Freezer Meal Ideas-

[adamak]

I like to freeze ingredients separately. Rice, tomato sauce, meatball, shredded chicken, broccoli, carrots....etc Then I can defrost them and make them in one step and tastes like freshly made, and with variety. This is esp great for Asian dishes which I tend to make more often. I'd freeze soup stock, sauces, raw shrimp in case I need to toss them up with fresh veggies. Make my own egg roll or similar, and bake them for a quick appetizer.

 

[fofinia]

The best thing i froze pregnant was cookies. A flavor that noone else really loves. So they were all for me. I could pull a couple out and just have a snack that I was craving.

another thing I did when I was a new mom. On a day when I was home all day. I would start getting dinner ready really early. When I had a few mins I would chop potatoes for mashed potatoes or roasted potatoes. Just put them in the pot on the stove ready to just turn the pot on. Doing this at 11am or 2. Whenever I had time. For roasted potatoes put on the cookie sheet with oil. Just need to throw in oven. My veggies same thing. And if I had room in the fridge I would prep my meat- like breaded chicken breasts. Just get them all cleaned up and on the sheet ready to bake. Stick in the fridge ready to go.

For me with all 3 kids- I found 4-6pm to be a challenging time of day. The witching hour I call it. So they could be very fussy at that time and it was hard to get a dinner put together. And then if I didn't eat dinner then I turned into Grumpalumpagus!

Good luck! Nothing like your first!

 

[dromio42]

I did not read every post, so my apologies if I am repeating. I freeze '1 dinner' sized containers of brown rice. I make a bunch in my rice maker (I always burn it on the stove) and the separate, cool and freeze. Cooked ground turkey with chopped onion (to add to spaghetti sauce, with taco spices or taco soup) Taco soup!! here's an super easy one - shred a store-bought rotisserie chicken, mix with fiesta taco spice/sauce packet for chicken and freeze in correct serving size containers (can be used for nachos, tacos or burritos. Home made frozen burritos (been making these all summer). Crock pot beef stew.

love reading other people's ideas!

 

[DnA2010]

Thanks so much everyone for the ideas!!

 

[TreeFalls]

Stuffed shells freeze really well. Stuff them with whatever recipe appeals to you (we like sausage, spinach, ricotta or cottage cheese), then put them on a cookie sheet and freeze them. Pile the frozen shells in a gallon ziploc, then when you want to cook, take a few out, pour a jar/can of sauce on top, and bake covered until they're hot. I like this because I can cook a lot or a little, depending on how hungry we are.

Also, muffins freeze well and are nice to pop in the microwave for a mid-morning snack. I froze muffins before all three of my kids- when #3 was born, #1 and #2 definitely ate the bulk of the muffins, though. "Mommy needs to feed the baby, here's a muffin..."

Congratulations!

 

[SunTravels]

- chicken cutlet freezes great
- Make and pre cook turkey burgers
- meatloaf
- quiche freezes really well
- soup or chicken and dumplings is also great (just don't add noodles before freezing, make it without, freeze it and then add the noddles when you warm it up, they can get pretty soggy if you freeze beforehand)

Note - for things like the burgers or cutlet, wrap each in wax paper before freezing, that way you can pull out individual servings and don't need a million containers to store in so they don't all get stuck together when they freeze.

Those are some of my go to. I love mexican food and froze so much chili before I had my 2nd baby, but she did not agree with any mexican food while I was nursing, so keep that in mind If you plan to nurse, you may make a bunch of something that doesn't agree with the baby (but at least I didn't have to make dinner for my DH and son those nights, I just ate somthing else those nights)

 

[sherry7]

I don't make freezer meals per say, but I often double (or triple) things that I'm already cooking that I know will freeze well. Chili, spaghetti sauce, precooked ground beef, white and brown rice, mashed potatoes, etc.

 

[QueenIsabella]

I agree with any of the PP's on Pinterest and freezer meals. The only thing I would add is, if you aren't already a fan of the crockpot, now would be a good time to get used to using it. Many freezer items (chicken in marinade, for example) can go straight from the freezer into the crockpot. In addition, most crockpot recipes take 5-10 minutes of prep, then a long cooking time--perfect for preparing when you have a few minutes of lucidity/baby nap time in the morning, and then it's ready for dinner time.

Two cookbooks I really love are: Make it Fast, Cook it Slow, by Stephanie O'Day and Cheap, Fast, Good! (forgot the authors). Both started as blogs. The second one is more about 30-minute meals, but it has a fair amount of freezer type meals and batch cooking as well.

 

[McKelly]

A lot of good ideas so far, I would add that sloppy joes and beef stew freeze well. I also make this recipe and freeze it:

http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/chicken-tater-bake

My family likes it. Tastes like pot pie to me.