Over the past few years as I’ve shared my Freezer Cooking Day adventures with you, a number of you have written and asked, “Is it really worth the effort?”
Well, you’re right that it’s effort. Having a Freezer Cooking Day is hard work. It takes thought, planning and sweat to pull it off.
But I have definitely found it to be every bit worth it. In fact, it’s hard for me to imagine life without pre-made meals in my freezer!
As many have stated before, Freezer Cooking definitely saves you time and money. But here are three other specific reasons I love Freezer Cooking:
1. I only have to do dishes once a month.
Okay, well, I wash plates, bowls, cups and utensils, but my kitchen only becomes massively messy once a month. Do you know how nice that is?
When I have a clean kitchen, it somehow feels like the whole house is cleaner. So while I definitely pretty much “destroy” the kitchen on Freezer Cooking Day, the other 29-30 days of the month, it stays relatively mess-free.
(Ahem. We won’t talk about the kitchen floor, though. Can I exempt it since I have young children? Because seriously, no matter how many times I sweep and mop each week, there always seems to be enough crumbs on the kitchen floor to make a casserole with! :))
Nope, I don’t have a deep freeze, so I just do the stuff-and-cram method for my over-the-refrigerator freezer. It might not be the prettiest method ever, but I can fit close to 30 meals in there at a time! And yes, I’m sure the organizational geeks are totally cringing at that picture. It works for us — and that’s what matters!
2. I don’t have to dread 5 p.m. anymore.
I don’t know about you, but there are some days at our home when life whizzes by so quickly and all of a sudden, it’s 5 p.m. and dinner isn’t even a figment of my imagination. Before I started regularly cooking ahead and freezing meals, I’d be tempted to call my husband and ask him to bring something home for dinner.
Freezer cooking has solved the 5 p.m. “What’s-For-Dinner” panic. If I forget to pull something out earlier in the day, I’ll just pick a meal from my freezer stash which defrosts quickly — such as meatballs. I pair this with from frozen veggies, toast and maybe a fruit salad and no one even has to know I forgot about dinner until 30 minutes before it was supposed to happen!
3. It’s not a huge undertaking to have dinner guests or take a meal to someone.
When I have meals already made in the freezer, it’s rather simple to bring food to a new mom or have friends over for dinner.
Lasagna, spaghetti pie and meatballs are great staple meals to have on hand to share with others. Just whip up some Bread Machine Buttery Rolls, make a salad or fruit and maybe some brownies and you’re set!
I also like to sometimes make up chocolate chip cookie dough and freeze it so I can quickly make a dessert for friends coming over or to take somewhere.
New To Freezer Cooking?
Here are some articles to get you started:
Start Where You Are and Learn As You Go
How to Plan a Freezer Cooking Day (and find more ideas here)
How to Cook for Your Freezer When You Don’t Like Casseroles
Can You Have a Freezer Cooking Day if You Don’t Have a Lot of Freezer Space?
Do you think Freezer Cooking is worth the effort? Why or why not?
I have yet to embark on a freezer cooking day, but since I am on maternity leave and will return to work June 7, I thought it might be a good idea to try it for my first month back at work. I work 3 days a week and was going to cook 15 dinners, which would be enough for my work nights. I don’t mind cooking on my off-days, and I usually eat left-over dinner for lunch, cereal on the weekdays, and my husband sometimes makes pancakes, waffles or eggs on the weekends. We could make the pancakes and waffles ahead and freeze them, but since we cook them on the weekends, I don’t mind making them fresh.
I’m a little overwhelmed by all of this planning. Shopping my pantry, making a list of meals and then a shopping list seems manageable (once upon a time I planned meals every week before making a grocery list); what is scary to me is making the prep list. Since I do use some convenience foods (I rarely use dried beans and buy the cans, and I don’t make pizza dough from scratch I buy it pre-made) maybe I can get by without a prep list? I’m sure I could save a lot of money eliminating some convenience items, but the thought of sorting and soaking beans just doesn’t sit well with me for some reason. I will muddle my way through trial and error I guess.
One idea I have that may work for people like me, is on some nights I will double a dinner recipe, make half for dinner fresh and freeze the other half. I just did this yesterday with my black bean burgers, which is one of my regular dinners. For those who wish to start small, maybe on a weekend night, making a double dinner and freezing the rest for another night is a way to gradually build a stockpile of freezer dinners. I would only suggest freezing the other half before serving dinner, because if your family (ahem husband – my kids are only 3 and 2 months) is like mine, if you put more food in front of them they might just eat more.
I wonder on the Fruit Cups-would it work to use Bathroom cups? They’d be sturdy enough to stand up and you could freeze them on a cookie sheet…
Any Thoughts on that idea? Has someone tried that (I have bathrm cups already 😉 or something other than foil liners and had good results?
Ok so some day lol I should do this except I love to cook really even with 3 boys and the oldest is 5, but yes some days its just not working out cooking. Where do you get most recipes? As another person asked how long do you thaw or cook? I have 3 deep freezer one big guy and two smaller ones so we have the room I just don’t seem to know where to start! I even used to plan meals 2 weeks in advance but since child #3 I cant get into the swing of things and he is 2 yep somewhere in there I lost my sanity to momhood. So if anyone has great recipes let me know sorry I did not read all the posts, so maybe someone already left them. I do make big batches of breakfast stuff, pancakes frenchtoast, waffles and freeze them so I’m not a total lost cause;~}
I admire you for being able to do this. I get extremely stressed and panicky when I have to cook multiple things at once. And then the baby gets hungry.. it’s a disaster.
What I’ve discovered works for me is once a week I make a double batch of a meal, and freeze that (so I have 2 days the next week where I don’t have to cook.
After seeing the picture of your stuffed freezer, I wonder….do you all not use ice? What do you do when you need/want ice? Or do you not use ice at all? I figured for some of your smoothies you might need a few ice cubes. Just curious.
Before my daughter was born last spring, I had around 25 meals prepared and frozen, including a couple of casseroles that lasted my hubby and I a couple days a piece. Not only did it save my sanity, but we didn’t have to worry as much about money when just getting used to all the expenses that come with a new baby! We didn’t eat every meal straight from this stash, so it lasted for almost my entire maternity leave (12 weeks!). I haven’t done freezer meals since, except for occasionally making a double batch and “banking” the other half, a few times… but now that I have a VERY ACTIVE 13 month old, I am considering doing this as a gift to myself! 🙂
I couldn’t help being impressed with your freezer cooking. It has always been part of my life. Keep up all the good work and passing on the recipes.
I guess I am just going to have to try this! I’m with Valerie above, I am clueless when it comes to the defrosting and reheating. Also, it just seems like it won’t taste as fresh as coming right out of the oven so I have hestitated to try this method. But, I’m just going to have to start small and give this a try.
my crumbs, that I too could make a casserole out of, were swept in a nice neat pile on the kitchen floor today. A few minutes later I come back to find the pile vanished. We don’t have a dog. But we do have a 17 month old who thinks eating off the floor is better than off the table. The entire pile gone. hair. dust. cereal. all of it. yuck!!!
I still have meals in my freezer from last month, I use them Mon-Wed, my busy days. It saves my days. thanks for keeping up the motivation! and ideas. Thank you thank you!
Absolutely worth it!! But only if I take advantage of awesome resources online – I’m too lazy to do it on my own. I love http://www.OnceAmonthMom.com! She makes it fool proof!
I posted on this thread earlier but it never appeared???
Anyway, I LOVE having freezer meals handy! Instead of doing a whole month in a day or two, however, I instead do what several others have mentioned, I “Batch Cook” for the freezer. When cottage cheese is on sale I buy a ton and put lots of stuffed shells in the freezer (I buy the pasta shells when they go on sale and just keep them in the pantry until needed). When ham is cheap I make a bunch of ham/broccoli/rice casseroles. Over the course of time I have a nice variety in my freezer. This works better for me than doing whole days and I find it cheaper, too. I’ve been making freezer meals for over 15 years now and I can’t imagine life without them!
