Freezer Meal Recipe Collections

When you’re hosting a large gathering, the more that you can do ahead, the better. Being able to just pull these make ahead desserts out of the freezer takes so much stress off the day of. These freezer desserts are great for serving at a party or for last minute guests.

It’s also nice to have a few of these in the freezer all the time for unexpected company. I love being able to pop something onto a plate to serve with tea. The guests can relax and enjoy a nice visit because you’re not rushing around the kitchen.

Easy make ahead desserts for a crowd:

Frozen Oreo Pie – These are so easy to make and delicious. I always make two at a time.

Frozen Peanut Butter Cup Pie – Peanut butter and chocolate were made for each other!

Gingerbread Cheesecake Bites – These have the holiday flavours all wrapped up in one little bite.

Tropical Carrot Cake – You can freeze the whole thing including the cream cheese frosting.

Freezer Friendly Apple Crisp – I know that holiday get togethers are usually a time for pie, but I always prefer crisp.

Make Ahead Holiday Baking:

Christmastime is so much easier when your baking is done ahead of time.

Double Caramel Stuffed White Chocolate Chip Cookies

Easy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Eggnog Snickerdoodles

Triple-Peanut and Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ginger Molasses Cookies

Cinnamon Roll Cookies

Snickerdoodles

Christmas Ice Box Cookies

Nanaimo Bars can be frozen for up to 6 months.

Pumpkin freezer fudge

Peanut Butter Fudge

Pecan Pie Bars

Brownie Bites

Butterscotch Confetti Squares

Check out these other make ahead holiday helps:

Make Ahead Recipes for Christmas Morning Breakfast

Make Ahead Holiday Side Dishes

Dietary preferences don’t have to mean that you can’t have delicious made ahead meals ready to go in your freezer. These family friendly vegetarian freezer meals make busy weeknights as easy as can be. Just take out a meal in the morning, heat, and serve. Some of them can be cooked in the crock pot or Instant Pot, making them even easier.

In our family, there are a few of us who prefer not to eat much meat, so vegetarian meals are served at least a few times a week. I make them hearty and tasty so that there are no complaints from my meat eaters!

Vegetarian Freezer Meals for Easy Family Dinners:

Probably my favourite recent vegetarian freezer meal is this Black Bean and Corn Enchiladas Meal. The flavours are out of this world!

These Asian Rice Bowl freezer bags make a lunch or dinner that can be on the plate in minutes. There are so many variations that are possible by using your favourite vegetables.

The colours of this Chickpea and Vegetable Curry are as beautiful as they taste. It is such a nice crock pot meal.

It’s hard to beat the feeling of comfort that of macaroni and gooey cheese. Having this Make Ahead Mac and Cheese in the freezer means that you can indulge that craving anytime it hits.

This Slow Cooker Vegan Chili with hearty ingredients can be frozen for up to 3 months.

If you’re looking for gorgeous colours and depth of flavour, give this Instant Pot Moroccan Split Pea Soup a try. It’s vegan and gluten free and an easy to make freezer meal.

One of the great things about fresh corn is that it freezes so well. This delicious Pressure Cooker Vegan Corn Chowder can be made and enjoyed all year long.

This unique vegetarian lasagna with sweet roasted pumpkin, flavourful mushrooms, plenty of cheese and a wonderful mushroom bechamel sauce is a variation of Italian lasagna bianca, white lasagna.

Packed with veggies, this Coconut Chickpea Curry is a healthy freezer friendly midweek meal.

Pasta is one of my favourite make ahead meals like this Vegan Baked Ziti. If anyone in your family has allergies, this dish is gluten free, dairy free, and soy free, making it a meal that most people can have regardless of their dietary needs.

Made almost entirely from vegetables, this gorgeous Butternut Squash Soup is filled with things like carrots, onion, apples, sweet potato, butternut squash, and flavored with fresh garlic and ginger.

A Vegan Cauliflower Lentil Loaf that mimics the classic meatloaf with no meat, which is gluten free, nut free, and soy free. Get all your protein and veggies in this healthy recipe!

The Instant Pot enables you to make Borscht with all its flavour in a fraction of the time. This Eastern European beet soup will have you lining up for seconds!

More Make Ahead Vegetarian Meals:

• Instant Pot Tomato Soup
• Chickpea Butternut Squash Fajitas
• Gluten Free Vegan Eggplant Chickpea Curry
• Instant Pot Carrot Ginger Soup
• Gluten Free Vegetarian Lasagna

Vegetarian Freezer Side Dishes:

• Honey Maple Glazed Carrots
• Buffalo Ranch Cauliflower and Broccoli
• Freezer Garlic Bread
• Make Ahead Rice Pilaf
• Butternut Squash Make Ahead Dish

Our Vegetarian Freezer Meal Plan takes the guess work out of stocking your freezer ahead. It includes some of our most popular recipes along with the shopping lists, prep lists, and printable labels you’ll need.

