You know how I rave about freezer meals like they are the greatest things since sliced bread? Well, they are. But to be totally honest with you, they’re also hard work. I had someone ask me if the upfront work was worth it in the end. Do freezer meals really live up to the hype? I decided to break it down for you so you can be the judge. Here’s the good, the bad, and the ugly side to freezer meal cooking:
The Good:
The Good:The time savings. This one might seem like it shouldn’t make the list when you are deep in the heart of making those freezer meals, but I promise it makes sense once the initial work is done. You’ll be shuffling kids to volleyball and football and violin lessons and completely space dinner or decide you are too exhausted to cook, so all you have to do is pluck a freezer meal out and within 30 minutes you have a warm home-cooked meal on the table. The bulk of the work is already done. I cannot tell you the hours this has saved me in the kitchen each night! It’s my favorite thing about freezer meals!
The financial savings. We all know that buying in bulk saves money {if you do it right!}, so it should come as no surprise that one of the easiest ways to slash your budget is to cook in bulk also. Making 3 or 4 times the amount you’d normally make of one recipe allows you to purchase ingredients in larger quantities, which almost always saves you money. Then times those savings by the number of freezer meals you decide to make and the savings really add up. I have saved hundreds {yes, hundreds!} off my grocery bill by buying and cooking in bulk!
The sanity savings. Life gets busy, regardless of what stage of life you’re in. I always thought with my kids out of school that I’d suddenly find myself with all sorts of time. That’s laughable. My days are just as busy now as they’ve always been. The busy is different now, but I’m busy still the same. That means I can occasionally stress myself out trying to keep up with everything. And that includes meal planning. When I’m at my max and I just don’t have the mental capacity to deal with planning a menu or big shopping trip, I make my menu based on my freezer meals. Just like that, my stress level drops exponentially!
The planet saving. I’m not sure if you know this, but the energy it takes to process convenience food is crazy high, not to mention all that tossable packaging! By making all of your meals from scratch and then storing them in reusable containers, you’re doing earth a big favor!
The friend time. I try to fit in some time with my friends every few weeks, but scheduling is hard when everyone’s lives are crazy busy, but they aren’t crazy busy on the same schedule. So when I decide to do freezer meals, I use the “go big or go home” mentality, invite over all my girlfriends and enjoy a day working alongside my favorite peeps. We get to be productive while catching up. It really does make the time go by faster and I’m killing two birds with one stone. I highly recommend planning a freezer meal party with your friends if you’ve never hosted one before! You might even say they’re fun!
The Bad:
The Bad:The food could taste different. When you freeze things, textures change. When you reheat them, sometimes some of the flavor is lost. When you freeze for long periods of time, the quality of the meal can diminish. But these are rare instances, and for the most part, my family rarely notices. If you find a freezer meal that just doesn’t taste quite right when prepared from frozen, mark it off your list. I promise there are hundreds more to take its place and taste as delicious as if it came straight from the oven that day {which will actually happen with many of the freezer meals on my site!}.
The upfront effort. This one is the heart of the freezer meal debate. Is it worth all that upfront effort? I’ve been asked that so many times. And the answer is, it depends on you. Freezer meals take a lot of planning, a lot of prep work, a lot of continuous hours in the kitchen. You’ll be exhausted and probably never want to grocery shop or chop another onion as long as you live. But then all that work culminates in a freezer stocked full of healthy freezer meals that will make your life so much easier. Yes, it is A LOT of work upfront. I won’t lie about that. But I never regret it. Ever!
The Ugly:
The Ugly:Your kitchen. Be prepared for it to be a serious, disgusting disaster. Like bad bad. After we made 100 Freezer Meals in 5 Hours, my kitchen was scary. Like I wanted to check into a hotel for the night scary. And I had a bunch of friends to help clean it up. If you are doing this all on your own, the aftermath can feel overwhelming. But you have to keep in mind that it’s a one and done thing. Normally you would be making a disaster of your kitchen every night, and you’ll have to clean it up every night! This way a bulk of the disaster takes place on one night, and even if you didn’t get a group of friends together, you can enlist the help of your family to make quick work of it!
And there you have the truth about freezer meals. It might not be all roses, but the pros absolutely outweigh the cons in my book. What do you think? Is it worth all the extra effort and mess? Are you a freezer meal lover?
Freeze on!
~Mavis
ps. If you’re a freezer meal newbie, you can check out my Complete List of Freezer Meal Recipes here. There are pretty pictures for all you visual peeps like me, so you can decide if a recipe looks delicious before attempting it.
