My husband and I both work outside the home. We have 2 adult age children that work and attend college. At the end of the day, no one is interested in cooking dinner. Takeout isn’t good for the budget or the waistline, so I am on a mission. A mission to stream line meals, so we can all relax and know ahead of time what we will be having for dinner. Freezer meals is my main focus(right now, sometimes I have a problem with focusing), so we complied a few freezer meal cooking tips for beginners. These tips helped our family take baby steps and jump aboard the freezer meal train. Look for more freezer meal tips coming soon.
Freezer meals are a great time saver. It is so nice to be able to go to the freezer the night before and grab a meal to thaw out for dinner the next day. It also creates less dishes which is always a plus.
Freezer meals help save money because on those days you don’t feel like cooking, you don’t have to go eat out because you have your easy freezer meal ready to throw in the oven, crock pot or on the gill. All the while consuming prep work is done! It also helps save time because you won’t be making multiple trips to the store since all the prep work has been done at once. It is a great feeling to know what is in your food especially with all the additives, preservatives and unknown indigence out there today. Also, if you have your meals already planned you don’t have to sit around and stress about what you should cook for dinner.
If your thinking about trying out freezer meals I say go for it. However, I suggest not trying to much your first time. Try starting with 20 meals or maybe even 10 meals. Then you can build up to 40 meals the next time. The first time getting all the meals together can be a bit overwhelming but definitely worth it in the long run!
Make a list of meals you’d like to prepare and put together your grocery list for all the items you will need. If possible plan your meals around the sales at your local grocery store. Talk to your store manager about their weekly special cycle. If they have a managers special section like Kroger does then you can ask the manager when they mark their items down.
To make shopping easier try organizing your list as much as possible. Write your items down by sections like meat, dairy and produce etc. This will keep you from having to run back and forth across the store for everything on your list. Don’t forget to add gallon sized freezer bags to your list if you don’t have any at home. You don’t want to get home with all your food and realize you have nothing to freeze it in.
Before you head out to the store get your work space ready to go. Have your counters and table cleared off. Sort your recipes by type of meat and have a spot to prepare each type, chicken on the counter, pork on the table etc. If you already have freezer bags at home I suggest labeling them before you go. If you have to get them at the store I would label them first thing when you get home. Label them with the name of the meal as well as cooking instructions to make things a bit easier on yourself when your ready to cook the meal. Also, have a space set up and ready to cut all your veggies.
When you get home from the store sort out your food. Go a head and place all the meat in the appropriate bags. Next, cut all your vegetables and start sorting them into each bag. Then, add all the spices and any extras to the bags like tomato sauce, broths etc. Another way to do it is to start with the chicken and one meal at a time add the vegetables and spices.
When you are wanting to make the frozen meals, simply take it out of the freezer the night before and allow it to thaw overnight in the refrigerator. When your ready to cook it just follow the instructions you wrote on the freezer bag. One other small piece of advice that can make a huge difference is, make sure you do not cram your meals into the deep freeze leaving only a small amount of space between. I did this on my first try and had to have my husband come home and pry the meals apart before I was able to get one out of the freezer. 
What kind of meal plans do you and your family use?
About Michele Brosius
Thanks for thw tips!
I must say, after i’m doing grocery shopping i’m very tired, but still organizing it in place, just so there won’t be any mess in the living room.
Starting to cut the veggies right after shopping is quite hard for me, but thanks a lot, it does sound very good!
So glad I stumbled on this today. I have been wanting to try this for the same reasons. And I am going to try to tackle about 8 freezer recipes in the next few days so that I can be ready for school to start. 8 weeks until fall break-so one a week will give us a good start. Thanks for the advice.