A few years ago I saw an ad for a local place that ran a freezer cooking business. It was very expensive but basically the concept was you go in and go from different work stations making freezer dinners for however many nights and went home after only 2 hours with meals for 2 weeks. Great concept but I wasn't paying the money they wanted...especially when I remembered my mom freezing stuff.

So I looked around and found a site online and alot of info...even bought some cookbooks. I was amazed what you could freeze ahead...just about everything. I planned and took a few days and cooked enough for several months and it was great...when my classes started up that semester it was the first time we didn't eat fast food every night and I still had time for school. I'd throw dinner in the oven, sometimes make a side and 30 minutes later we'd have a full course meal. And since most the mess had been made on the initial cooking day I had so much less clean up it was unreal. I was so excited you'd have thought I discovered electricity, lol.

I would really like to do this again because I'm really concerned that when I start my classes mid August that my healthy eating is going to go out the window. Not at first but pile a few exams and extra hours at work combined with lack of sleep and that's always been my breaking point. Problem is last time I did freezer cooking I didn't know I was borderline diabetic and alot of the recipes aren't exactly healthy.

I am going back through the site I was at and weeding through my own recipes in order to find the ones that work for me now and modify others but I was just wondering if anyone else does freezer cooking and has any good recipes?

Idon't freezer cook, but I do a lot of preparation one day a week for the rest of the week...

I'll cut up fruit and put it in single serve baggies
I'll cut up veggies and prep meal packages for the week


there's no real trick to freezer cooking/ it's just planning ahead...

I've just started in the last week or so cutting up salad stuff and veggies after seeing somebody post that, I think it was you too. I was afraid of stuff going bad faster but actually we tend to eat it before that happens. More stuff went bad when I didn't cut it up. I hadn't thought of having meal packages prepped ahead and just in the freezer...what kind of stuff do you do? I was thinking of deboning and grilling a whole load of chicken all at once and having it to reheat or cook into other stuff ...is that the kind of stuff you mean? Thanks for the tips :) And yea I agree..preplanning is going to have to be a priority for me because when I don't do it that's what always gets me in trouble.

I figure it's just as easy to cook 4 chicken breasts at once as it is to cook 2 - so I will always cook extras (and it's cheaper to buy in larger quanties as well) then I'll store the stuff in the fridge for later in the week or for lunch...

If I wrap the veggies in paper towels and wrap them up - they stay fresh for about 5 days... lettuce I won't cut up... because that's a 1 minute job -but chopping onions, I can chop 2 as easily as 1 - and keep the rest in the fridge or freezer for later...

I keep a list on my fridge about what my meals will be for the week so when i get in from work -I know what I'm having -it's n ot always set in stone but at least it doesn't have me staring at the fridge starving with nothig to cook...

that 15 minutes of planning - saves me a lot of time..

That's alot of help, I didn't realize you could freeze onions! So do you wrap veggies in dry or wet paper towels? I'm really glad you replied because I was only thinking of the freezer cooking, which I still can do but that's helpful to ME. The tips you gave are going to make it easy for my hubby to walk in and fix stuff to if I'm not home. What can I say...I often miss obvious solutions.

Onions freeze well (in fact for the terminally lazy like me - you can buy chopped onions in the freezer case - but they only work well if you're using them cooked - and they don't tend to brown very well.

Mushrooms I practically worship -they do not freeze well raw -but cooked, tehy freeze very well...

Herbs I will wrap in wet paper towels - all other veggies, in dry -though I've seen those gas permeable bags for the fridge that have gotten great reviews and make veggies stay fresh really long...

Yea I've seen those bags too and been tempted to try them...maybe somebody in the forum will come by this thread and say if they work or not. Guess it's not alot of money to try them but I'm such a cheap butt, lol.

I don't freezer cook, but I do cook for leftovers. There's just the two of us, but I make everything family-sized so it does at least two meals. Mac and cheese, lasagna, curried sausages, soup, roast anything, Shepard's pie, I do a big dish, we eat half, and the other keeps in the fridge until we want it. The amount of actual cooking is cut 50%, and as the oven is run less, it's more energy efficient to boot.

I don't know if my freezer's big enough to store that many dinners!

