Carrot Miso Soup

Soups are the workhorse of my winter freezer meals.  They are endlessly variable, one-pot meals that are easy to freeze and reheat.

Carrot Miso Soup
Difficulty: Easy
Column: DH

This healthy soup is very cheap to make.  It's also a great way to use up a lot of miso, which I find handy since I sometimes have trouble getting through a package.  Look for miso in the refrigerator section of your local Asian market.  This is very easy to make if you have a food processor to slice the carrots.  I don't even bother peeling the carrots.  I just wash them well, cut off the ends and thinly slice them in the food processor.  Without the food processor, this soup will be more time consuming.  This soup becomes even easier with an immersion blender.

Serve with a drizzle of sesame oil and sliced green onions.  We also like to have it with naan from the grocery store.

Meatballs and Gravy

I think of meatballs, gravy  and mashed potatoes as basic American, comfort food.  There's nothing fancy about this dish, but it is delicious.  It is also fairly inexpensive, especially if you can find the meat on sale, and it freezes well.  It doesn't have to be served with just mashed potatoes though.  We had it with mashed cauliflower which was just as tasty.

Mashed Cauliflower

Mashed cauliflower is a delicious alternative to mashed potatoes and it freezes well.

Adapted from: Food Network
Difficulty: Easy
Category: Simple Side
Recipe Column: CP

Green Chile Chicken (or Turkey)

We stayed home by ourselves last year for Thanksgiving.  Our family consists of me, my husband and our two small children.  I bought the smallest turkey I could find, but at 14 pounds it was still way too much turkey for our small family.  Having too much turkey after Thanksgiving is a common problem and generally people still have plenty of turkey left even after all the sides are gone.  It makes sense instead of trying re-purpose turkey for days after Thanksgiving until everyone is sick of it to instead turn your carefully prepared, leftover turkey into freezer meals that will save you time and work in the months to come.

I'm sure there are many freezer meals that could be made from leftover turkey, like soups, stews and pot pies.  You could even freeze shredded turkey by itself and use it in a similar manner as I do my pre-cooked, shredded chicken.  I came up with this recipe last Thanksgiving and it provided six dinners for my family in the months following.  I don't just like this meal because it uses up the leftover turkey and is delicious.  It is is also incredibly fast and easy.  I don't know about you, but I don't really feel like cooking any more right after Thanksgiving.  Once the turkey is cooked and shredded, all this dish requires is opening some cans and jars, mixing everything together and dividing it up for freezing. No more cooking or chopping!  I have also made this when I don't have leftover turkey to use up.  I smoke a couple chickens (or you could roast them), shred them and make it the same.  Either way, it's delicious, easy and inexpensive.

Using the Macro: Holiday Meal Planning

Whew! It's been a very busy month and a half here. I also haven't had a lot of new material as we have been mainly eating through stuff I've already posted, and I haven't been adding a lot to the freezer recently.  However, I just finished cooking for a week and a half, so I'll soon have some new recipes to add.  Posting will probably continue to be sporadic through the end of the year, but I should get back to a more regular schedule with the new year.

I did want to take a chance to talk about using the macro to plan holiday meals.  After all, I designed the macro as a planning tool for buying and cooking large quantities of food and multiple dishes, which describes holiday cooking perfectly.  I uploaded an updated spreadsheet with my holiday recipes.  You can download it here.

Freezing and Holiday Meals
First though let's talk about using your freezer with your holiday cooking.  Generally speaking the freezer is not going to be super useful in making holiday meals.  After all cooking and holidays go together, and most things you have at your holiday meals probably are not going to freeze well.  There are some things that can be made in advance and frozen.  The main issue the freezer causes is that is make things mushy.  Water expands as it freezes and as it expands it breaks down the structure of the food, creating mush.  So, things that are already mushy can generally frozen without issue, like mashed potatoes.  I made a large batch of mashed potatoes a few weeks before Thanksgiving last year and they turned out great.  Since it was just me cooking for my immediate family that year, having the mashed potatoes already made was when I was doing the rest of my Thanksgiving cooking.

