A peek inside my deep freezer in my garage where I store my freezer meals and stockpiled perishables. Notice the blue containers stacked on the second shelf on the left — those are my freezer meals: chicken bow tie pasta, lasagna, chicken pesto, and chili.
Families are busy, especially now with the start of the new school year, so food often goes bad before people get a chance to use it. In fact, a recent study revealed that Americans throw away 40 percent of food on average, or 20 pounds of food per person per month, according to The Atlantic Wire.
In light of this and other reasons, I recently have taken up an interest in freezer cooking.
What is Freezer Cooking?
The main objective of freezer cooking is to plan ahead for your month of meals; you spend a couple hours preparing the meals and freeze them so that your family can eat healthy all month long.
Benefits of Freezer Cooking
At-home eating almost always fosters better nutrition and lower food bills, and freezer cooking has the added advantage of spending less time on cooking each night (allowing for more family time). Having pre-made meals at home helps your family stick to a meal plan and reduces impulse fast food purchases.
Labeling your freezer meals with the food name, the date made, and maybe even an expiration date helps you keep track of how long the food will stay fresh. Image by Amy Stephenson.
Freezer Cooking Basics
My favorite sources for recipes for healthy meals that freeze well are Eating Well and Once a Month Mom. OAMM actually does a 30-day menu to help you plan your meals. There are many gluten-free, vegetarian/vegan and other diet-restricted resources available online too.
If you’re wondering what to do with all these meals I suggest getting an upright chest freezer or making room in your freezer/fridge unit.
I’ve also invested in dishwasher-safe Pyrex and Ziploc stackable freezer containers to maximize space and to ensure that all this hard work doesn’t go to waste from freezer burn.
Tip: Label containers with food names and freeze dates, and print out this handy freezer storage chart by the FDA so you’ll know how long various foods stay good after freezing.
Keep in mind, some meals don’t freeze well.
“Freezer Week” for Beginning Freezer Cooks
You may want to start out with a “freezer week” like I did — I think a week is more practical for first-time freezer cooks.
Let me explain how my “freezer week” technique differs from month-long freezer cooking. When I do my regular weekly coupon matchups and meal planning, I plan to make extra helpings of each fresh dinner (it’s easy to do this by doubling any recipe). I freeze the extra portions in a Ziploc container and save them for freezer week.
Once a month I have a freezer week where I use the extra frozen servings for the entire week’s lunches and dinners. In addition to the main dish, I typically add fresh or SteamFresh veggies, fruit and side salads. This makes it easy for me to have an entire week off of cooking every month!
See below for some coupons to help you explore freezer cooking.
• Up to 35% off on select Pyrex items from Cooking.com• No code required
• Expires January 1
• $1 off Ziploc brand container purchases• When you buy two or more
• Expires September 28
• Up to 50% off original prices on kitchen items and other homegoods from Crate & Barrel’s online outlet section• No code required
• Final prices as shown
• $1 off Dole pineapple chunks or tropical fruit purchases• Printable grocery coupon
• Expires August 31
• $1 off Birds Eye SteamFresh product purchases• When you buy three or more
• Expires August 31
• $1 off Reynolds slow cooker liner purchases• Printable grocery coupon
• Expires August 31
• $20 off online orders of $299 or more from Sears Outlet
• Use code CABINOUTLET
• Expires August 31