I just did my very first OAMC day this week! So far it totally seems worth it, but honestly I’m not sure I would want to do it every month. It really is a lot of work! If you are interested, I documented my OAMC day here: http://simplyrebekah.wordpress.com/2010/04/30/once-a-month-cooking-the-big-day/
I first heard of OAMC cooking when I was a teen. I’ve thought about it over the years and during my marriage I have tried different ways to make it work. Originally, I wanted a freezer full of fully assembled casseroles, ready to pop in the oven. I have not found this to be a successful way to cook for my family.
Now I use freezer cooking in a way that suits us. When I find meat on sale, I purchase a large quantity. Recently, I bought 20 lbs of ground beef. Over the course of the next two days, I made meatballs x 5, salisbury steak patties x 5, taco meat x 5, and hamburger patties for the grill x 5. The meat is prepared for the meal, making the rest of the meal prep very fast and easy.
I stick to using the freezer for the meat portion of our meal, and it works great for us!!
Freezer cooking has lessened tension in our marriage!! With both of us teaching full time, trying to exercise, and raising a toddler, it is so nice to be able put something in the oven and have a meal cooking while handling other household responsibilities. I buy disposable pans from the dollar tree for $.50 per pan and then clean up is a breeze!! Right now, a month’s worth of meals will last us easily 2 months after the weekend meals out and then those unexpected eat out nights due to obligations. It also saves tons of money which is good because we have food the last week of the month when waiting to receive both paychecks.
Wanted to add too that while I have a deep freeze and an extra fridge/freezer (ask my hubby about this!), I put most of my meals in my regular freezer in my kitchen and have room to spare. I really wouldn’t need all the extra freezers to make this work. Yes, it is really full for a few days, but since we start using out of the freezer immediately, it is not a big deal.
It is TOTALLY worth it. The dishes part alone is worth it, but feeling good about feeding my family part is what keeps me coming back to it.
I think its worth it (of course I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t think so!) I mostly make ahead sauces, breads, and breakfast burritos. Making just the breakfast burritos has saved so much time and money – my husband brings them to work every morning, which saves at least $15-20 a week that he was spending in going out to eat for breakfast.
@Lauren @ Just Add Lauren, I’d love to have your breakfast burrito freezer recipe – I wondered about freezing eggs already scrambled. I read somewhere you can beat eggs up that might be expiring and freeze egg mixture, hmmmm, there’s a thought too!
@Michelle, we love breakfast burritos too! they were hit with my hubby. I made 60 once with the help of a friend and our little girls and my hubby ate them for 2 months!
Freezer cooking is totally worth it! I have just started it in 2010 and am hooked, for all the reasons you stated plus one. After I was not going to the store every few days, I realized how much grocery shopping was stressing me out! I homeschool four kids and my husband works crazy hours so the chances for me to go grocery shopping by myself are slim. So, now I can schedule my shopping around his day off, get it over with and not go back (at least not more than a couple of times for fresh stuff)! This also saves me money because I am not good at sticking to a list, I always leave with several things that I didn’t go to get.
Also, I was really worried about how things would taste, but we have loved almost every recipe we have tried. The meals don’t taste like we are eating frozen meals. Bonus!
I have done freezer cooking forever. But I’ve never done it in one day. When we just had a few little ones I would make double and freeze the leftovers. Some I would freeze in individual portions for my dh to take to work. Others, I would freeze in ziploc bags as they are so space efficient.
Other things like soup and spaghetti sauce, I would make in my roaster oven and then freeze the remaining in ziplocs. I would also cook a turkey and freeze for lunchmeats and casseroles.
Now that there are 11 of us, we rarely have enough left over to freeze. I do, however, cook up dried beans by the roaster oven quantity and freeze ziplocs of those for easy meals. Also try to keep precooked ground beef in meal sized portions. I buy chicken breasts in bulk at a restaurant supply store and cook that up for a week’s worth of chicken meat for salads, sandwiches and casseroles. The quantity cooking happens almost every day here. It just rarely makes it to the freezer anymore. Our kitchen is in constant use.