Pumpkin Pasta

This pasta casserole is full of delicious fall flavors.  It has been part of my freezer repertoire for many years and led to my purchase of the titular very large bowl of this blog.  I was trying to make a large batch of this and while it all technically fit in my largest bowl at the time, the bowl was so full that I couldn't stir effectively.  It took forever to mix that batch and made a large mess. Afterwards I got online and purchased my 30 quart bowl that I use for my freezer cooking now.

Adapted from: Veganomicon
Difficulty: Moderate
Category: Heat and Eat
Recipe Column: AM

Three Bean Chili

This is my family's favorite chili, and I have been making variations of it for years.  This is a vegetarian bean chili, but I have made this with beef before and less beans.  This most recent rendition also has pumpkin in it.  I had heard about adding pumpkin puree to chili to add more vegetables and decided to give it a try.  It sounds unusual but the chili is still delicious and doesn't have a particularly pumpkin flavor.  I'm always glad to find ways to incorporate more vegetables into my freezer meals.  It could probably take a whole can of pumpkin.  That's what I had planned on and bought a whole can for the chili, but I really needed pumpkin pancakes before I got around to making the chili. Some of the pumpkin had to be sacrificed for that cause.  Your favorite chili will most likely freeze well too.

Difficulty: Moderate
Category: Heat and eat
Recipe Column: CK

Falafel

These tasty falafels are very easy if you have a large enough food processor.  They are also inexpensive and they are very convenient as they can go straight from the freezer to the pan.

Difficulty: Easy
Category: Freezer to Pan
Recipe Column: AA

Get the recipe here. Form the falafels, but do not cook them.

To freeze:
Freeze the uncooked falafels on a sheet tray lined with parchment paper.  You can do up to two layers of falafel on the same pan.  Separate the layers with parchment paper.  Once the falafels are frozen, transfer them to a bag or container for storage.

To serve:
Heat a thin layer of olive oil in a large frying pan.  When the oil is hot, add the frozen falafels in a single layer.  Do not overcrowd the pan.  Cook until brown on both sides.  You may cover the pan at the beginning to help the falafels heat through.  Remove the lid towards the end of cooking to give the falafel a chance to crisp before serving.  Serve with tzatziki or other sauce and a salad.

Tzatziki Sauce
1/2 cucumber
1 cup Greek yogurt
pinch of garlic powder (optional)
dash of lemon juice
sprinkle of dry dill

1. Coarsely grate the cucumber.  Gather up the grated cucumber and gently squeeze excess moisture out of the cucumber before transferring it to a small mixing bowl.
2. Combine all the ingredients and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Chicken Strips

These chicken strips were tasty and a big hit with my kids.  They gobbled them up, which is unusual for them.

Adapted from: Once Upon A Chef
Difficulty: Moderate
Category: Freezer to Pan
Recipe Column: AC

Poolkogi (Korean BBQ Beef)

I used to know a Korean woman who made this whenever she had people over and it was always delicious.  I am still working on perfecting my cooking technique, but this is still tasty and makes a good freezer meal.

Difficulty: Easy
Category: Some Assembly Required
Recipe Column: BS

Get the recipe here.

To freeze:
Prepare the meat and place in the marinade as instructed in the recipe.  Divide the marinade and meat into containers or bags freeze.

To serve:
Thaw the meat in the marinade.  Remove the meat from the marinade and cook according to the directions in the recipe in step 6.  Serve the meat with rice, lettuce and vegetables such as slices of peppers, cucumber spears and carrots.  Place the meat, vegetables and rice in lettuce leaves and wrap them up.  There is also a sauce recommended for to accompany this dish.  We tried it and didn't care for it, so we stick with the plan meat and veggies with the rice.

French Dip

These sandwiches are a big hit with my family.  They're very tasty plus they are super easy and low maintenance to both make and serve.

Adapted from: Neighbor Food
Difficulty: Easy
Category: Some Assembly Required
Recipe Column: CG
Serves: 6

Saag Paneer

I cannot tell you how delighted I am to have discovered a way to freeze this dish.  Saag paneer is one of my favorite meals and my favorite Indian dish.  Unfortunately we only have one Indian restaurant in town and while they have some delicious food their saag paneer is not great. It can also be pretty time consuming to make saag paneer.  Due to the lack of good saag paneer in my town and how time consuming it is, I haven't been able to have saag paneer on a regular basis for a few years now, hence the delight at being able to freeze it.  Now I make a quadruple bathc and can have it even more frequently than I did when we lived in a town with more Indian restaurants.  As I've said before, Indian food is one of my favorite things to cook.  It's such an enjoyable sensory experience.

