freezer meals

One of my nesting projects was to prepare a bunch of freezer meals. I set the goal of making a dozen meals before Baby G arrives.

Pinterest has some great options and I was thrilled to find some for the crock pot and some for the grill. Who wants to turn on the oven or stove in July? Not me (even when I'm not pregnant or a new mom).

When I posted the above pic on Instagram last week, I had several comments about the recipes. I did make some changes to the grilled ones, so I thought it might be fun to share the details.

These meals are great for baby prep, but also for days you just may not want to cook. An hour of prep on a Saturday morning, can really save time during the work week and I think most people, no matter what stage of life, would rather spend less time in the kitchen during the summer.



I used recipe from these pins: summer freezer meals and 8 slow cooker freezer meals in 1 hour. I did not do all of this at one time. We shopped for the ingredients on two separate occasions, to make it easier on our budget. We don't eat a lot of meat, so both shopping trips felt like we really stocked up.

I tried to mix it up by using pork, chicken, ground turkey and steak. For the black bean taco soup, chicken catcciatore, BBQ spare ribs and maple dijon gazed chicken, I followed the slow cooker recipes (linked above).

The grilling recipes were not very exact, so I here's how I assembled them and plan to prepare them.

Spicy pork chops

ingredients:
1/2 cup orange juice
juice from 1/2 lime
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 T soy sauce
1 T siracha
2 T brown sugar
2 boneless pork chops

directions:
+ combine all the ingredients, except the meat in a bowl.
+ label the freezer bag with the date, name of the dish and directions for cooking
+ place two pork chops in freezer bag and pour marinade over meat.
+ carefully close bag and freeze, removing 24 hours before you wish to grill so it can thaw and meat can marinade.
+ I plan to have it with rice and veggies (probably summer squash).

Chipotle steak

ingredients:
2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, diced
2 T Montreal steak seasoning
juice from 1 lime
2 T extra virgin olive oil
1 lb steak, cubed

directions:
+ label freezer bag with contents and directions for thawing + cooking. Mine read something like: "Chipotle steak, date, Thaw 24 hours before grilling so meat can marinade, grill as desired"
+ combine all but steak in bowl and mix thoroughly to make marinade
+ cut up steak into cubes
+ place steak and marinade in bag and freeze until 24 hours before you want to grill meat
+ I plan to serve with veggies and rice/quinoa. (I used a 2 lb. steak and divided it into two bags and then made the marinade twice so there would be two servings)

Coconut chicken

ingredients:
1 16 oz. can of coconut milk
1/4 cup of orange juice
2 T of olive oil
2 T ground ginger
shake of red pepper flakes

4 boneless chicken breasts, cubed

directions:

+ combine all the ingredients, except the meat in a bowl and mix thoroughly

+ label the freezer bag with the date, name of the dish and directions for cooking

+ place cubed chicken in freezer bag and pour marinade over it 

+ carefully close bag and freeze, removing 24 hours before you wish to grill so it can thaw and meat can marinade. I plan to serve this one with frozen fried rice from Trader Joe's or something like that. (I divided the marinade into two bags and put 2 chicken breasts cubed into each bag, to make two meals)

Do you have any freezer meal tips or recipes to recommend?

PS- don't forget to get your The List post ready for Friday!