Homestead Creations

I’m not sure there is anything better for a busy parent then a freezer full of meals ready to be dumped in a crockpot and forgotten about until dinner time. The further we get into parenting, the more we rely on these! I had a freezer meal exchange going for awhile and it was SO nice, but it has been harder and harder to make that work. Often times its just myself, or if I’m lucky I can get some kids in there helping me, to restock the freezer; I’ve now got it down to a science and its goes quickly and is worth the 1/2 day spent to prepare a months worth of dinners. I should clarify, we do freezer meals 2-3 times a week, so there is still some fresh meals being cooked in there too. Anyway, here’s how I do it:

First, find your recipes. I love to try new ones every so often, but we have some staples that we keep on hand at all times too. Our staples are always ones that are easy to put together and can be served in multiple ways such as Cilantro Lime Chicken that can be served with a side of veggies and some bread, over rice, or in a salad. Or Nacho Chicken which we serve obviously over nachos, but also tastes great added to a taco salad. In the fall and winter we always have an abundance of soups on hand as well. Potato soup which can be found HERE (along with a handful of other really yummy meals we use frequently including the Cilantro Lime Chicken), Stuffed Bell Pepper Soup (pictured below), and A1 Chili (pictured below) are three of our favorite soups/chilis to have on hand. We very rarely make recipes that have to be stored in 9×13 foil pans. More times than not I feel like they never quite cook right, they aren’t as easy and convenient when time to cook, and more than anything they are not as easy to store in my opinion. That is a personal preference though, I know a lot of people who love them!

My biggest recommendation with choosing which meals you’re going to make, is try to choose recipes that have similar ingredients. It makes it easier and often times cheaper too! Also, I’m a big fan of buying frozen vegetables where possible. It calls for diced onions and peppers? Perfect! I can buy a bag of frozen peppers and onions and just saved myself a lot of time chopping away!

Once you have chosen your meals, made your list of ingredients needed (make sure you don’t forget freezer bags!), and done all the shopping it’s time to do the fun part and put them together! First and foremost, make sure you write on your bags BEFORE you start adding ingredients in them.

One of my favorite investments I’ve made since regularly making freezer meals are these bag holders. They make the assembly so much easier and cleaner. Win/win! They are also easy to store since they collapse.

We use these reusable gallon bags too. I love them, but I can certainly see why they are probably not for everyone. They are a little more work to clean, and I do feel like smells get left behind if you don’t really soak them for a bit in hot soapy water, so they aren’t the quickest to clean either. With that being said, they are very environmentally friendly and it’s certainly “first world problems” to say they take more work than a bag I can just throw away. 🙂 We use a combination of the Ziplock throw away bags and the reusable. The bag holders mentioned above are a GREAT way to dry the reusable bags after cleaning. It helps a lot to really let them air out! One thing to note, is you won’t want to write on these bags so I use some freezer tape (or masking depending on what I have on hand) to at least label it and then just have them memorized or I can look them up in my recipe binder if needed. I’ve heard of people writing directions on an index card and laminating and then taping it onto the bag. If this is going to be a staple recipe you make regularly, you can then keep reusing the index card.

When I don’t use frozen veggies, I use this chopper to cut my time in half at least when it comes to chopping everything. Chop all the veggies you need for that bag at once, dump in the bag and move on to the next bag.

Be open to trying new ways. Some people will swear you should put ingredients in a certain order, someone else will swear by another way; play around with it and figure out what works for you. I’ve found most ways people rant and rave about are all successful, including the ones that contradict each other…they’re both great options! I do recommend you freeze laying flat which allows you to stack them really nicely. Also, make sure your bag isn’t wet so they don’t stick together. Most weeks I take a minute or two each night to think about what is for dinner the next day and if it needs to be a freezer meal I go grab one out and put it in the fridge to thaw over night. Sometimes I don’t get around to it and I pull it out in the morning and let it thaw until around lunch when I dump it in the crockpot. Occasionally I pull out all the meals I’ll use that week and put all the bags/meals in a lidless container in the fridge and then they’re all thawed and ready to go when needed without having to think about it as much each day. Again, play around with it and figure out what works best for you and your family.

Enjoy less eating out and more healthy eating with less work!