Delicious saag paneer with an equally delicious mango lassi right next to it.

This recipe is time consuming and I classify it as difficult based solely on making the paneer, which is a process.  If you can find a store bought paneer or if you want to replace the paneer altogether with chickpeas, chicken or potatoes, this actually becomes and reasonably fast and easy dish.  I love the paneer though, so it's worth the effort to me to make it.

Pupusas

I uploaded an updated spreadsheet.  Go here to download it.

I enjoyed eating pupusas regularly when I lived in New York.  Unfortunately, I've had trouble find good ones anywhere else, and I have missed them.  Finally I have learned how to make them.   It took some experimenting because none of the recipes I found online tasted like the ones I had in New York.  All of those recipes called for the dough to be made with only instant masa and water.  This resulted in a dry, tough exterior not the soft exterior of the pupusas I remember.

Some internet research led me to believe that the difference is made by using instant masa instead of fresh masa.  I don't know of a place to purchase fresh masa and I don't have the equipment or inclination to make it myself.  After some experiments in adding butter and baking power to the dough with the instant masa I got very close to the soft pupusas I enjoyed so much in New York.  I realize this may not be an authentic way to make them, but they taste pretty authentic and delicious!

Corn Crepes

We finished off the last of these tasty corn crepes a couple nights ago.  In fact the freezer is starting to look a little sparse.  I'm gearing up do my once a month cooking over the next couple days.  The grocery shopping is done and I will be doing the chopping, shredding and mincing this afternoon.  I'm looking forward to having some new variety in our meal rotation.

Difficulty: Moderate
Category: Simple Side
Recipe Column: AF

Get the recipe at Smitten Kitchen.

To freeze:
Cool the crepes and divide into dinner-sized stacks.  I generally plan on two to three crepes per person.  Wrap each stack tightly in plastic wrap or place in freezer bags and freeze.

To serve:
Thaw the crepes overnight in the refrigerator.  Remove from the plastic wrap or bag and place on a plate.  Sprinkle 3 tablespoons of water on a clean kitchen towel and cover the crepes.  Microwave in 2 minute bursts at 70% power until hot.  The recipe linked above has a few serving suggestions.  I initially tried the crepe cake with the mayo and queso fresco because I love Mexican corn.  I found the mayo and cheese overpowered the delicate corn flavor of the crepes.  My preferred serving method is just to fold them up and serve with a little sprinkle of queso fresco.  We had it with avocado cucumber salad.  I also think it would be good with a fresh tomato salad.

Peanut Chicken Noodle Bowls

I wrote previously about smoking, shredding and freezing whole chickens.  These noodle bowls are one of our favorite ways to utilize our pre-cooked chicken.  They're delicious and very refreshing for hot summer days.  We have these regularly when we have guests as they are always a big hit and each person assembles their own bowl and can customize it to their specific tastes.  The peanut sauce is easy to make and freezes well, so you can make up a big batch and freeze it in smaller portions to save you the work the day of or you can easily whip it up when you're getting your bowls ready. This is a "Some Assembly Required" meal, but it is very easy to throw together.

Adapted from: Smitten Ktichen
Difficulty: Easy
Category: Some Assembly Required
Column: BN

Creamy Chicken and Spinach Tacos

I wrote previously about how I cook, shred and freeze several chickens at the beginning of summer.  Throughout the summer I am finding uses for all this chicken.  This is a simplified version of a dish I used to make quite regularly.  It's delicious, but with the roasting, peeling a dicing of the peppers it eventually fell out of our rotation.  I am glad to have it back even in a different form, and it is still delicious.

Difficulty: Easy
Adapted from: Rick Bayless

Component: Smoked Chicken

At the beginning of the summer I watched my grocery store flyers until whole chickens went on sale.  I then went out and bought seven chickens, smoked them, shredded them, bagged them in dinner-sized portions, and froze them.  I ended up with fifteen meals worth of chicken and now spend the summer coming up with ways to use them.

