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Home » Blog » How to Make a Month of Meals to Fill Your Freezer

in Frugal Living· HomeCooking· Housekeeping Habits· Recipe Box· Simple Strategies

How to Make a Month of Meals to Fill Your Freezer

I am thrilled to introduce you to my long-time friend, Paige Harbuck! She has encouraged me in so very many ways and just one of those is in the area of feeding your family. She is sharing a series on freezer cooking with us. Her tips will change your life! Here’s Paige sharing how to make a month of meals to fill your freezer…

How to make a month of meals to fill your freezer - from planning and list making to shopping sales to organizing and labeling. Freezer cooking at its best!

 

A Month of Meals for Your Freezer

What is a big cook?  If you read Hodgepodge regularly, you know about my dear friend, Tricia, and her batch cooking.  It’s a bit like a batch cook, just on a way more “produced” scale.  A big cook consists of actually making the meals and putting them in the freezer, ready to go.  All you have to do is make your list of what is in there and pull something out each morning!  It is heaven.

How to Make Freezer Meals

17 suppers and at least 10 breakfasts

Freezer Cooking With Grocery Sales

I always try to plan my big cooks around food sales:

  • Kroger will have boneless, skinless chicken breasts on sale regularly and I try to hit those as much as I can.
  • Did you know that you can thaw meat, and as long as you cook it first, you can refreeze it?
  • Nice trick – buy your chicken, freeze it for a couple of weeks until you are ready, and then pull it out, boil or bake it, and use it for all the cooked chicken you need in your big cook recipes!
  • Twice a year, a company named Zaycon Foods will run a ground beef sale.  It’s great meat and a great price-just know that you have to buy 40 pounds at a time. Go find a friend and split! (They also run a chicken sale twice a year as well, but it usually doesn’t coincide with my big cook times-but excellent prices!!!)

Sales also extend past the meat counter: 

  • I have yet to do a big cook without making spaghetti sauce, and with the exception of that one summer that I had a million tomatoes from my garden, I use canned.  Look for them BOGO and stock up when you can.
  • The same goes for fresh veggies that can be frozen. Being from Georgia, we have access to Vidalia onions almost all summer and I’ll buy them by the 5 lb. bag and chop them all at once.
  • Peppers also freeze well, so when you find them on sale, buy a bunch and chop away.  Of course, if you are not into chopping your veggies, go to the frozen section-it has onions, peppers, etc. galore.

Freezer Meal Planning

My first task in big cooking is the menu planning.  Many years ago, when I found this way of stocking up, I started with a book called Once a Month Cooking by Mary Beth Langorford.

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It is nice and basic.  It gives you menus for two weeks or a month, regular, and low-fat.  It also gives you a complete shopping list as well as the order in which you prep and assemble.  The first time, I just went to my local library and picked it up-the next time, I just bought it.  It is just perfect for beginners.

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A couple of years ago, I picked up a book at our book fair called Freezer Pleasers, by those Taste of Home people.  It was well worth the money I spent on it.  It is geared more toward the “cook once, eat twice” theory, and comes in handy ALL the time!

An Easy Start in Freezer Cooking

1. Remember this – start small. Look at the meals your family loves and always wants to eat.  For us, this includes meatloaf, Mexican food, and all things spaghetti-ish.  We also eat a lot of chicken, mainly because it’s ALWAYS on sale and a lot cheaper than beef.

2. Go ahead, make your menu of about 10 dishes.  That will carry you about two weeks!  (Even though there’s a massive amount of food in my freezer, I always account for the time I forget, or we just don’t want to “cook”, or cereal just sounds lovely-oh, and Fridays.)

3. The easiest thing to do the first time is just to double everything.  I plan on two meatloaves, a crock pot full of spaghetti sauce, at least 2 sets of chicken breasts in some sort of marinade, a chicken casserole, and something Mexican.  So mine would look like this:

4. After you have made your menu list, make your grocery list.  Don’t include things you already have in your fridge or pantry like spices or soups or the 12 cans of tomatoes you bought last week (oh, wait, that’s me.)  Just include the things you need.

list

5. Now, go to the store.  I suggest doing this early in the morning without children if possible.  You will go faster because you don’t have to worry about their 400 questions and requests AND no one wants to go to the store early.  It also gives you the whole day to work on prep.

