Freezer Meal Ideas and Tips

Use these freezer meal ideas and tips to plan your next freezer cooking session. Make the most of your time in the kitchen and freeze food!

It’s a well-known fact that preparing and freezing food is an incredible way to save time in the kitchen. If you’ve never made food for the freezer before, I’m here to show you how to plan for a freezer cooking session, so you can make the most of your time in the kitchen!

I think this is the best way to freezer meal plan because I want to:

• Feed my family healthy food on a budget…
• Without spending a lot of time shopping…
• Or cooking…
• Or being a short-order cook three times a day, seven days a week.

And I love having easy freezer meals ready to go!

STEP BY STEP GUIDE TO FREEZING FOOD

Use all of these freezer meal ideas and tips to get ready for your next freezer cooking session. (This beats any of the store-bought frozen foods!)

STEP 1: DECIDE WHAT TYPE OF FREEZER MEAL RECIPES TO MAKE

You can make full freezer meal recipes, or just portions of meals and sides. Here are some ideas for meals that freeze well:

• Breakfast: Pancakes, Muffins, Baked Oatmeal, Breakfast Sandwiches
• Lunch: Cheesy Lentil Pasta or Homemade Hot Pockets
• Weeknight Dinners: 100% ready-to-go meals like Chicken and Spinach Enchiladas or Creamy Squash Pasta Bake
• Just the main dish: Northern Beans and Ham Soup, and make fresh rice, or Salsa Chicken for tacos with fresh Homemade Corn Tortillas
• Breads: Soaked Whole Wheat Bread or Flour Tortillas
• Single ingredients: Cook dried beans from scratch or make and freeze applesauce

STEP 2: CHOOSE FREEZER FOODS WITH INGREDIENTS THAT ARE SIMILAR.

Choose foods with similar ingredients and even a similar cooking method to make the most of your prepping and cooking time.

Example: We had a bunch of bananas that were about to go bad, so I planned a freezer cooking session of breakfast meals around them (smoothies, Sourdough Banana Pancakes, and Banana Bread).

Also, recipes should be similar enough that ingredients overlap so you can buy in bulk and save money.

STEP 3: THINK ABOUT YOUR TOOLS AND SUPPLIES.

Before you commit to any particular meal, think of what supplies you’ll need. This is different from your ingredients. This tip talks about all the stuff… measuring cups, spoons, storage containers, lids, bag holders…

For example:

• You can’t efficiently make 4 dozen muffins if you only have one muffin pan.
• You also can’t cook a whole chicken in the slow cooker if it’s already in use for yogurt.
• I’m limited on muffin liners, so I skipped those altogether and opted for two loaves of Banana Bread since I have multiple loaf pans.
• I chose Banana Pancakes on the griddle and Smoothie Packets (which don’t require any tools) for fast smoothies later on.
• I also decided to blend up all the berries and freeze them in an ice cube tray so that they could be added to the smoothie packets when they were frozen.
• Will you use a bag for meal prep or freeze food in a baking sheet? What if you need that pan to make dinner? Consider what you need for mixing up ingredients as well as storing the freezer meal recipes.

STEP 4: USE KITCHEN APPLIANCES AND TOOLS TO HELP YOU.

One hour seems like a long time to be cooking, but when you’re looking at making multiple healthy freezer meal recipes in that time frame, you should enlist the help of any gadget you have.

• Bake bread in a slow cooker
• Bake smaller items in toaster ovens
• Boil in the microwave
• Use the cooking space of a griddle
• And use the whipping power of a blender

Since I was focusing on bananas and making two different types of batters, I used my Blendtec to make both. I also used my griddle (because it fits more pancakes per batch).

In another 1-Hour Freezer Breakfast Meal Prep session, I chose recipes using the slow cooker, oven, and no-bake methods to make the most of my appliances.

Step 5: Choose 4 recipes and print / write them out.

It’s really not feasible to complete more than 4 or 5 recipes in an hour, so don’t bite off more than you can chew. You can’t add more time to the clock, and it’s always better to feel accomplished at the end than defeated because you didn’t make it to that one last recipe.

You can always make a different batch of freezer meal ideas in your next session!

STEP 6: TAKE THE TIME TO WRITE A REALLY GOOD SHOPPING LIST.

Before you can get to freezing food, you need to shop for ingredients!

• Go through each recipe line by line.
• Write everything down on a piece of paper, even if you think you have it.
• Shop from the kitchen FIRST.
• Make a note next to each item what store you need to get it from. (I put “C” next to items I get from Costco, “W” for Walmart, etc.)
• If you want to save time while shopping at the store, rewrite it so that all the dairy is listed together, all the produce is listed together, and all the meat is listed together.

STEP 7: GROCERY SHOP THE DAY BEFORE YOU COOK.

I recommend grocery shopping the day before you cook. That means if you cook on a Saturday, shop on Friday.

Your actual cooking time won’t take any longer than an hour, but tack that onto a morning of hectic grocery shopping and crowded stores, and it quickly becomes a long day. Plus, when you shop the day before, you can simply leave out anything you need for the cooking session instead of putting it all away!

