Freezer Meals 101

This make ahead chicken cacciatore has a nice blend of flavours. This is an easy family friendly dish that can be served on pasta or on its own. This recipe is also gluten free.

I love when recipes can be cooked multiple ways. I find that gives me the freedom to choose the cooking method depending on our plans that day. This meal can be cooked in the oven or in the slow cooker.

If we are going to be out all day, I throw it in the Crock Pot but otherwise, I cook it in the oven. Nice and versatile!I know the pictures aren’t awesome, but this is a nice dish. When we are getting tired of the usual pasta sauces, I will pull out one of these freezer meals. It’s a welcome change.

The blend of Italian flavours go well with any pasta. I usually use rotini or penne, but even a long noodle would work.

If your kids (or your husband!) absolutely will not eat the mushrooms, then just leave them out. It is more authentic with them, but it can stand up without them too.

Chicken Cacciatore Recipe:

• 2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed*
• 1 cup onion, diced
• 1x 28 oz. can diced tomatoes
• 1 bay leaf
• 1x 5 1/2 can tomato paste
• 1x 10 oz. can mushroom pieces (or substitute fresh mushrooms)
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. pepper
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tsp. Italian seasoning
• 1/4 cup white wine (or substitute non-alcoholic wine)

*You can use boneless, skinless chicken thighs without cubing if you prefer.

You can serve the chicken and sauce on pasta if you wish with a generous sprinkling of Parmesan cheese.

This Chicken Cacciatore recipe is included in our Gluten Free Freezer Meal Menu Plan. You’ll find other great recipes there along with handy printable shopping lists and labels. 

These recipes may interest you as well:

Droolworthy BBQ Shredded Chicken in the Crock Pot 

Make Ahead Spaghetti Sauce 

Making freezer meals with beef stir fry strips is so fast. This Beef Curry recipe takes advantage of the speed that buying pre-cut meat enables, but packs a big flavour punch. It heats up in no time flat. This lets you get supper on the table so you can get on with the more important things in life…

…like watching reruns of Friends or catching up on that book you’re supposed to read for Book Club or checking out the latest Netflix show everyone has been talking about!

As you can tell, my priorities are getting my family fed so that I can move on to things that are more fun. I like to cook, but don’t want to have to spend hours in the kitchen every day.

After that brief commercial plug for sedentary pursuits, back to the beef curry!

Beef Curry Freezer Meal Recipe:

• 1 lb. beef stir fry strips
• 1/2 cup onion, chopped
• 1 cup red and yellow bell pepper, diced
• 28 oz. can diced tomatoes
• 1/2 cup curry paste*
• 3 tsp. sugar
• 1/2 cup heavy cream

*I prefer the Madras or Spicy curry paste, but use whichever one is your favourite.

Place the stir fry strips, chopped onion, diced peppers, can of tomatoes, curry paste, sugar, and cream in a large resealable bag. Squish together to combine the ingredients. Remove excess air, seal, and freeze.

On the day of cooking, thaw the bag. Either stir fry the bag contents on high heat until the beef is cooked through or cook in the slow cooker for 4-6 hours on low.

I love rich flavours and for me, the spicier, the better so I add more curry paste than the recipe calls for. Adjust the spice level according to your own preferences by adding more or less curry paste or by using a spicier or milder curry paste.

You can serve the beef curry alongside or on top of rice, wrapped up in flour tortillas or on its own. Garnish with fresh cilantro if desired. 

This beef curry recipe is one of many in the Beef Dump Recipes cookbook. Using the dump cooking method, you can easily make 10 meals in less than one hour. It’s super efficient. The cookbook includes meal plans, shopping lists, and printable labels. Check out these recipes:

Make Ahead Ground Beef Stroganoff  

Hearty Crock Pot Beef Stew 

This list of one month of freezer meals provides everything you could want. It gives variety in terms of proteins, cooking methods and tastes. The recipes include meals for the crock pot, the Instant Pot, the skillet and the oven.

