Freezer Meal Recipes

Make Ahead Freezer Smoothie Bags

These make ahead freezer smoothie bags can be made using all kinds of fruits and vegetables. It’s fun to try different combinations. My kids love having these in the freezer.

We have 7 kids with 6 of them still living at home. Mornings are so busy at our house. Having things ready to go in the freezer such as these smoothie bags, sausage hand pies, taco egg bites, or pancake mini muffins means an easy breakfast. That’s one less thing for me to worry about which is a very good thing!

On this particular day, the smoothie bags that we assembled had the following combinations:

kiwi, apple, avocado
kiwi, apple, banana, spinach
mango, pineapple, banana
blackberry, raspberry, blueberry
blackberry, raspberry, blueberry, roasted beets (we found we needed to add honey to this one)

Two sample recipes for freezer smoothie bags:

1 cup blueberries
1 cup strawberries, sliced
1 cup bananas, sliced

Divide the blueberries, strawberries and bananas up into medium sized resealable freezer bags. Remove excess air, seal and freeze. To serve, add 2 cups of milk or fruit juice and blend in a blender or with a hand blender. Pour into glasses.

1 cup frozen mango cubes
1 cup pineapple, chunked
1/2 cup spinach
1/2 cup avocado, cubed

Divide the mangos, pineapple, spinach, and avocado into other medium sized resealable bags. Remove excess air, seal and freeze. To serve, add 2 cups of milk or fruit juice and blend in a blender or with a hand blender. Pour into glasses.

To make the smoothie bags, you can use fresh or frozen fruits or vegetables or a combination of both. Other ideas of what to include in the freezer smoothie bags include strawberries, cranberries, peaches, grapes, kale, broccoli, clementines, oranges, cantaloupe, and honeydew melon.

You can also freeze yogourt by pouring it into an ice cube tray and freezing and then popping a few of the frozen yogourt cubes into your smoothie bags.

The possibilities for variety with this are endless! This makes it easy to personalize and create smoothie bags that you and your family will love. Get creative!

You just need to stick to a ratio of 3 cups of any fruit/veggie combo and then when blending, add 2 cups of liquid.

You can add in chia seeds, hemp seeds or flaxseed for added nutrients. If you or your kids like it, you can also toss in some unsweetened coconut in the bags.

When serving smoothies for breakfast, you can make it a more complete meal by topping with granola such as our freezer granola.

Make Ahead Freezer Smoothie Bags

These make ahead freezer smoothie bags can be made using all kinds of fruits and vegetables. It's fun to try different combinations.

Servings: 6

Calories: 109 kcal

Ingredients

1 cup blueberries
1 cup strawberries sliced
1 cup bananas sliced
1 cup frozen mango cubes
1 cup pineapple chunked
1/2 cup spinach
1/2 cup avocado cubed

Instructions

Recipe 1:

Divide the blueberries, strawberries and bananas up into medium sized resealable freezer bags.
Remove excess air, seal and freeze.
To serve, add 2 cups of milk or fruit juice and blend in a blender or with a hand blender.
Pour into glasses.

Recipe 2:

Divide the mangos, pineapple, spinach, and avocado into other medium sized resealable bags.
Remove excess air, seal and freeze.
To serve, add 2 cups of milk or fruit juice and blend in a blender or with a hand blender.
Pour into glasses.

Recipe Notes

More smoothie combinations:

• kiwi, apple, avocado • kiwi, apple, banana, spinach • mango, pineapple, banana • blackberry, raspberry, blueberry • blackberry, raspberry, blueberry, roasted beets (we found we needed to add honey to this one)

These freezer smoothie bags are one of the recipes included in our Breakfast Freezer Meal Plan along with other recipes, shopping lists, prep lists, and printable labels.

Check out some of our other make ahead breakfast on the go ideas:

Everything Bagel Breakfast Muffins

Taco Egg Bites Breakfast Sausage Hand Pies

Sausage and Peppers Freezer Meal

By Sharla

This sausage and peppers freezer meal recipe came about the same way some of our others have. We invented it using what we had left at the end of our freezer meal assembly day. We took some extra vegetables that were already prepped, onions and peppers and combined it with other ingredients we had on hand.

I had accidentally bought too much sausage because of a miscalculation on my part, so we actually invented three different recipes using sausage and what we had left of other ingredients. Sometimes the best freezer meal recipes come about that way! That day, our Italian Sausage Pasta Sauce and our Italian Wedding Soup were also born.

This recipe can either be served over rice or it can be rolled in a flour or corn tortilla and eaten as a wrap.

