11 Tips to Make Great Freezer Meals
Making freezer meals is not only a great way to save money and ensure you are eating healthy, it is also very convenient! If you are preparing for a new baby, or just planning ahead for busy weeks with not enough time, freezer meals will definitely make everything easier. Below find 11 of our favorite tips for planning and preparing great freezer meals!
Make Double Recipes Of What You Are Cooking Tonight To Freeze Later
When you know you are cooking something that you love, make some extras and freeze it for later. You can either freeze the raw ingredients or the cooked meal, whatever you think would taste better when you go to enjoy it the second time around.
Plan, Plan And Plan
Planning out your meals and groceries needed will make prep day much easier! There is nothing worse than realizing you are missing onions when you have 5 half finished freezer meals sitting on your counter missing those pesky onions.
Meal Plan, Grocery Shop And Prep On Different Days
Trying to do everything on the same day can be exhausting, whereas spreading out the grocery shopping and prepping on two different days will make the process easier.
Make Sure You Like What You Are Freezing
I know this sounds a little obvious, but there is nothing worse than going through all the prep time of making a freezer meal and then a few months later finding out that you do not like it. Test out new recipes on a normal day will make you much more excited to open up your freezer to some of your new favorite meals.
Write Directions On Bag With Permeant Marker Before Adding The Food
Having the directions written directly on the bag, along with anything that needs to be added fresh, makes cooking much easier. However, write those directions out prior to added the food so that you can actually read what you wrote!
Enlist Some Help
Whether you are making freezer meals to enjoy after your baby arrives, or just to cut down on cooking time during busy weeks, it is a lot of work to make a bunch of meals by yourself. Having someone to help will make the process much easier, plus it will be helpful to have an extra set of hands to hold those bags open as you add your various ingredients.
Use Fresh Food Whenever Possible
Assembling fresh food in bags will make it easier to add all of the various ingredients together . If you need to use frozen food, make sure to not thaw and then refreeze, as that can be unsafe for some food, meat in particular.
Figure Out A System
Maybe you would rather cut all the vegetables first, then the meat, then assemble everything, or you might rather make one meal start to finish. Figure out what makes sense for you, and do that. Having a plan will make the process much easier.
Clean As You Go
You are about to cook many meals at once, so you will have more dishes than normal. Start off with a clean kitchen, empty sink, and empty dishwasher so you can clean as you go. That way, you won’t have a disaster on your hands after you have been cooking all day.
Enjoy The Process!
This should be fun! Turn on some music, put on some music, and pour yourself a mocktail, and enjoy it!
Better Yet, Just Call Your Doula
Your antepartum doula can assist you, or even completely prepare the meals for you, while you are still pregnant so that you can have delicious health meals once baby arrives. Or your postpartum doula can prepare your meals while you feed and snuggle with your new baby. Our doulas do it all: planning which recipes you would like to make, grocery shopping, and preparing however many meals you would like!
