Looking for Easy to Freeze Meals for a Family of 5

E.,
If you shoot me a private message with your email address I can send you a couple of PDF files of freezer recipes and assembly instructions.

You can also try this website:
http://snider.mardox.com/

Lots of soup!! Rice/Lentil casserole, spaghetti, pancakes, waffles, twice baked potatoes (can be frozen), pizza, black bean chili, ravioli (Costco has some awesome spinach kind in the frozen section!), Ikea frozen meatballs and noodles with mushroom soup, Garden burgers, frozen PBJs (for the kids). There are lots of places that you can go to and prepare the food for a month and freeze it all. These places are great because they get a discount on the bulk ordering and they have some pretty good recipes that are very easy to just throw in the oven. Good luck! I'm a food tree coordinator for a listserve I belong to and I'm always trying to figure out how to make frugal food that will freeze!

A.

casseroles and lasagna freeze the best IMO. try kraft foods online for recipes. my favorite casserole is tater tot casserole. you just brown hamburger meat (i season it with salt, pepper, onion, and garlic), add cream of celery soup (or any other campbell's soup i.e. cream of cheddar, cream of mushroom, etc.), then add a can of veges (i use corn or peas most often but you can add anything you want), then you put it in a 9x13 casserole dish, top with tater tots and cook for approx. 20-25 min. or until tots are done. i love it since it's really simple and quick to fix, you can use many different vege/soup combinations so it doesn't taste the same every time, and the leftovers taste just as good as when it's first cooked =)

Chili is definitely a great meal to make and freeze. I usually make too much on purpose so I can freeze and reheat later.

breakfast burritos and bean, meat, and cheese burritos.

White chili
Red chili
Soups
Lasagna

Hi E.

The thing is this, almost any food can be frozen well if it is wrapped right.

I make and freeze chili dogs individually, breakfast burritos, sausage on biscuits, spaghetti sauces and pasta freeze brilliantly as long as you freeze them seperatly and so i went through this once, i was going to be away for 10 days from my family. here is what i did.

all in one day lol!

Made a HUGE pot of pasta sauce (meat marara) enough for two meals.

Meal one spaghetti and meatsauce I made 3 individual freezer BAGS of sauce and 3 bags of cooked pasta yes i said it freezer bags lol.. here is the beauty of bags. all her family has to do is set them in the fridge in the morning to defrost or sit them in a pot of warm water and nuke them on a plate!

Second meal with sauce lazagne buy the no boil brand of pasta and make individual lasagne in microwave safe tupperware things.

Step 2 Huge pot of chili

meal one erm chili with rice, you can freeze them together in the tupperware things or freezer bags, I prefer the bags

meal 2 chili dogs yes you can freeze chili dogs after they have been put together, the trick is to freeze them seperate like in aluminum foil and then just put them on a baking sheet frozen and bake them

meal 3 chili mac make some pasta like shells and mix the chilli and some veggies in and freeze them individually as well.

Here was the fun part for my kids!

I took some gallon size bags and made crock pot dinners and froze them.

One I browned some stew meat and let it cool, in the bag i put the meat, some potatoes, some carrots, and seasonings all in there like lipton sopu mix. I wrote on the outside of the bag put all in crock pot turn on low add water to the top. they were SOOO excited they could make a home cooked dinner and its safe! :)

I did the same with boneless chicken i cooked 4 breasts and let them cool put them in a freezer gallon bag, added 2 cans of tomatoes and froze it, on bag i wrote put in crock pot on low in the morning when you come home take a bag of frozen pasta and warm in microwave, put chicken and sauce over pasta!

lastly I fried up 5 lbs of hamburger
2 pounds I mixed in a large can of manwich (sloppy joe mix) put in a gallon bag and freeze you can also freeze buns :P

1 pound I made hamburger helper cheeseburger mac and froze in individual servings.

2 pounds I made a casserole from and this is my favorite recipe for anytime btw!

mix in 1 large can cream of chicken and cream of mushroom soup buy 2 bags of tater tots and a 4 cup bag mozzerella cheese. layer a pan with tater tots then the meat mixture then half the cheese, then a top crust of tater tots and bake at 35o til tater tots are brown and cooked through layer again with rest of cheese. let cool divide into individual containers and freeze. Reheats beautifully!

Thats 10 days but if you need a few more ( i do this alot)

make a huge pot of beans 1 pound (put in crock pot with a piece of salt pork to cook overnight on low) divide in 3 parts in gallon bags.

part one beans and rice, you can also add some sausage slices to the bag before freezing and the rice as well.

part two mix in with hamburger meat and mash.. makes GREAT burritos which you could also make ahead and freeze individually, but not needed kids can handle doing that part :)

part 3 i reserve to make nachos (great with some of that chilli you already made as well :)

now I know what your thinking where is the veggies? i got ya.. Buy bags of frozen.. to mix and match. but me personally, I mix veggies in the foods I cook already like the chili and sauces.

I hope these help a bit, but I think the important part is to get her family involved, let the kids help out with making things, the best gift you can give her if she does not have one is a crock pot.

My daughter was allowed to cook at 5 in ours. and took GREAT pride in doing so once a week. you can put near anything in a crock pot with a lil salt, water and some sort of sauce and have a great dinner lol!

enjoy and do try the tater tot casserol, cheap and GOOD!

Dream Dinners put out a good cookbook with tons of interesting recipes for make ahead and freeze dinners.

Here's their website:
http://dreamdinners.com/main.php?static=dd_dreamdinnersex...

Here's more on the book:
http://dreamdinners.com/main.php?static=dd_cookbook

I have a great EASY recipe for pot pie that she can freeze and just cook!

Meatloaf freezes very well either cooked or uncooked. You can buy really good tasting mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes in boxes now. Just add a little Smart Balance (butter and olive oil), onion powder, Tony Chachere's if you like. Cook some carrots to go with or use frozen veggies. Teach the kiddoes to peel and cut up veggies for finger foods. Costco has great red bell peppers, carrots. Apples, cored but with the peels left on can be sliced and sauteed in a little Smart Balance, sprinkled with a small bit of lemon or lime juice.... about a table spoon for four apples... and a teaspoon of cinnamon mixed with a tablespoon of sugar for a great dessert. Eat them as is or put them over a bit of ice-cream or topped with yogurt or half and half if you like.

A loaded baked potato can be a meal in itself. Muir Glen canned soups are almost as good as homemade. I add a little extra beef broth to them and any leftover vegetables and sesonings.... Tony Chachere's and garlic and onion powders.

Bush's new Grillin' Beans mixed with a can of Bush's pinto beans tastes good to us. The Grillin's by themselves were too sweet for our taste. I add sauteed chopped onion and some beef sausage to our beans and with cornbread, it makes a simple meal. A little side salad would be nice. Morrison's mixes are good for cornbread, biscuits and pancakes.

See all the recipes sent to another mom this week. Bless you for helping your friend.