Guest Post by Reader Kristi
Freezer cooking is a great option for this busy time of year, as well as a frugal option since you can focus on using recipes for ingredients you might be stockpiling. Also, just by having a ready-made meal in the freezer will help eliminate getting take-out on those busy school nights. I thought it would be interesting to hear about freezer cooking from a pro, so I put out the call to the Thrifty NW Mom Facebook fans. Reader Kristi volunteered to share some of her freezer meal tips with all of us, along with pictures so we could see how it all works. Thank you Kristi!
Fall-Ready Freezer
A few weeks ago I started our fall freezer stocking a little early after we eagerly picked 12 pounds of blueberries at the U-Pick farm in Snohomish. Once I admitted that I was going to have to freeze a ton (or ~10 pounds as it was) I realized our freezer needed some serious attention.
I cleaned out what was in there then I hit the cookbooks for our favorites and the blogs for some new things to try. I made my list and went shopping.
Our old standards that made the list were:
- Taco meat
- Spaghetti meat sauce
- BBQ pulled pork
- Spicy turkey burgers
- White calzones
- Red calzones
- Banana bread
- Chocolate chip cookie dough
The new items on the list were:
Then the ‘no work / no cook’ items were:
- Shredded rotisserie chicken
- Marinara (for the calzones)
- Pesto
The 1st things tackled when I got home from shopping were the ‘no work / no cook’ items on the list.
The shredded rotisserie chicken was hands down the best find in my freezer idea search. It’s so brilliantly simple it’s hard to believe I never thought of it myself, but this stroke of genius came from Clean Mama. We use this stuff for chicken pot pie, chicken & dumplings, soups, quesadillas, salads, etc. etc. I simply shredded it and put it in freezer bags – SO EASY!
I froze the marinara and pesto in mini muffin tins (which don’t absorb flavors like plastic), turned them out onto wax paper to harden the rest of the way, then tossed them into flat bottom freezer bags. Mini muffin tins hold a little over 1 tablespoon so they’re great for things like this.
For any of the protein dishes that were cooked (as well as the cookie dough), they were all put into quart freezer bags and flattened before freezing them on a sheet pan. This way they can stand up and are easy to flip through to quickly find what I need.
The egg muffins were cooked in regular muffin tins then frozen on the sheet pan before being lined up in the flat bottom freezer bags.
These are a new favorite grab & go breakfast item in our house.
The calzones were individually wrapped in plastic before going in the freezer bags and the banana bread was cut in half and each half wrapped in plastic before both pieces went in the bag.
When all was said and done, this was the end result. A well stocked and organized freezer.
Top drawer:
Bottom drawer:
Total tally of work done:
- 3 ravioli dinners
- 3 taco meat
- 3 spaghetti meat sauce
- 4 shredded chicken
- 4 BBQ pulled pork
- 8 spicy turkey burgers
- 4 red calzones
- 6 white calzones
- 18 egg muffins
- 9 T marinara
- 18 T pesto
- 1 batch chocolate chip cookie dough
- 1 loaf (split) banana bread
Thank you to Kristi for a great, in-depth tutorial on how to freeze meals at home! What are your favorite tips for making freezer meals at home?
If you have a delicious freezer meal recipe & would like to share with Thrifty NW Mom readers, you can email me at thriftynwmom(at) hotmail (dot) com. Even better if you have a picture of your dish to include.
Kristi is a stay-at-home-Mom to a crazy, wild, typical 3 year old boy. She’s always used her freezer but got serious about freezing meals and meal starters when she got married and realized most recipes make way too much food for 2 adults. And now that they have a little boy running around non-stop it’s that much more important to have food pretty much ready to go morning, noon, and night for us as well as for impromptu entertaining.
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are there recipes to share for these?
Misty- there are recipes linked for the Sloppy Joes & Egg muffins – just click on them to be taken to the page. Kristi will work on getting us some of the other recipes, too.
I would love to get the calzones recipes!!
I think she’s working on getting that for us. :)
I have the same type of freezer and this gives me hope that I can have an organized freezer again! Thanks!
onceamonthmom.com has some awesome freezer recipes.
Just wondering what you do with the egg muffins? Are they just scrambled eggs cooked in a muffin tin? And how do you reheat them?
The recipe link is listed below but I microwave 2 on a plate, right out of the freezer bag, for 1 minute on high. Then splash them with my favorite hot sauce and they’re good to go! So good!
Loved the article! I also freeze meals and use a small chest freezer so I can hold alot of frozen veggies and fruits.
Could I get the egg muffin recipe?
It’s linked in the post if you click on the name, but here it is: http://kalynskitchen.blogspot.com/2006/10/egg-muffins-revisited-again.html
I also want the egg muffin recipes! mornings on the run tend to be non-protein around here. This look fabulous.
Here it is (it’s also linked in the post): http://kalynskitchen.blogspot.com/2006/10/egg-muffins-revisited-again.html
Thank you for the inspiration – your freezer looks so organized!
Just seeing when you make your egg muffins if you use a regular muffin pan or does a silicone one work better? I have plenty of regular on hand :)
I have been baking and cooking all day but want to try this one too.
But just wondering
thanks
laurie :)
Where can I find the Flat bottom freezer bags? I have searched everywhere!!!! Thanks!
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