Freezer cooking is a GREAT way to save money and time. I owned a business where you would order meals online, pick them up already frozen and have a stash (mine had no trans fat, no high fructose corn syrup, very little processed ingredients – yummy!). I use a lot of those recipes now and always thank my stars when I realize I have dinner “ready”.
Just remember that foods with high water content will change when frozen and thawed – think lettuce or strawberries or mushrooms – so plan accordingly. For instance, berries frozen and thawed won’t be good for garnishing but they are PERFECT for adding to muffins, crumbles, in a sauce or fruited soup. An enemy of freezer items is air so make sure that you squeeze out all you can before sealing your container (baggie or otherwise).
One of the wonderful things about thawing something with a marinade already in the bag is that the food will absorb more of the flavors, but remember that anything with a lot of acid, say citrus, vinegar or alcohol such as wine, will super-tenderize your protein even to the point of beginning to cook it (like ceviche); hold out the very acidic ingredients until you cook if you are using a less than tough cut of animal protein.
Don’t think you have to freeze entire meals! I always have bags of crockpot chicken meat (method below) for quick quesedillas, to add to soup or pasta, to make into chicken salad……..having browned ground meat, ready to go chicken or any ready to eat protein is a HUGE helper since you can build a meal around them quickly and easily.
Here’s my favorite way to cook chicken to have meat on hand. Take one chicken – two if you can fit them in your crockpot – take out the giblets and the bits, rinse if you are a rinser and place them breast side up in the crockpot. Using your favorite dry seasoning mix* sprinkle half into the cavity and half over the top of the chicken. Cover and cook on high 3-4 or low 6-7 hours (depending on your crockpot). Remove from the crockpot – and they WILL fall apart! – and pick all the meat off the carcass. When I do this when they are still warm there isn’t enough on the carcass for soup but if you aren’t a picky picker or you do this when it’s cold, you can save the carcass to make broth for soup.
I save the white meat and the dark meat separately (picky kid) in freezer baggies labeled with the date and the seasoning I used. (Always label and date what you put in the freezer – you WILL forget what that bag of brown chunks is!)
*Seasoning blends – I use everything from McCormick’s Toasted Onion and Garlic to Roast Potato Seasoning to any of the Good Seasons Salad Dressing blends to Penzey’s salad dressing blends. It’s up to you and the taste profiles are endless!
Enjoy – start small and you will start to rely on your stash…..
I recently did a once a month cooking day with a friend. We both have young children and busy husbands and the weekly menu planning/grocery shopping/putting together a meal every night was exhausting for both of us. I will say that once a month cooking has changed my life. It saves me so much time and energy! I love having our freezer stocked with meals I can quickly pull out. It has saved us both money and time and made it so much easier to invite people over for dinner (which we both like to do). We are so excited we are doing it again in just a few days so we are stocked up for the month of May (which is always crazy busy with weddings and graduations for both of us).
I think my biggest question is: does it still taste good?
Freezer cooking is totally worth it! And, I agree 100% about the clean up part. http://onceamonthmom.com is another great resource. She does ALL of the prep work for you from planning the menu, giving you step by step instructions, and giving you a grocery list! All you have to do is go shopping and cook!
Once a Month Mom is TOTALLY the place to go for OAMC! I never would have attempted it without the details instructions there, but now I love it!
I thought you were all a bit crazy at first and SORRY have become a huge convert. I do a lot of staple prep like bagged mixes and cooked hamburger, chicken and crumbled sausage. I also like the ziploc bags with raw meat and whatever seasonings you like write on the bag and pull it out oven or crockpot it. This is so nice as the kiddos have gotten big and are in various activities and appts. are after school. Thank you for convincing me to start small and see what works for us.
I like to have cookie dough in the freezer as well. To make things even quicker, I flash freeze the dough in pre-portioned balls (I turn to my handy 1″ scoop for that!). Once hard I put them all in a plastic bag in the freezer. That way hubby and I can just bake 5 on a weeknight, or I can bake two dozen for a weekend get together!
