pulled pork dinner, chicken enchiladas (I make them by just layering the tortillas b/c it's way faster that way), etc.

 

Anne

[Carol in Cal.]

Does she have a stand alone freezer?  If so, then freezer meals totally make sense.  In addition to many casseroles, any bean soup should freeze well, and chili is great frozen and then reheated.

 

If she doesn't, then you might be better off giving her the constituents of fast meals, but in concentrated form.

 

So, for instance, instead of quiche or meat pies, you could make a bunch of pie shells and freeze them separately, but then nest them one inside the other so they take up little room but can be pulled out for use.  Include recipes for fillings--quiche is so easy--dice up cheese, saute onions, beat eggs and milk together, mix, pour in, and bake. Maybe 15 minutes from start to popping it in the oven, with all of the ingredients being things you tend to have on hand.  

 

I have a tomato soup recipe that starts with onions and fresh garden tomatoes, and a little tomato paste plus spices.  I tend to cook it to that point and then freeze it in wide mouthed canning jars.  When I'm ready to use it, I add the milk and chicken broth, both of which I always have around, and a splash of sherry, ditto.  That way I don't have to use a lot of freezer space.

 

Pesto freezes very well, and a small baby food jar of it is just right for 4 side servings or 2-3 meal servings of pasta.

[Annie G]

Taco meat is good- she can make tacos, taco salad, or quesadillas. I highly recommend the recipe from America's Test Kitchen- awesome!

 

Grilled boneless chicken is really handy to have frozen. She can thaw it and toss in a salad, serve to kids alongside some mac and cheese or fruit, or use it in a recipe.  It can be put on a burger bun for a chicken sandwich, or used in a quick pasta dish. 

 

I love to keep homemade meat sauce or sauce with meatballs in the freezer. Meatballs can be used to make meatball sandwiches or can be put on pasta. 

 

I mostly freeze main dish components instead of whole meals.  That's often the most time consuming part and most things give me some options on how to use them vs when I freeze whole meals. 

 

 

[cjzimmer1]

Stuffed peppers freeze really well. 

 

Another casserole that my kids love that freezes well is Chicken Almondine.  It's a Taste of Home recipe (sorry I don't have a link handy).  It uses cream of chicken soup but if you don't like that I frequently will sub a homemade white sauce for it.

 

I agree with others that simply having precooked meat on hand makes having to make supper so much more doable.  When things are really crazy I make a huge batch of sauteed onions, peppers and mushrooms (if you like them),  They can be used as a topping for tacos, or spray the outside of a soft tortillas with Pam, fold in half, add veggie mixture, meat and/or beans, shredded cheese)  Bake at 450 for about 10 minutes for super quick quesadillas, the veggie can be used as a topping for meatball subs or other hot sandwiches, it can also be added to spaghetti sauce for extra veggies.  Just having that step out of the way makes my meal prep go faster too.

Edited May 26, 2016 by cjzimmer1

[medawyn]

I'm with the PP who tends to freeze meal components rather than meals. I just had my third, and I'm struggling with meal time, so I can't imagine 5 in 6.5 years!

 

If you want full meals, I suggest

 

Enchiladas (I make ours with chicken, corn, and zucchini, plus I make extra shredded chicken - or filling - for other taco/burrito/quesadilla meals)

 

Shepherds pie, with tons of veggies in the filling: mushrooms, eggplant, zucchini, carrots, etc.

 

Pasta sauce: meat, marinara, and pesto

 

Chili: beef, chicken, and veggie (I like Moosewood vegetarian chili recipe)

 

These are all things I usually keep in my freezer when I'm more organized. Unfortunately, I didn't stock the freezer well this go 'round, so DH and I are enjoying more take out than usual, and the kids are loving pb&j and grilled cheese :-/

[gypsymama]

I prefer to freeze ingredients instead of whole meals. 

