Freezer Recipes Made Easy

Speedy Publishing

Description

Stocking your freezer with pre-made meals is beneficial in many ways. It saves on time, for those days when you are too rushed to spend time cooking. It saves money, because when in a rush, the alternative is fast food, which can add up fast. Also, because you don't have to run through the drive-thru, it gives you more time to enjoy peace and quiet. Finally, it prevents the kitchen from constantly getting messy as a side affect of cooking.

Sujets

• Easy
• Everyone
• FOR
• Ahead
• General officer
• Recipe
• Meal
• Cooking
• General
• Beef
• Chicken
• Quick
• Freezer
• Make
• 75

Informations

• Publié par: Speedy Publishing LLC
• Date de parution: 23 juillet 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 4
• EAN13: 9781633832787
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Table of Contents
50 Quick And Easy Freezer Recipes
What Is a Freezer Meal?
Freezer Recipes
Freezer Recipes Guide
Quick Healthy Cooking Recipes
Introduction
Section 1: Dieting Cookbook
Section 2: Grain Free Cooking
50 Quick And Easy Freezer Recipes
How To Prepare Healthy Weekly Recipes For The Family
By: Asher Scott
Chapter 1- What Is a Freezer Meal?
The world is a hectic place, it’s even more hectic for those juggling work, personal time, families, and the desire to stay fit and trim. For some, this would be enough to start running to every fast food joint in town in hopes of filling the bellies of their family in mere minutes. Sure, that’s doable, but it’s not advisable. Let’s be honest, cooking on a nightly basis can be a drag, for some people it is practically impossible.
What if cooking didn’t have to take place every day, and the family could still have home cooked meals, just minus the hassle. It is possible, and the solution doesn’t even reside in the frozen foods section of the grocery store. Freezer meals, or freezer cooking, is a form of cooking that allows for several weeks’ worth of meals to be made so they can just be removed from the freezer and popped in the oven, for a hassle-free home cooked meal.
Freezer Meal Preparation
Freezer meals do require some preparation, but most practitioners of freezer cooking, or freezer meals, agree that once they get rolling, preparation is even, and, in some cases, can even be fun. In order to get started, one has to plan meals ahead of time. Take a couple hours out of one evening, sit down and plan out what you and your family will be eating for the next week, or even month, depending on how overzealous you plan on being. Once you’ve outlines the meals your family will be enjoying for the aforementioned time frame, it’s time to make a shopping list. Figure out what you’ll need from the store, and write everything down.
Once you are armed with your list, and your planned meals, it is time to head to the grocery store and get your supplies. You can do this whenever is convenient for you, but most seem to find hitting the grocery store on a Friday night to be the least crowded and the easiest time to get a big shopping done. Families, generally, are at home, and those who spend their weekends partying most assuredly aren’t spending time at the grocery store.
Set a day aside and get cooking. A marathon cooking session might not seem like great fun, but it is the best way to get freezer meals done and packed away. Cooking on a Sunday is what most people find preferable, after all, it is the day when most people have completely free to get their cooking done, anyway. Instead of hitting the shops or going to brunch with friends, simply set a Sunday aside to cook. The amount of time you’ll save during the week, and the money you’ll save as well will be completely and utterly worth it, in the long run.
During the marathon cooking session, freezer meal pros suggest using the same pot for several meals. For example, if you are planning on chili, as well as spaghetti sauce you can brown beef and onions for both in the same pot. If you are planning potatoes for two meals prepared in two separate ways, you can cook the potatoes together, and simply separate and prepare them two different ways at a later stage. Freezer meals actually take less time, overall, than cooking each night, the time is just condensed into one day, and the free time is spread across all those cooking-free evenings.
Once everything is cooked package and label it. You can use any-type of freezer safe packaging you like, but be sure to label it. Most agree that a bit of masking tape and a sharpie is the perfect way to label containers that will be used and reused for several marathon cooking sessions. If you are using freezer bags to store your meals, you can simply write your meal names right on them. Most find adding the date you plan to eat the meal to be especially useful.
Freezer Meal Benefits
Freezer meals and the entire process have a ton of benefits for busy singles and families as well. It is tough finding recipes for one, but with freezer meals a large batch can be made, split into several portions, and frozen individually for quick, single-serve meals. It works the same way a frozen dinner from the supermarket works, but it’s more nutritious and fiscally responsible in the long run. For families, freezer meals ensure a busy family has a hot, nutritious and home cooked meal on the table every night, no matter how many soccer practices, dance recitals and afternoon business meetings are packed into a weekday.
