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Who doesn’t love the idea of freezer meals?  It makes dinner seem SO easy and effortless.  However, if you’ve tried doing freezer meals, you’ve probably met up with some frustration as well.  Either you didn’t really like the recipe after you made it, or your frozen-flat meal didn’t fit in your slow cooker when it came time to make, or if you’re like me it took so much effort to fill the freezer with freezer meals, you never wanted to eat them!  Seriously….so funny story….when I had two young kids at my feet, I got the great idea to spend a Saturday cooking and making freezer meals, enough to fill it up so I wouldn’t have to cook as much.  So over the course of the day, I mixed, cooked, prepped, and filled my freezer.  However, as I proudly closed the fridge and patted myself on the back, I turned around to see my kitchen in an ABSOLUTE mess…like armageddon had hit my kitchen.  I had used literally every dish, bowl, measuring cup, pot and pan to make all the meals, so much so that my sink literally fell in.  I had to wash my dishes in the bathtub that night.  Now, while my story may sound extreme, the feelings of discouragement set in.  I actually didn’t like most of the recipes I made and also avoided using those same recipes that were supposed to make my life easier because I didn’t want to relive my all-day Saturday cook fest again. That’s when I figured out there had to be another way to making freezer meals.  A way that would allow me to use my own recipes as the base AND make my life easier when it came time to make dinner.  And do you know what? There totally is! So, let’s go over how you can outsmart freezer meals.

LET’S CHANGE HOW YOU LOOK AT FREEZER MEALS

First, we need to change how you LOOK at your freezer. The freezer isn’t a place where things go to die, or sit in there for a year.  It isn’t a place for a random assortment of foods that you don’t really know how or when you’ll use, and it most definitely isn’t a place you should dread.  Actually, your freezer is PRIME real estate, it is the perfect place for you to curate a smart and strategic collection of items to help you make dinner easier. 

FIGURE OUT HOW TO MAKE IT WORK IN YOUR OWN RECIPES

So here’s where it gets good, how to have your freezer help you make dinner so easy it practically makes itself.

1. Start with a solid base of recipes. Not only is this the silver bullet for great meal planning, but it also allows you to capitalize on sales to stock your freezer…because you actually know WHAT you should buy. If you need a jumpstart in that area, you can check out the Outsmart Dinner Meal Planner. (Also, if you have the meal planner, make sure you look for where I’ve put in tips on how you can freeze the meal or parts of the meal to make it easier for you!)
2. Assign every food a job. Let me ask you a question, what feels easier to you (or what would you be more likely to use) a frozen chub of ground beef that you bought and promptly placed in the freezer, or a 1 lb bag (just the amount you need for the sloppy Joe recipe) of already cooked ground beef? The ground beef that’s already cooked right?! It’s easier to thaw, saves you a dish, and jumpstarts your dinner prep. So, what I want you to do the next time you see a sale on ground beef, roasts, chicken, or any other meat you use on a regular basis, is to assign it a job as soon as you get home.  Plan for that ground beef to become taco meat, or grill up a bunch of that chicken for a punch of protein to your Summer Salads, you get the idea.  Once you’ve assigned the food a job, batch prep it.  
3. BATCH PREP. If you’re not familiar with batch prep, it’s the simple idea that you prep a large amount of food to use for later.  So for example, when ground beef is on sale, I might divide it up and make freezer meatloaf, freezer porcupine meatballs, and some taco meat.  It will never be easier to cook it than when you get home from the grocery store. Batch prep may take an extra 30 minutes but saves a TON of time when it comes to dinner prep.
4. MAKE ONE FREEZE ONE. Another simple, easy strategy is to make one and freeze one.  A lot of recipes will tell you that you can freeze the meal. So, if you find one you love, make a double batch the next time you make it for dinner.  It will take about 5 minutes to double it, no extra bowls, and feel pretty effortless.  I love to do this with the Lasagna recipe in my Outsmart Dinner Meal Planner.
5. FREEZE LEFTOVERS. Do you like taco soup…but not enough to eat it for the rest of the week? Go ahead and freeze the leftovers right away. That way you don’t suffer from leftover hangovers and you’ve got dinner prepped for another night!  If you don’t have enough for another meal, you can also freeze them in individual portions to use for teens, husbands, or you to take for lunch. (I’ve done this with quesadillas, spaghetti, soup, Philly cheesesteak sandwiches, pancakes, waffles, etc.)
6. FREEZE ITEMS THAT AMP UP YOUR MEALS. You don’t have to freeze the entire meal, instead you can freeze parts of the meal that really make the meal FEEL like you spent all day, even if you didn’t.  Case and point: you could make plain spaghetti and meatballs, or you could add in some frozen meatballs and make some delicious garlic bread from a frozen loaf of garlic bread.  It’s gonna take about 10 extra minutes, but which meal would you rather eat? For this reason, I love to store cheese, bread, meatballs, grilled chicken, pesto, etc. in the freezer to amp up any meal I’m making.

HOW DO I KNOW IF IT FREEZES?

The best thing to do is freeze a small portion of it and see how it worked.  I do this all the time with leftovers, and have made some pretty great discoveries! One small tip before you try it, make sure your food has completely cooled before you freeze it for best results.

WHAT SHOULD I USE TO FREEZE FOOD IN?

I used to love vacuum sealers, but I’ve since changed my mind.  I found I didn’t want to use the items I had vacuum sealed…that was for storing it in the fridge for a LONG time and it had only been two weeks since I did that.  Sounds silly, right? Now, I just use Ziploc freezer bags or single serving plastic ware that has a clear top.  If you’re freezing something like sandwiches or burritos, you’ll want to wrap them in plastic wrap before placing in the Ziploc bags. Because I never plan on leaving things in the freezer very long (after all, I’ve already assigned it a job) I don’t have many problems with freezer burn.

SIMPLE TRICKS FOR FREEZING ANYTHING

1. Make sure it’s cooled all the way before you freeze it, it will cut down on freezer burn and will taste better when you reheat.
2. Always label it.  You won’t remember what it is and playing “Guess that meat” isn’t any fun.
3. You can freeze roll dough, cookie dough, cooked meatballs, hamburger patties, grilled chicken or any other item you’d like to batch store while still being able to choose the amount to remove, by placing it on a greased or silicon lined baking sheet and freezing until solid. Then remove to a ziplock bag for storage.
4. Try and keep your freeze organized with like items so nothing gets shoved to the back and forgotten.
5. Keep an inventory of what’s in the freezer.  I love this inventory in the Starter Pack.  It will allow you to update your inventory on the spot.

I love doing freezer meals this way because it allows you to do a little at a time which just makes you feel like you’re cheating the system, instead of wearing yourself out one day and avoiding it the next time.  It becomes easy to think you could just double the recipe and add it to your recipe collection, or to plan on using your freezer meal during the week to make your life easier.  It also allows you to save some serious cash and waste less because you can capitalize on sales and assign it a job, so it doesn’t go to waste. But my favorite reason to have a freezer meal on hand is to help out a friend, it makes it so much easier to help when you’ve always got something on hand.

I’ll be talking more about this in my Instagram Stories, so make sure you’re following along to see how to do this in real time.