Freezer Meals 101

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gluten free

Buffalo Ranch Cauliflower and Broccoli Freezer Side Dish

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It is so nice to be able to pull a side dish out of the freezer. More and more, I’m finding that I am making sides when we do our freezer meal sessions. This Buffalo Ranch Cauliflower and Broccoli recipe is simple, yet handy to have.

This side dish is low carb, keto friendly, and gluten free. My husband is on a keto diet on and off, so I’m always on the lookout for keto recipes like our Lemon Mustard Chicken, Tequila Lime Shrimp, and Instant Pot Bone Broth. It’s nice to have these vegetables that can easily go with those meals.

roasted broccoli and cauliflower are on a blue plate with fish and white rice with text that reads "Buffalo Broccoli and Cauliflower make ahead side dish"

Even though this recipe uses hot sauce, the end result isn’t very spicy because it’s offset by the Ranch. This makes it a bit more kid-friendly…that is of course if you can get your kids to eat broccoli and cauliflower!

When our kids were younger, we called them “trees” and “winter trees”. That seems to go over a bit better. They actually seemed to want to eat their “mini trees”, well, until after that first bite anyway!

Buffalo Ranch Broccoli and Cauliflower Recipe:

Ingredients:

  • 3 1/2 cups each cauliflower and broccoli florets (fresh or frozen)
  • 2-3 Tbsp. Frank’s Red Hot sauce
  • 2 Tbsp. olive oil
  • 3 Tbsp. dry Ranch dressing mix

Assembly instructions:

  1. In a large bowl, toss the cauliflower and broccoli with the hot sauce, olive oil, and dry dressing mix.
  2. When the vegetables are well coated, spread them out in a single layer on a baking sheet. Freeze for about 45 minutes and then transfer them into a large resealable bag*. Remove the excess air and freeze.

*Pro tip: We like to buy the broccoli and cauliflower frozen in resealable bags from the store. That way, after we assemble this dish, we can put the vegetables back into those same bags, reseal, and store in the freezer. From the outside, it will just look like a bag of frozen broccoli and cauliflower, but it will already be seasoned and ready to cook. You can label it with a permanent marker if you want. I like reusing the bags because it creates less waste.

Cooking instructions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 425°. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
  2. Place the frozen broccoli and cauliflower in a single layer on top.
  3. Bake for 10 minutes. Flip the vegetables over and place them back in the oven for another 20 minutes.
  4. Serve beside your favourite main dishes or as a potluck side dish.

What to serve the buffalo broccoli and cauliflower with:

Print
Buffalo Ranch Broccoli and Cauliflower
Prep Time
5 mins
Cook Time
20 mins
 
Course: Side Dish
Keyword: broccoli and cauliflower, buffalo cauliflower
Ingredients
  • 3 1/2 cups each cauliflower and broccoli florets fresh or frozen
  • 2-3 Tbsp. Frank's Red Hot sauce
  • 2 Tbsp. olive oil
  • 3 Tbsp. dry Ranch dressing mix
Instructions
Assembly instructions:
  1. In a large bowl, toss the cauliflower and broccoli with the hot sauce, olive oil, and dry dressing mix.
  2. When the vegetables are well coated, spread them out in a single layer on a baking sheet. Freeze for about 45 minutes and then transfer them into a large resealable bag*. Remove the excess air and freeze.
Cooking instructions:
  1. Preheat the oven to 425°. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
  2. Place the frozen broccoli and cauliflower in a single layer on top.
  3. Bake for 10 minutes. Flip the vegetables over and place them back in the oven for another 20 minutes.
  4. Serve beside your favourite main dishes or as a potluck side dish.
Recipe Notes

*Pro tip: We like to buy the broccoli and cauliflower frozen in resealable bags from the store. That way, after we assemble this dish, we can put the vegetables back into those same bags, reseal, and store in the freezer. From the outside, it will just look like a bag of frozen broccoli and cauliflower, but it will already be seasoned and ready to cook. You can label it with a permanent marker if you want. 

Check out these other make ahead side dishes:

Garlic Bread

Honey Maple Glazed Carrots

Rice Pilaf

Easy Crock Pot Chicken Cacciatore {freezer meal}

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You won’t believe how easy this crock pot Chicken Cacciatore is! It has only 5 ingredients but it tastes so fresh and delicious. You can make it ahead as a freezer meal. Combining a freezer meal with the crock pot is a match made in heaven. Save time and money. Win-win!

Our family likes Italian flavours. I often make a different version of chicken cacciatore when I’m making my freezer meals, but that one is a bit more involved. It requires cubing the chicken and has more ingredients. When I’m in a hurry or wanting to make as many meals as possible as quickly as possible, I opt for this easy crock pot chicken cacciatore recipe instead.

large spoon scooping out a red sauce covered chicken breast from a slow cooker with text that reads "Crock Pot Chicken Cacciatore" Chicken Cacciatore is traditionally served over pasta, but it can also be served over rice or polenta if you prefer or if you are on a keto or low carb diet.