Teresa says
Being a one person household I still make freezer meals. When a recipe is for four servings I eat it twice and put two more servings in the freezer. Especially soup or chili. When my daughters were pregnant, I made them freezer meals for Christmas. They practically cried! To come home from a full day of work and not have to cook, best thing ever in their book. I’ve taken meals to friends in need and just as a “thinking of you” So, I say yes to freezer meals! However I do not do it on the volume you and your peeps do. 🙂
Susie says
Teresa, I can understand their emotions at receiving those! I froze meals when I was pregnant & it was awesome! Great mom!
Layne says
I think the easiest way to make freezer meals is to double or triple a recipe I make on the weekends. Lasagna, chicken and wild rice casserole, and pork fried rice are some of our family favorites. Although it may be considered “cheating” I’ve made freezer meals at Let’s Dish- you assemble the ingredients and they do the clean up. You pay for that convenience, but I think its worth it!
Diana says
I cook for one, not a family, but I wholly agree that cooking big batches and freezing them in portions is THE way to go. It saves a ton of money, and the food tastes better than store bought or carry out. There’s no having to guess what’s in my food when I’ve prepared it myself. I often joke that my freezer resembles the frozen entree section of the grocery store. I always have good meals to thaw and enjoy. For me, the positives clearly make it worth the occasional messy kitchen.
Wendy Clark says
I go through phases where I am gung-ho and make a ton and then I get tired and don’t do it for awhile. I do want to say thank you for making it so easy to print your recipes. On some sites it seems like you have to go to the moon and back just to find the print button or you have to sign up for their emails or something crazy like that. Thank you!
Mavis Butterfield says
Thanks for being here Wendy!
Sue R. says
If doing a huge cooking/freezing day is overwhelming, at least start with doubling or tripling a recipe when making a meal. Ease your way into it 🙂 I’ve never had enough freezer space to do lots of meals, but even doing a few is better than none!
Libby says
My biggest challenge is the space to store all that. I have a regular freezer and a smaller freezer in the garage and they are usually full of the basic ingredients we use everyday. I usually cook a few times a weeks and shop every other week. I cook for 7 people (6 of them boys) and it goes fast! I am good at buying meat on sale and portioning it into dinner sized portions prepped with spices and cut up so it’s easy to take out in the morning for that nights dinner. I also freeze beans and rice in portion bags for a quick meal. I really don’t have room for a casserole size pan. Is it worth it to buy a deep freezer?
Katie says
I love my deep freezer, it’s absolutely worth it. We buy our meat in bulk from Zaycon Fresh so I keep it all portioned in there and use my fridge freezer for frozen meals and veggies etc.
Susie says
When I got divorced and moved into a much lower income bracket, the first thing I did was buy a large standing freezer. I made payments, no interest, to Home Depot for 18 months. Best financial decision I made. I knew I couldn’t buy in bulk when I saw big savings without a freezer. Definitely worth the investment.
Tisha says
I am in the double or triple batches of food camp. I think one big day of cooking like that would be too much for me. A benefit to doing a double or triple batch is the clean up savings. Cleaning the mixing bowl or food process takes the same amount of time no matter the quantity added to it. To me, one of the drawbacks of freezer meals is how long they take to reheat in the oven (for casseroles). If it is planned ahead, it can thaw in the fridge some shortening the time, but often I need the freezer meals as a last minute thing.
KC says
Reheat time is also my bane. It takes so much longer than most of my “quick” meals (omelettes, pasta, etc.), so if we need dinner on the table ASAP, it’s not going to be a freezer meal.
I’ve also had repeated lousy results heating things from frozen in the oven – even commercial frozen lasagna failed miserably in one of our heat-leaking heat-from-the-bottom gas rental ovens; burned on the bottom while it was still cold in the middle, 20 minutes past when it was supposed to be fully done! I learned how to rig it up for baked goods after my second batch of burned-on-the-bottom-still-pasty-on-top biscuits, but frozen things just never seemed sufficiently worth trying after the repeated failures. But that’s an oven problem, not directly a problem with frozen meals per se.
Mel says
Yes, to solve the reheat issue, I have a variety of items that thaw in different ways and with different times. We have several freezer-to-oven/stove items that fill the gaps when I forget to thaw something. But, I froze 250 meals this summer, so I get that that level of thought isn’t worth it to everyone.