Sausage and Peppers Freezer Meal Recipe:

1 lb. of Italian sausage (see directions for preparing it below)
1/2 a yellow pepper, sliced
1/2 a red pepper, sliced
1 onion, chopped or sliced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1-2 tsp. cajun seasoning
14 oz. can diced tomatoes

You can use mild or spicy sausage depending on your family’s preference. Remove the sausage from the casing and slice. I prefer to actually squeeze out sausage meatballs and flatten them a bit with my fingers to slicing. It is a messier method, but it is easier to remove the casing this way.

Fry the sausage slices in a frying pan over medium-high heat until lightly browned on both sides. Alternately, you can place the raw sausage “meatballs” in a single layer on a cookie sheet and bake in the oven.

Blot the cooked sausage slices on a paper towel to remove some of the grease.

To assemble this meal, place the cooked sausage pieces in a large resealable freezer bag. Add the sliced peppers, onion, minced garlic, cajun seasoning, and the can of diced tomatoes.

Remove the excess air from the bag, seal and freeze.

On the day of cooking, thaw the sausage and peppers freezer meal. Cook in a skillet over medium-high heat until heated through. Serve over rice or in a wrap.

This recipe is gluten free and keto friendly if served on cauliflower rice. You can even make cauliflower rice ahead and freeze.

Can you freeze cooked Italian sausage?

You can absolutely freeze Italian sausage. If you freeze raw Italian sausage, it has a tendency to get freezer burnt quite quickly even if it is packaged well. By cooking the sausage first, it will keep much longer in the freezer.

To freeze ground Italian sausage, brown it first in a skillet. Be sure to drain it to remove the extra grease. Measure out 1 or 2 cup portions into medium sized resealable freezer bags or add the cooked ground sausage to freezer meal recipes and freeze.

Make meatballs out of Italian sausage by squeezing chunks out of the casing and laying them in a single layer on a baking sheet. Cook at 350° until the outside is brown and they are no longer pink inside. Blot the excess grease before adding them to a resealable freezer bag or into a freezer meal recipe and freeze.

Sausage and Peppers Freezer Meal

This recipe can either be served over rice or rolled in a flour or corn tortilla and eaten as a wrap.

Servings: 4

Calories: 353 kcal

Ingredients

1 lb. of Italian sausage see directions for preparing it below
1/2 a yellow pepper sliced
1/2 a red pepper sliced
1 onion chopped or sliced
2 cloves garlic minced
1-2 tsp. cajun seasoning
14 oz. can diced tomatoes

Instructions

Remove the sausage from the casing and slice.
I prefer to actually squeeze out sausage meatballs and flatten them a bit with my fingers to slicing. It is a messier method, but it is easier to remove the casing this way.
Fry the sausage slices in a frying pan over medium-high heat until lightly browned on both sides.
Blot the cooked sausage slices on a paper towel to remove some of the grease.
To assemble this meal, place the cooked sausage pieces in a large resealable freezer bag.
Add the sliced peppers, onion, minced garlic, cajun seasoning, and the can of diced tomatoes.
Remove the excess air from the bag, seal and freeze.
On the day of cooking, thaw the sausage and peppers freezer meal.
Cook in a skillet over medium-high heat until heated through.
Serve over rice or in a wrap.

Recipe Notes

You can use mild or spicy sausage depending on your family's preference.

You may also be interested in these easy make ahead recipes:

Pesto Chicken and Vegetables

Reggae Gumbo Recipe

Make Ahead Mac and Cheese

Droolworthy BBQ Shredded Chicken Freezer Meal with Garlic Mayo

By Sharla

This BBQ Shredded Chicken Freezer Meal recipe has always been delicious, but when my friend Christie introduced me to serving it with garlic mayo, it leveled up to drool-worthy status! Seriously, this tastes amazing.

Admittedly, this is messy to eat, but you won’t mind having drips of garlic mayo mixed with BBQ sauce and minced onions running down your wrists because it is so worth it! The garlic mayo also goes beautifully with our Dr. Pepper Pulled Pork and our Make Ahead Beef Dip.

We recently gave ourselves a challenge of making freezer meals with 5 ingredients or less and included this recipe. You can see this being put together as well as the other meals here:

BBQ Shredded Chicken Freezer Meal Recipe:

3-5 boneless, skinless chicken breasts or 8-10 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
3/4 cup finely minced onion
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 bottle of barbeque sauce or 425 mL of your own homemade BBQ sauce
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

To put this freezer meal together, place the chicken, minced onion, minced garlic, barbeque sauce, and apple cider vinegar in a large resealable bag. Remove excess air and seal.

On the day you want to serve this, take it out of the freezer and allow it to thaw. Cook it in the crockpot on low for 3-5 hours. Shred when done and serve in on buns on top of garlic mayo. You can also serve this shredded BBQ chicken on nachos or in tacos.

I’ve brought this with us camping and had it on a lazy Sunday afternoon and served it to company. You just really can’t go wrong when something tastes this good.