Why is it called Chicken Cacciatore?

I have to admit that it is a unique name for a dish. The word “cacciatore” means hunter in Italian and apparently, it was hunters who first made this. It was likely made not with chicken in those early years, but with rabbit or other wild game they caught. This was back in the Renaissance so other meat would have been more commonly available.

Chicken cacciatore is sometimes mixed up with chicken parmesan. The easiest way to be able to tell the difference is that cheese is involved where chicken parmesan is referenced, whereas with cacciatore, there is no cheese.

Easy Crock Pot Chicken Cacciatore Recipe:

Ingredients:

  • 3-5 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
  • 24 oz. jar spaghetti sauce
  • 1 zucchini, coarsely chopped
  • 3/4 cup onion, chopped
  • 1 Tbsp. Italian seasoning

Assembly instructions:

  1. Place the chicken breasts in a large, resealable freezer bag.
  2. Dump the other ingredients in the bag.
  3. Remove excess air from the bag and seal. Freeze flat.

Cooking instructions:

  1. Thaw.
  2. Dump bag contents into the slow cooker.
  3. Cook on low for 4-6 hours. Ensure that chicken is cooked through before serving.
  4. Serve over your choice of pasta noodles. We usually use penne or rotini, but a long noodle is fine too.

You can throw this together so quickly that you might as well make more than one at a time. Just prop the bags open by folding the top over and setting them open on the counter. Line the bags up and then add the chicken to each one before dumping in the rest of the ingredients. This chicken dump recipe couldn’t be easier!

There is a lot of versatility with this recipe because you can use your choice of pasta sauce, swap out the chicken breasts for chicken thighs, and serve it on your favourite type of pasta.

This is such a family friendly dish. Between being able to make it ahead and just pull it out of the freezer and the fact that it cooks in the crock pot, it’s truly a stress free dinner. When we’re in a rush, we just keep this in the slow cooker and have the kids load a bit of pasta on their plate and then scoop the cacciatore right from the crock pot. You can can use whatever variety of pasta sauce you prefer. Experiment and see which you like best. We usually just go for a simple basil, but it’s also good with a pasta sauce with mushrooms or the spicy or chunky vegetables. Give a few of them a try and let me know which you liked best.

Print
Easy Crock Pot Chicken Cacciatore
Prep Time
5 mins
 
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Italian
Keyword: chicken, chicken cacciatore
Ingredients
  • 3-5 chicken breasts boneless, skinless
  • 24 oz. jar spaghetti sauce
  • 1 zucchini coarsely chopped
  • 3/4 cup onion chopped
  • 1 Tbsp. Italian seasoning
Instructions
Assembly instructions:
  1. Place the chicken breasts in a large, resealable freezer bag.
  2. Dump the other ingredients in the bag.
  3. Remove excess air from the bag and seal. Freeze flat.
Cooking instructions:
  1. Thaw.
  2. Dump bag contents into the slow cooker.

  3. Cook on low for 4-6 hours. Ensure that chicken is cooked through before serving.

  4. Serve over your choice of pasta noodles.

You might also like these easy freezer meals:

Homemade Hamburger Helper

Chicken and Broccoli Alfredo Bake

Easy Chicken Marsala

Unstuffed Pepper Skillet Meal

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I love meals that are like a one-stop shop. This Unstuffed Pepper Skillet meal has all your major food groups in one dish. It’s cheesy, tomatoey, deliciousness packed with flavour.

blue bowl with ground beef, peppers, and cheese a bottle of hot sauce in the background and a full skillet underneath with text that reads "Unstuffed Pepper Skillet freezer meal gluten free"We are fans around here of this type of dish. We make stuffed peppers, a stuffed pepper casserole, and this skillet version. Each has its own perks. Most of our kids prefer the unstuffed varieties, which is just fine with me since they are less work to make!

This ground beef unstuffed peppers skillet is an awesome weekday meal because it can be made ahead as a freezer meal AND it can be cooked all in one pan. This makes for an easy family meal and easy cleanup!

Unstuffed Pepper Skillet Recipe:

Ingredients:

  • 1 lb. lean ground beef, browned*
  • 3 tsp. cumin
  • 3 tsp. chili powder
  • 1 tsp. oregano
  • 3 tsp. paprika
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 red pepper, diced
  • 1 yellow pepper, diced
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 14 oz. can tomatoes
  • 1 tsp. lime juice
  • 2 cups cooked rice
  • 2 cups shredded cheddar or Tex Mex cheese

*If you want to make this meal vegetarian, you can substitute the ground beef for veggie ground round. It’s especially good with the Mexican flavoured one.