My latest thing is freezing doughnut batter (baked/not fried) for weekend breakfasts. I’ve always done scones since they are freezer-to-oven, but I’m ridiculously excited to be able to serve doughnuts on Christmas morning and to have the batter all set to go.
Janet Parks says
Mel, please share your frozen batter for baked donuts recipe!! Thanks!
Janet from WA
Mel says
Oh, I just use the King Arthur Flour pumpkin doughnut recipe. I freeze the batter in a ziploc and throw it into the fridge a day or so before I need it so it can thaw. When ready, just snip the corner off the bag and pipe into the pans. But this really should work with any baked doughnut recipe. You can freeze yeast dough too, but it’s a little trickier (due to rise time), and those are usually fried.
For scones, again, any recipe will do. I’m currently using the King Arthur Flour apple cinnamon scone recipe, but vanilla bean scones are also a favorite. Freeze cut but unbaked (lay them on a cookie sheet and transfer to a bag once frozen) and then bake directly from the freezer–they just take a minute or two longer.
You can also freeze cupcake batter in the liners and bake directly from the freezer. Again, they just cook a bit longer. I did that last year with Mavis’s gingerbread cupcakes.
Mel says
And most biscuits are just scones. So you can follow the same scone method with biscuits.
It’s worth noting that I am exceptionally lazy in the mornings. My husband cooks us oatmeal on weekends before work, and I stock the freezer with fancier breakfast fare for weekends and holidays.
janet in woodway says
Mel, thanks so much!!
Mavis, you should try this and then do a post on Mel’s idea to freeze then bake. I’m excited to try the donut recipe!! I love your blog, I’ve learned a lot, been entertained for sure, and enjoy many of your recipes. Thank you!
Mel says
No problem, Janet! I know Mavis freezes breakfast items (she mentioned freezer cinnamon rolls recently), so she actually may already have enough similar ideas. If not, I think I’ve got enough info to provide a guest post (or just send Mavis the instructions so she can do it), if she’s interested. I’m making the doughnuts tomorrow, so I’ll try to remember to take pictures just in case.
Stephanie says
I LOVE freezer meals and I agree that they are totally worth the effort. Starting in January (after the holidays…haha…) I will be transitioning to once-a-month grocery shopping (and blogging about the experience), and I know that freezer meals will be a huge part of making that a reality. Thanks for all of your awesome freezer recipes! Your taco casserole is one of my family’s favorites.
Brooke says
One thing I’m trying to get going with 3 friends is trading freezer meals. We each make a quadruple batch of something. We keep one, and givee the others to our friends. Less mess with one dish even in large quanties, and you reap the benefit of different meals.
Carrie says
My hubby hates casseroles so a lot of freezer meals are out of the question for us. I end up cooking a lot of protein, shredding and then freezing for later use. My favorite is to make a pork shoulder for shredded bbq in the instant pot. I save leftovers in 2 cup portions, freeze and then use for brunswick stew later. I use shredded chicken in white chicken chili (which is really fast to make with canned beans). When I make salmon burgers I make extra to freeze.
Like previous comments I will double a recipe and freeze one. It’s minimal extra work that way.
Ginger says
I’m in the minority here in that I do not like freezer meals. I feel like I’m eating leftovers. My family isn’t fond of casseroles which seems to be the most common freezer meal. Sometimes if we have leftover portions from dinner that I know won’t get eaten in a couple days, I’ll freeze it for later, but this is pretty rare. Our deep freeze is stocked with meats, fruits, and veg that we make fresh meals with daily.
Athena says
I love freezer meals and have done them a couple of ways. I’ve done the big freezer meal cook and it was a lot of work, though a huge benefit. I’ve also made a double or triple batch of something and then frozen the extra for later. Both ways are great and I use both depending on my schedule and energy level.
Another thing I do is forego making complete freezer meals and instead do meal starters, usually when I get something on sale or for a good price in bulk. I picked up 40 lbs of hamburger from Zaycon? Great, 5 lbs are cooked up as taco meat and portioned and frozen for single meals, 5 lbs are cooked up with onions and salt and pepper and portioned and frozen for single meals, 5 lbs are mixed with seasonings and pattied out and frozen to use as hamburgers or even easy salisbury steaks. The rest is portioned and frozen for single meals. I do the same with chicken from zaycon. Most is just portioned and frozen but some I’ll cook and shred and then portion and freeze, more will get mixed with different salad dressings and marinades and frozen in ziploc bags for easy marinated chicken we can grill or bake. I do this with bulk veggie purchases too. Potatoes are a great buy, I’ll get a few bags and prep them for the freezer. I’ll make a huge batch of mashed potatoes, portion and freeze. A huge batch of french fries, blanch and freeze. A huge batch of steak fries and blanch and freeze. I haven’t done hash browns yet but plan to! Bell peppers are on sale a few times a year and I buy a bunch, slice and dice and portion and freeze. All of these things lead to easier cooking in the long run. The meats are ready for whatever I want to use them in (chili, enchiladas, tacos, taco bowls, nachos, soups etc..) and the veggies are ready to be thrown into the pot with all the other ingredients with no prep work from me the day I cook.
