October No-Spend Month Day 6: 1-Hour Freezer Cooking Meals!

Hello again, savvy savers! For today’s October No-Spend Daily Challenge, as part of the #31DayLWSZ Challenge, I want to discuss my experience with today’s prompt, freezer cooking meals.

So, to begin. I’ve been making freezer cooking meals for several years.

Here’s how it started – After a few year of being married I began to become both a work-from-home legal position, as well as a full-time caretaker for my grandmother. This new season of life turned my ordinary world, my ordinary life into a busy chaotic whirlwind of facsimiles, schedule medicine sessions, cleaning, care-taking, all while trying to cook dinner for my family. Often times, when I had an especially busy exhausting day I would turn to fast food, or home cooked fast food for dinner like boxed Mac n Cheese, hot dogs, or dare I say cold cereal.

In my heart, I knew this wasn’t the food I wanted myself or my family to eat, but because of being mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausted I took the proverbial easy way out. It was during this time I heard about easy freezer meals, meal plans where in under a few hours I could cook, prep, and freezer crock-pot ready meals in under an hour, which would yield a months meals. I decided to try it out.

My first experience: I cooked for a whole morning in my kitchen, finished 30 meals, and was no worse the wear for having done so. I felt so wonderful and the rest of that month I didn’t dread the dinner hour. The biggest change? My husband was so happy to have real cooking again, he began requesting freezer-ready meals be placed onto our month menu planning sessions; this in turn spurned my love of freezer cooking. So, you may be thinking, are freezer-ready meals great for my family?

Make ahead freezer meals for a month are great for people:

Who have busy lives and don’t always have time to cook a nice meal.
People who eat at fast food a lot but want better healthy meals quick.
Brand new mothers who just had a baby and need to rest or enjoy every precious minute of a new one.
Folks who are sick, elderly or injured and cannot cook.
People on a limited budget.

What can be frozen and what cannot:

There are a few items that don’t freeze well: Lettuce, cucumbers, bean sprouts, and raw potatoes .
Egg-based products: Hard boiled eggs & Egg based sauces like mayonnaise will separate and curdle.

What containers are good to use for easy freezer meals:

Gallon or quart sized plastic or re-usable freezer safe bags.
Aluminum pans, with crimp lids.
Lidded plastic containers.

Here is a list of my favorite freezer meals:

So, everyone I cannot tell you all how highly I recommend freezer cooking meals! So, if anyone has other great tips for freezer cooking, I’d love to hear about it.

Here’s to saving,

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Nicole

Welcome, savvy savers! My name is Nicole, and I'm the LadyPrefers2Save. We believe in making the minimalist mindset manageable, through budgeting, upcycling, & healthy menu planning. I thank you for stopping by and giving us the opportunity to help you prefer to save, too!