Yea not to mention 50% less mess, thats my incentive. I hate dishes! You guys have some great ideas. Our new house has a much bigger fridge so I'm going to mix it up with the freezer cooking and having stuff made ahead in the fridge as well. I'm just always leery of food going bad but I'll just make stuff I'm sure my husband will eat too. I'm lucky on the freezer part...I have a huge upright freezer that I talked my mom out of when we moved, lol. And as of this week I won't have to walk down two flights of stairs just to thaw something out for dinner anymore, YAY.

I own 2 meal assembly stores in SoCal, so if anybody has any general questions about freezing food, I would be happy to help. I eat the food from my store at least 4 nights a week. My entrees come in 3 servings so for dinner I eat a serving, my wife eats a serving and I take 1 serving for lunch the next day. You cannot imagine the money I am saving on lunch alone!

I also use the "Green" bags. I belong to a local farmers co-op so every other week I get a huge basket filled with local grown organic produce. I put everything in those bags and they do work. I have a head of red leaf lettuce that is over a week and half old and is still crisp like it was picked yesterday. I was extremely skeptical about them but they do work.

I own 2 meal assembly stores in SoCal, so if anybody has any general questions about freezing food, I would be happy to help. I eat the food from my store at least 4 nights a week. My entrees come in 3 servings so for dinner I eat a serving, my wife eats a serving and I take 1 serving for lunch the next day. You cannot imagine the money I am saving on lunch alone!

I also use the "Green" bags. I belong to a local farmers co-op so every other week I get a huge basket filled with local grown organic produce. I put everything in those bags and they do work. I have a head of red leaf lettuce that is over a week and half old and is still crisp like it was picked yesterday. I was extremely skeptical about them but they do work.

Woot paydirt!!! I'm so adding you to my friends list and I'll definitely be bringing questions to you. In your meal assembly stores do you do any for special diets? I already have a pretty good idea how I can modify alot of stuff myself but I'm still on the look out for anything innovative that I haven't thought of. Also thanks so much for letting me know about the bags. We're eating so much more vegetables and I'd rather eat fresh than frozen but I hate going to the store every other day just to keep up on it and not have the food go bad before we can eat it. And even then I've had stuff rot within two days of buying it. Thanks so much for responding to my post, too bad I don't live in cali anymore, lol

I used to do once-a-month cooking but my freezer is completely packed with produce from my garden. We are getting a new upright freezer when our kitchen is remodeled (hopefully starting in a month!) so I'll have room to do it again.

And I've used those green bags too. Being a science nerd, I actually performed an experiment. I put tomatoes in that bag and some tomatoes in the produce drawer in no bag. The no bag tomatoes were bad in about a week and a half. The bag tomatoes were perfectly fresh for two weeks...and then I ate them. I don't know how long they would have lasted. But the bag was awesome.

Woot paydirt!!! I'm so adding you to my friends list and I'll definitely be bringing questions to you. In your meal assembly stores do you do any for special diets? I already have a pretty good idea how I can modify alot of stuff myself but I'm still on the look out for anything innovative that I haven't thought of. Also thanks so much for letting me know about the bags. We're eating so much more vegetables and I'd rather eat fresh than frozen but I hate going to the store every other day just to keep up on it and not have the food go bad before we can eat it. And even then I've had stuff rot within two days of buying it. Thanks so much for responding to my post, too bad I don't live in cali anymore, lol

Our recipes are not tailored to any specific diet plan. We post all of the nutritional so every customer can make the right choice for them. I have a number of Personal Trainers that refer their clients to us because as a whole we offer a much healthier alternative to restaurant or fast food. A big part of my meal planning is using my own food.

I have moved away from the customer assembly and just do Take n Bake only. I have my customers call up the store and make special requests all of the time. For example, I have a few customer's with Celiac's Disease and I can accommodate them on a number of items because I carry some gluten free ingredients in stock to handle such requests.

If you want to do it yourself, I can give you plenty of tips of what to do and what not to do.

I also have done the once-a-month cooking and there is an actual cookbook by that name. It has two months worth of recipes. They are very good and make enough for 6 servings for the most part. That always created leftovers for work or another meal, so I'd generally get at least 6 weeks out of a month's cooking. In fact when my daughter was due, I did that and it was so easy for me with a new born and for my DH to help. That was 14 years ago. I really do need to get back to that, with as busy as I am now. I have found that most things can be frozen, if they will be cooked. Potatoes seem to be an exception.

