My Freezer Cooking Experience: 30 Meals in 2.5 Hours!
I’ve been playing around with the idea of cooking up some freezer meals and doing a meal swap with my friends! It went really well and I’m loving the results!
For the freezer cooking, I just doubled the recipe for some of the dinners I was already making. This way we got dinner for that night plus an extra for the freezer.
When you double your meals, it saves in SO many ways! You use about half the dishes (use your skillet once for both meals instead of using and washing it twice for two meals on two different days), you are able to streamline your processes (chopping vegetables all at once), and you save so much time (instead of spending 30 minutes each time you make a tamale pie, make 2 at a time and spend only about 35-40 minutes total)!
I also made five of two of the meals for a meal swap. I got together with three friends and we decided to each make two different dinners for each person. The meals I chose were Tuna Fettuccine and Tamale Pie. I made one of each for our dinner those nights, one for our freezer, plus one for each of my friends. Then we all swapped. I traded my six meals for six different meals from the others. A great way to get some variety! We all agreed to just do one meal next week though because two was a little much for us.
I only spent approximately 2.5 extra hours cooking last week. For my efforts I now have 30 meals in the freezer! All of the meals are actually enough for us to make 2 or more dinners (so each meal you see in the picture will give us 2 or more dinners), so I was able to get many more meals than I expected.
Here are the meals I now have in my freezer
- Chicken Curry – 5
- Tamale Pie – 3
- Sausage Strata – 3
- Tuna Fettuccine – 2
- Lasagna – 3
- Sausage Casserole – 3
- Chicken Wontons – 3
- Country Creole Peas ‘n Corn – 2
- Peppered Steak – 2
- Chicken Penne Pasta – 2
- Burrito Beans – 2
- Mashed Potatoes – 14 (this was something extra I did to use up some potatoes that I purchased in bulk)
Most of the recipes I used were from the Meals in Minutes Cookbook by Sue Gregg. I was VERY pleased with this book and everything we’ve tried has been delicious!! Her recipes use whole foods and are kid-friendly. (PS. This post is in no way sponsored by Sue Gregg. I bought this book at a book fair and loved it so much I had to tell you about it. 🙂 )
I definitely think freezer cooking is worth it! I won’t be doubling meals every night but I will be doubling them far more often after seeing how easy it is!
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24 Comments
Amee Merklin Cantagallo via Facebook
wow I love freezer cooking!
Alea Milham via Facebook
Wow! I’m impressed!
Jill Keogh Craft via Facebook
AWESOME! I love freezer cooking!
Toni Herrbach Anderson via Facebook
I’m planning on doing this next week!
Mae
Hi Stephanie,
I so want to do this.
But I wanted to know, for 30 meals how much did all that cost?
And I might have missed this detail but for one meal how many people can it feed?
Stephanie
I’m sorry, I wish I knew! It was a long time ago and apparently I didn’t make a note of it so I don’t remember. The meals feed around 4 people.
Jenny
“Don’t Panic Dinners in the Fridge” is another great book you should try. All these books usually tell you how to prepare them, reheat them, store them, and expiration dates on them. I have been doing this for 3 years and I have never looked back! It’s great!
Stephanie
@Jenny, Thanks for that book tip!!
dawn
Thank You for this Great Idea!!!!
Michelle Aponte
Hello,
Iam very new to this frezzing food idea so i have a couple questions so might just be stupid ones but i rather ask the experts first. LOL
After cooking the food and frezzing it how do you prepare it for frezzing. second question when you are going to reheat the prepred frozzen food how do you do it?
thanks,
Michelle
Lisa B
@Michelle Aponte,
there are no stupid questions 🙂
As for preparing it for the freezer I guess it all depends on what you are making. Some things are as simple as cleaning it and putting it in plastic bags (I do this with chicken breasts. I hate cleaning them so if I do it once in a huge batch it is easier than having to do it each night) Some meals I just cook normally and dump in a plastic FREEZER bag – don’t try storage bags.
