cook meals in advance and freeze for future

I’m looking for simple recipes so I can make them in advance, freeze them and eat them throughout a week. This would save me on groceries, if I did a different meal each week, and time.

I want to cook some meals aahead of time so that I can do other things beside stay in the kitchen. I also want to take meals to my parents house, to help them eat healtier.

I’m not doing this in a super-gung ho way but I still consider this goal met. I feel like I’ve established a habit, we’re eating far less takeout and not letting food go bad anymore. I’ve been cooking double and freezing leftovers in ziploc bags. I’ve been buying staples like bread and cheese on 2 for 1 sales and freezing them. I’ve been freezing ice cube trays with leftover tomato paste, herbs and garlic. Stale bread now gets the mini chopper treatment and gets frozen as breadcrumbs. And, I’ve been stockpiling fresh veggie purees to add to our food. For me, the trick was to stop thinking about perfectly prepared dinner kits and making 30 days worth of meals, that’s just not going to happen for me.

I’m setting this aside for now, at least. Having it on the list, and having had this dream for probably 10 years, made me think it was still relevant. It may very well become relevant, but for now I have enough time to cook and prefer the food that is made from more or less scratch. At least the freezer has come to some use lately, holding the frozen dog food. It used to be that a fully stocked pantry, or the idea of it, would give me a sense of safety but now I enjoy having the space in there, to not be overwhelmed by choices and to know it’s all fresh. I think it’s a shift in my need for safety – there is more freedom now. I’ve thought this goal was about efficiency, but maybe it’s been more psychological from the start.

I got an extra freezer some years ago, and so far it only keeps the plastic jars that I want to use for this purpose!

It really helped me when I was sick and needing to rest. I don’t have a freezer to do this with anymore, but it was very worth it.

The first time I tried this, I used a cookbook designed for freezing meals. It was Once-A-Month Cooking by Mimi Wilson. I used some of the recipes they suggested, but you can obviously do this with your own creations. It really does save you time. : )

Children moved out. Cooking for one leads to lazy meals. I love hearty soups, and chili and stews. Most saturdays, I build a concoction based on chicken, beef or turkey; add veggies, seasonings and beans or lentils. I usually set up the beans to long-cook in my crock pot and then puree about half for the soup base. I end up with my Dutch Oven full. I ladle it into wide mouth pint jars and put sealing lids on while still hot, cool, refridgerate and finally freeze.

Each pint will give me 2 servings, add salad, or hearty bread and I’ve got lunch at work or a quick dinner at home. It stops me from the burger drive-through!

This is a big help especially if you have kids and work outside your home. It helps with budgeting because you learn to only buy what you need for the week. I like to cook and freeze on Sundays so that 2-3 days out of the week I can pull dinner already made out the freezer and go. This is great for when I am pressed for time or just don’t feel like cooking.