Assembly instructions:

  1. Cook the rice. Brown the beef. Chop the peppers and onion.
  2. Place all the ingredients except for the cheese in a large resealable freezer bag.
  3. Remove the excess air from the bag and seal.
  4. Place the shredded cheese in a medium freezer bag. Seal and staple it to the other bag above the seal.
  5. Freeze.

Cooking instructions:

  1. Thaw.
  2. Place the large bag ingredients in a skillet. Cook over medium heat until cooked through, stirring occasionally.
  3. Top with the cheese the last few minutes of cooking.

For the rice, you can use whichever type you prefer. Sometimes I use Minute Rice if I’m in a hurry when assembling meals while other times, I use a long grain or Basmati rice. I prefer the texture of the long grain, but sometimes time is of the essence.

This recipe is pretty forgiving. If you would rather swap out the red and yellow peppers for green pepper, go ahead. If you want to experiment with topping it with different cheeses, give that a try. As long as you stick with the basic components, this dish will turn out.

I always serve this meal with hot sauce because we’re a hot sauce kind of family. Honestly, the flavours of this skillet meal hold their own without the hot sauce so it’s not a required pairing, but we add our favourite hot sauces to pretty much anything. This is no exception. Don’t judge it until you try it!

Print
Unstuffed Pepper Skillet
Course: Main Course
Keyword: skillet meal, stuffed pepper
Ingredients
  • 1 lb. lean ground beef browned*
  • 3 tsp. cumin
  • 1 tsp. oregano
  • 3 tsp. paprika
  • 3 tsp. chili powder
  • 2 cloves garlic minced
  • 1 red pepper diced
  • 1 yellow pepper diced
  • 1 onion diced
  • 14 oz. can tomatoes
  • 1 tsp. lime juice
  • 2 cups cooked rice
  • 2 cups shredded cheddar or Tex Mex cheese
Instructions
Assembly instructions:
  1. Cook the rice. Brown the beef. Chop the peppers and onion.
  2. Place all the ingredients except for the cheese in a large resealable freezer bag.
  3. Remove the excess air from the bag, seal.
  4. Place the shredded cheese in a medium freezer bag. Seal and staple it to the other bag above the seal. Freeze.
Cooking instructions:
  1. Thaw.
  2. Place the large bag ingredients in a skillet. Cook over medium heat until cooked through, stirring occasionally.
  3. Top with the cheese the last few minutes of cooking.
Recipe Notes

*If you want to make this meal vegetarian, you can substitute the ground beef for veggie ground round. It's especially good with the Mexican flavoured one.

 

Check out these other tasty make ahead meals:

Stuffed Pepper Casserole

Stuffed Pepper Soup

Spicy Crock Pot Poblano Chicken

Chili Lime Tilapia (Freezer Meal)

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This make ahead seafood recipe has delicious flavours. It can be made with cod, snapper, or tilapia fish. This healthy meal takes just minutes to assemble and cook but tastes like you worked in the kitchen for hours.

blue plate with white rice, broccoli, cauliflower, and fish with text that reads "Chili Lime Tilapia freezer meal gluten free"When people think of freezer meals, they usually picture stews or soups, but there are so many other possibilities. Seafood dishes such as dill salmon, seafood curry, garlic butter shrimp, or breaded shrimp in the Instant Pot can also be made ahead.

Chili Lime Tilapia Recipe:

  • 1 lb. tilapia filets (you can substitute cod or snapper if you prefer)
  • 2 Tbsp. lime juice
  • 2 Tbsp. olive oil
  • 1-2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 Tbsp. chili powder
  • 1 tsp. brown sugar
  • 1 tsp. paprika
  • 1/2 tsp. pepper
  • 3/4 tsp. seasoning salt

Assembly instructions:

  1. Place 1 lb. of fish in a large resealable freezer bag.
  2. Combine the other ingredients in a small bowl and pour over the fish.
  3. Remove the excess air from the bag, seal, and freeze.

BBQ cooking instructions:

  1. Thaw. Preheat oven to 375°.
  2. Place foil on a baking tray. Place the fish and sauce on the foil and create a foil packet, sealing well.
  3. Bake at 375° for 20-25 minutes until the fish flakes easily with a fork.

Oven cooking instructions:

  1. Thaw.
  2. Preheat the BBQ to medium-high heat. Make a foil packet with the fish and sauce inside.
  3. Place foil packet on grill for 4 minutes per side until the fish flakes easily with a fork.

What do I serve with fish?

