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.