Tips for Preparing and Freezing Meals in Advance

preparing-and-freezing-meals-in-advance

When you have the right tips for preparing and freezing meals in advance, you can streamline your weekly cooking. This means you have more time to do things with family or friends. It also means you and your family can reach for something healthy when a quick snack or meal is desired. Use the tips below to help you make the most of your meals.

Plan a Menu

A menu helps you be more organized in the kitchen as well as the bank account. You won't spend hours trying to figure out what to make for dinner. Your grocery list will be limited and organized. You will actually use all of the food you buy. Less waste and more homemade meals means a healthier home all the way around.

Plan your menu by the week if you need to. Be sure to plan for your leftovers. Pick one day of the week to freeze your meals for the coming week. For example, make a roast on Sunday and use the leftovers to make beef and noodles to freeze while you are cooking other items to freeze for the week. You can use leftovers from one meal to make the next through the week as well.

Free Menu Planning Printables Downloads

Download these free menu planning printables.

Use Base Meal Plans

A base plan is a plan that lets you create a meal without specializing it. For example, you might want to make spaghetti and chili in the same week. Make your sauce base and wait until you heat it up to add seasoning. You can even use the leftover meatballs and season them for chili. You might also cook up things like ground beef and breakfast sausage. Cook in bulk and then divide the bulk into smaller bags for each meal. Season and distribute as needed.

Tips for Buying a Used Freezer

Buy a used freezer for all of your freezer meals!

Freeze the Unusual

You can freeze just about anything you can cook. For example, freeze mixed eggs so you only need to thaw them out and cook them up as scrambled eggs or an omelette. Make a large batch of pancakes and freeze them in short stacks. Make your gravies ahead of time and freeze them so you only need to heat them up when you are ready.

how to buy a pasture fed side of beef

Read tips for buying a side of beef – we do this every year!

Save Money By Using Bulk Meat

One of the biggest mistakes that people make is buying their food in serving size portions. For example, you might buy sliced turkey for lunch meat. Why not cook a whole turkey and slice some of it for lunch meat instead? Cut up the remaining turkey for meals later in the week. Repeat the same methods for ham and roasts.

One of the best things about learning tips for preparing and freezing meals in advance is that you can change things up when you want to. You have meals ready so if you see something on sale and want to cook it that night you still have the frozen meals for later in the week. You might even find new combinations as you prepare more meals ahead of time and have the time to experiment with new recipes.

Find MORE Ways to Save on Food HERE

Similar Posts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.