6. Once you get home, go ahead and wash your veggies.

7. The first thing I do is put my spaghetti sauce in the slow cooker.  It’s pretty basic-tomatoes, onions, peppers, spices-and takes about 4 hours on low to get good and wonderfully smelly.  I do not put meat in my sauce until I use it because I also like to use it for calzones, pizza, etc.

8. Once that task is taken care of, I chop-onions, peppers, celery, etc.- and grate my cheese.  I will store all of these things separately in plastic containers until the next day (I don’t want to use up all my freezer bags-those are too expensive, and I am cheap).

15 in bags, 2 cooling, 51 meatballs, and 24 meat pies freezing in the freezer...that makes the total...53 dinners plus breajfasts. I am ready and my family gets to eat well plus I get to bless some others along the way I'm sure.

15 in bags, 2 cooling, 51 meatballs, and 24 meat pies freezing in the freezer…that makes the total…53 dinners plus breakfasts. I am ready and my family gets to eat well plus I get to bless some others along the way I’m sure.

9. Once my spaghetti sauce is finished and cooled, I’ll go ahead and measure it into quart baggies, label it (PLEASE don’t forget to label what and the date-you WILL forget), and put it in my freezer flat.

10. Then I usually put a big roast in the slow cooker for overnight.

The next day (trust me, you want to break it up if it’s a lot), I start my assembly and freezing.  Do all “like” items together-chicken first, then beef, then whatever.

Depending on how many meals you do, it can take you a couple of hours to all day.

Month of Meals – Storage for Freezer Cooking

I use freezer bags for everything.  Casseroles fit better in gallons (usually because of the noodles), but meat and sauces are fine in quarts.  If you do a lasagna or something similar, line your pan with foil, then fill and freeze.  When it’s totally frozen, you can remove the foil with the food and now you have your dish back!  Remember to label and date everything with a sharpie.

Hope you’ll follow this series!  Next up-breakfast foods that freeze!

PaigePaige is a mom of two and an elementary teacher of many for 24 years. Always frugal and practical she takes the common sense route.  But most of all she loves the Lord, thankful beyond measure for His grace and mercy, and His ability to turn a career girl into a woman that knows her home is the most important place to be.

 

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Filed Under: Frugal Living, HomeCooking, Housekeeping Habits, Recipe Box, Simple Strategies Tagged With: freezer cooking, Habits for a Happy Home, written by Paige

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Comments

  1. Tricia says

    September 10, 2013 at 6:47 AM

    Paige, thank you for showing us all how it can be done. You make the steps easy and doable! And I love how you point out that not only is it heaven to have these in the freezer to bless your family for supper – but you have meals ready to bless others. Thank you for sharing your wisdom!

    Reply
  2. Shelley Sayre says

    September 10, 2013 at 5:13 PM

    This is what I have been waiting for! Thank you both, Paige and Tricia. I am so excited to read the other installments. Wonderful stuff!

    Reply
  3. Tammy W. says

    September 21, 2013 at 5:25 PM

    I saw you liked on Motherhood on a Dime. Money Saving Mom got me hooked on freezer cooking last year, & it’s a life saver for me! Especially since we live in the country, it helps to reduce trips into town. I also work from home, so not having to use my kids’ naptime for dinner prep is quite helpful! I had my third baby this summer, & I didn’t really cook for the first 2 months! (Now, she’s 3 mos. old, & it’s time to get that freezer filled again.)

    Like you, I love freezing diced onions & peppers. Have you ever cooked rice & frozen it in meal-sized baggies?

    I was going to do the Zaycon chicken event this week, but their closest “event” was almost 2 hours away! We hit an almost-expired chicken sale (for a better price than Zaycon!) yesterday & bought 30 pounds. I had marinades on hand (or ingredients to make them) & was able to get them all processed in no time! I can’t wait to see your other ideas!

    Reply
  4. Lauren at Mama's Learning Corner says

    September 24, 2013 at 5:25 PM

    I started with that exact freezer cooking book too! I received it as a gift in our early marriage. While I don’t cook now for our freezer as I’d like, it really helped me learn this skill. So valuable!

    Reply
  5. Paige says

    September 28, 2013 at 7:26 AM

    I LOVE to big cook! I love the time it gives back to me each night AND I live seeing if I can beat my savings each time I do it. Tammy, I only freeze rice if we have leftovers-I’ll keep a bag going in the freezer and then do fried rice!

    Reply

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