Droolworthy BBQ Shredded Chicken Freezer Meal with Garlic

Admittedly, it is messy to eat, but you won't mind having drips of garlic mayo mixed with BBQ sauce and minced onions running down your wrists because it is so worth it!

Servings: 6

Calories: 509 kcal

Ingredients

3-5 boneless skinless chicken breasts or 8-10 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
3/4 cup finely minced onion
4 cloves garlic minced
1 bottle of barbeque sauce or 425 mL of your own homemade BBQ sauce
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

Instructions

Place the chicken, minced onion, minced garlic, barbeque sauce, and apple cider vinegar in a large resealable bag.
Remove excess air and seal.
On the day you want to serve this, take it out of the freezer and allow it to thaw.
Cook it in the crock pot on low for 3-5 hours.
Shred.
Serve in on buns on top of garlic mayo. You can also serve this shredded BBQ chicken on nachos or in tacos.

Garlic Mayo Recipe:

1/2 cup mayo
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp. lemon juice
dash of salt and pepper

Mix together all the ingredients and serve on buns before topping with the shredded BBQ chicken. If there’s any leftover, you can store it in the fridge in an airtight container. We never have any leftovers though because it is lick-the-bowl good (or so I’ve heard)!

Garlic Mayo Recipe

Servings: 6

Calories: 126 kcal

Ingredients

1/2 cup mayo
4 cloves garlic minced
1/2 tsp. lemon juice
dash of salt and pepper

Instructions

Mix together all the ingredients.
Serve on buns before topping with the shredded BBQ chicken.
If there's any leftover, you can store it in the fridge in an airtight container.

This drool-worthy BBQ Shredded Chicken recipe is included in the More Family Favourites Freezer Meal Plan along with other family-friendly recipes, shopping lists and printable labels.

Here are other “freeze ahead” recipes that may also interest you:

Chicken and Spinach Alfredo

BBQ Pulled Pork

Pizza Stuffed Chicken

Make Ahead Cinnamon Freezer French Toast

By Sharla

Last Sunday, I was making my make ahead cinnamon freezer french toast and my husband commented about how good this new recipe was. I laughed and said that this was the same recipe I always use when I make french toast for the freezer.

We soon discovered that he had never eaten a piece because in all the years of me making these, my kids eat them so quickly that my husband had never even gotten to try one! It was a bit funny, especially when one of our older sons came forward and “confessed” to being the culprit behind eating most of them.

Sure enough, that same son ate most of a double batch of these ones in just a few days with a bit of help from his younger siblings. When you have a large family, delicious food like this doesn’t last long!

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

Cinnamon Freezer French Toast Recipe:

1 loaf of bread (about 16 slices)
3 eggs
3/4 cup milk
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. vanilla
zest of 1/2 an orange

Whisk together the milk, eggs, spices, vanilla, and orange zest. Heat a skillet or griddle to medium heat and grease with some olive oil. Dip each slice of bread in the egg mixture and cook on both sides until browned.

Lay the cooked slices on a cookie sheet in a single layer. Place cookie sheet in freezer. By freezing them individually like this first, they won’t stick together in the bag and will be easy to remove one at a time.

Once frozen, place slices in a large resealable freezer bag. Remove excess air, seal and freeze.

These make such an easy weekday breakfast. The french toast slices can be taken out one or two at a time and popped in the toaster or toaster oven. Top with syrup or fresh fruit.

When I make this, I use cinnamon bread from a local bakery and double or quadruple the recipe so that I can fill many bags with french toast in the freezer for busy morning. My kids love these and eat them almost as quickly as I can make them!

Make Ahead Cinnamon Freezer French Toast

When I make this, I use cinnamon bread from a local bakery and double or quadruple the recipe so that I can fill many bags with french toast in the freezer for busy morning.

Servings: 8

Calories: 278 kcal

Ingredients

1 loaf of bread about 16 slices
3 eggs
3/4 cup milk
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. vanilla
zest of 1/2 an orange

Instructions

Whisk together the milk, eggs, spices, vanilla, and orange zest.
Heat a skillet or griddle to medium heat and grease with some olive oil.
Dip each slice of bread in the egg mixture and cook on both sides until browned.
Lay the cooked slices on a cookie sheet in a single layer.
Place cookie sheet in freezer. By freezing them individually like this first, they won't stick together in the bag and will be easy to remove one at a time.
Once frozen, place slices in a large resealable freezer bag.
Remove excess air, seal and freeze.
These make such an easy weekday breakfast. The French toast slices can be taken out one or two at a time and popped in the toaster or toaster oven. Top with syrup or fresh fruit.

You can find this recipe along with other easy freezer breakfast ideas with printable shopping lists and labels in our Freezer Breakfast Meal Plan.