I save time and money no matter how I prep goods for the freezer and that makes me happy.
Marcia says
I used to make freezer meals a lot more. I do less of it now – it’s a lot of work, and it doesn’t always lend itself to the kinds of food that I eat anymore. I can’t eat gluten, so most pastas are out, for example.
Plus it’s a lot of work up front! When I was working, had an elementary kid, and a newborn, I would do something like that – but I would cook 3 meals on the weekend. 2 would be for dinners and the 3rd for lunch – and I’d package the lunch meals into 10 containers for my husband and I and put them in the freezer.
Lately, I do a bit of a different method. I read (somewhere) a good idea to “Cook/ make 1 thing each day, enough for 2-3 days”. Leftovers without getting bored?
So Sunday, make lentils and rice food prep. Monday, eat lentils & rice with kale chips. Tuesday, make butternut squash soup (with sandwiches). Wednesday, eat lentils & rice and soup. Thursday, make pasta and eat it with the last of the soup. Friday, make broccoli and eat it with the leftover pasta. Still have to make something every day, but only one thing.
Wendy says
I haven’t tried your way of making freezer meals, Mavis, but a long time back, inspired by a magazine article about it, I spent a weekend and made, I think, 24 meals that I froze. I was so exhausted I vowed to never do it again. My go-to is the same as others have mentioned: I double a recipe and freeze the extra for later. It’s the most wonderful feeling in the world to know I have a (small) inventory of meals ready-to-go!
Jessie says
I’m a retired female and I do freezer meals to a certain extent, not full-scale, I’ll make a large recipe of something like chili or soup and freeze some. I also have a cheat for days when I don’t want to face cooking at all: I keep several bags of frozen vegetables in the freezer and can pull out a commercially or home-frozen entree, add a layer of veggies for better nutrition, and nuke away giving it an extra minute or so. Not sure what others do but my secret to keeping flavor and avoiding freezer burn is to chill the filled container AND LID thoroughly, place a piece of plastic wrap snugly on top of the food, then cover and freeze.
Tracy says
Oh my. I don’t know where to begin. I will never have any interest in making “100 meals at a time”. Nevah. Or even 50. Or even 25. Or even 10. And the thought of having a half dozen women running around my kitchen cooking at the same time makes my hair stand on end. But, I do make homemade stock, many soups which I freeze in individual portions and some sauces that have a long cooking time on days that I’m tied to the house for other reasons. All of which I freeze. And, I usually try to make a simple double quantity of those meals that can be frozen, which, frankly are not many around here. I’m not a big fan usually of a bunch of veg and some protein in a big slop of gravy or sauce. Looks a bit too “dog’s breakfast” to me. I do have a well stocked pantry, a wide collection of recipes for quickly prepared fresh meals and the basics frozen (stock, cut and prepped home grown vegetables, various high quality proteins, etc.) and I can make a nice dinner in under 30 minutes.
Pauline in Upstate NY says
Just read the first 15 comments, and I *love* hearing the variations on the theme as we all adapt to our families/stages of life. It sounds to me like we are all basically in the same boat of using whatever steps make sense to pre-prep and simplify our meals, even though we may approach it differently individually. Personally I am in the camp that cooks once and puts another meal or two in the freezer after that cooking, so that I end up with a variety of entrees to pick from fairly quickly. Just thaw, heat, add some combo of veggies/rice/pasta. This proved its worth recently, when I got hit by some sort of unrelenting virus that really sapped my energy, but we had more than two weeks of easy dinners in the freezer, and that saved us. However, there are only two of us now in this mostly-retired-empty-nest stage of life, and that changes everything compared to having a young family and still going to work. Thanks to all for the input and ideas! Now, if only Zaycon did events in New York… (they don’t).