Freezer meals are huge time savers. Anyone who has ever tried to cook a meal during a busy weekday knows how long it takes. A meal can take over an hour to make, in some cases. While celebrity chefs would have the population believes it is possible to throw together a gourmet meal in just 30 minutes flat that simply isn’t the case most of the time. But, a freezer meal allows for a perfectly nutritious meal to be prepared during a busy week in mere minutes, with almost no effort. All one has to do is pull the meal out of the freezer, allow it to thaw and pop it in the oven. Nothing could be a bigger time saver.
Freezer meals are also economical. You can buy food in bulk and make huge batches of food that can be frozen for later. Switching to freezer meals can save you thousands each year in grocery bills. Many people find that their bulk club memberships can finally be put to good use by adopting this way of cooking. Freezer cooking can also ensure good health and help people lose weight. If you know you have food waiting for you at home, in the freezer, you are less likely to stop for a burger or taco at a local haunt. Eating in is directly related to healthy weights, so eating at home can help you shed extra pounds and get healthier.
Chapter 2- What Are Some Tips and Tricks to Preparing Freezer Meals?
If you’re like most people, you probably have a pretty busy lifestyle. Whether you work outside the home, from home, or are a full-time parent, preparing freezer meals is a great way to save time and money.
One of the first things to consider is how much space you have to store the prepared meals. If you have access to a chest freezer you can prepare a lot more at once, but even with a standard upright refrigerator/ freezer combo, you can use preparation and packaging tips to maximize the space that you do have available.
Make sure you don’t make the mistake of using every nook and cranny for storing your prepared freezer meals, as that can cause a problem when you need to pick up something extra, such as a bag of veggies, and find you have nowhere to put it. Another tip is to keep any ice trays toward the front for easy access. It can be a daunting task to have to pull out multiple items in order to reach something, and then to find out you have trouble getting everything back in place properly.
A great way to get started is to sit down and make a meal plan for, say, a week. Some meal prep veterans will cook as much as a month’s worth of meals at a time, but a week is sufficient to get started. Determine the different meals you’d like to serve and what days you want to serve each one. Decide whether you want to prepare lunch meals ahead also, or if you will only do dinners. By doing this, you can ensure that you pack your freezer in the order in which you plan to use each meal. This makes serving a breeze.
Simply pull out the meal closest to the front and you’re ready to go. In addition, planning your menu allows you to minimize shopping time by making sure that you have all ingredients for the meals, and only have to make one trip to the grocery store in order to pick up anything missing from your supplies.
There are lots of ways to best prepare your meals. Look over your menu and determine the different choices you have. If you’re planning to have vegetables with some or all of the meals, think about using the same vegetable choice on more than one occasion, though of course it doesn’t have to be served on more than one night in a row. It can be spaced out since the veggies will be safely tucked into the freezer.
Do the same thing with any meat choices you’re considering. Will you have chicken a couple of different times? Beef? Pork? A vegetarian style meal? Regardless of what each individual meal will look like, much time and effort can be spared by condensing cooking into like items. For example, if you would like to have roast chicken one night, and perhaps on a different night enjoy some homemade chicken soup, you can cook the entire chicken and then divide it. Remove the amount that you will be using in soup, and dice it up for storage. The chicken that will be for the roast will be packaged in its own separate container. In addition, you then have access to the bones and remainder of the chicken to prepare your soup stock with. Likewise, if you want to do some different pasta dishes, simply determine the amount of pasta you will need in totality, boil it up, and then divide it according to appropriate meal portions. The same is true of any item that will be present in more than one meal, regardless of what the meal is.
Think about preparing some dishes that are easy to serve. Things like casseroles are a great choice for this, because they can have a variety of ingredients in one convenient dish. This makes it simple to pull it out from the freezer, heat it up and serve it. No need to worry about what side dishes to add, or extras to make the meal complete, since everything is contained in one dish. For those nights when you want something