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Gardens and canning are done so.......


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let's start cooking ahead for quick meals to have from the freezer. (Gardening is done up here anyway.}  The price of food is going up and up and up.  Eating out has become so expensive and for us it's at least a 20-mile drive, one way.  So, I'm a bargain shopper and cook ahead kind of gal.  Our local grocery store had Italian sausage, normally $3.99 lb. on sale for $2.50 lb. this week.  I bought 5 lbs. wish I'd thought ahead enough to buy 10 but, oh well.  Anyway, DH loves Italian sausage for breakfast.  Since he sleeps late in the mornings, he fixes his own breakfast.  I don't mind cooking things for the freezer, I just don't fix his breakfast in the morning when I've been up for hours.  So, the 5 lbs. of sausage made 23 patties.  Most meat patties I cook ahead I wrap each piece individually in plastic wrap.  DH doesn't know the difference, so I just put his on a cookie sheet in the freezer and throw the whole kit and Kaboodle into a bag once frozen.  He's happy, I'm happy and the price was great!

 

The 2 packages under the rack of sausage are tuna casserole.  We ate it a couple of times and are tired of it for now.  Into the freezer it went to be made into 2 more quick meals later.  

 

Love these quick meals.  What do you do?  I would love some new ideas.

 

 

sausage 2 11-22.jpgsausage 3 11-22.jpgsausage 11-22.jpgmeals.

 

 

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Dee, that looks great. I don't have any room in my freezer to do the premade meals right now.  But hoping to get back to canning from freezer after the holidays. I have about 10lbs of Italian sausage in freezer now. So, when I can get the canning out of way and make room. I am so stealing your idea.

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Looks so good! I have sausage but it reminds me that I forgot to buy hamburger to make patties. I need to remember to flash freeze the patties before I freeze them. Will make it easier than stuffing it in a bag raw and having it stick to the bag. :sEm_blush:

 

Food prices keep rising so I went ahead and bought ahead to freeze and use later to put some meals together. Eating out, even fast food is getting prohibitive for me too. It will be a tad over 20 miles round trip to the store in Indy. I'm really not used to that. So I'm probably panicking a little over the freezer. I don't think stores will even deliver out there? Especially with gas prices. 

 

I made and froze chili and tuna noodle casserole and shepherds pie. I was in a rush on the pie so I just used hamburger, Campbells veggie soup and topped it with mashed potatoes. I used to make it that way when I was younger. 

 

I've looked in the freezer section at stores to get ideas on meals that sort of go together. I bought some of those divided 3 section plastic trays to use. Like TV dinners. I want to make a batch of little individual corn breads that I can heat up with each meal if I want to. Like the size Boston Market has. I found a pan where you can make 9 (I think) little ones at once. I'm a lazy cook but I like to cook for the freezer. I've about maxed out the freezer space but some of the stuff in there will go to make other meals so that will free up some space. I still have the door area and the inside fridge freezer. 

 

I have plans to make lasagna and freeze individual servings. Serve with garlic bread, probably Texas Toast.

I also want make some waffles, pancakes and breakfast burritos to freeze. And Mac and Cheese.

 

So far the 'TV dinners' I want to make are;

Roast beef, mashed potatoes, brown gravy, carrots

Meatloaf, dill potatoes, corn

Ham, candied yams, green beans

Chicken chunks, stuffing, chicken gravy, peas

Beef tips, mushrooms & onions, potatoes, broccoli

 

If you have any other good combinations please post. I'll do a couple of fish sticks and french fries for G-son. 

 

I'm cooking and freezing with one person in mind so I make individual size servings. If family come, they can grab one too. 

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Sausage:

Breakfast burritos frozen for grab n' go

sausage, potatoes, kale, chicken broth soup

Meat in spaghetti sauce

Fry patties for breakfast sandwiches

various asian stir-fries

eggroll in a bowl (fry it with coleslaw shreds)

 

 

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I love these ideas.  Some I've already done but others I haven't.  I'm going to try them.  Winter is long up here in the north country, and I'd love to get lots done and in the freezer for those long, cold dark evenings when I don't want to cook.

 

More ideas please.  This is fun!!!