 

Ingredients:

- taco meat (for tacos, chili, etc)

- shredded chicken (chicken tacos, salad, alfredo, etc)

- pulled pork (sandwiches, toss some in a soup or stew)

- diced chicken (salad, stir fry, etc)

- precooked beans (makes any bean dish quick and much cheaper than canned! Pinto beans can become chili, refried beans and more; I also freeze any other beans I use like black or red)

- plain meatballs (toss in spaghetti or make a swedish meatball dish)

- cauliflower "rice" (we eat a lot of this so I like to pre "rice" it so dinner is even quicker)

 

Quick cooked breakfast items:

- Breakfast burritos (burrito filled with scrambled egg, diced/crumbled meat of choice, cheese - just reheat for a few seconds and add a spoon of salsa)

- Pancakes in regular, chocolate chip and blueberry versions (reheat for a few seconds and spread a touch of butter on top)

- "McMoms" (break one egg into each muffin tin [scrambled or not depending on preference] and bake 10-15 min; use a biscuit cutter to cut rounds into sliced ham [i like to use the thicker sliced ham but you could just use a few slices of deli sandwich meat style ham not cut]; using english muffins layer each one with an egg, slice of ham, and a slice of cheese. Wrap in freezer paper or foil and freeze)

 

Other items:

- twice baked potatoes

- diced peppers and onions (means the prep is done and I can buy peppers when they're on sale)

- spaghetti sauce (if you like homemade I usually just use canned :) )

- soups 

- lasagna

- cookie dough batter in premade "pats" (I double the cookie dough batch, freeze it slightly then scoop out into even sized balls. I flatten these into "pats" between layers of wax or freezer paper to flash freeze and then I freeze them. I can grab out the # of cookies I need and bake this way with little mess whether it's a whole dozen or just 3 to put in dh's lunch)

 

I'll come back if I think of anything else but this is the majority of stuff I like to use. I often search for "oamc cooking plans" or something similar to find new ideas or recipes to try. 

 

 

[mmasc]

My favorite recipe for making shredded chicken is this:

 

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

I pkg taco seasoning

1 cup salsa

1 8-oz can tomato sauce

 

Cook on low in the slow cooker for about 4-6 hours. Shred the meat.

 

I then place the meat in quart size freezer zip-lock bags and freeze. It's a smaller portion, so you can use as many as your meal calls for. You can use it in tortilla soup, burritos, tacos, nachos, quesadillas, etc.

 

Cooked ground beef is also great to freeze, like PPs suggested.

 

Chili is great frozen and re-heated.

Edited May 26, 2016 by mmasc

[KatieJ]

Meatloaf

Meatballs

Chicken / turkey tettrazini

Italian beef for sandwiches

Chicken divan with a layer of rice in the bottom of the casserole

Filling for stuffed pepper or squash

Beef pasties - pre baked

Enchiladas

[TX Native]

Chicken Pot Pie

[mamiof5]

Does she use a crockpot? Does she have an extra freezer?

[SebastianCat]

Pioneer Woman's chicken spaghetti is one of my favorite freezer meals. I use diced carrots and celery instead of the pimentos and green pepper, and make 2 casseroles at a time.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/chicken_spaghet/

[Bambam]

For those times, I prefer meals that have pretty much everything. If things aren't going right, I just want to pop something in the oven, then pull it out and eat it.

So - chicken pot pie (but add vegetables, not potatoes).

Ham, cheese, noodle casserole and add peas.

Vegetable/beef soup (without potatoes because they are just weird frozen)

Chili

I also freeze the base for chicken noodle soup - everything in there but the noodles. Simply warm up, toss in noodles about 5-7 minutes before you want to eat, then eat. 

Chicken tortilla soup too (add tortilla later).

Calzones (fill with whatever you think they will like and freeze, send with a jar of pizza sauce)

Enchiladas (not much vegetables here, but you can open a can of beans to help)

 

If I think there will be time to make other things, I do the chicken taco meat frozen (several chicken breasts in crock pot with one taco seasoning packet, a jar of salsa, a little lime juice). Handy for tacos, enchiladas, nachos, burritos. 

 

I do make several pizza crusts and bake small ones about 8 minutes and freeze them. Pull them out later and just add toppings.