I generally prefer to make freezer meals that require little work on the day of to serve.  I find they're more likely to be used this way.  Plain shredded chicken requires that I do something more with it than take it out of the freezer and sticking it in the oven.  It is more work to serve than many of the other freezer meals I make, but it has advantages too.  Precooked chicken allows me to make a large variety of meals with less effort than having to cook everything the day of and makes for tasty and easy summer meals.  I prefer lighter food during the summer and a lot of  heat and eat freezer meals are heavier and more suitable for winter.  Plus this allows me to take advantage of the wonderful fresh produce available during the summer to round out the chicken out into a full meal.

Chicken Wraps

These are a pretty tasty summer meal.  One big advantage for this dish is that it already has a lot of vegetables cooked into it before freezing. They're easy to prepare and easy to reheat and serve.

Difficulty: Easy
Category: Simple Side
Recipe Column: AI

Get the recipe here:

Asian Lettuce Wraps

To freeze:
Cool the chicken mixture and divide between desired number of containers or bags.  Freeze.

To serve:
Thaw the chicken in the refrigerator overnight.  Reheat to 140 degrees in a frying pan.  Serve with rice and Boston butterhead lettuce leaves. 

Black Bean Salad

As I have been posting recipes to this blog I have noticed that we really like black beans and avocados.  Already I have a few recipes with featuring these two ingredients in different configurations and there's probably more to come.  Black beans and avocados are both tasty and nutritious.  Plus beans are a cheap source of protein, so we'll probably keep finding different ways to eat this delicious combination.

Black bean salad is the latest of these recipes.  It's really easy to put this in a crockpot and let it simmer away while you work on your other freezer meals.  It's nice to have a low maintenance dish in the rotation as making freezer meals can be a big process.

Using the Macro: Multiplier Reminder

I was pleased to hear that my sister recently used my macro, so she could make her own batch of freezer meals.  She didn't know about the multiplying feature of the macro and as a result she now has a boatload of Sausage Broccoli Pasta.  I hope she likes it. :)

When I put the recipes up on this blog, I enter a single batch.  However, the macro has a feature where it multiplies recipes depending on how many batches you want to make.  I figure this way everyone can scale the recipes to fit their needs.  The multipliers are located in row 4 of the 'Recipes' tab.  Her experience made me realize that a reminder of the multiple being used would be useful when entering recipes into the shopping list.  In the latest version of the macro when you enter a recipe into column A, how much it's being multiplied by shows up in column B to remind you.  If that's not the multiplier you want, head to the 'Recipes' tab to change it in row 4.

Using the Macro: Packing List

We went camping over Memorial Day weekend.  Getting everything together for a camping a trip is always an ordeal.  Everyone's clothes and toiletries need to be gathered plus the tents, sleeping bags, camp chairs, flashlights, lanterns,...  Getting the food together for a camping trip is no small feat either, and I realized that my macro would be useful for planning camping food.

Freezer Meals and Travel

Freezer meals make my day to day life much easier, but they are also very useful for travel when we drive and stay in a rented condo or house.  Now I'm not advocating bringing all your meals with you when you travel.  Trying new foods and discovering the local specialties is one of my favorite things about traveling.  For New Years we spent five days in New Orleans with my in-laws.  We definitely wanted to do some eating out because it's New Orleans!  However, eating out three meals a day for five days gets pretty expensive.  Plus we have little kids, which makes eating out not exactly an relaxing, easy experience.

A ride down the Mississippi aboard the Creole Queen.

Avocado Tacos

I need to start this post with a disclaimer.  Avocado Tacos are not actually a freezer meal.  However, they are incredibly easy and convenient especially since they don't require any cooking.  They are so easy and fast to put together that I think they are in keeping with the spirit of this blog.  These tacos are a delicious staple for our summer meals.  They are cool, refreshing and filling, plus they don't heat up the kitchen.  A perfect meal for hot summer days.

Another advantage to these is that they can be modified in a variety of ways to make them even easier.  Sometimes I leave out the diced tomatoes to save time and just let the salsa stand in for the tomatoes.  Or you can use pre-shredded lettuce or spring mix instead of cutting or shredding lettuce yourself.  We really like the queso fresco for these, but we have sometimes used pre-shredded cheddar or Mexican blend in its place to save time on the crumbling or a trip to the store.