I'm not sure about the site you used, but with the Once-a-month cooking. you basically spend the entire day, pre-cooking most of the stuff and assembling. Then it's more of a re-heat and eat. That cookbook also has the grocery list provided for you as well as the steps to prep for the cooking.

I also use the green bags and love them. We do a lot of juicing and I can go to the local strip and get fruit by the case. I bought one of those small fridges for the purpose of keeping our juicing fruit. I green bag the stuff and use it for a month.

If you can't find them in your store, Amazon carries them too. They are also re-usable, just rinse them out. I keep them until a hole develops.

Good luck with your cooking. Makes me think I need to do that again too. Just shopped for this week but I'm going to pull out my book and get ready for next time.

Thanks guys for all the info, this is great. And bigdogmom, I bet we're talking about the same book and site. I even got the program where you can download their recipes from the site or upload your own so when you cook you just type in how many batches and of each recipe and it gives you an entire grocery list, completely organized. I'm just going to have take time to go through alot of recipes and see which ones I can use or modify. As far as potatoes, the twice baked and mashed recipes where the potatoes were pretty much almost done freezed well for me but I didn't try anything else. That's ok though because I'll be sticking to the lower carb veggies anyway.

Hey madness, what kinds of produce do you freeze and what do you do to it first before you freeze it? I did alot of meat and potatoes but I don't have a ton of recipes to freeze veggies without them being in some kind of casserole. I have a seal a meal so that helps.

I used to do once-a-month cooking but my freezer is completely packed with produce from my garden. We are getting a new upright freezer when our kitchen is remodeled (hopefully starting in a month!) so I'll have room to do it again.

And I've used those green bags too. Being a science nerd, I actually performed an experiment. I put tomatoes in that bag and some tomatoes in the produce drawer in no bag. The no bag tomatoes were bad in about a week and a half. The bag tomatoes were perfectly fresh for two weeks...and then I ate them. I don't know how long they would have lasted. But the bag was awesome.

What bags are these?! Brand names needed please! My stuff is always going bad..

Well I am psyched! This thread, and my recent gain of a few pounds, motivated me to do some "pre-planning" for the next few weeks. I went shopping yesterday and cooked and chopped for about 3.5 hours. It was exhausting cuz I didn't start cooking til 4pm. But I think its going to be worth it. Here are my planned meals for the next 2 weeks (with one day off in each week to eat out):

Sun - beef stroganoff (came out good; froze the rest for one more night)

Mon - shepherd's pie (I prepared it and froze it without baking so it can bake fresh; had it tonight and have another serving in the freezer for another night)

Tues - broiled chicken breasts marinated in lime juice/garlic/parsley w/ sweet potatoes (I marinated the chicken in a ziplock bag; made 2 servings of sweet potatoes to freeze for another night)

Wed - pork loin (frozen in lime/garlic marinade in a ziplock bag), avocado, rice pilaf (this will take seconds to dump my marinating meat into a tin-foil covered pan in the broiler oven and throw a package of flavored rice on the stove)

Thurs - chicken teriyaki (already marinating in teriyaki sauce in a ziplock bag in freezer), white rice, avocado (I bought a bag of avocados from Costco so hence us eating them every night, plus its the only vegetable H will [knowlingly] eat)

Fri - OFF

Sat - Chili (I will make 3 servings of chili on the weekend and freeze the other two; did this last week and it was great) w/ freshly grated cheddar over white rice

Sun - some sort of chicken casserole (ANYONE HAVE ANY RECIPES??!!)

Mon - broiled boneless pork (already in freezer in lime/garlic marinade); yellow rice

Tues - hamburgers & baked french fries

Wed - Shepherd's pie (already in freezer)

Thurs - Chicken casserole

Fri - OFF

Sat - Ground pork patties; mashed potatoes

Please definitely post more suggestions (Mal I got the chicken ideas from you months ago) and recipes for the larger serving dishes like casseroles etc.

