Making My Life Easier- Make Ahead Meal Recipes!

Okay, so yesterday I posted on how making meals ahead of time has made my life much easier. Today I'm sharing with you some of our favorite recipes in our March meal plan, some resources that I love, and some ways to package meals. This will be a long post, but hopefully good information for those of you who are new to freezer cooking.

Let's get started!

First- for recipes that are liquids (soups, sauces), I store/freeze them in gallon size freezer bags. Just pour the contents in, remove all air from the bag, lay flat in the freezer, and then when they freeze they can stand upright in your freezer, taking up less space. When you want to use the item, take the bag out, defrost either by submerging in water, or by leaving it at room temp (if this is a meal containing already cooked items), or put in your fridge 1-2 days in advance. Then just pour into a large enough and deep enough pan and reheat.

For most other recipes, I buy 8 by 8 round tin-foil pans from the the dollar store. They come in packages of three with tops. They are perfect for my freezer meals because they can be used in the oven and then just thrown away! LOVE them! You can freeze meals in just about anything, but be sure to let glass containers thaw all the way or they may crack when cooking.

Okay, so, here's a sample two-week meal plan for my house. I do not cook every day because we have assigned leftover days to make sure food doesn't go to waste, but for the sake of cramming as many recipes in for you to have,  I have "planned" a meal for each day.  Click on the links for the recipes, most of which come from my favorite recipe site- Allrecipes.com.

February 28- chicken and stuffing casserole- (scroll down to the bottom)

March 1- waikiki meatballs and fried rice

March 2- spaghetti with homemade pasta sauce

March 3- chicken enchiladas and corn

March 4- pizza rolls and salad

March 5- teriyaki chicken and white or brown rice

March 6- poppyseed chicken casserole

Mach 7- lasagna and garlic bread

March 8- fry bread tacos

March 9- chicken fajitas

March 10- sloppy joes and circle fries (scroll and you will see them, Mindee has other great recipes 2!)

March 11- burrito pie and mexi rice

March 12- super easy chicken enchilada soup (2nd recipe when you scroll down!)

March 13- cranberry chicken and white rice

Okay, so, on cooking day I buy all of my ingredients and usually make red meat meals first while letting chicken breasts cook in the crockpot- I just toss in however many chicken breasts I'll need for all the recipes so all the chicken is ready when I need it.

Here are some recipe notes meal by meal.

1.  chicken and stuffing casserole, pretty self explanatory! Thanks Erin!

2. waikiki meatballs and rice- I freeze just the meatballs, but you could freeze the meatballs and sauce separately. 

Prepare meatballs according to directions, prepare sauce separately. Place meatballs in a freezer bag and freeze. Freeze sauce separately using the bag method. To serve, defrost meatballs by placing them in a medium saucepan on medium heat, stir occasionally. To defrost sauce, take out of freezer the night before and put in fridge overnight or leave it at room temp. until you are ready to cook. Heat it with the meatballs. *Prepare rice the day you will eat it. (I use frozen mixed veggies for the rice, just as good and less time consuming.)

3. Spaghetti 

Cool the sauce and freeze it using the bag method mentioned for number 2. Defrost the same way. Combine with cooked noodles on the day you will eat it. Do not freeze the noodles with the sauce.

4. Pizza Rolls- yep, pretty explanatory and yummy, except we eat ours with ranch dressing.

5. Put raw chicken in freezer bag and pour sauce over it. Freeze using bag method. Defrost using bag method, cook chicken separately and either pour marinade in small sauce pan and heat to boilng (adding a little cornstarch to thicken, or make a new batch of marinade, to pour over chicken. Prepare rice the day of.

6. Poppyseed chicken casserole- freeze only the chicken casserole portion (I do this in 2 8by 8 pans); BEFORE adding the crackers. Defrost the day you are going to eat this, then, right before it goes in the oven, add the cracker mixture. Serve over white rice or egg noodles.

7. Lasagna- Any lasagna recipe will do here. I freeze one 9 by 13 size lasagna into three smaller parts, placed either in small corningware dishes or the pans from the dollar store.  I defrost my lasagna fully in the fridge the day before, and then just bake according to the recipe directions! 

8. Fry Bread Tacos- the only thing I can prepare ahead of time for this recipe is the meat. Make taco meat as you normally would- 1 lb. browned ground beef seasoned with taco seasoning. Freeze in a bag after cooled, and defrost in the fridge the night before or set out the morning of. Then reheat in a skillet. And all you have to do is make the bread and eat!

9. Chicken fajitas- I freeze the raw chicken breast and onions and peppers with the marinade using the bag method. On the day to serve cook the chicken and veggies and discard the marinade. Then I sprinkle the juice from the lime over the chicken and veggies right before serving. Serve with warm tortillas and garnish with cheese, sour cream, etc.

10. Sloppy Joes- pretty much the same method as the taco meat except prepare the entire recipe (except the buns of course) and freeze the sandwich meat in a bag. Reheat and serve on buns. (I always add extra ketchup while reheating because I like mine really, well, sloppy!) Make fries the day of.

11. Burrito pie (I put the refried beans directly on the tortillas instead of putting them in the sauce mix) and mexi rice- This recipe makes 2 8 by 8 round pies. I prepare them just as directed and freeze in dollar store round pans after cooling. To reheat, defrost them before cooking and then cook according to recipe directions. Make the mexi-rice the day you will eat it.

12. Chicken enchilada soup- see notes for Italian Sausage soup; heat, garnish and serve.

13. The recipe link explains it all!

Wow, that's a lot of information. I'm sure I missed something and I am in no way an expert on this, but leave questions in the comment section if you have any and I will do my best to address them! Happy freezer cooking!