 

Thanks everyone!  :grouphug:

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2 hours ago, euphrasyne said:

Sausage:

Breakfast burritos frozen for grab n' go

sausage, potatoes, kale, chicken broth soup

Meat in spaghetti sauce

Fry patties for breakfast sandwiches

various asian stir-fries

eggroll in a bowl (fry it with coleslaw shreds)

 

 

Oh yes. Beloved Zuppa Toscana. Add a little milk/cream. :yum3:

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This is a GREAT thread, Dee.  I love to make meals ahead and it’s so easy to premake all sorts of things.  Recently I have found an even faster, easier way to freezer meal prep.  I use heavy zip lock bags for most of these.  I take frozen meat, not cooked, put it in the bag along with any ingredients I would normally cook it with, all raw but preprepped or even pre frozen.  Then close up the bag and freeze. When I want to have them I thaw overnight in the freezer then open the bag and pour everything into a baking pan or into the crock pot and a fresh hot meal comes out later.  These obviously aren’t heat and eat meals like precooked ones but they are so easy to do a dozen of them in one prep session.

Here’s an example:  We like pot roast so I put a frozen roast in the bag.  I often buy peeled baby carrots on sale so I add a package or two in.  I sometimes peel potatoes and add them or I buy small red ones and just scrub before adding. Both those really do freeze without blanching.  I add some big chunks of onions and any seasonings I like.  I like to add a marinade, or catsup, or sometimes V8 juice over all before freezing.  I thaw in the fridge overnight, dump it in a roasting pan and cook as usual.  
 

I do pork roast with apples, onions, and a package of coleslaw mix the same way no cooking ahead but easy to cook later.  I do brisket and ring baloney and so much more the same way.  
 

I also do lots of precooked meals like the rest of you.  I make breakfast sandwiches with English muffins with eggs, sausage bacon or ham, and cheese.  I wrap them in parchment paper and put them on a cookie sheet to freeze overnight, then into a gallon bag to store them.  We just grab and heat them.

 

One of my favorite freezer aids is the Souper Cubes. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=souper+cubes+1-cup&ref=nb_sb_ss_pltr-ranker-engagementacceptance_3_12    These are silicone cubes in various sizes and they freeze more than just soup.  I’ve even used them for eggs.  I freeze the food in them until solid then pop them out and put them in Zip lock bags to store.  They have nice lids so if I don’t get to them for a while they keep nicely.  I love the square shapes of them. Eight of the one cup size cubes fits great in a gallon bag and they stack neatly in the freezer.  I try to store mine upright to make it easier to get out the bag I need, take out a cube or two, and slide it back in. I call that area my freezer library because they look like books on the shelves.  Soup, meat sauces, fruit sauces, small raw meatloaf to get out and bake later, casseroles, deserts, cooked oatmeal or other grains like cooked rice, scalloped veggies, etc etc.  

 

I am a big fan of preparing once and eating often. :happy0203:  I am loving all your ideas. 

 


 


 

 

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I hope it's okay for me to share a link here!  When I was teaching, I cooked once a month and made multiple freezer meals.  All I had to do was take one out the night before I wanted to use it and put it in the fridge to defrost.  The next day either I or one of my kids could just pop it into the oven (or, if it was a slow cooker meal, I'd pop it in the cooker before leaving for work).  It made life much, much easier.  

 

I got most of my freezer meal recipes from https://largefamilytable.com.  The woman who runs the site is named Jamerrill Stewart, and she has a YouTube channel too (under her name).  Her recipes were very good and froze well.  

 

Since I don't have NINE kids, I always halved her recipes, which usually gave me two pans or bags of whatever I was using.  Each pan/bag would easily feed my family of four, which includes two very hungry teenagers.  :feedme:

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EmeraldCat, I've watched her videos.  She is a busy woman and does have some great ideas.  There are other homestead type women I enjoy watching too.  It seems they all have huge families and do more work in a day than I do in a month.  Fun to watch!!!

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Frozen soup = empty Chinese quart soup containers.  It holds just the right amount.   I also use the round Tupperware bowls if I'm out of take out containers.  Some things like premade burritos, waffles, pancakes, etc I put in ziplock bags, but mostly that is grab-and go microwave stuff.  Anything that actually needs to defrost, I prefer to have its own container.  I then set the defrosting stuff in a plastic dollar store bin in my fridge.  It keeps it together and prevents drips in the fridge.  I just have to wash the bin.  