When I was first trying to come up with meals I wanted in my menu I would freeze a small portion of the dinner we were eating. The next day we would have it for lunch. I always had a loaf of bread and peanut butter for back up incase it didn’t work. That way I was only losing a small amount if it didn’t work and no a whole meal or two. Some that didn’t work well for me was a crockpot mac and cheese and a mayo base sauce.
I am not sure if this totally answered your question but always ask! You won’t know unless you do.
Hope
I read part of a freezing cookbook and it was so complicated. You had to line the pans with wax paper or double up on plastic wrap. It had a chapter on just the prep stuff. Is this book like that? Do you freeze in dish or something else?
Stephanie
@Hope, I didn’t do anything complicated. I just used disposable foil pans for some and I placed a layer of plastic wrap on top before covering with foil as added freezer burn protection. Just be sure to cool completely before freezing. I leave the meals in the refrigerator overnight then stick in the freezer the next morning. This book had some great tips specifically for freezer meals, but I didn’t read the whole thing. I just skipped ahead to the recipes and referred to her tips as needed.
lisa
have you tried any making and freezing your own breakfast? i have been thinking about looking into it…i mean they have frozen omelets and the like…so why cant i make it myself?
Stephanie
@lisa, Yes! I love to freeze breakfast because I am not very good about cooking when I first wake up! I love making waffles and pancakes especially. I did a freezer cooking session a while back where I made breakfast foods like cinnamon rolls and breakfast hot pockets: https://www.couponing101.com/2009/11/baking-day-part-3-the-results.html
Lisa B
@lisa, I have a weekend where I make nothing but breakfast foods. I have three small boys so it makes it so much easier in the morning. I make sausage cheese biscuits (look up on food.com for OAMC) they just take 3 min in a microwave in the morning. My husbands favorite is breakfast burritos. Egg, cheese, potato, bacon and peppers. For the boys I freeze yogurt in ice cube trays and place 3 cubes in a baggie with 1/2 cup of fruit. In the morning I whip out my stick blender (BEST $30 I have ever spent!) and add a dash of milk and blend. If the fruit is in season you shouldn’t need to add any sweetener.
Hope those give you some ideas.
Stacy
What type of freezer bags are you using for your meals?
Stephanie
@Stacy, I just used regular ziploc/hefty freezer bags. Many of the meals like the Chicken Curry, I put smaller-size portions that were the right size for our family into Ziploc sandwich bags, then I put several of those bags into a larger freezer bag and labeled the contents on the outer bag.
Melissa
Is it possible for you to post some quick directions or specific recipes on all that you froze? I’d love to freeze some of the things you did. 🙂
Stephanie
@Melissa, Most of the recipes were from the cookbook I mentioned, so I cannot post the recipes without infringing on their copyright. You can freeze almost anything though; casseroles are especially easy. Just cook double of whatever you are already making for your family and freeze the extra. 🙂
Wylene
This is such a good idea. I really need to do some kind of baking day / freezer cooking! I always bookmark your posts on these things but still haven’t gotten around to actually making some of this stuff ahead…haha.
Pamela
Wow I’m impressed, that gives me hope to try it. I keep procrastinating over something that is so overwelming.
Linda from Georgia
Interesting post. I have purchased one book and checked out 4 from the library on freezer meals. I need to be able to stock a freezer for meals for many at our church who are ill or just had babies. This seemed the way to go. Double everything and freeze one. Eventually I should accumulate a good stockpile for emergencies or just having things on hand when days get hectic. I really liked the idea of swapping meals. I’m going to mention this to my friends. We are all older and many recipes will produce 4 meals for small families. the possibilities seem endless.
Stephanie
@Linda from Georgia, Yes, that is a great benefit of freezer cooking that I forgot to mention! It is so nice to have meals on hand for times like that!