Freezer Meals – Deconstructed {Step by Step How to}
It is not easy to do housework, getting errands and shopping done, all while making 3 meals a day too. Add in homeschooling 4 kids and living on a new homestead to boot. Oh, and don’t let me forget about planning a garden and getting ready for chicks and rabbits in the Spring. Did I mention that my eldest is graduating this year. I don’t know what all you have going on at your house but this is craziness at its best here.
Freezer Meals give me more time with my family, while making great tasting, good-for-us food in the shortest amount of time. Freezer meals are my backup plan nowadays, but they used to be my main dinner supplier a couple of years ago.
Spend all weekend prepping, cooking & then pile 14 casseroles into the freezer for later.
NO WAY!!! We don’t have time for all that and I rarely like leftovers. Nope, We Prep, Bag & Freeze our meals to cook later. We even stick the recipe on the bags for easy 30 minutes meals.
Yes! It’s that simple!!
Step 1: Plan out what you want to have for dinner for the next 5 days (1 week shopper) or 10 days (2 week shopper). However you shop. The extra meal-less days are built in for leftovers and going out to eat once a week.
Step 2: Go Shopping! Get all your groceries put away.
Step 3: Label your 5 or 10 bags with the meal label. Make an index card or recipe sheet to put on the bag, I use large Avery Labels for this but packing tape and paper will work too.
Step 4: Prep your meats – and any veggies that can be frozen with it.
– Cut your meats into bite size pieces or chucks for fast cooking.
– Place these items into a gallon size Freezer Bag. I am partial to Glad bags because it holds up better than other brands, but you use whatever you like.
Note: If you are not freezing your veggies, bag them separately in the fridge, labeled.
Bag up pre-measured rice or pasta separately and place it in a quart freezer bag. You will place it and the meat freezer bag into a 2nd gallon size freezer bag to keep together in the freezer when you are all done.
Step 5: Add your oils & seasonings.
Step 6: Seal the bag but keep air in it for now. Mash up the ingredients until they are all coated and mixed. Sit the bag up, open it, then reseal it while squeezing as much air out as you can. You can combine this bag with your rice or pasta bags at this time.
Step 7: Lay it flat in your freezer until completely frozen. Then you can stack them how you like.
Note: If you plan on using one of the meals on the same day or the next day, put them into the fridge instead.
The day before you are going to eat a Freezer Meal take it out of the freezer and let thaw on a plate or in a large bowl in the fridge. The plate is in case the bags gets holes from moving them around the freezer. It HAS happened. That was a big raw meat mess.
Follow the recipe and viola, meal in 30 minutes.
Prepping 5 meals usually take me an hour from cutting meats –> getting it into the freezer. It takes about 2 hours for 10 meals. If I were to make those same meals one at a time for 5 or 10 days, that would take me over an hour per meal. So, for the work of 1 or 2 hours per week, you are going to be saving yourself 3-8 hours per week.
Worth it??
It definitely is worth it around here. There are a lot of things that I could get done in those hours that I just bought myself.
Try it. I do have some awesome Freezer Meal Recipes being added here. Check them out on the right Sidebar. Check me out on Facebook for more recipes and some more great time and money saving ideas.
Do you have any money saving or time saving ideas for the home? Let me know in the comments below.
Thanks for stopping by!