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EmeraldCat, I watch Jamerrill too. She has a lot of good freezer videos. She is where I got the idea to freeze pancakes. And muffins too. I noticed she has a freeze dryer. I'll be interested to check that out. She homeschools and has shown some of their school trips which I found interesting. She lives in Virginia so DC is a day trip for her. I also enjoy  She's In Her Apron - YouTube . She has a freezer section too. She also does dried food mixes. 

 

Mother, those are the type of containers I used in my pictures of frozen eggs that I did. My eggs stuck horribly. They worked fine after I sprayed them with oil though. Maybe because I used the generic ones? Or because the product (eggs) had no oil in them to begin with. 

 

Alot of people use the freezer bags to store marinated chicken in. Put in the meat, put in the marinade, and store in the fridge for a day or two or overnight. Then freeze. Could be done with chops and steaks too.   

 

Euphrasyne, I plan to do breakfast burritos too. I've never done them. I figure I'd wrap each one in plastic or wax paper, and then store them in a gallon zip lock bag. Pancakes will probably stick together. I figure I'll flash freeze them first and then bag them up. Maybe put a piece of wax paper between them? I never have the Chinese containers so I bought some soup bowls to use. I bought them with breakfast bowls in mind but they will do double duty for soup too. I went a little heavy handed on the ridged plastic containers when I knew I was going to get the freezer. All of them are hard plastic with lids and can be used a number of times. 

 

I got some bins for the freezer too. They really help because most of the things I froze are for a single serving. The pork chops and especially the chicken breasts were unruly. They slid around everywhere. Now they are in a container and don't fall out when I open the door. Even the ones that didn't fit in the boxes stack pretty nicely between the boxes. 

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I don't bother to individually wrap breakfast items.  I assemble them, flash freeze them on a non-stick /cookie sheet combo then just layer them all in a big bag.   If dh wants to take one to work instead of eating it at the house, he just dumps one into a tupperware.  I don't usually have an issue with them sticking since I flash freeze them first.   I do the same with pancakes and they stick occasionally, but not often.   My crew mostly prefers waffles and I used to make these giant Belgin waffles when the teens were little.  They froze so well.   

 

Pro tip:  English muffins in that little white box--make them into breakfast sandwiches, flash freeze, then store back in the box  with multiple boxes in a giant ziplock bag.  

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Thanks for all of the tips ladies!  Freezer newbie here. :hi:

 

I plan to wrap my burritos because I'm the only one there so they are liable to hang out in the freezer for awhile. Other wise I wouldn't bother either. I can see me eating them for lunch or supper though. 

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I like those little ice tray things. That's a great idea. Easy to stack that way. I need another freezer but this time an upright freezer so I can put those premade meals in there so I can find things. A chest freezer is nice and holds a lot but it's a lot of digging to find what you need no matter how organized you try to keep it. It's huge Kenmore freezer. 

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I wrap my breakfast burritos separately in plastic wrap.  I also put 2 pancakes, or however many you'll eat at one time, in sandwich bangs.  They separate pretty easily and I either toast or microwave them.   For DH I also scramble up 5 dozen eggs and put in cubes of ham.  Can't tell you how much ham.  I freeze in individual servings in sandwich bags and into the freezer they go. Waffles the same way.  My waffle iron is 56 years old, got it as a wedding gift, and back then I'd never heard of Belgian waffles. After freezing whatever I've made, it goes into gallon bags so they're easy to find.  DH, as I said before, is an easy keeper and this makes life easy for both of us.

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14 hours ago, Jeepers said:

Thanks for all of the tips ladies!  Freezer newbie here. :hi:

 

If you keep a running inventory sheet on the freezer door up to date, it will save you oodles of time during 'the hunt'..  :D

 

 I have been pretty faithful to designate different shelves for different meats. Beef. Poultry, Pig, etc. I try not to pack each shelf too high. That way, I can slip in a cookie sheet full of fruits or veggies to flash freeze b4 final packaging and storage. It's easier said than done. :24:

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