Lisa says
Working full time makes it difficult to do the major make a ton of freezer meals in one day. I also make a double or triple batch of items that freeze well and freeze 1-2 meals. We are empty nesters so sometime a regular batch makes more than enough for an extra freezer meal or several days of lunches. I try to plan meals at least a week preferably a month at a time with freezer meals for those days when just too tired to make something fresh. I think do what works best for you and your family at the time.
Janet says
I don’t do it every night, but my best way for freezer meals is to double or triple what I’m making and divide/freeze the extras. Personally, no way would I do the hours of work all at once, just not my thing. I also do things like, when I’m cooking meat/onions for a meal, I’ll cook a larger amount, cool, divide, chill overnight, freeze what I’m not using. Then it’s ready to grab to add into a meal for faster preparation.
I NEVER, never, never put cooled food directly into the freezer……Always chill it overnight first in the fridge, then put in freezer.
Susie says
I’m going to make another comment that sort of goes along with the freezer prep thing: when 3 lb bags of onions go on sale for 99 cents, I’ll buy 9 lbs & spend about 20 minutes chopping them all up with my Vidalia Chop Wizard (no, I don’t work for them, it just really does work) and my onion goggles. I freeze all the chopped onions in a gallon zip lock (sometimes it takes another quart bag) and for $3, I have chopped onions ready anytime. MUCH cheaper than buying the prechopped in the produce or frozen section.
When I was pregnant (28 years ago!), I made over 35 freezer meals (enough for two, just me & my husband) with about 4-5 recipes. I froze them all in foil loaf pans. That was MY form of “nesting”. Like others have said, it really saved my sanity for those days where I never got out of my nightgown/nursing gown, much less got to take a shower! I recommend it now to all pregnant moms.
Practical Parsimony says
First of all, there is just me. A friend comes once a week. Second, my large freezer broke and I am not getting another one right now. I do cook more food than the two of us can eat at once. I do send food home with him every week. When I make anything, I plan to eat from it at least three days. Often, I just send him home a quart of soup in a freezer bag, or maybe three pint bags of soup or beans.
Last week, I had five pounds of 93% lean ground beef. I am allergic to beef. I made Mavis taco casserole in the crock pot. So, it ends up more like a soup. He had four pints, frozen, to take home. I also made a meat loaf for him, frozen four portions in pint bags again. The last was meat balls. He can take these out and eat as he pleases. Since I sent him home with six baked sweet potatoes and two huge baked potatoes, he can put together as he likes. Potatoes were not frozen.
When I buy boneless, skinless chicken breasts, I cook the whole family pack in the crockpot. I send home at least one with him. Of course, we both eat a meal. Then I freeze the cooked breasts so I can get them out to use however I want.
However, if I had a freezer, I would do more freezer meals, not just parts of meals. I would probably put them in 8×8 inch casseroles.
I have several divided dishes, plastic, that I would probably make for him to take home for his freezer. That way, he could just thaw a meal without having to put things together. When I give him cornbread, I cut the pan of cornbread in 8 pieces, wrap in waxed paper, and put it all in a gallon freezer bag. I did just cook a half portion for him, but decided to make a full portion and send it home frozen, so I suppose that is batch cooking.
When Vidalia onions are in and on sale, I use my Excalibur dehydrator and dehydrate quarts and pints to use all year long. If I can dehydrate it, I do that instead of freezing.
Lots of people cooking in my kitchen would not please me. Even though my friend does not cook at all, he is good with a knife. He was nervous at first about cutting things correctly, like cheese, ham or zucchini. However, he does an excellent job, so I might have him here to help with the slicing and dicing if I were cooking huge batches. I would buy us both about a half dozen glass casseroles. I do not like eating from aluminum or cleaning those pans.
Drew says
What a sweetheart, my dear!
Thank you for thinking of others!!
mdoe37 says
I’m also in the double the recipe camp. For a single…or even a couple…. I think it helps to have a nice variety of foods available. I would never cook a pot of chili for one person (too much) or a tiny batch either (too much hassle). If I make that big batch and freeze it, I can have chili occasionally. I’m not re-inventing the wheel with every meal!!
I’ve bought things like bulk hamburger and split it up. Patties, chunks, meatloaf, etc. I also would sometimes take a portion of it, fry it up and then freeze in meal size portions. That way you can use it and season it when you need whether it is for tacos or a casserole. Right now I have a ham and a turkey thawing in the fridge. This weekend I’m going to cook them off and can the meat. Ready to go meat on the shelf!