HAPPY PRE-PLANNING! haha (all that cooking at once is backbreaking LOL)

Debbie Meyer's Green bags.

douknowjello - I'll have to look for that on-line. Like I said, my book is 14 years old, so they may have a web page now. Thanks for the tip.

Hey madness, what kinds of produce do you freeze and what do you do to it first before you freeze it? I did alot of meat and potatoes but I don't have a ton of recipes to freeze veggies without them being in some kind of casserole. I have a seal a meal so that helps.

Anything that is overproducing in the garden! I almost always blanch the veggies first and then freeze on a tray and put in bags once frozen. I have corn (cut from the cob and blanched), turnips (diced and blanched), tomatoes (cut and frozen raw), squash (sliced and blanched), kale (whole raw frozen leaves), pecans (shelled frozen raw) and a bunch of melons (frozen raw - used for smoothies). My garden went a little nuts and I ran out of canning jars. Plus freezing some things is better. I just defrost and put the veggies in what I'm making (soup, sauce, etc). You can freeze just about anything if you blanch it first.

And I use the Debbie Meyer Green Bags too. I don't know if there is another brand or not.

shepherd's pie
one of the tips from the hungry girl website -is editing the shepards pie recipe slightly and instead of using mashed taters - use butternut squash... lower in calories, higher in fiber andfd other nutrients and tastes totally yummy :)

overabundance of tomatoes can also be dried as well - slice them - put them on parchment paper on cookie sheets in a very very low oven ... and then store in plastic bags.

Ibelieve that glad or ziplock now make those green bags as well...

Blanchita - great job with all that pre-cooking, you sound set. I really, really need to do that again.

Thanks bigdogmom! This is working like a charm and I've already lost a pound. When I come home at night I have myself a bowl of blueberries and milk while I cook the dinner. The dinner takes between 10 and 25 minutes to heat up and its been so easy to follow my plan each day rather than trying to figure out what to have. You have got to get back to this!

Anyone have a nice chicken casserole recipe? mal suggested curry, which sounded delish til I remembered that H wont go for Indian seasonings (tried that last week with a masala sauce, he wouldn't even try it).

Do you find these green bags at a regular grocery store?

the ziplock or glad bags are i the grocery store - the debbie meyer ones are available from the info mercial though i swear i've seen them at either bed bath and beyond or linen's and things... one of those stores...

the ziplock or glad bags are i the grocery store - the debbie meyer ones are available from the info mercial though i swear i've seen them at either bed bath and beyond or linen's and things... one of those stores...

Oh I see... I already use the zip lock bags amply. I will look around on the net for these other bags, otherwise I'll have to hit up a BB&B soon, I was just thinking last night that my fruit would probably taste fresher had I used those bags.

Amazon.com: Debbie Meyer Green Bags: Kitchen & Dining (http://www.amazon.com/Debbie-Meyer-20317-Green-Bags/dp/B0011TMP3Y/ref=pd_sim_k_4)

Debbie Meyer GreenBagsTM (http://www.cakecutter.com/greenbags.html)

Amazon.com: Debbie Meyer Green Bags: Kitchen & Dining (http://www.amazon.com/Debbie-Meyer-20317-Green-Bags/dp/B0011TMP3Y/ref=pd_sim_k_4)

Debbie Meyer GreenBagsTM (http://www.cakecutter.com/greenbags.html)

TY mal! Will let you all know how well they work.

I am following this link with interest. I have always wanted to start freezer cooking, but have never actually done it. Can someone PM me with the freezer cooking link you are talking about?

2 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
1 large sweet onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 -2 jalapeno peppers, seeeded and diced
3 cups cooked diced chicken or turkey
1 small can chopped green chilies , undrained
1/4 cup milk
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 can chicken stock (prefer low sodium, but your choice)
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp black pepper
8 corn tortillas
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Chopped fresh tomato for accompaniment
Sour cream for accompaniment

Saute mushrooms, onion, bell pepper and jalapeno pepper until tender. Remove skillet from heat; stir in chicken and green chilies. Set aside.

Combine milk and flour in a small saucepan. Gradually stir in broth; cook over medium heat, stirring until thick and bubbly. Stir in chili powder, cumin, and pepper.

Add to chicken mixture and set aside.

Wrap tortillas in damp paper towels and then in foil. Bake at 350*F (175*C) for 10 minutes.