@Kristina, Great idea! I have been making logs of sugar cookie dough and a chocolate wafer recipe but I was wondering about my favorite chocolate chip recipe. I was thinking of putting it in a tub… but that makes you have to defrost it to scoop out. Never dawned on me to freeze the scoops!! Thanks!!
By the way, when I make the logs of cookie dough, I store them in an old celery Tupperware container – it is long and thin which keeps them together and keeps them from squishing in the freezer.
@Kristina, we do this too! so much easier on the waistline 🙂
Hey Crystal!
Just being nosy, but what happened to your deep freezer? Didn’t you buy one with your tax refund last year (or something like that)? Maybe I’m thinking of someone else!
By the way, I LOVE Freezer Cooking Day! Thanks for the posts!
@Rose Atwater @ AdventuresInSavings.com, Yes, we bought it and then gave it away on Freecycle after our freezer disaster. Neither of us could stand to keep it after all the blood and putrid smell we’d dealt with from the ruined hamburger!
I started freezer cooking when my twins started participating in sports. It started with just some grilled chicken breasts and precooked (and portioned) hamburger. While other families brought hungry kids to football and cheer practice, my kids were fed by Gramma (who can’t boil water well) and had lots of energy. It was the drive through window for those families – while mine went home, showered and went to bed on time. Now I bulk cook 3 times a year. Lots of spag. sauce, queso, chicken, BBQ sandwich stuff, cassaroles – you name it. We juggle 4-6 sports or activities at a time with just my twins so it’s a total life saver!
I haven’t gotten to the point where I freeze whole meals yet, but I do some freezer baking. Today I made about 20 waffles and 24 pumpkin chocolate chip muffins (Thanks for those recipes, Crystal.) I also browned about 5 pounds of ground beef. That’s one step I don’t have to worry about for spaghetti sauce or tacos etc. Tomorrow I plan on making some beans in the crock pot to freeze and make some more muffins.
So, soooo, sooooooooooooooooooo worth it. Everything she says is true. Especially the kitchen being clean part (just ask the Flylady, right? its the center of the home!).
And as for the kitchen floor, “no matter how many times I sweep and mop each week”?? Try no matter how many times a DAY. Three for me yesterday alone, and you would honestly never know. Kids will do that, but we love it. And everyone says one day we will miss it (and I think they are probably right!)
We love freezer cooking! We usually end up doing two or three different mornings while my son is at preschool. We break it up this way because this is the only block of time we definitely have available.
Day one, we’ll make beef meals. One big time-saving tip that I picked up somewhere was, when you make meat loaf, make a triple or quadruple batch of meat and use some of it for meat balls. Works out sooo well and the flavor is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! Surprisingly, meat balls that have ketchup or BBQ sauce mixed in taste great with whatever sauce you want, even alfredo sauce.
Day two, we’ll do chicken recipes. We start off by putting chicken and water in the crock pot the night before. It turns out to tender and we get the added benefit of delicious chicken broth/stock with no unwanted extras in it to freeze as well! It’s also really easy to shred straight from the crock pot.
On both days, we’ll take various meats and put them in freezer bags with marinades. This way, as the meat defrosts (when we’re ready for it), it self marinates!
HTH!
Definitely it is worth it. Even if you don’t work (we are retired but care for our daughters 2yo son while she is in Iraq) and it really helps to just heat and eat! I have been doing freezer cooking since 1971 and would have it no other way!
You’ll know when your kitchen floor is TOO dirty-it will pull your socks off when you walk across it!!! I had forgotten about the crumbs as my children are all grown but then along came the crumbing grandchildren and I don’t mind because it isn’t everyday.
@Lana, Our dogs eat the crumbs–but then the floor gets nasty from dog drool and fur–LOL! You can’t win!
OAMC sounds interesting and something I would like to try. I do freeze things like onions, celery, bananas, strawberries and a few meals here and there. We have a large freezer given to us in our shed that I could use for OAMC. The only thing that hinders me from going ahead and trying OAMC is where we live… southeast Louisiana. During Katrina we were without power in the heat of August-September for 3 weeks and during Gustov it was probably 4-6 days. Does anyone know how long
my meals will stay safe in the freezer if power goes out and it is steaming hot outside and all we have is coolers and probably a limited supply of ice? I would REALY like to try it (I have an active 1 yr old.) But it sounds risky to store a month’s worth of meals in the freezer, however I could just omit OAMC cooking for those few summer months. That would give me the rest of the year to stock my freezer.
@Randee C., I’m in SouthWest Louisiana, so I feel your pain. We lost a ton of food during Rita five years ago, and a bunch more during Gustav/Ike two years ago. I might try this once hurricane season settles down, but I’m not willing to lose that much money in food again, especially food I put my own sweat into !!
I did my first freezer cooking this past month and I’m reaping the rewards now! This is something I want to keep doing and wonder why it took me so long to try it in the first place! 😉 There is a lot less stress around 4pm in my house and oh yes – the dishes are less and I have more time to do other things! It is well worth the hours spent planning/preparing it all.
I love freezer cooking and never heard of it before until I started reading your blog several months ago. I learned it was helpful to have a meal plan in place to know what meals I needed to prepare. I also cash in on the grocery deals and prepare our meals according to what I got on sale the previous month. It helps me keep the food rotating and I don’t have to worry about hording it 🙂
Just curious… did you sell your other freezer (the one that had all the beef in it when you went on vacay)? 🙂
My other favorite fast dinner (besides freezer meals) is meat on the grill! I know it’s not completely frugal (even on sale) to eat that much meat in one meal, but it’s so easy in the summer! 🙂 Also, during my last pregnancy my midwife recommended more protein and red meat… so I feel justified. 😉
@Tammy L, We actually gave it away on Freecycle. Neither of us could stomach keeping it.
We’re hoping to get a deep freezer once we move. But for now, over-the-fridge freezers it is. 🙂
I’ve planned some marinated meats for my Freezer Cooking Day tomorrow. Purchased on sale, it’s actually pretty do-able on a budget… and so yummy and easy, too!
I wondered if the food tastes as good after being frozen as when it is made fresh?
@Brooke, my husband and I are somewhat picky eaters when it comes to freezer meals, but we have found some that are pretty good! I just did a post about this actually: http://www.tammysrecipes.com/node/3848
I am also planning in the future to modify my freezer meals somewhat. …Things like adding a little extra liquids to meals containing pasta… to hopefully combat the drier texture of some of my freezer meals like macaroni and cheese or baked spaghetti! 🙂
@Brooke,
If you freeze the right things it does. Only rarely do I notice a difference in taste. Jessica @Life as Mom has a lot of articles on freezing meal components (taco meat, pasta sauce, cooked ground beef) and that’s mostly what I do. It works really well.
OAMC would not work for me but having a few meals at a time and a batch of muffins in my freezer makes a huge difference
My husband recently had brain surgery and we planned for a 7-10 day hospital stay. It ended up being 19 days and after two days at home he was readmitted for emergency surgery and another 10 days. Friends generously donated meals but my freezer stash really saved the days. I thought I’d over done it but we’ve used almost everything.
@Beth, I hope your husband has a speedy recovery!
I can’t bring myself to spend a whole day cooking. So, I do a mini-version of what you do. When I brown ground meat (or ground turkey), I make a double-triple batch. I store in a microwave safe container. So, later that week, I can just add ingredients and heat in microwave (like for spaghetti sauce or tacos, or sloppy joes, etc). I try to do this whenever possible. I’ll even double the noodles I make one night, and use the other half later for something different (like spaghetti first night, shrimp alfredo the next). It’s manageable for me, but I do get some ideas from your much more intense one day cooking version!
I’ve been reading about your Freezer cooking days for quite a while now but now I’m really getting inspired. Is there any way for you to post the link to some of the recipes you have used before?
Thanks for all your postings, they have saved us so much!
@Erin Johannes, Here you go: https://moneysavingmom.com/from-my-kitchen/baking-day
(Scroll through the pages; there’s lots of recipe links!)
