Have any freezer meals? Please share!

fightingweightboston

Hi all - I'm obsessed with once a week cooking and freezer meals. As a single girl living by myself they are a HUGE part of my weight loss plan. I love to cook on Sundays, box everything up in individual containers and freeze them for a week or two of quick, ready to go whole food freezer meals.

Do you have anything that freezes well? Please share it with me! I'm getting a little tired of my go-to meals (shephards pie, quinoa stuffed peppers, quinoa "fried" rice, chicken cacciatore)

Thank you!

HappilyCyn

I have a girlfriend that ususally cooks most of her meals on Sunday and freezes them. She recently shared that she gets most of her recepies from Cooking Light (http://www.cookinglight.com/). Maybe you can find a few good recipes there.

momof2winsplus

I freeze burritos.
Wrap each one in a paper towel then in foil and bag them.
To eat, take one out and remove the foil. Microwave in the paper towel for about 45 sec. Quick individual portions for lunch or dinner.

misticache

I freeze burritos.
Wrap each one in a paper towel then in foil and bag them.
To eat, take one out and remove the foil. Microwave in the paper towel for about 45 sec. Quick individual portions for lunch or dinner.

I will have to try this too. I cook my meals for 2 weeks for a family of 6. I like doing soups, chili, buffalo chicken, shredded taco chicken, chick pea salad, meatloaf, stuffed peppers, spaghetti sauce, turkey burgers, muffins. I mostly prep my meals so all i have to do is throw them in the oven but you could cook them and freeze them just the same.

mpankratz79

I love the book fix it freeze it and feast. I usually do half of what the recipe calls for. The sweet asian chicken is amazing. There are very few recipes I don't like in that cookbook.

citygirl4ever

I freeze meatloaf...I get a muffin tin and place a piece of plastic wrap in each muffin and than place about 4 oz of the meatloaf and freeze. Once frozen remove from the tin and pack in a freezer zip lock bag. You have individual meatloaves that you can take out of the freeze and place in the refrig before you leave for work. I usually cook for about 20 min.

w8sarge

Good ideas here. I need some too as I'll be away from home most of a month in the fall. (My guys, though not on a diet, shouldn't eat pizza EVERY night!) So I was thinking to have aluminum pans, like mini loaf or small cake size, with cooked meatloaf, chili, goulash, shepherd's pie, chicken pot pie, etc. Now I need ideas for how to get them to eat veggies other than frozen ones!

Thanks for the websites and cookbooks suggested. Will have to check those out!

kenna44cat

Sometimes I put cut up raw veggies with a yogurt dip on a platter and they can crunch on those instead of chips. They seemed to like that when I had family at home. Also, veggie chili is good and if you put some ground soy in it they won't know it's not meat chili unless you tell them (I always tell them). You can put carrots, bell peppers, corn, mushrooms, kidney beans, tomatoes in a veggie chili and more, and it's usually pretty popular, esp if there's some meat in it, too, nothing wrong with that unless you're a vegetarian and then the ground soy is good, as I said, it doesn't disintegrate in the chili. I make mine in the slow cooker.

There are some really good ideas here, thanks so much. I especially like the idea of cooking mini meatloaves in muffin tins. How do you cook them when you take them out? And I haven't made muffins for weeks, just got a freezer and am excited about filling it up, so could make a lot of muffins with raisins and nuts and cranberries, would be good.

Thanks a lot.

kenna44cat

I make my own pizzas and freeze them, too. You can load them with chicken and veggies, easy on the cheese if you like, I make my own crusts but could use pita bread or tortillas or Pillsbury dough, too. They freeze well and can make individual pizzas in foil pie pans if you make your own crust like I'm doing tonight. Kind of fun. Another thing that freezes well is breakfast buns, you know, with sausage, egg and cheese on an English muffin, but that's not exactly diet food, is it? Sorry.

melaniecheeks

Most weekends I have a look in the fridge for any veg that are starting to get a bit old. I'll chop them up, saute them with some onion and garlic, maybe add a tin of tomatoes, and/or some tinned beans (kidney, borlotti, chickpeas, I always have a selection in the storecupboard). The resulting soup or stew I'll freeze in indivdual portions. Great lunch dish! You could sprinkle with grated cheese or some seeds before serving to make it a bit more exciting.

Starchy veg like sweet potaotes, squash etc make a lovely comforting soup.

bearsmom82

I make homemade soups and chili, and freeze individual servings in a ziploc freezer bag - squish the air out and lay flat on a cookie sheet, then freeze them flat - take them off the sheet and you can stack up lots of portions in the freezer in very little space. easy to thaw on the counter or microwave, and having a variety of soups means I'm never bored with the same old...

Here's my favorite:

Chicken Tortilla Soup

- 2 chicken breasts (or same amount leftover roast chicken), diced
- 1 large can diced tomatoes
- 1 onion, diced
- 3 cups chicken broth (I use Knorr Simply Chicken, tastes very close to homemade)
- hot pickled banana peppers or hot sauce to taste
- 1/2cup minced fresh cilantro (optional if you think it tastes soapy)

Cook the chicken and onions in the broth, then stir in tomatoes and hot peppers/sauce, simmer for about 20 minutes.

When ready to serve, stir in the cilantro. (At this point, you can cool the soup and freeze in individual bags).

To serve, crumble about 10 small tortilla chips in a bowl, and pour hot soup over the chips.

It's about 225 calories a bowl, including the chips.

citygirl4ever

I freeze meatloaf...I get a muffin tin and place a piece of plastic wrap in each muffin and than place about 4 oz of the meatloaf and freeze. Once frozen remove from the tin and pack in a freezer zip lock bag. You have individual meatloaves that you can take out of the freeze and place in the refrig before you leave for work. I usually cook for about 20 min.

I also forgot to mention that you can freeze chicken pot pie but if you are add potatoes to your recipe don't freeze the filling with the potatoes. You can add the potatoes when you are ready to eat. I could recipe I found years ago was on the food network "turkey pot pie". I don't have the link or I would send it to you. It is your basic recipe and I have modified it by adding zucchini, mushroms, green beans or any other veggie I have on hand that sound good with the chicken pot pie. This recipe has no cream. I think someone also mention that you can freeze chili beans and soup. I also freeze cooked ground turkey. I will make a big batch of ground turkey and than freeze about 1-1/2 serving in individual freezer bags for later.

fightingweightboston

Wow! Thanks everyone!!!!