Make ahead meatloaf with egg in it and freeze?

[Mom3girls]

Can you make ahead meatloaf with egg in it, but not cook it and freeze it? I am trying to save time and my sanity by buying and start preparing meals ahead for this month. It would be nice to take out meatloaf and thaw and pop it in oven without all of the mess during THE WITCHING HOUR( 3:30-5:30)!!!
Added: Have you ever cooked ground beef up or chicken breast cooked and cut up and then froze them in freezer bags? Wondering how they would be without some type of sauce or liquid in there? Trying to cut out steps later on!TIA

 

[JackJack08]

I don't see why not.

 

[pumpkinfish]

Every other Sunday I make 4 individual loaves. I mix my meat, eggs, breadcrumbs, ketchup, wostershire sauce, and seasonings together. Then I divide that into 2 loaves. I then repeat with the 2nd package of meat.

I take foil and spray with cooking spray then lay 1 loaf and wrap it nice and secure. I do this with the other 3 loaves. I stack in the freezer and DH pulls them out if I work late. He LOVES them and begs me to make them if he runs out before the next Sunday. He has lasagna, stews, and other frozen meals in there but goes through the meatloaf the fastest.

ETA: Just saw your additional question about the meat...I do this very thing as well. I've frozen taco meat, shredded chicken (done in my crockpot for oven nachos), and hamburgers seperated by wax paper. They all come out just fine even without liquid. I use freezer ziplock bags and never have freezer burn. Then again, it all gets used up within a month's time span.

 

[OceanAnnie]

Can you make ahead meatloaf with egg in it, but not cook it and freeze it? I am trying to save time and my sanity by buying and start preparing meals ahead for this month. It would be nice to take out meatloaf and thaw and pop it in oven without all of the mess during THE WITCHING HOUR( 3:30-5:30)!!!
Added: Have you ever cooked ground beef up or chicken breast cooked and cut up and then froze them in freezer bags? Wondering how they would be without some type of sauce or liquid in there? Trying to cut out steps later on!TIA

I've made 2 meatloafs at the same time. Cooked one and froze the other. Mine had eggs in it and it did fine. I know what you mean about the witching hour!! We call it exactly that in our house. It's amazing how the climate of the house changes during that time frame!

I have frozen cooked hamburger with no sauce and had no problems with it. I do use it fairly quick, within about a week or two. I just cook double batches of the hamburger and freeze half for another meal later. It does cut down on prep time!

 

[ess]

I do it all the time, I just made one on Sunday and froze it. I like to make it with fresh meat as opposed to meat that has been frozen. I wrap it in wax paper and put it in a freezer bag.

 

[nicki.momof3]

I actually did it last night - made 3 extra meatloafs, wrapped them in foil sprayed with pan spray, put them in a freezer bag and frooze. We will use it with a few weeks.

I cook up plain ground beef all the time and put it in individual freezer bags (no sauce) and use later. Such a time saver.

 

[Mickeyherewecome123]

I always cook mine and then let it cool and stick it in the freezer.

 

[ClarabelleCowFan]

I read on this board about freezing ground beef so we have been doing that and it works out perfectly. I hate the smell of ground beef cooking (it literally gags me) so DH will take the meat outside and cook it all at one time on the grill in a big frying pan. We let it cool then divide it up into freezer bags and toss it in the freezer.

Easy, breezy! It is perfect to grab a bag and just reheat it for taco night or chili.

DH has also done this with chicken breasts - just cook a bunch on the grill and then freeze them.

 

[Brer Shay]

I generally double up on meatloaf prep as well. They freeze fine.

I also cook and freeze ground beef & sausage regularly to pull out to mix in with other items. I've had mixed luck with chicken coming out okay not mixed with something else. Large pieces do okay, but chopped or shredded hasn't worked so well for me. Definitely best when used within a month.

