As my due date gets closer and closer (Yikes!), I have been in major nesting mode. My mother recently came and helped me get the house ready for our little girl. We set up her nursery, did some major scrubbing, and prepared a butt-load of freezer meals. I don’t know about you, but I definitely don’t want to have to worry about meal planning or preparing meals when I have a precious bundle of joy to hold and love!
But, you don’t have to be pregnant to get into freezer meal prep. Pregnant or not, busy or not, working or not, freezer meals are a great thing to have on hand. We all have days that we don’t feel like cooking and days we stare into our fridge and pantry and claim there is nothing to eat. Freezer meals that you make yourselves solve that issue–and they are so much more filling and healthy than frozen pizzas or microwave dinners! So, I thought I’d share with you some of my tips!
Step 1
Find 3-6 recipes on Pinterest to use and pin them. This will help you have some inspiration for what meals are perfect to freeze. I have a Pinterest board filled with some of my favorite freezer meals. Check it out here! And, guess what! They are all 21 Day Fix approved! By the way, some of the best ideas for freezer meals are crock pot meals (which is another one of my favorite Pinterest boards) and casseroles.
Step 2
Once you have your inspiration and list of meals, make a list of all ingredients you’d need for all the recipes. Take inventory from your fridge, freezer, and pantry so you don’t purchase things you already have.
Step 3
Don’t use up all your baking or casserole dishes. Be sure to add gallon freezer bags to your list – I double bagged. These will make it easier to store in your freezer. When you pull them out, you can easily pour the ingredients into the crockpot or casserole dish, and it will help them to cook evenly. I had large white stickers as you can see in the photos and wrote the directions on the outside bag. You can do this as well or print the instructions and tape to the outside of the bag.
Step 4
Don’t feel intimidated with having to prepare all these meals yourself. Make it a family activity–I had so much fun bonding with my mother as we did these. Invite kiddos or friends or hubby to help you and make it a bonding experience throwing the ingredients into a bag.
Also, make sure you do some cooking prep. Make sure you cook some of the meat depending on the recipe. For example, the chili required the ground meat to be browned first. And it’s better to precook the meat, noodles, and rice you use in casseroles. Then, throw everything in bags and lay them flat in the freezer. Once baby is here I’ll pull them out and be ready for an easy healthy dinners!
If you have any questions, email me at april.pinkney@gmail.com. Also, join my Facebook group for future meal plan groups! Happy freezing!
