Freezer Meals

8 hours.  That is how long I spent cooking last Friday.  But I did end up with quite a lot to show for it!  27 meals to be exact.  Not too shabby, right?


Not too long ago, a friend told me about how she would put up a month’s worth of meals in her freezer to save time and money.  And because I love to copy good ideas, I learned a little about it myself and started doing it some too.


I have to admit, I don’t normally do this many meals in one day.  Normally I will just plan a meal and then prepare two or three times what we need for that evening and then freeze the other portion for later. 


The last couple of times that I have done it, I decided to do a whole bunch of different meals at once.  It was fun.  But also very exhausting.  That’s a lot of cooking/prepping!!!!


It means though that I can take it pretty easy for the next few weeks, because I have lots of meals ready to go.  This time around I made lasagna (a staple in our household), chicken noodle soup, black bean soup, veggie chili, chicken pot pie, chicken enchilada casserole, cheesy veggie & rice casserole, and beef stew kits. 


I normally divide the recipe out into portions that will feed approximately 4 adults.  That seems to work out perfect for a meal for our little family.  I like to use the little 8x8 ‘cake’ tins to freeze casseroles in.  They are the perfect portion size, they hold up really well and then you can pop them right into the oven directly from the freezer.


I also do a few larger size ones so that I have an easy something on hand if we have a couple extra people to feed. 


The total bill for all the food, foil pans, and freezer bags was right at $180.00.  So divide that by 27 meals and it comes out to about $6.67 a meal.  I think that is a pretty good price for a homemade meal made with fresh high quality ingredients that will feed 4 adults, or in our case 2 adults and 3 children.  With a lot of the meals I’ll add a salad or some fresh fruit to go along with it to make it more balanced, but even adding in the cost of that makes for pretty inexpensive meals.

So do any of you freeze meals?   If so, what meals have you found hold up the best to being frozen and then reheated/cooked?  I’m always up for expanding our rotation of meals!