CHAPTER 5: MEALS THAT WORK WELL WHEN YOU MAKE AND FREEZE THEM IN ADVANCE

At some point, life catches up with everyone. We get into a routine, a rut if you will, and we end up eating the same thing over and over each day. We eat the same things for lunch and dinner almost mindlessly, then grab takeout and order delivery pizza as a treat, one that soon becomes a habit.

Most smart householders know that taking a good brown bag lunch every day to work or school is one of the best ways to save money on the food you eat each day (see our guides on brown bag lunches and Thermos lunches for more information). Cooking for yourself instead of resorting to fast food, takeout or convenience foods from the supermarkets refrigerator and frozen sections is also a great way to save money and eat well at the same time.

It does not have to be a terrible chore to cook every night.  Every meal of the day will start to become simpler once you are organized and begin to plan ahead. A new popular trend for people on the go is called "monthly cooking." Taking a day, or a weekend, each month, you can prepare all of your meals for the rest of the month.

This may sound like a huge effort, but just think about how much time it will save during the rest of the month if you can just grab a healthy breakfast and get your day going. Of course, if you live in a larger family, you may have to cook every two weeks, but the principle is the same: Come home from the store, and rather than pack away all of your groceries, take out any other ingredients you need, such as seasonings, and start cooking up batches of meals to make and freeze.

Monthly cooking (or cooking ahead in batches, if you prefer) can simplify your life, but there is more thought that goes into it than you may initially believe. Some meals freeze really well, while others will be a disaster in your freezer.

Let’s take a look at a few meal ideas for each part of the day which can freeze well enough to satisfy your craving for something filling and delicious for the whole week or month without turning into a watery, tasteless mess.

* Breakfast Ideas

Breakfast foods are usually difficult to think about freezing. For instance, how would you feel about frozen eggs? This probably does not sound so good, though there are a lot of these items in the supermarket these days. A more obvious choice will be bread-based products instead.

Pancakes and waffles are a great breakfast food to freeze. Once you cook them, freeze them individually on a baking tray. Once frozen, place all of them in a giant Ziploc zippered bag. In the morning, you can grab a couple, throw them in the toaster, drizzle some syrup on them, and you have homemade pancakes in less than two minutes for a fraction of the cost of the ones in the store, and with none of the harmful ingredients.

Another breakfast idea is to freeze sausage or bacon. Of course, it is important to cook the food first, leaving it just under the appropriate doneness so that when it is reheated, it will finish cooking the rest of the way. Then about 30 seconds in the microwave will defrost and reheat it, for a handy side dish with those pancakes, or a quick addition to a 30-second microwaved poached egg or a 2 minute scrambled egg before you head off for your busy day.

Muffins can be a meal all by themselves. They can be sweet, or savory with vegetables in them. Children love them because they are like cupcakes, and they can defrost in a microwave in less than 30 seconds and are very portable. Wrap them in a paper towel or a small baggie as you head out the door. For more information, see our guide on healthy muffins you can make and freeze:
Healthy Make Ahead and Freeze Muffins

* Lunch/Brunch

Lunch can be easy when you have great foods on hand at home. You do not need to have a sandwich every day in your brown bag lunch. Instead, pack great meals for you children and partner that will make them eager to see what you have packed for them, and actually eat it rather than throw it away.

Brunch is a popular meal at the weekends. Consider cooking a quiche in advance, portioning it out, and then sending it off in a brown bag lunch for it to be eaten cold, or hot at work or at school if your children have access to a microwave in their cafeteria.

Some foods, like burritos and any type of pocket sandwich, can easily be cooked in advance and only need a slight reheat, or can be enjoyed at room temperature. Other foods, like personal pizzas and rice, bean and cheese burritos, are usually layered and frozen before cooking so they get the fresh taste cooked in when preparing. Then you can pop them in your conventional oven to bake them for about 15 minutes so they will be piping hot and bursting with flavor, but you can also cook them in advance, and cool them. Then freeze them on a cookie sheet for an hour or so before slipping them into a freezer bag. In this way, you have all the convenience of frozen foods or takeout pizza, but without all the artificial ingredients or cost. After all, pizza is just water, flour, yeast, tomato sauce and cheese.  What could be easier? If you do not want to or do not have time to make your own crust, get some long Italian-style loaves of bread and make French bread pizzas. Cut into serving-sized wedges, freeze and wrap.

Feeding the children great brown bag lunches can be a real challenge (see our guide on the subject for more ideas) but it can also be hard coming up with great lunch ideas when they are home from school at the weekends and during the vacations. Having a well-stocked freezer of your own homemade lunches ensures you do not have to spend a lot of time in food preparation so you can enjoy your vacation or holidays more. And if your children are old enough, it also means they will have a great range of health choices to help themselves to any time they need a meal or snack, without you having to worry about what junk food they might be eating.

* Dinner

Dinners are usually the most common type of frozen meal. Almost anything that can be baked can be frozen, either uncooked or partially cooked. For instance, casseroles can be cooked, and then frozen. Pasta dishes like lasagna should be partially cooked, layered and then frozen, and then left to finish cooking in the oven when ready to eat. Of course, leftover lasagna is never really terrible if you reheat it in the microwave, but it will be quite moist. You will want to avoid overheating so the noodle part does not become too mushy.

Remember that a microwave heats from the inside out, so heat the food for the stated time and then let the food stand for a minute or two to let the heat radiate outwards. In this way, you will avoid overcooking when you really just need to be reheating.

A few other great ideas for frozen dinners would be beans and rice, soups, and even some pies. There are a wide variety of foods that can freeze well and make life much more convenient when it comes to preparing food for the entire family.

In this and our other make and freeze guides, we have tried to give you several meal ideas and recipes for about a month’s worth of meals that you can stock your freezer with. Of course, your family will also have a lot of their own favorites. We hope you will also use this guide as a stimulus to try making your own make and freeze meals. They are better for you, far cheaper per pound than convenience foods, and best of all, you will know exactly what is going into them because you have made them yourself from scratch.

There will be no need to worry about too much sodium, a real concern for people with high blood pressure and heart health concerns. You will not need to worry about artificial flavoring, preservatives, colors, or sweeteners (see Carolyn Stone’s guides on the latter two topics for more information on the dangers of these items).

If your child has allergies, or suffers from ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) you will definitely want to limit all food that you do not cook yourself in order to avoid worsening symptoms. ADHD in particular has been linked to certain ingredients, pesticides and artificial colorings in foods. (See Annabelle Stevens’ guides for more information on ADHD and how you can help your child succeed in school and out of school).

You will also want to make sure your child does not become one of the 33 percent of American children who is overweight or obese, with children as young as nine starting to suffer from the same medical conditions normally only found in people over age 40. (See Evelyn Trimborn’s guide on the risks of childhood obesity for more information).

If cooking ahead and freezing your own healthy meals sounds like a great plan to you, and you have your freezer containers and other supplies at the ready, then it is time to get started with our recipes in the next chapter. Here is the table of contents for the recipes:

RECIPE TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 6: SOUP AND STEW RECIPES
BEEF CHILI SOUP

HOMEMADE CHILI POWDER CREAM OF CAULIFLOWER SOUP
ELEGANT BEEF CASSEROLE
EASY FREEZER CORN CHOWDER

CHAPTER 7: MAIN MEAL RECIPES
CHICKEN AND SPINACH SAUTE
TURKEY AND VEGETABLE CASSEROLE
FREEZER TO OVEN TO TABLE LASAGNA
PORK AND THREE BEANS

CHAPTER 8: SIDE DISH RECIPES
MAKE-AHEAD TOMATO SAUCE
RAINBOW VEGETABLE SALAD
EASY PRE-COOKED RICE
EASY BANNOCK BREAD
CRISPY POTATO PANCAKES

CHAPTER 9: DESSERT RECIPES
PEACH MERINGUE ROLL
FAST AND EASY CHERRY CHOCOLATE BARS
EASY APPLE CINNAMON PIE
HOMEMADE PECAN PIE
MOIST LEMON CAKE