This is what it feels like to be one of the freezer meals in my deep freeze. I’m coming to get ya! FishBoy 6 is even smirking about it. Look at those laughing eyes.
Yesterday, I decided I needed to find out what really lurked in the depths of my freezer. Oh my! I found several prepped meals as well as lots of meats to make delicious dinners with. I haven’t finalized a plan for cooking this month, but there was already the makings of 25 meals in my deep freeze and in my refrigerator freezer. Guess I’ve been doing good stockpiling.
A reader on Facebook suggested that I add another month’s worth of cooking, rotate my stock, and then take December off. It’s not a bad idea!
This weekend I’m working on a month-long meal plan with what we have and then as I see really good sales, I can buy to fill in the holes or plan for next month. I’m also coming up with a freezer cooking plan for breakfasts and lunches. Whaddya think? Covering all my bases, I am.
If you’re just starting out in freezer cooking, you might want to check these past posts:
A Quick Start Guide to Freezer Cooking
Is it freezer-friendly?
I realized that good freezer cooking recipes are hard to find. So, I’m going to start bookmarking mine here. I don’t have the time to catalog them all in one fell swoop, but I will update as I find time. Maybe if you bookmark this page, you might find them easier to locate.
These are recipes that we love and which are all freezer-friendly.
Queso Fundido
Meats
Meatballs, Mashed Potatoes, and Gravy
Queso Fundido
Shredded Beef Filling
Chihuahua Chili
Meatball/Meatloaf Mixture
Seasoned Taco Meat
Lawnmower Taco
Chicken
Marinated Chicken
Shredded Chicken
Chicken Bacon Sub Sandwiches
Other Main Dishes Components
Pizza Kits
Crockpot Red Sauce
Cooked Pinto Beans
Side Dishes and Breads
Garlic Bread
Chocolate Butterhorns
Whole Grain Cinnamon Rolls
What kind of freezer cooking recipes are you looking for?
PS. Anyone interested in testing out this freezer inventory sheet? Let me know what you think, what you would add, and what you would change.
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Thanks so much for sharing these recipes. I will start my own first “freezer baking days” on Monday. Yesterday I already wrote something about in on my blog and mentioned you!
I really hope that this will work out for me, too!
I typically do not cook meals and put in the freezer, but I like the meat precooked and frozen so that all I have to do is warm it up and mix it into a meal. For instance, ground beef is a great one. We have a meat sale in town that I can by 15 lbs of precooked ground beef for $1.50 p/lb. I love to stock up on this b/c it last me MONTHS and I don’t have to mess with cooking it…just warm it up!
I can’t wait to see some of the meals though you cook and freeze…sounds like a good plan to me!
@Kristy@momhatescooking, Kristy, I buy from them too!! I LOVE the pre-cooked beef crumbles. I get the unseasoned ones so I can use them in anything!!! I also buy the 10 lb box of the fully cooked chicken breast strips as they work well in soups, casseroles and tons more!!
THANK YOU for the freezer-friendly list. I’ve been trying to stock my freezer in prep for our twins due in November. It’s nice to have something other than lasagna.
Love your site!!!
Love this list! Thank you so much!
One of my favorites is Hamburger Barbeque-known in some parts of the country as Sloppy Joes.
We love the crockpot marinara sauce and sloppy joes are a regular freezer meal for us.
Not really a recipe request, but do you have a good source for a printable freezer inventory list? I have googled it but don’t like the ones I’ve found. Looking for something that separates out breakfast, dinner, dessert, starters, misc, etc.
I use MSM’s freezer cooking prep lists and love them!
Thanks!
Julie
What do you think about this freezer inventory sheet? I normally write circles next to each item, indicating how many of the thing that I have. Here, you would mark the box with a dot and then X it out when you’ve used it. Let me know how you’d like it tweaked.
One of my friends has some great freezer breakfast stuff on her site!
