I first discovered freezer cooking when I was pregnant for one of my daughters. Back then, my freezer cooking days were a lot different than they are now. I would cook for an entire day and fill the freezer with meals that we could eat later in the month.
Sometimes I still do that, but now, I usually have a freezer cooking session that only lasts a few hours since I don’t seem to have as much time as I used to.
Freezer cooking is a great way for busy parents to get a homemade meal on the table in no time flat. Cooking at home is more nutritious and it’s usually cheaper, so freezer cooking offers the best of both worlds.
If you’d like to begin freezer cooking but are intimidated by the process, I have some recommendations to help get you started.
How to Plan Your Time
There are several ways you can fill your freezer with meals. The best method is based on how much time you have. Here are several of the ways I get meals in the freezer on a regular basis:
Double up on your meals for a week. This is the easiest way to stock the freezer. Plan a week’s worth of meals, and each night when you’re cooking, make a double batch. One batch will go in the freezer for later; the other you can enjoy that night for dinner. Do this for a week, and you have another week’s worth of meals in the freezer.
Have a mini freezer cooking session. Each weekend, make three or four meals for the freezer. Double the recipes so that you’re making a total of six to eight meals. Do this for a few weekends, a couple of hours at a time, and you’ll have a month’s worth of meals in the freezer.
Have a full day freezer cooking session. This is what I used to do and what some people still do. Cook all day, and get 30 or more meals in the freezer for the rest of the month. The rest of the month you’ll do very little cooking. The best part? Most of your kitchen mess is made in one day, making clean up much easier in the coming days.
Where to Find Recipes
I find recipes in a multitude of places.
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MyFreezEasy. I reviewed this last year, and it continues to be a fabulous resource. Most of the meals that are in my freezer now are MyFreezEasy recipes. Simply go to the site and choose either the type of meal you’d like to make such as Slow Cooker, Gluten Free, or Traditional, to name a few, or choose based on the type of protein that you want to use. (This is a great feature if you want to take advantage of a sale at the grocery store.) Pick your recipes, and MyFreezEasy will give you the directions for cooking as well as a grocery list. Easy peasy.
There is a fee for this service, but if you don’t want to spend time hunting down recipes, this is the way to go.
Pinterest. Another go to source is Pinterest. I use Pinterest a lot for more specialized recipes, especially those for Paleo and Paleo AIP for my daughter.
Cookbooks. There are several cookbooks you can buy or check out from the library that are especially designed for freezer cooking.
Final Thoughts
I’ll admit, freezer cooking can sometimes be a pain. I no longer have a big freezer cooking session. But the beauty is that I don’t have to. There are many other, easier ways to fill the freezer.
Do you freezer cook? If so, what meals are your favorite and what strategies do you use to make it easier to fill your freezer with freezer meals?
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I used to freezer cook all the time.. my lads dislike it intensely though so I don’t do that anymore.
I hear you. I have to make the right meals or my husband complains. He’s not a fan of the dump freezer meals that go in the slow cooker later.
I try to do some freezer meals, but lately have not had time. I want to get back in the habit of doing it for days when I need something quick and easy.
I have never freezer cooked. My husband has never been one who likes left overs a whole lot other than spaghetti.
My husband sometimes complains, but not too much. 😉
I LOVE when I have time to freezer cook. I would plan weekends with my mom, we would each make a double recipe and split. I love finding the recipes on MyFreezEasy and Pinterest. These meals make my life so easy, when I have time to make them…My goal is to start again and stock the freezer full! 🙂
I freezer cook sometimes, but our freezer never seems to have enough room to fit a lot of meals! Thinking about it, I should set up one freezer cooked meal a week to ease the weekly cooking activities a bit. Thanks for sharing!
I used to try the once a month marathons, but I always hated trying to get so much done at once. Maybe it’s because the littles were so little. And demanding. Now I prefer to cook a few meals at a time. It works way better for us.