Freezer Cooking

One of the reasons that the American diet is so packed with convenience foods these days is that most people just don't have the time to do much cooking. During the week, it's a dash from work to pick up the kids, get home, feed them, and shuttle them back out to their weeknight activities. There is just no time to dice, chop, simmer, and saute.

Around this time vacuum, several solutions have been created. Of course there is take-out food, but everyone knows that's not a healthy way to go. Then there are prepared, packaged meals, loaded with preservatives and additives. Recently there are also services like Plated or Blue Apron, where all of the prep work is done for you and fresh, perfectly portioned ingredients are delivered to your door, but these cost more than many families can reasonably afford on a regular basis.

20 meals, prepped and ready to freeze

The best solution I have found is called freezer cooking. This is where you buy your own fresh ingredients and do all of your prep work in one session, then freeze the recipes before cooking them. During the week you just thaw the meals and pop them in the oven/slow cooker/skillet. I like this option because it gives you complete control over what you're putting on your family's dinner table. And often you can prep many meals in just a couple of hours.

Over the weekend, my husband and I worked together to prep 20 crockpot freezer meals in a little over 2 hours. This means for the next month (roughly) most of the cooking work is already done.

But how to manage such a daunting task? There are as many options as there are cooks who go this route. If you're already planning your meals in advance, it doesn't take much work to convert your favorite meals to freezer meals. There are just a few things to keep in mind.

First, how to store all of these great recipes until you're ready to use them? Unless you have a stash of casserole dishes and storage ware that rivals your local kitchen store, you're probably going to need another solution for storage. As you can see above, I often go the freezer bag route, but you can also use foil baking pans. These tend to be relatively cheap at your local grocery store, and since you store and bake in the same disposable dish, they make cleanup a snap. With either of these methods, you can use a sharpie to write on the outside any cooking/finishing directions to help keep yourself organized.

Next, how do you convert recipes for freezer cooking? This works best on recipes that are one-dish meals, but of course you can also prep and freeze separate main dishes and sides. You also want to be aware that some ingredients may not freeze very well:

• Potatoes: the texture gets a little odd in the freezer. Not a big deal really in a long-cooking soup or if you're using shredded potatoes like hash-browns, but you don't want to stick your whole baking potatoes in the freezer. Some say other high-starch items like pasta also should not be frozen, but I've done plenty of casseroles and soups with pasta included and never had a problem. 
• Sour cream, cream sauces: these can work out okay if they're used in small amounts in something like a casserole, but often they will separate when frozen so use sparingly.
• Sauces thickened with flour or cornstarch: these will separate, so mix up your sauce as usual and freeze, but wait to thicken it until just before serving. 
• high-water-content veggies and fruits (think celery, cucumber, lettuce, melons, etc.)
• mayo

So what to do if your favorite meals contain the above ingredients? No problem! Just prep the rest of the ingredients and save the tricky bits for the day you're planning to serve the meal. It takes very little time to dice up a couple of potatoes and throw them in the pot when the rest of the recipe prep is already done.

Of course, you can also use resources found online to make your freezer meal prep even easier. I have a collection of recipes already altered for freezer prep on my Freezer Meals pin board to help get you started. If you're at all unsure about how this freezer meal thing should work, I highly recommend using these resources the first time around.

Then there is the super easy and quick way: pre-planned freezer meal sessions. There are a lot of bloggers out there who have already done all of the work for you and sell entire freezer meal prep session instruction packets. The 20 meals we prepped this week are from one of I Am That Lady's Aldi Meal Plans. For just $4 she has already created meal plans with complete instructions and a great system for assembly-line-style prep. Well worth the money in my book.

However you choose to do it though, with all the busyness of back-to-school, this is a great time of year to start a freezer meal plan!