STEP 8: PULL OUT EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO FREEZE FOOD.

Food, tools, bags, sharpie, containers, utensils… pull it all out so you can survey what you have and make the most of your hour. You only have so much time – don’t waste it digging around in your spice cabinet!

• Clean the kitchen before you start. Clear off the counters and put away unnecessary appliances so you can start with a clean slate.
• Empty the dishwasher and wash the dishes. I went through WAAAY more spatulas during my breakfast meal prep session than I thought I would, so it’s important to be over-prepared. Besides, you’re going to make a lot of dirty dishes. Those dishes need somewhere to go!
• The night before I did my freezer cooking breakfast meal plan, I pulled every ingredient out, one at a time, and put them together on the counter (minus the refrigerated ingredients – I added those the next morning).
• Then I did the same thing for all of my supplies. This helped me make sure that I wasn’t missing anything, but also that I had enough CLEAN cooking sheets and cooling racks and Pyrex dishes to make all the meals, at the same time. Pull out your aluminum foil, plastic wrap, and freezer bags too.

STEP 9: WRITE A PREP SHEET FOR YOUR PREP AHEAD FREEZER MEALS.

Depending on the type of prep ahead freezer meals you’re making, you may need to get a few ingredients ready ahead of time. That could be:

• Soaking beans
• Making broth
• Thawing meat
• Chopping vegetables

Make sure you’ve done your freezer meals prep for what needs to happen beforehand, so your cooking session doesn’t get derailed before it even begins.

STEP 10: WRITE A STEP-BY-STEP COOKING PLAN.

Create a logical method for your work. Think about what takes the longest to bake and do that first. Ask yourself, what meals need:

• The oven temperature on higher?
• To use more burners?
• To sit and cool?

All of these things are important, so come up with a logical approach BEFORE you start.

Example: Banana bread takes about 45-50 minutes to bake, which means that it needed to get done first. Here is what I did:

• I made a batch of batter in the blender, poured it into a loaf pan, and set the timer.
• I made another batch of the same banana bread batter and froze it for a future breakfast using a method similar to this one for freezing unbaked muffin batter.
• Then I made a double batch of pancake batter in the blender.
• While the pancakes were on the griddle cooking, I used another blender jar for the soft berries, poured them into the ice cube trays, chopped various fruit and veggies, and portioned it all out for “just add yogurt” smoothies later.

STEP 11: DON’T CLEAN AS YOU GO.

Instead, fill your sink with hot soapy water and only wash what you MUST as you go along. Leave all the dishes for when you’re done, because whether or not you had a freezer meal cooking session, you’ll still have to do the dishes at some point in time anyway.

STEP 12: CREATE A “FINISHED” STATION.

This is so you can seal, label, and freeze when you’re done, so your cooked items are out of your way. Set items at this station as you complete them, but label everything at the end when you’re done cooking.

Don’t skip this step! Once everything is in a bag and frozen, IT ALL LOOKS THE SAME. Use a permanent marker to label what’s in the bag, any instructions, and today’s date.

MORE MEALS THAT FREEZE WELL

Need more ideas for meals that freeze well? Try these!

• Enchilada Casserole
• Stuffed Peppers
• Shepherd’s Pie
• Crock Pot Mississippi Chicken
• Pizza Bagel Bites
• Marinated Chicken
• Italian Meatballs

Or freeze foods that you can use in multiple recipes, like these:

• Instant Pot Beans
• Brown Rice
• How to Cook Quinoa
• Freezing Cauliflower Rice
• Slow Cooker Chicken
• Flour Tortillas

Overall anything with cheese, sour cream, or dairy based sauces, will not freeze well. Tomato sauce, ground beef, pork, bacon, patties, and chicken all freeze super well.,

FREEZER MEAL IDEAS FAQS

USE THESE FREEZER MEAL IDEAS TO HELP WITH YOUR FOOD GOALS

Prepping and freezing food is a great option to help you stick with your nutrition goals, because the food is ready to go! You know exactly what’s in it, and you can even portion it out ahead of time to help make tracking easier.

Need more protein? Prep and freeze protein smoothie packs, make a big batch of Breakfast Sausage, and cook a whole chicken in the Instant Pot so you have quick protein options ready to go.

Trying to add more veggies to your meals? Be proactive and chop and freeze veggies you can add to whatever you’re cooking. Onions, carrots, celery, mushrooms, broccoli, and cauliflower all freeze well and are easy to toss into a variety of recipes to boost the veggies.

Whatever your food goals, there are plenty of freezer meal ideas out there to help!

MORE FREEZER MEAL PREP IDEAS

• 8 Breakfasts in an Hour Freezer Cooking Plan
• Freezer Meals: 10 Dump Dinner Recipes
• How to Make Frozen Smoothie Packs
• Ultimate Guide to Freezing Bread and Other Baked Goods
• How to Prevent Glass From Breaking in the Freezer