Side dishes are always a bit of a challenge to come up with on the fly. Personally, I especially like to have some make ahead side dishes in the freezer so that I can pull them out when needed. Here are some ideas of what pairs well with the tilapia:

Print
Chili Lime Tilapia
Prep Time
5 mins
Cook Time
20 mins
 
Course: Main Course
Keyword: fish
Ingredients
  • 1 lb. tilapia filets you can substitute cod or snapper if you prefer
  • 2 Tbsp. lime juice
  • 2 Tbsp. olive oil
  • 1-2 cloves garlic minced
  • 1 Tbsp. chili powder
  • 1 tsp. brown sugar
  • 1 tsp. paprika
  • 1/2 tsp. pepper
  • 3/4 tsp. seasoning salt
For cooking day:
  • aluminum foil
Instructions
Assembly instructions:
  1. Place 1 lb. of fish in a large resealable freezer bag.
  2. Combine the other ingredients in a small bowl and pour over the fish.
  3. Remove the excess air from the bag, seal, and freeze.
BBQ cooking instructions:
  1. Thaw. Preheat oven to 375°.
  2. Place foil on a baking tray. Place the fish and sauce on the foil and create a foil packet, sealing well.
  3. Bake at 375° for 20-25 minutes until the fish flakes easily with a fork.
Oven cooking instructions:
  1. Thaw.
  2. Preheat the BBQ to medium-high heat. Make a foil packet with the fish and sauce inside.
  3. Place foil packet on grill for 4 minutes per side until the fish flakes easily with a fork.

You may also be interested in these other seafood freezer meals:

Make Ahead Fish Tacos with Mango Salsa

Maple Dijon Salmon

Tequila Lime Shrimp

Stuffed Pepper Casserole (Freezer Meal)

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Visually, this is a beautiful dish. The bright colours of the peppers just pop. This stuffed pepper casserole also happens to be delicious. a white bowl in the corner has a yellow pepper, red pepper, and green onions. Nearby, a white casserole dish is filled with hamburger, rice, and green, yellow, and red pepper. The text reads "Stuffed Pepper Casserole freezer meal gluten free"Our family really likes these combinations of flavours as evidenced by our stuffed pepper soup, stuffed pepper skillet, and stuffed pepper recipes! As a mom, I like that these dishes represent an all in one, healthy meal I can serve my family.

Stuffed Pepper Casserole Recipe:

Ingredients:

  • 1 lb. lean ground beef, browned
  • 1/2 an onion, chopped
  • 1 cup Basmati rice, when measured uncooked
  • 1 tsp garlic, minced
  • 1 each red, orange, and yellow bell peppers, chopped into ½ inch pieces
  • 1/4 cup tomato paste
  • 14.5 oz can petite diced tomatoes, drained
  • 2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
  • 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1/4 tsp. pepper

Assembly instructions:

  1. Brown the ground beef. Chop the peppers and onion.
  2. Cook the rice according to the package directions. Allow the rice to cool.
  3. Add the ground beef, chopped onion, minced garlic, chopped peppers, shredded cheese, tomato paste, drained can of diced tomatoes, Worcestershire sauce, and seasonings to a large resealable freezer bag.
  4. Remove the excess air from the bag, seal, and freeze.

Cooking instructions:

  1. Thaw.
  2. Preheat oven to 350°.
  3. Spray a 9×13 baking dish with cooking spray.
  4. Dump the contents of the freezer bag in the casserole dish and spread out evenly.
  5. Bake uncovered for 35 minutes.

This casserole is gluten free and hearty. It’s a nice all in one meal.

You might enjoy these other all in one recipes:

Print
Stuffed Pepper Casserole
Prep Time
20 mins
Cook Time
25 mins
 
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Mexican
Keyword: casserole, stuffed pepper
Servings: 6 servings
Ingredients
  • 1 lb. lean ground beef browned
  • 1/2 onion chopped
  • 1 cup Basmati rice when measured uncooked
  • 1 tsp garlic minced
  • 1 each red, orange, and yellow bell peppers chopped into ½ inch pieces
  • 1/4 cup tomato paste
  • 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes drained
  • 2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
  • 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1/4 tsp. pepper
Instructions
Assembly instructions:
  1. Brown the ground beef. Chop the peppers and onion.
  2. Cook the rice according to the package directions. Allow the rice to cool.
  3. Add the ground beef, chopped onion, minced garlic, chopped peppers, shredded cheese, tomato paste, drained can of diced tomatoes, Worcestershire sauce, and seasonings to a large resealable freezer bag.
  4. Remove the excess air from the bag, seal, and freeze.
Cooking instructions:
  1. Thaw.
  2. Preheat oven to 350°.
  3. Spray a 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray.
  4. Dump the contents of the freezer bag in the casserole dish and spread out evenly.
  5. Bake uncovered for 35 minutes.