Keeping a supply of homemade, ready-to-eat food in the freezer or pantry is one of the smartest things you can do to save time and money and improve the quality and nutrition of the food your family eats. I began this journey because I found myself resorting to too many frozen pizzas and take-out meals for evenings when there was no time to cook (a meeting after school followed by an aerobics class, then handbell practice....). Before you get out the army-sized pots and pans, here are some helpful tips I recently found at redplum.com:
1. DO automatically think, every time you make a meal, about whether you can cook extra and save it for another meal.
2. DON'T make a double or triple batch and put it all on the tale, expecting to freeze what's left. If it was really, really good, it may disappear.
3. Try a recipe - or more importantly, have your family try it - before you make a quadruple batch!
4. Label everything clearly and well. The label should have a description, date, and any cooking instructions. Write with something big and bold enough that you can read it through a little frost if necessary.
5. Start small. Instead of trying to cook every meal for a month in one day (a task so daunting especially by the time you clean up, you may never repeat it), make large batches of your family's favorite freezable recipes. It's not much more work to make a bigger pot of chili, for example.
6. Clean and sort your freezer before you start your make-ahead plan. Don't feel guilty about throwing away freezer-burnt old food no body's going to eat. It has to go, or you won't have room for you new, money saving make-ahead meals.
7. Put safety first. Keep your freezer at 0 degrees Fahrenheit or below. Don't add too much food at once, and never add hot food to the freezer, or it will warm up the whole freezer.
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