Potato Chorizo Tacos with Avocado Salsa

This has been one of my favorite meals for years, so imagine how happy I was to discover that both the filling and the salsa freeze well.  It's an easy meal, but it's all the easier to just thaw and reheat.  It's also nice that it's inexpensive.  If you have any leftovers, the filling is absolutely delicious scrambled with some eggs for breakfast.

When I lived in Colorado, several brands of chorizo sausage was readily available at every supermarket.  Now that I live in the South, it is not so easy to find. If you also live in an area where it is not commonly found, don't give up hope.  I eventually found a local butcher shop that sells chorizo, or you can check out Mexican grocery stores.  There is a chorizo sausage that is frequently sold in grocery stores that comes in a long, thin tube.  Cacique is one such brand, but there may be others.  Do not buy the long, thin tube chorizo sausage.  It's not very good

Bacon Muffins

I was intrigued by this idea of an egg baked inside a savory muffin.  I was hoping it might be like an easier form of egg pockets.  The recipe would require a couple changes to work for my purposes: 1.  The recipe calls for the eggs to be baked whole.  This doesn't work for freezing.  Scrambled eggs freeze fine, but when whole, cooked eggs are frozen, the white gets weird.  2. I don't have the giant muffin tins required to make a muffin large enough to have a whole egg inside of it.  So, I decided to create a well in the batter of each standard-sized muffin, fill the well with beaten eggs instead of whole, top with a lid of batter and still have a muffin with cooked egg in the center.  Except it didn't work.

I haven't made the muffins with a whole egg inside of it, but I imagine that since a whole egg kind of holds together that it is possible to top that egg with thick muffin batter and have the egg stay put.  That does not work for beaten eggs.  Since the eggs are liquid and they no longer hold together due to being beaten, the eggs just rise up and run all over when another batter is place on top of them.  Eventually I scraped the idea of having an egg-filled muffin and just cooked the batter as regular muffins.  They still make a delicious and convenient breakfast.  At some point I may revisit them and stir in already cooked, scrambled eggs into the batter and see if I can achieve an egg-filled muffin.

Difficulty: Easy
Category: Breakfast
Recipe Column: R

Get the recipe here: Bacon and Egg Breakfast Muffins

To make them for the freezer, make the batter as called for but ignore the part about putting the egg in the middle.  Just spray your muffin tins with oil and scoop the batter into the tins as you would any other muffin.  Also it's easier to cook your bacon in the oven than on top of the stove.

A triple batch made 2 dozen muffins.  In the future I might make a quadruple batch so I can use up and entire package of bacon.

To freeze:
Freeze the muffins on a sheet tray until solid.  Transfer to a bag or container for storage.

To serve:
Thaw the muffin overnight in the fridge.  Cover and microwave on high for 1 minute until heated all the way through.  Or cover and microwave a frozen muffin for 2 minutes at 60% power.

Pierogi

These potato pierogi were a staple for us last summer.  They were my first freezer to pan meal.  Last summer when I was tired or forgot to thaw something for dinner, I would throw a few of these in a pan and have a quick and easy dinner.  They are time consuming to make, but they're cheap and super convenient once they are made.  I think these could also be tasty with up to half the potatoes replaced by cauliflower.  I was going to give it a try last time I made them, but the cauliflower was looking pretty sad when I went to the store.

Difficulty: Moderate
Category: Freezer to Pan
Recipe Column: AK

Black Bean Burgers

These black bean burgers are inexpensive and tasty.  Plus they can be cooked straight from the freezer, making them very convenient as well.

From: Veganomicon
Difficulty: Easy
Category: Freezer to Pan
Recipe Column: BR

Lentil Joes

I realize that just seeing the the word "lentil" is going to turn some people off, and that would be a shame.  Admittedly, this dish is not a hit with everyone I have ever served it to, but I think it is delicious and the majority of people I have made it for have enjoyed it too.

I even featured a sample of this in a class I taught about inexpensive protein sources.  Over a year later I ran into a lady who had attended the class.  She brought up the class and the lentil joes enthusiastically and said she had been making them regularly ever since even though she had been skeptical initially.  So, I heartily recommend giving these a try even if you're not sure about them.  They freeze great and are very inexpensive at about $0.80 a serving.

