Tips on Freezer Cooking for Healthy Eating & Easy Meal Planning

Tips on Freezer Cooking for Healthy Eating & Easy Meal Planning
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Strategies for Keeping your Family Fed with Healthy Homemade Meals

As a mother of a very busy family, I sometimes wish meal preparation were easier. I do get tempted at times to reach for the easy pre-packaged foods at the grocery store. Usually, however, I pick it up, look at it, and return it to the shelf. I really don’t want my family eating processed, sugary, trans-fat foods!

I have experimented with many different ways of bringing healthy food into this house. Organic food co-ops, weekly produce delivery, and weekly menu-based cookbooks have all taken their turn. My favorite technique, however, has been bulk freezer cooking.

Freezer Cooking for a Month’s Worth of Meals

I first thought of the idea when looking at all of the microwave-ready dinners in the freezer section. It seemed to me that I could do a similar thing but with healthier and much tastier foods. Around that time, I met a friend who asked me to try freezer cooking with her as a team. We used tips from the book <em>30 Day Gourmet</em> by Nanci Slagle. The strategy was to spend one day cooking for a month’s worth of meals. It sounded like fun, especially since I’d be doing it with a friend. We did our planning, swapped our recipes, divided the grocery list, and spent a very long day in my kitchen making a wonderful variety of dinners, side dishes, snacks, and desserts. It was so rewarding throughout the month to reach into my freezer for delicious and nutritious homemade food.

Other Strategies for Doubling up on Healthy Meals

As time has gone on and more children have entered the picture, I have worked on tweaking this method of food preparation. Sometimes I have just chosen to double a meal and throw it in the freezer, other times I’ll have spent a Saturday morning just cooking snacks and breakfast foods. One of my favorite twists on freezer cooking was a meal swap that we formed with a group of similar sized families. Eight families got together monthly to swap meals and side dishes. We each chose one dish to make, designed to feed a family of 6, multiplied it by 8, and met to swap meals in the parking lot of a grocery store.

Meal Swap for 8 Families

We lined up with our mini-vans side by side and the trunks popped open, hustling back and forth to fill one another’s coolers; joking that it looked like a strange sort of drug deal.

Having strategies for keeping healthy food in my home has allowed me to feed my family well, even on the days when we are very busy. I have also found it very easy for times when we have road trips or have gone on vacations. Freezer meals can go right in the cooler, thereby eliminating the need to spend a lot of money at restaurants or resorting to the greasy fast food chains. On the rare occasion that I am away for a weekend, I know that I have left my family with easy and nutritious meal choices.

In Summary

Keeping healthy, homemade food in the house is a process and, at least in my experience, cannot be perfected. There are times when we eat cereal or peanut butter and jelly for dinner. After all, I do have limited energy and time resources. But a stocked freezer provides a very content feeling. As the freezer resources start to dwindle and I hear more and more complaints about hunger, I find myself searching recipes and filling out the shopping list. Somehow or another, the freezer will be filled again!

Healthy Snacks

This post is part of the series: Freezer Cooking Tricks and Tips

Freezer Cooking is a great way to keep healthy, homemade foods available for your family even on the busiest of days. Although it’s easier than it looks, a little information can help set you up for success. Look here to find some helpful questions, answers, and resources.

  1. Freezer Cooking for Healthy Eating
  2. Freezer Cooking FAQ&rsquo;s &amp; Tips