I love that time on Christmas morning after the kids have opened their stockings when we all sit down together and eat breakfast. It’s relaxing and quiet and a time for family connection. I used to rush around making the food after the stockings were done. The kids would get grouchy because they were hungry and I felt pressured to get something on the table. Now that I use make ahead recipes for Christmas morning breakfast, things are totally different.

The kids can eat right away because the food is ready and I don’t have to stress about cooking. Instead, I can enjoy my family and be in the moment with them. I love it!

What I do is pop whatever it is I’ve made ahead into the oven as soon as I come down the stairs. Then we can start opening stockings in the living room while the smell of deliciousness starts to creep in from the kitchen. And I don’t have to worry about anything because when we’re done, breakfast is ready to be eaten!

Make Ahead Recipes for Christmas Morning Breakfast:

Make Ahead Cinnamon Freezer French Toast

If you’re looking for more of a make ahead brunch the whole family can enjoy, our make ahead french toast recipe is perfect.

Tater Tot Casserole with Ground Sausage

This is one of the most requested meals for the kids’ birthday suppers and there are cries of joy whenever I announce that I am making it!

The Best Make Ahead Pancake Mini Muffins

These make ahead pancake mini muffins are wonderful to have in the freezer.

Christmas Morning Frittata

The pictures don’t do it justice mainly because my attempt to make it look festive are not Pinterest worthy, but this is one of our favourites. We have it almost every year.

Make Ahead Breakfast Sausage Hand Pies

These simple breakfast hand pies can be made ahead and reheated one at a time for busy mornings.

Taco Breakfast Cups You Can Make Ahead

Having ready to go breakfasts like these taco breakfast cups make mornings so much easier.

Make Ahead Everything Bagels Breakfast Muffins

Making these everything bagels breakfast muffins ahead allows you to grab one on your way out the door or a busy Christmas morning!

French Toast Casserole – Make Ahead Freezer Breakfast

This make ahead French Toast Casserole is great to pop in the oven for an easy weekend breakfast.

Make Ahead Hot Roast Beef or Ham Sandwiches

The handheld sandwiches are great for a large group.

Cheesy Slow Cooker Hash Brown Casserole

This cheesy slow cooker hash brown casserole is perfect for potlucks, brunches or Christmas mornings. You can make it in the crock pot or the oven.

Bacon, toast, egg and cheese muffins

These are SO easy to make and you can prepare them ahead of time. You can make a ton of these in just minutes and store them in the fridge or freezer.

How to make easy freezer pancakes

It only takes a few seconds to warm up in the microwave, and they taste YUMMY still!  They last in the freezer about 3 months.

Pancake Muffins Recipe for Freezer

Mix and match your favourite toppings to make these freezer-friendly pancake muffins.

You may also be interested in checking out these to make the holidays even easier:

Make Ahead Holiday Main Courses

One of the first meals I ever made for my husband after we got married was beef stroganoff. What I didn’t realize at the time was that he was not really a fan of mushrooms. Given that he had grown up on his family’s mushroom farm, I assumed he ate them often! He let me know that evening that he actually didn’t like mushrooms, but he was a good sport and gave my cooking a try. He liked it so much that he’s been eating mushrooms ever since!

Since that early attempt, I’ve tried many beef stroganoff recipes and our family has a few favourites. No matter which type I decide to make, we all agree that it needs to be served with extra sour cream and served on egg noodles.

If you’re like my husband used to be and mushrooms aren’t really your thing, you can try omitting them, but I think you ought to give them a try and see if this classic comfort food can make you a mushroom believer too!

Beef Stroganoff Recipes:

Our Ground Beef Stroganoff recipe is one that I created with a few tweaks to my mother-in-law’s recipe. I make it as a freezer meal. It’s just total comfort food for me, so I always make several of them at a time. They are fast to heat up and get dinner on the table.

There are so many variations possible when it comes to this universal comfort food recipe such as this Easy One Pot Meatball Stroganoff. It’s ready in just 20 minutes.

This Classic Beef Stroganoff Recipe made from scratch features tender slices of steak and savoury mushrooms smothered in creamy brown gravy.

Cooking this in the Crock Pot gets the beef super tender so that it melts in your mouth. That’s the secret to this Slow Cooker Beef Stroganoff.

Making Beef Stroganoff in the Instant Pot speeds up the process, especially if you are using stew meat.

This Ground Beef Stroganoff makes a hearty, comforting dinner the whole family will love.

You don’t have to veer from your diet with this Low carb, Gluten free Crock pot Beef Stroganoff.