SW Chicken Patties and Summer Freezer Meals

Summer is fast approaching and we have finally finished eating our hearty, winter meals.  The freezer is almost empty, and I have been cooking for summer this week.  Summer is tough for freezer meals.  Most of my initial ideas for freezer meals were thick soups, stews and heavy casseroles.  All of those things are perfect for the cold days of winter, but I prefer lighter fare in the summer.  I also avoid turning on the oven as much as possible.  I have come up with some summer freezer meals, so stay tuned.  I'll be posting those recipes in the weeks to come.

First up is Southwest Chicken Patties.  I used to make these fairly regularly, but they are a little labor intensive as there is a fair amount of chopping involved and then the forming of the patties.  They fell out of my regular rotation.  I happy to say that these are back in the rotation due to the fact that they freezer very well and can be cooked straight from the freezer, making them very convenient.

This meal was a major freezer meal win today!  Like I said I am doing the bulk of my freezer cooking this week and it is always a large undertaking.  I've also had other stuff going on, so today I didn't cook at all.  My kitchen was a complete disaster, so as dinner approached I really didn't feel like making anything.  I hadn't thawed anything either, and I was on the verge of packing up my kids and heading for a drive-thru.  As I was considering getting ready to leave, I decided that I really need to eat what we have on hand instead of paying for fast food and decided on these since they can be cooked straight from the freezer.  We had some spring mix on hand for a salad.  I am so glad I did.  These were so easy to cook up.  They just required one pan and a few minutes.  They were delicious, and they ended up being so much easier and cheaper than taking my kids out for fast food.  This is why I do the freezer meals.

Chicken Wings Two Ways

I felt a little silly making these as a freezer meal.  Both of these sauces are very easy to make, so tossing them with some wings and baking makes a pretty easy meal.  Why bother to freeze something that is so simple in the first place?  There are two reasons I decided to make this a freezer meal.  The first was to take advantage of sales my grocery store has on chicken wings.  I figured I could buy a bunch when they're on sale, prepare and freeze them and then have chicken wings regularly for less than the normal cost.  The second reason is that I figured no matter how simple these are to throw together it's easier still to simply empty a bag onto a pan and throw it in the oven.

I am so glad I decided to freeze these.  Yes, they are very simple, but that means a large batch is easy to make.  I underestimated how nice it would be to just put these in the oven for dinner with no gathering of ingredients or measuring anything.  I didn't have to wash anything except the pan that I cooked them in.  It turns out that something super simple still makes a great freezer meal.  It's easy to prep, which is nice when I have other more time consuming dishes to make and freeze, and it's easy, breezy for a delicious weeknight meal.  I highly recommend these.

Butter Chicken (Murgh Makhani)

Occasionally someone asks me what my favorite thing to cook is and I generally tell them Indian food.  The process of making Indian food is very enjoyable as it requires a lot of ingredients with various and amazing smells.  Generally you start by cooking aromatics like onions, garlic, peppers and fresh ginger.  Then you add spices like cumin, garam masala, cinnamon, chili powder, tumeric, and on and on.  Each stage of the process introduces new aromas and they continue to change as the aromatics and the spices continue to cook.  Finally you add the ingredients that make up the bulk of sauce and simmer.  The scent continues to change.  All together it makes for a wonderful sensory experience.  Plus at the end I have delicious Indian food to eat, and that always makes me happy.

Unfortunately, making Indian food is a time consuming and labor intensive process.  All of those aromatics have to be peeled and minced.  The many spices must be found in the cupboard and measured.  Often the meat requires a marinade.  Plus the cooking process if generally fairly long.   Generally when I make Indian food I have had to set aside an entire afternoon to work on it.  It was a happy day when I realized that some of my favorite Indian dishes would freeze very well.

Chickpea Stew

I love this garlicky stew.  It's filling and delicious, and between the spinach and the chickpeas, it is packed with nutrition.  It is also inexpensive.  The only ingredient that is on the pricey side is the saffron.  However, a little saffron goes a long way, and  this recipe only uses a tiny amount, so after your initial investment you will be able to make this and other dishes containing saffron for a long time before you have to buy it again.

Technically this falls in the Simple Side category because you do have to add the spinach to it as it reheats before serving. It is so easy to add a bag of pre-washed baby spinach to it that it is almost like a Heat and Eat.

