One of my favorite ways to save money is to create a meal plan that details exactly what we are going to eat for the next week or two. This helps prevent impulse buys at the grocery store and the purchase of unnecessary ingredients. Having a plan also helps to avoid food waste. If I know we have some particularly busy weeks coming up, I will make freezer meals ahead of time. It is soooo nice being able to just pull a meal out the freezer and either toss it in the Crock Pot or the oven, and know that we will have a healthy, easy meal ready for dinner that night.
In order to make this process easier, I have complied a list of 10 freezer meals and a corresponding shopping list. The shopping list assumes you have basic spices already stocked in your house. The recipes are pretty healthy and can all be made gluten free if necessary. There are a mix of slow cooker meals and casseroles for the oven. I usually freeze my slow cooker meals in double freezer bags laying flat.
For the casseroles, I purchased this pack of 8×8 disposable casserole pans on Amazon–20 for $19.99. They are perfect since you can cook the casserole and store the leftovers in the same container, then simply throw it away! This makes the clean-up sooo easy. There are also some similar containers with lids at Dollar Tree, but they are smaller than these. They carry 9×13 containers as well, but the lids are plastic, making them more difficult to stack in the freezer. I always label my freezer meals and include cooking directions–this way my husband can make them too ;).
The recipes included are Low-Calorie Italian Casserole, Alfredo Chicken Casserole, Cabbage Roll Casserole, Skinny Cheeseburger Casserole, Philly Cheesesteak Casserole, Crock Pot Skinny Jambalaya, Mexican Salsa Chicken, Instant Pot Beef and Broccoili, Crock Pot Bowtie Casserole, and Skinny Orange Chicken. Please note that these are not my own recipe, but taken from Pinterest, with a few of my own modifications. Our favorites from this list are the Low-Calorie Italian Casserole, Cabbage Roll Casserole, and Skinny Cheeseburger Casserole. They are especially good with a little Frank’s Red Hot drizzled on top. Be sure to take your freezer meals out of the freezer in the morning to thaw out before cooking.
Please excuse the formatting on the lists–I am not the most tech savvy!
What are some of your favorite freezer meals?
Traveling with Pennies 