There are many ways to cook this dish. Sous Vide Beef Stroganoff will give you fall apart in your mouth beef while maintaining a medium rare center to the steak bites. The sauce is creamy, silky and has full layers of flavour.

If you like the flavours of stroganoff but are looking for something a little bit different, give this Easy Beef Stroganoff Soup a try. Yes, you read that right…soup!

This one doesn’t exactly fit the list because it’s missing the whole “beef” thing, but if you’re looking for the flavours with a different protein, check out this Pressure Cooker Ground Turkey Stroganoff.

With Easy Keto Beef Stroganoff you get filling beef and mushrooms in a low carb creamy sauce piled atop a bed of cauliflower rice.

For something different and also low carb, you can try Beef Stroganoff Burgers.

This keto version of the classic dish is actually a Beef Stroganoff Casserole. It’s topped with cheesy mashed cauliflower.

Where did Beef Stroganoff originate?

Beef Stroganoff originated in Russia where it was spelled Beef Stroganov. It has since become a worldwide classic.

What is Beef Stroganoff?

It is a dish made with beef and mushrooms in a creamy sauce. Now while it originally used “beef”, beef stroganoff recipes now incorporate different cuts of beef from steak to stew meat to hamburger. It can also be made with ground round for vegetarians. You also incorporate sour cream either in the meal itself or served alongside.

Beef Stroganoff is traditionally served over egg noodles and this is one thing you won’t want to stray from. They make the perfect pairing. If you don’t like the texture of egg noodles, you could choose another pasta, but it just won’t be the same. A little chopped parsley on the top finishes things beautifully!

Can Beef Stroganoff be frozen?

Yes! In fact, I always make ours as a freezer meal. It freezes beautifully. Plus, when I make it ahead, it means that I always have one in the freezer ready to be pulled out on a day when comfort food is of the essence.

Which wine goes best with Beef Stroganoff?

I am far from a sommelier, but for this question, I turned to the experts in this area. According to them, a red wine is what you want to pair with beef stroganoff. In particular, a rich, fruity wine such as a Shiraz. You can also go with a heavily oaked Merlot. If neither of those meet your fancy, a fruity Pinot Noir will stand up to the mushrooms and hold its own.

More Skillet Beef Stroganoff Recipes:

Meatball Stroganoff

One Pan Stroganoff

Ribeye Steak Stroganoff

Ground Beef Stroganoff

Easy Creamy Beef Stroganoff

Gourmet Beef Stroganoff

More Instant Pot Beef Stroganoff Recipes:

Steak and Mushroom Stroganoff

Stew Meat Beef Stroganoff

Ground Beef Stroganoff in the Pressure Cooker

Instant Pot Hamburger Stroganoff

Beef Stroganoff in the Instant Pot

More Crock Pot Beef Stroganoff Recipes:

Chuck Steak Beef Stroganoff

Easy Crock Pot Beef Stroganoff

That’s a pretty big list of ideas! What’s your favourite version of this dish?

You might also be interested in these recipes:

Freezer to Crock Pot Beef Stew

Make Ahead Slow Cooker Beef Dip

Beef Curry

These make ahead holiday side dishes will give you one less thing to do for your Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner, freeing up important time and energy. You know so that you can make more food! Or visit with family or do that puzzle or watch football. Whatever it is you want to spend your time doing, making side dishes probably isn’t at the top of the list.

Make Ahead Holiday Side Dishes

Honey Maple Glazed Carrots Freezer Meal Side Dish

These are the perfect accompaniment to any holiday meal.

Buffalo Broccoli and Cauliflower

No one has to know that you just pulled these out of your freezer just before cooking.

Make Ahead Southern Cornbread

This goes with just about any meal.

Butternut Squash Freezer Meal Side Dish

Having side dishes such as this one in the freezer allows me to pull out a main and a side dish together and have supper completely done ahead.

Make Ahead Mac and Cheese

Who doesn’t love a good mac and cheese?! It’s the ultimate in comfort food.

Mom’s Classic Make-ahead Bread Stuffing

This is a classic make-ahead stuffing mix you can prep entirely the day before.

Holiday Side Dish – Bacon Cranberry Almond Green Beans

These sautéed green beans with bacon, cranberries, and almonds are delicious and go well alongside anything at your Thanksgiving and Christmas meals.

Spinach Puffs

These are simple, fresh tasting and surrounded by puff pastry, which always makes everything better.

Easy Scalloped Potatoes

The potatoes are cooked to tender perfection in a creamy, cheesy sauce with a golden crunchy top.

Caramelized Onion Gravy

Did someone say “make ahead gravy”? Yep! Make it weeks ahead of time, then just thaw and warm it up in a saucepan on the big day. Having it pre-made takes the pressure off.

You’ll also want to check out:

Make Ahead Holiday Main Courses