Cheese Blintzes

I love blintzes and yet I have had them less than five times in my life.  Few restaurants serve them, and I have only made them once.  They are labor intensive.  They require making the crepes and the filling.  Then all the crepes need to be filled, rolled and fried.  The one time I made them they were delicious, but they were too much work for a single breakfast for me to do again.  Until one happy day I realized that they would freeze well.  Making a huge batch of these is a project, but the fact that I can make a ton of these one afternoon and have enough for several breakfasts makes the work worth it for me.

A Collection of Pancakes

Pancakes are great for freezing, and it's easy to make a huge batch of them.  Plus, they heat well straight from the freezer, which is convenient if you're short on time and forgot to thaw something for breakfast.  We have pancakes at least once a week, so I make a triple or quadruple batch when I make them.

As I've stated before, I like a hearty breakfast.  My day is so much more enjoyable and productive if I start the day by eating something substantial.  Unfortunately, as delicious as traditional light and fluffy flapjacks are, I don't find that they stick with me and keep me going until lunch.  As such I am always on the hunt for more filling pancakes.  Below are a few pancake recipes I freeze that are filling as well as delicious.

Spicy Black Bean Soup

Everyone should add this soup to their freezer cooking lists.  Not only is it tasty, but it's cheap and easy to make.  After a little prep you can toss this in the crockpot and let it cook while you make all your other freezer meals.

Breakfast Burritos

My husband eats one or two of these burritos every morning on his way to work.  They are a very convenient and filling breakfast, so I'm making a batch of them every few weeks.  They're also very flexible.  You can change a lot of things to your personal preferences.  You can switch up the meat or eliminate it altogether.  You can leave out the green chiles and add salsa to each burrito as you assemble them.  You can omit the beans and add peppers or veggies.  You can also change up the proportions.  Do some experimenting and find the burrito you like.

Sausage Potatoes

This is another recipe that I was making long before I started doing once a month cooking and was delighted to discover freezes well. They make a convenient addition to a once a month cooking plan when you have a lot of work to do because they don't require much in the way of equipment.  They don't need to be cooled either, which is helpful.   Plus they're super cheap.

I usually post my recipes as a single batch so you can multiply them to meet your needs.  However, this one is a quadruple batch due to the small amounts of tomato paste and mustard.  You can change the multiple for this recipe in row 4  of column D, run the macro and it will give you a scaled list of ingredients to follow in the 'Current Recipes' tab if you don't want to make 4 batches.

They're not much to look at, but they are very tasty.

Chicken Milanese

When I started getting into freezer cooking I first looked to dishes that I already made regularly and enjoyed to see if they might freeze well.  This chicken dish has long been a favorite of mine. Obviously the salad will not freeze well but the chicken can be breaded and frozen.  The salad is so easy to throw together that having the chicken prepped makes this a very easy meal indeed.  Plus this chicken could go very well with any number of salads.

Update: I've come up with other ways to use fried, breaded chicken cutlets.  Check them out!

Egg Puffs

These make a delicious, filling and convenient breakfast.  Plus it's easy to make a lot of them, so if you need a lot breakfasts, this is for you.  A double batch makes a ton of these.

Prep Tip: Bacon in the Oven

Some freezer recipes will require you to cook large amounts of bacon.  This can be messy and time consuming to do on the stovetop, so I highly recommend cooking your bacon in the oven,  There are a lot of methods to do this around the internet.  I experimented with them until I found the best way for my oven.  You may need to do similar experiments, but I promise it's worth it.  Cooking bacon in the oven is so much easier.

A Collection of Soups

Soup is really a workhorse of freezer cooking.  It is easy to make in large batches, easy to freeze and easy to reheat.  There is an endless variety of soups and many of them are meal all by themselves.  I highly recommend you look to your favorite soup recipes to find freezer meals that you already like.

There are a couple of things to keep in mind when making soup to freeze:

1. Milk and cheese sometimes don't freeze well.  These are mostly added at the end of the cooking process, so you can freeze before adding the dairy and then add it in when you reheat to serve.
2. Some more tender vegetables get an unpleasant texture after being frozen, such as zucchini and leafy vegetables like spinach.  Sometimes these can be added when you reheat to serve.
3. Undercook your veggies and pasta in soup to avoid mushiness after being frozen and reheated. Never undercook meat!