Check out her “Breakfast in the Freezer” page… http://unafamiliaalaskena.blogspot.com/2010/09/breakfast-in-freezer-plan.html
Thanks so much for the great post, Jessica! It is very inspiring!
I am at the “entertaining the thought” stage of freezer cooking. We are a vegetarian family so I am having trouble trying to choose recipes that would freeze well. Like the woman mentioned above, I don’t want 15 lasagnas or all pasta dishes. If there are any suggestions out there, I am all ears!
Well, what do you normally eat? I’m guessing that you do grains and vegetable stirfries? (I have no idea, so excuse my ignorance.) If you make pizza, you can freeze the dough in balls and freeze the sauce and toppings as well. Spaghetti sauce freezes beautifully as do other sauces. I regularly freeze mashed potatoes, chilis, and stews. If you do eggs, there are a number of egg dishes that freeze well also. If I had more time, I’d hyperlink all those posts as I have recipes on all of them. But if you go to the category bar in the sidebar and click OAMC that will give you a wide range of posts on freezer cooking.
I will try to schedule a vegetarian post soon. Thanks for the question!
@Jessica Fisher,
Me too, I would love a vegetarian post. We are trying to cut down on grocery costs and I am trying to do only one meat meal a week!
Well, y’all are going to need to give me feedback and let me know what you normally eat so I can see how to tweak it for the freezer.
@Jessica Fisher, Thank you! I will give you any feedback you need and I appreciate the suggestions. We do a lot with beans, rice, pasta, and most anything can be “converted” to vegetarian. I am going to look under OAMC now and again, thanks!
Awesome post, thank you for all the links. I’m sitting here with my calendar making my menu plan for October. I should definitely incorporate some freezer cooking, as it always makes everyone happier (especially me) when dinner is stress-free thanks to ready-made food! BTW, I use your tally system for tracking what’s in my freezer. It was the best idea and it’s served me really well. The only thing I’m thinking of tweaking is keeping the list on a dry erase board, rather than paper.
Thanks so much for the list of freezer friendly foods. I have just started diving into freezer cooking and meal planning and have really enjoyed all of the information on your site. We have used quite a few of your recipes and they have all been hits. Thanks for all you do.
Thanks, Shelley. Remember that you may have to tweak things to fit your own family’s tastes. That’s how we’ve made it work at our house.
Do you have to have a deep freeze to freeze meals? Or can you do it in a standard freezer? Do they keep as well as a deep freeze?
No, you don’t need a deep freeze, though you probably shouldn’t store something for longer than 5 months in a refrig/freezer. This post contains a vlog of my fridge/freezer as well as information on how to make it work without a deep freeze.
Thanks so much for this list…definitely a bookmark! I have been freezer cooking in dribs and drabs over the past year or two, but my friend and I (now that she got her own handy dandy chest freezer!) have joined forces and are having team freezer cooking days – we have just started and LOVE it! So much fun to work together! We are learning the ropes of doing “formal” days, however. Last month (our first) we were a little overzealous and I ended up staying at her house until nearly midnight to finish up! Oops!
I always have pizza dough balls in the freezer. We also do banana muffins almost monthly and mac and cheese (doesn’t taste quite as good as when fresh, but still good and convenient for those crazy nights!). We also did pulled pork that froze great and then we just reheated in the crock pot!
I love your blog! Thanks for all the hard work and inspiration!
lawn mower tacos here last night-big hit, thanks!
So much information! This post will be referred to often until it becomes second-nature. I don’t know any mom with time to ‘make’ dinner every day
Wow! Thanks so much for the wonderful resources!!! I am new to using real foods. I had no idea before how much I relied on processed foods. Just this year, I had my first garden, and now am trying to learn and find out what works best for our family. I am fortunate to have a large freezer in our garage, and am looking forward to utilizing it in a smart way.
I have added your blog as well as a few others to mine so that I can easily access. I love the recipes! I love the knowledge! I love the fact that there are women who want to help other women. What a wonderful resource.
So thank you so much for your time and for all that you do. My family is definitely benefitting and changing for the better, simply because other moms are taking time to blog.
Have a wonderful day!
Jessica,
My family loved these sweet breakfast rolls so I thought I’d share. I think if you try them your kids will love them as well, although I think less sugar works better and without the egg due to your daughter’s allergy. BTW I’ve been trying a few of your recipes lately and my family has yet to reject one. Thanks for sharing. You’ve taught me a ton about freezer cooking.
Sweet Wonder Rolls(from Wonder Bread/ Hostess Brand Website)
Makes 48 rolls
48 slices of Wonder bread, without crust
– Craving calcium? Use Wonder Classic White bread
– Hungry for whole grains? Try Wonder Made With Whole Grain Wheat
bread
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 cup softened butter or margarine
1/2 cup melted margarine
2 (8 oz.) packages softened cream cheese
2 egg yolks
In a bowl, combine the cinnamon with 1 cup of the sugar and set aside.
In a large bowl, cream together the softened butter or margarine, cream
cheese, egg yolks and the remaining 1/2 cup sugar. Spread this mixture
on the pieces of bread and roll them up. Brush each roll with melted
butter or margarine and roll in the cinnamon sugar mixture. Place
rollups seam side down on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Cover tightly
with plastic wrap or aluminum foil and freeze.
Thirty minutes before baking, preheat oven to 400 degrees. Do not thaw
the rolls before baking. Remove rolls from freezer and bake uncovered
for 15 minutes.
Wow – I am inspired by this and all of the ladies’ posts!
I like casserole’s. Then all I have to add is mashed potato’s or a salad and I’ve got a meal.
I like the Freezer Inventory Sheet – I think it will come in very handy for remembering what is in my deep freeze (like when I thought I still had a package of eggrolls until I went to go dig them out!) I will probably add to the inventory because most of the time I have the makings of a meal instead of a finished product in my freezer aka chicken broth, whole chickens, ground beef, venison, precooked beans, frozen veggies, pizza sauce, ect… and having a reminder for that stuff without having to go to the basement and look would be ideal for me!
P.S. Thanks for all the inspiration! Our 4th baby is due beginning of November and my husband just shakes his head at me when he catches me in the kitchen.
Thanks so much for the post! I actually came looking for your crockpot red sauce recipe & now I’m inspired to get started on another recipe.
I got burned out on casseroles & we BBQ’d a lot in the summer months but we’ve had excellent sales recently (like approximately 50lbs of meat in the freezer & 40boxes of pasta) I got to get back in the swing of things!
I would love to see more bean recipes.
I still don’t have the knack for freezing tortillas without them falling apart.
Thanks for this post. I’ve been scouring your site looking for new freezer cooking ideas. We recently got a large deep-freeze and so far, I’ve just been cooking larger portions of the freezer foods that I always have made (pizza pockets for the kids, “pizza rolls”, taco rolls, cinnamon rolls, breads and muffins, etc. It is nice to have those on hand, but they don’t always make a great main dinner. You’ve really inspired me to get a few good dinner meals in there as well to combat those nights when things just aren’t going well and we would usually rely on take-out.
Well, looks like I’m a little late to the party but I am just starting with freezer cooking. My kids are out of school for the summer next week and I travel for work so it would help my family, especially my hubby, a LOT if we had a stocked freezer with ready-to-(h)eat meals!! Thanks for all your info and recipes!
I just did freezer cooking for the first time last Saturday. I was afraid I was being too ambitious for my first try at it and it would take all day but I can’t believe how quickly it all pulled together, I made all this in 4 hours: 2 meatloaves, 2 chicken cordon bleu bakes, lasagna, tator tot hotdish, taco bundles, chicken wild rice soup, hamburger soup, blueberry pancakes, peanut butter and jelly waffles and double chocolate chunk cookies. I’m so excited to do this again!
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