Tips For Successful Freezer Meals Cooking

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I have been cooking freezer meals for many years now.  What started out of a need for an easy meal every once and a while has transformed into something I now do every few months to make my life easier.  I have learned a few tips and tricks for successful freezer meal cooking over the years, and I thought I would share them with you.

 

My Freezer Meal Journey

I started making my own freezer meals after my eldest son, Lucas, was diagnosed with a dairy allergy at 4 months of age.  As a tired new mom, there were days when I just wanted to be able to pull something out of the freezer and put it in the oven.  I didn’t want to have to think about making meals every single night. But, 10 years ago, dairy
free frozen foods were very difficult to find.  Most of the convenience foods in the frozen isles were loaded with dairy – lasagna, pizza, mac n cheese.  Things that did not have dairy at first glance, had it snuck in somewhere in the ingredients or as a trace warning (meaning it was made in a facility that processed dairy). Even chicken nuggets had dairy in them!

I decided I would try and make my own freezer meals.

I started very simply.  I would make a double or triple batch of foods that I knew would freeze well.  When I made soup, I would make a lot so I could freeze some for an easy meal another day.  I would make a double batch of chili and freeze half.  These freezer meals were simple but saved me a lot of time and money on days where I did not
have the time or the energy to cook.

After years of making up my own freezer meals, Pinterest launched.

When Pinterest launch, I randomly stumbled upon my first freezer meal specific pin and I fell in love.  So many ideas for freezer meals were at my fingertips.

 

5 Tips for Successful Freezer Meals

Before I share my tips with you, have you seen our freezer cooking videos on YouTube?  Here is one of them!

 

1.        Start With A Clean Kitchen

This seems obvious, right?

I cannot even begin to tell you how many times I have started a big day of freezer cooking without following this first, obvious, step. And every time I did, it backfired on me.

Starting with a clean kitchen is so important but you will make a gigantic mess making freezer meals, especially if you start making 10 or more meals at once.  There are days where I use every bowl and every utensil in my kitchen for all the different meals.

Even when I start with a clean kitchen, I usually must pause to clean a dish, a pot, or kitchen tool before I can continue.  The less cleaning breaks you must do, the quicker and more efficiently you can work on your freezer cooking days.

 

2.       Have All Of Your Ingredients

Did you watch our last freezer meal cooking video?

I totally did not follow this rule.

I was making cottage pie and I thought I had all of my ingredients, but because of some hungry little children, I ended up running out of carrots.  Midway through cooking, I had to stop and send my husband to the store to get more.

Had I had enough carrots, I would have been done my freezer meals an hour earlier in the day.  When dedicated a lot of time to doing something, you want to do it as efficiently as possible.  This means not wasting time and having everything you need on hand.

Sometimes, when I know that my meals involve a lot of chopping of vegetables, I will prepare all of my vegetables the day before.  I will take an hour or two to chop all the ingredients I need for the next day of freezer cooking.  This allows me to just assemble and cook without having to worry about preparing vegetables before cooking.

 

3.       Complete Smaller Tasks While Things Cook

For me, a truly successful day of cooking freezer meals happens when I manage my time to the best of my ability.

This means that there is no idle time.  While the potatoes are boiling I am busy chopping vegetables.  While the meatballs are baking I am assembling another dish.  Sometimes, as a busy mom, this also means feeding the baby.  Instead of stopping mid-task, though sometimes that happens, I will plan feedings when the muffins are
baking or my husband is barbequing the chicken.

Time management is so important.

This is not something that happened overnight for me.  It took a while for time management to actually flow efficiently for me.  Being mindful of the tasks that you need to accomplish will allow you to develop this skill over time.

Being overscheduled has never worked for me.  Some people can plan their days for cooking freezer meals down to the hour in which tasks will be accomplished but that has never worked for me.  If this works for you, share your knowledge with me down in the comments below!

 

4.        Make Sure You Have Enough Freezer Space

Has anyone ever done this?

Prepared a whole bunch of freezer meals only to find you cannot fit them all into your freezers?

I like to pride myself on my Tetris skills – I can make odd shapes work together and fit into the small cube that is my deep freezer but sometimes it is a tight squeeze.

Plan your meals by how much space you have to store them.  If you only have the freezer of your refrigerator than you will not be able to make as many freezer meals as someone who is filling a large deep freezer.

 

5.       Make Small Batches For New Recipes

Again, this is another mistake I am guilty of making!

I would find a recipe on Pinterest and be so excited to try it.  I would go ahead and make 4 containers for freezer meals like the recipe called for.  We have, on more than one occasion, tried a new recipe and then ended up ordering take out because no one liked it.  If you just make one and do not like it, it is not a big deal.  If you make 4 batches of a new recipe you have never tried and then do not like it, you have to figure out what to do with the remaining 3 meals.

This wastes a lot of time, money, and energy.

If you test out new recipes before making a large batch, this helps to prevent this waste.

 

Your Freezer Meals Tips

Do you have any tips or tricks for making freezer meals that you would like to share?

We all approach the task of feeding our families differently and I would love to hear what works for you and also what doesn’t!  Join the conversation about freezer meals by commenting down below!

 

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