Take the hassle out of figuring out what's for dinner and allow your freezer to assist. With a little pre-planning (and prep time), you can stock your freezer with family-friendly weeknight dinners, easy sauces, sides, quick dessert toppings, and breakfast options. Your next meal is just a quick thaw and reheat away.
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Pad Thai Chicken Burritos
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Freeze: Up to 4 months
Get your Thai and Mexican cravings cured with this portable meal combining both cuisines. Fresh veggies, noodles, and Thai-spiced chicken wrapped in a tortilla make an easy lunch or dinner. Served with our coconut curry sauce, all the flavors really pop.
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Orange-Rosemary Shrimp
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Freeze: Up to 1 month
This easy seafood dinner is frozen in an orange-rosemary marinade, so the shrimp and veggies are loaded with that zesty flavor right out of your freezer. Once thawed (move it in the fridge the night before you want to enjoy), it only takes eight minutes to get this meal on the table.
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Sausage and Peppers Soup
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Freeze: Up to 3 months
A low-stress way to end the day is by enjoying this easy soup. It only takes 25 minutes to prep the veggies and sausage. All you have to do you to serve is add the broth, heat it up, and enjoy.
This make-ahead freezer meal has juicy chicken as the main dish and your rice side all in the same pan. When it's dinner time, just bake and serve with a fresh green salad to balance your meal.
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Chicken and Green Chile Tamales
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Freeze: Up to 1 month
Fill authentic homemade masa harina dough with tender chicken thighs, green salsa, and fresh veggies, then roll in boiled cornhusks. The recipe yields 16 tamales, so you can steam them all at once for a crowd or just grab a couple for an easy dinner for two.
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Chocolate-Peanut Butter Granola Bars
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Freeze: Up to 3 months
Stash these homemade snacks in your freezer to have something nutritious at the ready when hunger strikes. Peanut butter, pretzel sticks, rice cereal, chia seeds, and miniature chocolate pieces pack the low-calorie granola bars.
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Peach Chutney
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Freeze: Up to 6 months
Chutneys are one of India's most popular condiments, and this flavorful mixture of fresh peaches, red wine vinegar, sugar, and spices is one to remember. Smear the fruit-studded spread onto grilled poultry, toasty tartines, or roasted sweet potatoes.
8 Delicious On-the-Go Snacks for a Quick Energy Boost
Smooth and silky, this apple butter is made possible by the low and slow cooking of fresh apples with apple cider, sugar, and lemon juice. Serve this with your breakfast toast or oatmeal.
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Pillow Rolls
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Freeze: Up to 2 months
Make use of your leftover mashed potatoes by adding them to this easy bread recipe. These soft and fluffy rolls (hence pillow in the name) will warm up quickly to go along with tonight's pot roast or spaghetti dinner.
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Gluten Free Make-Ahead Sausage, Mushroom, and Polenta Bake
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Freeze: Up to 2 months
This gluten-free casserole recipe will make anyone sitting at the table want second helpings, whether they eat gluten or not. It has all the same herb-filled Italian flavors as lasagna, but we've switched out the noodles with filling cornmeal polenta.
15 Creative, Alternative Lasagna Recipes with Layers of Flavor
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Roasted Vegetable Lasagna
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Freeze: Up to 1 month
Keep everyone happy with a healthy take on a classic Italian recipe. Brimming with zucchini, carrots, mushrooms, and sweet peppers, this freezer lasagna guarantees a hearty bite of veggies in every forkful.
Test Kitchen Tip: Before adding them to the lasagna, roast the veggies to coax out their sweet flavors.
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Freezer Berry Pie Filling
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Freeze: Up to 3 months
This fresh freezer pie filling puts canned fruit to shame. A combination of fresh raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, and strawberries will create a pie ready to fill your dessert cravings any time of the year. Make sure to keep ice cream in the freezer too; you'll want to serve this pie à la mode.