 

[sasha's goofy]

I cook and freeze meat all the time- when I find a great deal I stock up. I bought several pounds of chicken tenders cut them up into bite size pieces seasoned them with lawrys and fried them up. Now I can take a handfull out here and there for soups, salads, pasta etc. I also do this with hamburger (spag. sauce, hamburger helper) and sausage (quick for biscuts and gravy or omlets) sometimes if I have onion I will dice it up and mix it in when the meat is cooking. Sure is a time saver.

 

[Mom3girls]

Thanks everyone for the great suggestions!!! I've been mixing up and cooking all morning. Here's what I've done:

Cooked two sep. lbs. ground beef & mixed with spag. sauce
Cooked two sep. lbs. groung beef for tacos and chili
Wrapped two lbs. of fresh meat for stuffed peppers & burgers

Marinaded 3 pks pork chops
Marinaded 2 pks chicken breast
Wrapped 2 sep. pks. of chicken breast

Making meatloaf
Making meatballs

I still have to figure out what to do with the italian sweet sausage I bought and still have tons of chicken breast to filet and/or cut into pieces and cook for pot pies and such. Geez, I just freed up HOURS for DIS!!! No more witching hour!!!

 

[Chicago526]

I've only ever cooked the meatloaf and then froze it, I haven't tried it raw. But I don't see why not. I also make them into individual sized loafs, they defrost and cook faster, and portioning is a breeze.

I've never bothered with pre-cooking ground beef, it cooks up so fast that it doesn't seem worth the effort to do it ahead. But I do cook up a bunch of chicken (breasts, legs/thighs, whole, whatever I have on hand), let it cool and dice it/bag it/freeze it to use in receipes that call for diced chicken. Huge time saver!

 

[debsays]

I do this all the time. I also make meatballs and package them up 3 meatballs to a ziploc bag along with sauce and freeze them. Another thing I do is cook/scramble hamburg and put it in a container and freeze it. You can use this for meatpie, tacos, american chop suey, etc. I also grill boneless chicken breast on the grill,let it cool and wrap and ziploc them and freeze them. That's great for a salad, fajitas,etc. Makes life much easier when you work and you have a night you just don't want to cook something. Hope I've helped.

 

[Mom3girls]

That's exactly why I am KILLING myself today in the kitchen! I work 3 or 4 nights a week and I have three kids that come in the door with homework and the last thing they want to do is more school work. We have soccer, training for soccer, and CCD 6 nights a week and I care for my MIL with alzheimers all day and night!!! There's just not enough time to think about dinner let alone preparing it. I will let you know how much easier this has made my life by the end of the month.

 

[newtodis]

What a great thread! I cannot wait to try this out myself! I'm just learning what's ok to freeze, how to freeze it, how long it can be frozen so this is so helpful! My goal is one Sunday a month to cook for the upcoming week. I'd like to gradually work up to more and more Sundays if it works for our family. I'm kind of doing this now. I had 2 lbs of hamburger that I defrosted. I just browned all of it and made half into sloppy joes and half into hamburger helper. Two nights dinners done in one night! Love it!

 

[mdrob214]

When I make meatloaf (or hamloaf) I always make double and freeze one, including the egg.

I also cook ground beef (and ground or shredded pork and chicken, too) up in bulk with onions and garlic and then freeze in individual ziploc containers. Take it out and it takes no time to thaw and you can add taco seasoning, sloppy joe sauce or pasta sauce and you have a fast meal! I imaging you can easily do the same with chicken breast whole or cut up. BTW--I sub ground chicken for ground beef in tacos and sloppy joes all the time and no one here ever says a word!

 

[cirquelovers]

I have also done all of the above. The one thing I do I have'nt seen mentioned is I take a ziploc freezer bag add my raw chicken or beef chunks/slices, add marinade and freeze. Your meat is already marinated when you pull it out of the freezer, which I find a real time saver and is tasty too!
I have a food saver for when I cook hamburger or chicken and want to freeze in smaller portions, I just seal them up. So I don't have a problem with frezer burn and have never had a problem with the marinading in a regular ziploc.