Freezing Meals for Easy Weekday Cooking

Picture opening your freezer to find various prepared meals ready to eat; strategic batch cooking minimizes dinner-time stress. This guide offers actionable advice on planning, purchasing, preparing, and storing meals so they remain delicious and fresh, along with my preferred freezer-safe dishes for busy families.

Collage of a variey of meals to freeze ahead.

What are the benefits of freezing meals in advance?

While cooking isn't my favorite activity, 28 years of preparing food for my family have given me considerable kitchen knowledge.

My top strategy for saving both time and money involves planning meals for a whole month and freezing as many as possible.

Since many have asked for specifics on this method, I am presenting it all in this single post, functioning as an 'Ultimate Guide for Monthly Meal Planning.' I aim to provide comprehensive details so you too can achieve the ease and freedom this system offers.

Preparations Before Shopping or Cooking

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Prior to any shopping or cooking, undertaking these essential preparatory steps for menu planning and meal preparation is highly beneficial.

1. Design Your Menu

Begin by gathering your trusted recipe books and a warm cup of coffee to map out your menu. Consider dishes you and your family already enjoy, placing them on a monthly calendar. There is no need for 30 distinct meals; repeating favorites, like mine which appears at least twice, is perfectly fine.

When brainstorming recipes, focus on items such as soups, casseroles, and meat marinades. A list of my preferred freezer recipes follows below.

I have prepared a complimentary printable grocery list featuring both a weekly and monthly meal planning template to aid this phase. (Access it here.)

2. Check Your Pantry and Create a Shopping List

After finalizing your menu, review the recipes to determine which pantry or freezer supplies you already possess.

I organized items by recipe group, noting the purpose of each group, which prevented unnecessary purchases of existing groceries.

When compiling the shopping list, I organize items according to my grocery store layout—categories like Paper, Deli, Meats, Dairy, Canned, and Bakery are listed in the order of my route. For speed, my husband and I split the list: one starts at one end of the store, the other at the opposite, allowing us to finish very quickly!

3. Ensure You Have Freezing Containers

Freezer bags are my go-to for soups, marinated chicken, meatballs, burritos, and more; they lay flat when frozen and are easily labeled with a Sharpie marker.

I recently found these wonderful reusable freezer bags alongside a smart freezer bag holder system—they are incredibly useful!

I have amassed enough pans over the years for freezing casseroles like lasagna. If you lack sufficient pans, the dollar store offers many affordable disposable alternatives.

My preferred containers for freezing casseroles are pyrex pans that include lids.

4. Tidy Your Kitchen, Fridge, and Freezer

Before heading out for your large monthly grocery trip, ensure your kitchen and appliances are sparkling clean; starting with a tidy space boosts efficiency immensely!

5. Purchase Your Groceries!

After acquiring all your groceries, the freezer meal preparation phase can begin.

Ideally, completing this on the same day as shopping prevents the need to put away and then retrieve items; however, the following morning works if that timing is not feasible.

With our family size reduced to 2 or 3 members, this prep is much faster, though initially, I split the cooking into two 2-hour sessions: one for hamburger dishes and another for chicken dishes. Feel free to customize this approach to suit your needs.

Guidance for Preparing and Freezing Meals in Advance

1. Seek assistance during the cooking process if available.

Although not always practical, my husband and I found that collaborating on meal prep significantly increased our efficiency and output.

2. Segment tasks into manageable groups, then cook and assemble the meals.

I began by dicing all the vegetables needed for the selected recipes, ensuring sufficient quantities of onions, celery, carrots, and peppers for every planned dish.

While I was chopping, my husband browned and sautéed the hamburger meat. Utilizing my 2 big pots and 2 big burners, we cooked in batches; as my chopping finished, he started combining ingredients to create the freezer meals.

This was the precise schedule we followed that day:

Batch #1 included White Chicken Chili (x2) and
Chicken Cacciatorrie (x2)

During the simmering of those items, I assembled 2 servings of Sweet and Sour Sausage, which requires no cooking—just place ingredients in a large ziploc bag for the crock-pot.

After Batch #1 was completed, packaged, and frozen, we cleaned up and moved to the next set: ~ Batch #2:

Taco Soup (x3) and
Lasagna (x2)
+ an uncooked item: Meatballs (x2)

Then, proper packaging and placement in the freezer, followed by more cleanup…

~Batch #3 consisted of:

Chili (x2)
+ uncooked components:
Chicken Marinades (x3)
Meatloaf (x1)

Subsequently, packaging, freezing, and more dishes…
To quickly calculate, we now had 19 meals ready in the freezer. {Praise be to the Lord!}

3. Securely package all the freezer meals before placing them in the freezer.

Here are a few helpful things to note in the packaging food for the freezer department:

Mark items clearly with a sharpie marker. I like to use Freezer Tape on items.
Include in your labelling how to bake the item. I bake most casseroles from frozen ~ covered with aluminum foil for at least half the time. Baking times depend on the item and size of the casserole, but I generally figure baking at 350 degrees for about an hour. Some items from frozen may take longer. For more information on how to cook your freezer meals, check out this post.
It’s important the the items are covered and sealed well, so I often cover casserole dishes with plastic wrap before I cover them with aluminum foil. (Just remember to remove the plastic wrap before baking!!)
Soups and other meals for the crock pot are most easily packaged in large ziploc bags. I lay them down flat in a single layer on baking sheets in the freezer until they are frozen, and then they stack nicely in the freezer.
If soups are of the creamy variety, I freeze them without the milk or cream. Once I take them out of the freezer, I heat them thoroughly and then add the milk. (Like with the White Chicken Chili.)

4. Arrangle the meals in the freezer so they’re convenient to reach and find.

Although, we have a chest freezer, I wanted to see if I could fit these all in our fridge freezer. They did…19 meals plus two bags of freshly grated cheese. However, I did rearrange the bags the next morning to make sure they all froze well.

This time I timed the process. From the start to the final dish, we worked 2 1/2 hours. Keep in mind, however, that I’ve been doing this for quite a while. I don’t think I was that quick when I first started.
Also, speed cooking is the closest thing to a marathon I’ll ever run.;)