how I freeze food
y’all know I love to freeze food.
because one, we’re just a family of three and we often have plenty of leftovers. so a lot of times, while some people like to halve the recipe to better meet their smaller family’s needs, I prefer to freeze whatever we realistically won’t be able to eat.
for example:
if I’m making a batch of muffins, I’ll save half for us to eat this week, and I’ll freeze the rest. (Or, similarly, if I buy a big batch of muffins - like, at Costco - I’ll freeze whatever we can’t eat.)
A muffin stash saved us postpartum! See my other postpartum favorites here.
if I’m making a casserole where the recipe calls for a 9x13 pan, I’ll instead make half of it in these favorite pans of mine for dinner tonight, and I’ll take the remaining half to make another pan to put in the freezer for a future meal.
or if we’re eating a dinner that calls for rolls/hot dog buns/hamburger buns/etc and I know we won’t eat all the rolls, I’ll freeze the leftovers.
and I love to use those leftover frozen rolls for this
similarly, I like to buy my bread (and my naan/pita bread!) in bulk. so I keep those in the freezer until I’m ready to use.
I also love to freeze PB&Js. true fact. one of my favorite things postpartum - see my full list of postpartum favorites here.
if I’m making a soup or a stew, I know we definitely won’t eat all of it, given that Brett doesn’t care for soup/stew. so I’ll usually freeze half, if it’s a freezer-friendly soup.
here’s how I freeze/thaw soups
why i double recipes
And sometimes, I double (or triple!) a recipe just so that I have plentyyyyy leftover to freeze. Because that’s the easiest way for me to stock my freezer with nourishing meals, and I’m already dirtying the pan anyway making the one recipe, so it’s not that much more work to double/triple the recipe.
I usually do this for recipes that we love so much (and the recipes freeze so well) that I want to ensure we have multiple meals stashed away in our freezer for Future Haley. I do this with pancakes/waffles, muffins, breakfast sandwiches, lasagna, enchiladas, our favorite taco meat, etc. I’m always SO grateful for Past Haley when I do this!
how I use my freezer to menu plan
This is why the first thing I do when menu planning is check to see what I already have in the pantry, fridge, and freezer. This is how I make sure we always use what we have in the freezer, so anything in my freezer truly doesn’t stay in there for longer than three or four months. See this post for more on how (and why!) I menu plan.
why and when i freeze food
Of course, I will also give leftovers to loved ones. But, I really love to freeze leftovers.
While I’m sure it helps our grocery budget, given that I’m making future meals for Future Haley (and keeping us out of the drive-thru), that’s not what motivates me to do freezer cook. And yeah, it definitely cuts down our food waste significantly. But really, I freeze food to help Future Haley. Because while I love to cook, I don’t always feel like cooking dinner. Having food I’ve frozen previously allows me to rest (or play! or do whatever else!) when I need it. It allows me to feed my family well, even when I don’t feel like doing so.
(And we don’t have an eating out budget large enough to cover frequent trips to Chick-fil-a. So a freezer stash truly helps me.)
Or, in times of need, my freezer saves us. Remember our pregnancy loss? Afterwards I spent weeks without any desire to cook. We heavily relied on some freezer meals I had miraculously stashed away. Similarly, that week in 2021 where Texas froze over and we were all homebound for a straight week? I was so grateful that we had a freezer with plenty of meal options.
When I was a teacher, I’d do a big prep session right before Back to School, and usually a smaller prep session over Christmas Break. Having food on hand for when I was so dang tired helped me so much. And I froze leftovers when I could. I loved freezing soup for my lunches - see more about that here.
And while I love to freeze leftovers here and there as I normally cook, I’m starting to incorporate more freezer cooking - prepping a meal or two for my freezer, ready to be reheated for a quick weekday dinner - into my Sunday rhythm. Because these days KK and I really like the option of spending our early evenings going on long walks, playing in the indoor pool at our gym, and/or visiting my family. So having some dinner components prepped ahead of time means I can enjoy that time with her, and know that we’ll still have a delicious dinner ready.
When I’m able to roast some veggies, cut our fruit or prepare some breakfast/lunch options for the week, I’m always so happy I did so. But the Sundays I’m able to do one of Thriving Home’s 1 Hour Freezer Prep Sessions? I thank Past Haley alllllll week long.
my favorite resource for freezer cooking
I love love love Thriving Home. They’ve taught me everything I know for freezing food. (Which is why I myself don’t teach the principles of freezing food - the ladies of Thriving Home do it so much more beautifully than I ever could!)
So whether you’re new to freezing food and want to learn the foundations, or whether you’re a seasoned pro and want some new freezer food ideas, Thriving Home is the perfect resource. Eight (!!!) years into freezing food, they’re still my go to, and I’m forever grateful for the wealth of knowledge they share.
Here’s an affiliate link to their 1 Hour Freezer Prep Sessions - use Haley20 at checkout for 20% off prep sessions!
Each prep session includes everything you need to make 6 delicious freezer meals in just 1 hour.
Step-by-step instructions. Efficient and easy to follow.
A FREE video cooking tutorial. Cook right along with freezer cooking experts and cookbook authors, Polly Conner & Rachel Tiemeyer.
Organized grocery and equipment lists.
Customized, pre-filled freezer meal labels ready to print and attach to your meals.
Amazing, well-tested recipes.
Full nutritional information.
Gluten-free and dairy-free substitutions for most recipes.
Serving and “Mix It Up” ideas for every recipe.
Access to their private “Freezer Foodies” Facebook group.
And y’all know by now that I turn down 99% of all affiliate offers, so that I can say a wholehearted “YES!!!” to the affiliate offers for products that I love and use already. I love Thriving Home’s Freezer Prep Sessions and I know you will, too.
Their Freezer Prep Sessions are perfect for you if:
You are exhausted at the end of the day and the last thing you want to think about is making dinner.
You're eating out more than you'd like.
You have little ones and the witching hour is crazy.
It's 5 o'clock and you're scrambling to figure out dinner.
Your evenings are busy with activities and there's no time to cook.
You want to cook at home more but don't know where to start.
Meal prep services sound great but are too expensive.
Like I mentioned, lately KK and I really like the option of spending our early evenings going on long walks, playing in the indoor pool at our gym, and/or visiting my family. So having some dinner components prepped ahead of time means I can enjoy that time with her, and still have a delicious dinner ready. So these 1 Hour Freezer Prep Sessions have been easy to add to my Sunday ritual, and they’ve been such an asset for our household.
Here’s an affiliate link to their 1 Hour Freezer Prep Sessions - use Haley20 at checkout for 20% off prep sessions!
Here’s their blog and here’s their Instagram page - I also love these as a continuous resource.
Here and here are their cookbooks I love - I’m linking my Amazon affiliate pages, but feel free to reserve at your library or pick up wherever you like to get books!
I’m hoping to share more about how I’m incorporating freezer cooking into my weeks - especially now that KK is more active - but in the meantime, know how much I love their freezer cooking products and all they’ve taught me over the years.
(And thank you, thank you, thank you for your support. I so appreciate it.)
You deserve whatever it is you need to take care of yourself. Tucking food in the freezer for Future Haley is one of my favorite ways to take care of myself.
Follow me on Instagram - there I’m always sharing snippets of my daily life, like how I love to freeze food for Future Haley.
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