Our Favorite Berry Pie Recipes
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Twixy Shortbread Bars
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Freeze: Up to 3 months
It's a good thing these dessert bars are freezer friendly (you might eat them all at once otherwise). Reminiscent of the store-bought favorite, the cookie crust, creamy filling, and chocolate topping make this a perfect recipe for gifting or storing for a rainy day.
Make-and-Freeze Cookies That Will Save Your Holiday
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Strawberry Freezer Jam
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Freeze: Up to 1 year
Skip the canning process and freeze this homemade strawberry jam for up to a year. Not a berry fan? Substitute the fruit for apricots, tangerines, oranges, or peaches.
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Pressure Cooker Ham and Mixed Bean Soup
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Freeze: Up to 2 months
Meal prepping with your pressure cooker is definitely the way to score more weeknight dinner wins at home. The smoky ham deepens the broth's flavor of this soup filled with beans, celery, and carrots. Kale goes in when you're ready to cook and serve on a chilly night.
Choose from dozens of delicious freezer meals including casseroles, baked pasta dishes, gumbo, pot roast, slow-cooker soups and stews, and more. You guests will never guess that you just popped that Turkey-Noodle-Poppy Seed Casserole out of the freezer.
Making dishes to freeze not only gives you dinner on demand, but it also means you don't end up spending money on takeout. Our collection of freezer-friendly recipes will give you inspiration for what to cook to fill your freezer. Baked pasta, casseroles, chili, and pot pies are just some of the crowd-pleasing options.
You can also freeze scrambled eggs after they have been cooked. This is a good way to meal prep for the week and to use in dishes like ham fried rice, or for a quick breakfast. They freeze well and taste really good. Let the cooked scrambled eggs cool completely.
Yes, you can. Freezing mashed potatoes is a great way to plan for the holidays or avoid wasting any leftovers. Read on to learn how to freeze mashed potatoes for later. You'll also find the best way to reheat frozen mashed potatoes so they are still amazingly fluffy and creamy.
You should never freeze anything containing eggs or egg-whites, fully cooked pasta or rice, fried foods (they get soggy), cucumbers, any salad with mayo or miracle whip (tuna salad, egg salad, chicken salad, etc), anything with icing that contains egg whites, lettuce, hard-boiled eggs, sour cream, etc., etc., etc.
Luckily, meatloaf is easy to freeze and heat up. Freeze leftovers in individual portions to reheat for a quick and easy meal. Or, freeze a whole uncooked meatloaf to have a family meal prepared and ready to bake.
By making your own frozen meals you will be able to tailor them to your taste preferences and dietary needs. Homemade meals can have far less sodium and preservatives than store-bought counterparts. Try improving their nutritional quality by using brown rice, whole wheat pasta, and low sodium pasta sauces and broths.
Stew and Braising Cuts (chuck, shank, shoulder, rounds) and other “low and slow” cuts do great but remember to portion these cuts before freezing, you'll need a hacksaw to cut through a chuck roast until fully thawed. Steaks, Chops and Searing Cuts are the most affected by the freezer.
What food lasts the longest in the freezer? Whole chickens or turkey, beef steaks and roasts and eggs out of the shell may last up to one year in the freezer if stored properly.
By having batch cooked food stored in your fridge or freezer, you are less likely to eat impulsively, saving you money and helping you to eat more healthily. Eat healthier meals – When you batch cook food, you are more likely to incorporate healthy and nutritious ingredients.
Freezer burn is the worst that could happen, and that's more cosmetic than anything else. Overcooking food is NEVER a positive thing. Meats can be frozen either raw or cooked. Vegetables and some fruits are blanched before freezing to inactivate enzymes that will gradually cause some deterioration.
Our pots cannot be frozen as they come, however, as long as the fresh ingredients are suitable for freezing, then you can freeze our meals once they have been cooked.
Introduction: My name is Lidia Grady, I am a thankful, fine, glamorous, lucky, lively, pleasant, shiny person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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