I love having meals in my freezer!!! However, I don’t do a whole month’s worth in one day. Instead I “batch cook”. When I find cottage cheese on sale I make massive amounts of stuffed shells for the freezer (I buy the shells when they’re on sale and just store them in my pantry until needed). When ham is cheap I make multiple recipes of ham & broccoli casserole, etc. You get the idea. Over the course of a few weeks I have a nice variety in my freezer. I’m not forking over a bunch of cash at one time AND I can buy the perishables when they’re on sale. There are a variety of “freezer cooking” methods out there and I think we all need to figure out which works best for our familes. Batch cooking works for us!
I would LOVE to do freezer cooking–like a previous poster said, I have a very clingy 1 year old so making dinner usually consists of meltdowns on the kitchen floor. I would love to be able to make even just 1 weeks worth of meals on the weekend when my husband is home, but unfortunately we don’t have anywhere to put an extra freezer (we rent a condo, so not much room). Once we move, I will definitely be adding an extra freezer and doing this.
This is probably a really dumb question, but how do you go about defrosting or cooking the food in the freezer. I would be CLUELESS aas to what to do with it after I got it all in the freezer!
Thanks so much for sharing this! I have just started freezing pre-made meals and I was looking for just this kind of information!
Where do you store other things, like the frozen veggies, frozen juice, frozen fruit that you might have preserved so it wouldn’t go bad, ice, ice cream, and so forth, if your freezer is full with 30 meals?
@Milk Donor Mama, we keep most of our frozen veggies in the door shelves. You can get quite a few things in those shelves.
@Milk Donor Mama, Well, the 30 meals disappear fairly quickly, so most of the time, there’s room. You might have a week where you have to skip buying ice cream, but it doesn’t stay stuffed for long. If you freeze the majority of items in plastic ziploc bags, you can fit a LOT of food in an over-the-fridge freezer.
I also utilize every inch of the freezer and freezer door when needed. I’m always amazed at how much can go in there!
I like it because it saves us from buying take-out on those time crunched days. It also gives us more variety for breakfast. If I make and freeze, muffins, pancakes, waffles, precooked bacon and sausage, we aren’t stuck eating cereal every day. The kitchen mess factor was something I had not thought about, but an excellent reason, too!
I do alot of prep-work too. Freezing cut up onions and peppers saves time. I also always brown my hamburger and pack into 2-3# packs (what we need). This saves so much time for sloppy joes, spaghetti, tacos and casseroles. I mix up the meatloaf and freeze raw and then bake and freeze my own meatballs. I’m sure by the length of this post you can tell that I love freezer cooking:0)
I would have to search and find a balance. My husband claims he can tell if any of the items I use have been frozen yet when we have been in Ireland and his family pulls meat from their freezer he says it is fine.
I am home full time and often don’t eat regularly during the day. Cooking for just myself gets old fast so I think I want to look at cooking and freezing items that I can throw together for myself.
I was blessed with 2 ‘clingy’ kids. My husband is a football coach & therefore rarely home in time for me to ‘make’ dinner without major meltdowns occuring SO I turned to preparing freezer meals. Is it worth it? YES, if I didn’t do this, I can promise we would eat out 4 times a week. I have about 30 pyrex dishes I have collected over the years & some really great recipes-few of which are pasta & most of which include veggies. I can also stock pile items I know I will use for the big day. I also sometimes just cook triple batches of meals here and there instead of doing it in one day. I tell everyone I know, freezer meals saved my life! I also keep some ‘all in one meals’ like shepherd’s pie and chicken pot pie set aside in tinfoil pans for friends & have just started freezing little leftovers that I give to my 86 year old grandmother! She is VERY grateful.
I was recently able to pick up a full size stand-up Whirlpool freezer in excellent condition for $50 off of Craigslist! I did this in anticipation of a freezer cooking day soon as well as being able to stock up on more of the freezer items when they are on sale. Thanks for the inspiration Crystal! 🙂
I think it is definitely worth it. I have never looked back! To anyone who is doubting – just try it for one or two months. Think outside of the box. What are things we have everyday that I could possibly freeze? Whole companies are built on the idea of frozen food – why should you spend big $ buying their food when you can make your own?!