Arrange half of the tortillas in a 12 x 8 x 2-inch dish.
(I have small tapas pans that I use that hold one serving perfectly - so I can do these in single serve containers)
Top with half of chicken mixture. Repeat with remaining tortillas and chicken mixture.

(at this point you can sprinkle oon the cheese and wrap it up... )

Cover and bake for 25 minutes, uncover and sprinkle with cheese; bake for 10 minutes more.

Let stand 10 minutes.

Serve garnished with chopped tomatoes and a dollop of sour cream.

(this also makes really good use of leftovers from thanksgiving )

(for the terminally lazy -you can buy enchilada sauce in the mexican food aisle... )

Chicken streudel

1 lb ground chicken breast (or turkey, preferably extra lean)
1 sweet onion, diced (this is my preference, a spanish onion would be fine)
1/2 bunch asparagus
12 large mushrooms

Pinch cinnamon, cumin, chilli powder, ground coriander and black pepper
1/2 pinch nutmeg and allspice (if you want)

1/2 cup whole wheat couscous or bulgur wheat
1 cup water or broth for the couscous

8 sheets filo dough

Sautee onion in a spray of oil, add chicken and mushrooms and cook until brown. Add herbs and spices.

Chop asparagus and put in water. bring water to a boil and let boil for about 2 minutes, and turn off heat, add couscous or bulgur and wait for the water to evaporate.

When the water has evaporated, add the aspragus/couscous mixture tothe chikcen/mushroom mixture and stir...


Place 2 sheets of filo dough on a board and add 1/4 of the mixture to the filo... and wrap up sort of like a burrito.. (or if you're familair with greek food, in a triangle like spanikopita)

repeat x 3... so you have 4 little packages.


Wrap really well and freeze...

to cook...

Spray a baking tray with oil, place parcels on tray seam side down.
Lightly spray with oil.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 mins or until golden. (these do reeally well in the toaster oven..)

mmmmmmmmm mal, that looks good. I may just try it this weekend.

Tonight I'm having a scrumptuous ready made dinner. H went to the Mets/Giants baseball game for the second night in a row, so I'm eating his serving of last night's yummy chicken (cooked in a garlic/olive oil/lime juice marinade) and his serving of mashed potatoes. Tomorrow we'll eat the pork we should've had tonight, so that's stretching things even further! For a working woman and mom, this pre-planning is the best thing since sliced bread!

the streudel things you can go nuts with the substituting too... you can make them all vegetables... use various meats...really whatever makes you happy with them -just make sure that whatever you're putting in them doesnt "juice" up too much... mushrooms get juicey -but cooking them first helps get rid of it and the couscous absorbs the rest of the moisture...

(the spanikopita recipe is spinach, garlic and feta cheese - aslo really good)

How's the freezer cooking coming? I hit the grocery today, but since it was DS BD over the WE and his GF was here, I didn't have time to plan for the large cooking. Maybe tomorrow evening I can get started.

Just a general tip. Never use fresh chicken in your dish if you are going to freeze it raw to cook later. Use IQF(Individually Quick Frozen) Chicken. Look for hormone-free, steroid-free, all natural IQF chicken breasts, My 2 stores and my catering business use Tyson and they are awesome. You will see and taste the difference.
When you freeze chicken in your freezer, ice crystals will slowly form and pierce and puncture the cell walls, when thawed all of that moisture winds up on the plate and not in your chicken. End result dry tasteless chicken.
I will post some easy freezer to oven chicken recipes in the coming days along with the nutritional information.

Wow this thread took off while I was gone, lol. Love all the great info, ty mal for posting those recipes :D Sorry I've been gone a while...we didn't have internet right away after we moved then I was too sick to care for almost two weeks (ear infection). I'm on hubby's computer right now...mine still isn't set up, lol. My kitchen is finally in order though so I'm about to start some pre-planning of my own for freezer cooking. Blancita inspired me to get to it :D I'll post how it goes.

So I ordered the debbie meyer produce bags online, along with two wireless lightswitches. I haven't tried the bags yet but the switches work great, lol. I go shopping tomorrow so I'll post back on the bags. I'm not worried though since so many of you said they work great :) Can't wait to not have to produce shop every 3 days :D