Here are some soups I have had success with freezing:

Sausage Broccoli Pasta

This dish has been a huge win as a freezer meal.  It is delicious, a complete meal and my kids like it.  Plus it's fairly easy and inexpensive.  It's pretty much perfect.  I make a triple batch, which is huge and makes enough for 7 dinners for my family.

Egg Pocket

My kids are little still, so we generally don't have to be anywhere early in the morning.  I imagine that when my kids start school these will be indispensable on busy mornings.  These are delicious and incredibly convenient as they can be eaten on the go.  Even without having to go anywhere immediately, we still have these regularly. Plus they are popular with my kids.  

Leek and Bean Cassoulet

Long before I started doing once a month cooking I was regularly making this as a freezer meal.  It's fantastic, like a vegetable pot pie with fluffy biscuits as the crust.  It's great on a cold, winter day, and it's a complete meal that's packed with veggies.  If you have a food processor, it makes making the biscuit dough really fast and easy. 

Savory Muffins

My day goes a whole lot better if I start it with a hot, protein-heavy breakfast.  These fit the bill nicely.  They're easy and filling.  Plus they're portable, which makes a great breakfast on a busy morning.

Adapted from: Thriving Home
Difficulty: Easy
Category: Breakfast
Recipe Column: AJ

Meal Categories

Freezer to Pan: Requires no thawing.  These meals can be cooked straight from the freezer.  They're convenient for when you forgot to thaw something for dinner.

Heat and Eat: This means the recipe is a complete meal with protein and vegetables in it.  All you have to do is thaw and heat or cook through.  No need for anything else.

Simple Side: This meal requires a simple side like pasta, rice or a salad be made in addition to reheating/cooking the freezer meal to be a complete meal.  Or it can indicate a small amount of finishing work is required on the meal itself.

Some Assembly Required: These meals require some work to put together or finish after coming out of the freezer.

The Once a Month Process.

Many once a month cooking plans have you making one batch of each meal to put into your freezer.  I generally prefer making large batches, that will last me a few months.  This takes more time at the outset.  I generally spend 4 to 5 days cooking the first time to stock the freezer, but I end up with about 65 dinners from 16 different recipes.  After I get the initial cooking done I make 2 to 5 meals once a month to keep the freezer going and add variety.  This takes me 1 to 2 days.  Whichever way you want to do your cooking, the macro can accommodate and make your lists.  Planning is key to successful once a month cooking.

Using the Macro: The Categories Database

Once you enter a recipe, chances are you may need to add some ingredients to the 'Categories' tab.

Adding an Ingredient

You will know you need to enter a new ingredient because it will show up in the 'Uncategorized'  column of the shopping list.

Using the Macro: The Recipe Database

So, now that you know the basics of using the macro, you'll want to browse the recipe database in the 'Recipes' tab to see what you want to make.  You'll also probably want to enter your own freezer recipes, which I hope you'll share with me.

My Recipes

I have already entered a lot of freezer recipes into the database, and I will continue to add recipes and upload the updated spreadsheet periodically.  Eventually I will blog about each recipe in the database, but until then, I have put a comment about each one in the cell with the recipe name.  If you hover the mouse over the name of a recipe, the comment will pop up with my thoughts about it.  Most of the recipes I like.  I remove the ones that I truly disliked.  A few of them are works in progress with potential, and there are a number of them that I haven't tried yet. I hope this helps you figure out what you want to make until I get around to blogging about them.

Food Safety and Freezer Cooking

Before we continue with posts about using the macro I want to talk about the very important subject of food safety.  After all, the convenience of freezer meals doesn't mean anything if the food makes your family sick.  Freezer cooking presents some challenges to safely preparing food that I plan to address.

Safely Cooling Food

The Danger Zone in food safety is 40° to 140° this is the range where the bacteria that cause illness grow the most quickly.  It is recommended that food left in this range for two hours be discarded as it may cause food poisoning.  This presents a challenge when creating large batches of food which must then be cooled and frozen.  A large batch can take very long time to cool, leaving the food in the danger zone for an unacceptable amount of time.  As tempting as it may be,  never put hot food in the freezer to cool.  Putting hot food in the freezer can raise the temperature of the foods around it, causing them to enter the danger zone, ruining the safety and quality of the food.  Cool all food to at least room temperature before freezing  Some safe ways to cool food are: