It’s only been in the last several months that I have mostly taken over dinner-prep duty. Dan used to do ALL the cooking in our household (including pre-Maya days), but with our current work schedules I’m now the one that it falls to. With a hungry toddler at my feet, I often don’t have much time to spend on cooking, so I have been trying to figure out ways that make it easier and more manageable. Some weeks I’m good with meal planning, others I totally fudge. With our new Frigidaire freezer, I’m really trying to get a handle on the whole freezer meal thing because it really does save me so much time if I have great food to pull from the freezer.
You can see we still have to build in the shelves next to our freezer to create the “pantry” we are hoping to do, but just the freezer alone has been a great addition to our pad.
This is what you can often find in our freezer:
–Quiche: I make up 4 at a time. Super easy to make with frozen pie crusts and you can switch up the ingredients to keep things interesting (ham, asparagus, broccoli, peppers, mushrooms, various cheeses, etc.).
–Chili: Dan makes a bit batch of chili every now and again on the weekends and we freeze whatever is left in smaller sized containers or freezer ziploc bags. We try to use ground turkey in the chili as it keeps it a bit leaner than beef, and throw in tons of different kinds of beans.
–Pre-marinated chicken breasts: I buy chicken breasts in bulk and as soon as I get home from the grocery store, take them all out and freeze them in ziploc bags (2-3 per bag). I pour various different marinades right into the ziploc bag and freeze them like that so that it’s all ready for me to pull out and throw in the oven, pan, crock pot, BBQ, whatever. The nice thing about this is that you can rotate the marinades and sauces to get some variety. I make my own from time to time, but also love to buy nice ones from the store that use ingredients that I don’t often use myself. The Stonewall Kitchen line of marinades is a favourite (usually found in specialty food stores).
On occasion, I might have other things in the freezer like lasagna and casseroles. What I like about all of these meals is that I can pull them out of the freezer earlier in the day, heat up at dinnertime, and just add steamed veggies or a salad on the side and we have a healthy meal. They say with a secondary freezer, like our Frigidaire® Classic Slate, you can save an average of 60 hours per year in additional trips to the grocery store – meaning more time to relax at home with your fam!
Having said all of that though, my repertoire is pretty limited and I have been searching around for more meal ideas that are freezer-friendly. Although I looove pasta, my waistline doesn’t, and I find that a lot of the freezer meals are often pasta or potato heavy. Do you guys find the same thing?
Someone on Facebook commented on my page the other day that I should check out Pioneer Woman (Meghan, if you’re reading this – thank you!!). She has a whole section of recipes specifically for freezing. This post of hers actually lays out her whole approach to freezing food and has some great ideas (one that I took away was freezing cooked chicken breasts so that you can get them out and chop up for salads, tacos, stir fry’s, etc). Genius.
My sister-in-law recommended a few recipes from the Whitewater Cookbooks. This lemony lentil soup and the veggie burgers are apparently really great to freeze, and are definitely on my to-make list.
Our Frigidaire Freezer is looking all shiny and lovely in our basement, but I need to get to work on filling that bad boy up. So, got any recipes to share? Or favourite foods to freeze? I’m all ears, guys! What are some of your go to meals?
Disclosure: I am part of the Frigidaire® Canada Ambassador program with Mom Central Canada and I receive special perks as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on this blog are my own.