[Momonthefarm]

As I get to the end of my time at home with the girls and we transition to everyone going to school every day I am worried about meal time once I go back to teaching. Granted I get home earlier than a lot of people but the girls will both have homework and I really would rather spend the time with them than in the kitchen.

My mother in law is a wonderful help and she suggested we take a Saturday and freeze some meals in advance but my question is what???

We have done the lasagna thing a couple of time since the girls have come home and they like it but what about chicken or hamburger type meals??

Any suggestions and or recipes would be great! Thanks Renee

[robandjulie]

I bought one of these recipe lists before and we were pleased with most of the meals:

Dinner freezer recipes

Some are full meals, others are just starters to take the guess work out. Like, some are pretty much done casseroles and many are just marinating chicken, pork, or steak and then serving suggestions. I find the hardest part of dinner the standing there going "huh...I have chicken...but what to DO with it...?" so it's nice to pull it out and have it say "sautee, serve with rice and green beans" and I don't have to pretend to think of a plan.

[DianeS]

I don't usually freeze full entrees, but I do often cook all the meat I'll need for the week and freeze that.

Like, buy 4 pounds of ground beef, and 3 pounds of chicken breasts.

One pound of beef - crumble and cook with taco seasoning. Freeze
Two pounds of beef - crumble and cook plain. Freeze.
One pound of beef - form into patties, cook. Freeze.

One pound of chicken breast - cube and cook. Freeze.
One pound of chicken breast - cut into strips. Freeze.
One pound of chicken breast - cook whole. Freeze.

And there you have seven main courses, each with the meat ingredient already cooked. Add bagged salads, frozen veggies, minute rice, etc, and dinner suddenly takes a lot less time to cook each day.

Hope this helps!

[thanksgivingmom]

I don't cook for my family, but my Mom (LOVE HER) will sometimes give me frozen stuff for me to cook up at home.

The easiest things are things like spaghetti sauce and meatloaf.

A GREAT tool for this too is that now at grocery stores you can buy one of the vacuumm freezer bag sealers at a REALLY affordable price. They work great!!!

[momto2boyz]

My new daughter just came home from Ethiopia 3 weeks ago and I spent about a week before that freezing some meals.
It was actually pretty easy. I cooked and seasoned 8 pounds of ground beef and used 4 pounds for enchiladas. The kids and I set up an assembly line and constructed enchiladas. The rest of the meat was seasoned and bagged in one pound batches for tacos/taco salad. I also made 2 types of meatballs, froze them on cookie sheets and then bagged them in meal size portions. I tripled my chicken and dumpling recipe and froze that as well - dumplings frozen separately. I was going to freeze some stew but ran out of time.
I only use the frozen meals a couple of times a week but they're nice to have ready for those extra busy evenings.

Annette

[karla-k]

2 books I recommend:

Dream Dinners by Allen & Kuna
and
Once a Month Cooking by Wilson and Lagerborg

Both (I believe) have grocery lists and everything.

I also endorse the cook all your meat ahead of time plan. I buy the 10 pound family pack of ground beef, cook it all at once and bag and freeze. Even on those night that I would run in the door and have no idea what to cook, I could grab a bag of ground beef, 5 min in the microwave and have spaghetti w/ meat sauce, bean and meat burritos, or hamburger helper on the table in 15 minutes. Easy with no prep work the night of the meal.

[thanksgivingmom]

There are also soups that you can freeze (I don't know if y'all are soup folk, but my parents LOVE to make soups when it's cold). You can do them ahead of time and then do something like a grilled cheese sandwhich to go with it. Or a BLT (To cut down on time even MORE I know Costco sells precooked bacon that you just need to microwave - it's actually pretty good too!) Something fast and easy.

When my parents were short on time we also had a lot of "dinner for breakfast." It was fast (scrambled eggs!) and I always thought it was a fun treat!

[catsnkids]

Most soups freeze really well. Our favorite is split pea with ham. But you could make chicken soup and add noodles the day you want to eat it. Beef vegetable also freezes well. My dad used to make burritos from left over turkey and freeze those. Throw them in the toaster oven and the tortilla gets a little crispy. I froze beef stroganoff and it worked really well. Chili, stews (although I substitute rutabaga for potatoes since they freeze better), chicken ala king (add noodles the day you heat it up). I was thinking that if you can find a recipe for a shepard's pie that might freeze well. Make your own chicken, beef or turkey pot pie. Could try making a few sauces for fish dishes and freeze the sauce so you just pour over it over. Although we are german and you may not like this sauerkraut with ribs and smoked kielbasa (or bologna) freezes well. Almost forgot shredded beef and/or pork, chiken, turkey in gravy, great over toast, potatoes, or noodles.

Now I'm hungry.

Also remember to freeze some single serving sizes for those days when you eat a big lunch and don't want supper but still have to feed the kids. Also, this is fun if you want to have a restaurant night at home where everyone can choose what they want.

[dac_cincy]

You can usually make ahead and freeze any meal-

Meat- cook it as you would- ground beef, chicken, pork, etc.

Potoatoes and pasta- cook pasta about 1/2 the time and freeze, then reheat
mash potatoes- decrease the amount of milk by 1/2 and freeze, when thawing- do not add the milk until the potatoes have warmed up.
veggies- cook about 1/2 time and freeze- reheat.

During the summer months- I buy extra fresh veggies and balnch them and freeze- this is great for corn on the cob. When reheated it is not quite as good as fresh in the summer, but it is awesome to eat corn on the cob.

I also freeze breakfast foods- for brunch like dinners- burritos with eggs and chesse and veggies and panckaes our favorites in my house. These are just fun to pull out and eat when a 'traditional" meal is not sounding too yummy.

Many families I know just double whatever reciepe they are making in order to have things to freeze.

I find using storage bags so I can freeze things flat gives me the max room in my freezer. When i was single, I could cook one Saturday for the entire month and store all the meals in the freeze above my frig. Now I resort to putting things in the deep freezer.

[humanpitchpipe]

I freeze chili, lasagna, enchiladas, chicken curry, soups, and pulled pork. I freeze alot of it in single sized portions for my husband who has a hard time boiling water. I teach too, so I take advantage of the weekend to make my meals.

[Amber76]

If you go to a bookstore, you'll find lots of books with these kind of recipes and ideas for make-ahead meals. I have "Cook Once, Eat for a Week" and "Once-a-Month Cooking" both and I've used recipes from both. When my MIL had knee replacement surgery, I made and froze 2 weeks worth of meals for them-vegetable soup, meatloaf, lasagna, chicken tetrazinni, a ham and hashbrown casserole, and lots more. Have fun!