You may also be interested in these make ahead breakfast ideas:

Pancake Mini Muffins

Taco Breakfast Cups

French Toast Casserole

Best Ever Freezer Meal Spaghetti Sauce

By Sharla

Spaghetti is one of those no-fail meals in our house. All our kids like it. We like it. It’s hearty comfort food that is sure to please. That’s why I always keep the best ever freezer meal spaghetti sauce stocked at all times.

This recipe makes one to two bags of sauce, but I always double or triple it so that I can have a lot of these in the freezer for easy weekday meals.

My neighbour Christie makes freezer meals with me. She didn’t initially understand why I would want to make spaghetti sauce as a freezer meal. In her mind, spaghetti was easy enough to make by just opening a jar of store-bought sauce.

That was before she tried this recipe!

The first time that I insisted we add this to the freezer meals we were making, she went along with it only to appease me, but now, it’s on the list every single time because their family loves it as much as we do!

How to Freeze Homemade Spaghetti Sauce:

Freezing spaghetti sauce is so simple. You don’t even have to set aside a separate time to do it.

The next time you’re making spaghetti sauce for your family, double (or triple) the recipe. Allow the extra sauce to cool. Transfer it to a large resealable freezer bag. If you want to be able to take out smaller portions, you can use several medium sized freezer bags.

Remove the excess air from the bag. Seal and freeze. Then reheat the sauce on the stove, in the Crock Pot, or even the Instant Pot on the day you’re serving spaghetti.

Can you freeze the noodles with the sauce?

Yes, you can freeze cooked spaghetti noodles and sauce together. If you’re going to do this, I recommend you leave the noodles quite al dente. That is, make them slightly undercooked so that when you’re reheating them, they don’t get mushy.

However, your pasta will have a better texture and be easier to reheat if you freeze just the sauce and then cook the noodles on the day of serving. Considering how easy it is to boil water and toss the noodles in, I suggest you make the sauce ahead and the noodles the day of.

Best Ever Freezer Spaghetti Sauce:

1 1/2 lbs. browned ground beef
1 onion, chopped
1/2 green pepper, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
2x 14 oz. can tomato sauce
5 1/2 oz. can tomato paste
14 oz. can diced tomatoes
1/4 cup water
1 bay leaf
2 Tbsp. parsley
1 tsp. melted honey or sugar
1/2 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. basil
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. thyme
dash pepper

Before assembling this freezer meal, brown the ground beef in a skillet until no longer pink, breaking into small pieces as it cooks. Chop the onion and green pepper. Mince the garlic.To assemble this freezer meal, mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl and pour into a large resealable freezer bag or put all the ingredients directly into the bag and then squish together. Remove the excess air, seal and freeze.

On the day of cooking, take the bag of spaghetti sauce out of the freezer and thaw. Heat in a large pot on stovetop over medium until desired heat is achieved or cook in the crock pot on low for 2-4 hours. Serve over spaghetti noodles or gluten free noodles, cooked according to package directions.If you want to make this taste even better, top with crushed chili flakes and grated parmesan or asiago cheese. Yum! Serve with garlic bread.

Best Ever Freezer Meal Spaghetti Sauce

This recipe makes one to two bags of sauce, but I always double or triple it so that I can have a lot of these in the freezer for easy weekday meals.

Ingredients

1 1/2 lbs. browned ground beef
1 onion chopped
1/2 green pepper chopped
3 garlic cloves minced
2 x 14 oz. can tomato sauce
5 1/2 oz. can tomato paste
14 oz. can diced tomatoes
1/4 cup water
1 bay leaf
2 Tbsp. parsley
1 tsp. melted honey or sugar
1/2 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. basil
1/2 tsp. thyme
1/4 tsp. salt
dash pepper

Instructions

Before assembling this freezer meal, brown the ground beef in a skillet until no longer pink, breaking into small pieces as it cooks.
Chop the onion and green pepper. Mince the garlic.
To assemble this freezer meal, mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl and pour into a large resealable freezer bag or put all the ingredients directly into the bag and then squish together.
Remove the excess air, seal and freeze.
On the day of cooking, take the bag of spaghetti sauce out of the freezer and thaw.
Heat in a large pot on stovetop over medium until desired heat is achieved or cook in the crock pot on low for 2-4 hours.
Serve over spaghetti noodles or gluten free noodles, cooked according to package directions.

Recipe Notes

If you want to make this taste even better, top with crushed chili flakes and grated parmesan or asiago cheese. Yum!

This recipe is included in our Family Favourites Freezer Meal plan which also includes printable shopping lists and labels along with other delicious recipes.

You may be interested in some of our other make ahead pasta sauces:

Italian Sausage Pasta Sauce

Saucy Sausage Pasta

Garlic Butter Shrimp