The reason I like to make-ahead meals with different cooking methods is that I can then choose which freezer meal to pull out in the morning based on what our day will look like. If we will be out all day, then putting something in the slow cooker may be the best option, whereas if one of the kids has a sports event that evening, we can use a skillet recipe that will be ready to eat in 20 minutes or less. 

If you’re new to freezer cooking, you’ll want to read this ESSENTIAL START UP GUIDE. Once you’ve got the basics down, dig in and get started!

These easy freezer meals make meal prep simple.

Of course, I would suggest that you actually double each of these recipes so that you can get two month’s worth of meals in your freezer instead of one month.

I can’t even describe the feeling of standing back and admiring your full freezer, of knowing that you won’t have to think about supper again for at least a month! It’s one of my favourite things. After I finish a freezer meal marathon, I sneak over and open my freezer to take a peek for days. It always puts a smile on my face.

In my Freezer Meals 101 group on Facebook, one of the topics that comes up the most often is about choosing the recipes for freezer meals. People often find it overwhelming to choose recipes and make shopping lists, particularly when they are first starting.

With that in mind, I wanted to provide you with a month’s worth of freezer meals to take the guesswork out of preparing. I’ve included links to each one of the 30 recipes as well as a printable shopping list.

The shopping list includes everything you need to make one of each of the recipes. Remember to double the quantities on the shopping list if you are going to be doubling the recipes to end up with 60 meals. 

Recipes for One Month of Freezer Meals with No Repeats:

Sausage and Peppers Skillet Meal

Spaghetti Sauce

Beef Fajitas

Apple Maple Chicken Dump Recipe

Seafood Curry Freezer Meal

Asian Meatballs

Tex Mex Pasta Bake

Chicken and Vegetable Casserole with Crunchy Onion Topping

BBQ Shredded Chicken with Garlic Mayo

Beefy Rice Slow Cooker Casserole

Lemon Garlic Chicken

Freezer to Crock Pot Beef Stew

Chickpea and Vegetable Curry

Make Ahead Chicken and Spinach Penne Alfredo

Pizza Casserole (a kid friendly favourite)

Tater Tot Casserole (my kids beg me to make this one often)

Ground Beef Stroganoff

Garlic Butter Shrimp

Chicken Fried Rice

Lazy Cabbage Roll Casserole

Sloppy Joes

Soup Freezer Meals:

Hearty Sausage and Zucchini Soup

Italian Wedding Soup

Corn Chowder with Bacon

Vegetable Pesto Minestrone

Pinto Tortilla Soup

Slow Cooker Tortellini Soup

Instant Pot Freezer Meals:

Chicken Tikka Masala for the Instant Pot or the Crock Pot

Instant Pot Italian Chicken and Veggies

Butter Chicken for the Instant Pot

(If you don’t have an Instant Pot, you can make these in the Crock Pot by adjusting the cooking times.)

Get your printable shopping list for all the ingredients for these 30 recipes. 

This Chicken Fried Rice is adapted from my Tante Gisele’s recipe so that it can be made ahead as a freezer meal. Since the chicken and rice are pre-cooked, it is fast to reheat this to serve. This makes it a wonderful dish for those busy weeknights. 

Growing up, Chicken Fried Rice was a staple at family gatherings. Every Christmas, Easter, and Thanksgiving, my Tante Gisele (“Tante” is French for “aunt”) would make her famous dish. It was made with much love. I especially looked forward to the crunch of the water chestnuts!

It is hard to convey the memories that my Tante Gisele’s Chicken Fried Rice bring up for me. I think of being allowed to stay up past bedtime while listening carefully to the adults’ conversation and hoping they would forget I was there (I was younger than my next-oldest cousin on that side of the family by 9 years). I can still see the wood panelling on the walls in my aunt’s basement and hear the laughter ringing out.  

While this recipe requires a bit more work at the outset to cook the rice and chicken, it pays off on the day of serving because all that’s needed is just reheating.

Chicken Fried Rice Recipe: