6 Sneaky Ways to Fill Your Freezer

When I wrote all about our vegetarian month of freezer meals last year, I focused on a single bulk cooking weekend as the means to an end. This year, I've taken a much different approach, and it's one that I think you guys might be into. Instead of overwhelming myself with meal after meal after meal to freeze, I've built up our stash slowly over the course of a month (or thereabouts).

Here are some sneaky ways to fill your freezer. I also plan to share some of the recipes I've made this time around, including a new and improved veggie burger, amazing squash-filled waffles, and more. Feel free to share your own tips + tricks in the comments below!

#1: Make Double

Whenever you cook this month, make a double, triple, or bigger batch. Slow cooker soups are excellent for this idea, since a full pot is often enough for at least two meals for two or three people. My favorite Freezer-Friendly Veggie Burgers are another great option, since you can make some for dinner tonight and still have a good stash for next month. Just eat whatever you want immediately and freeze the rest. Portion out into individual sizes whenever possible for the fastest re-heating.

#2: Utilize Leftovers

Make a huge dish of lasagna? Or too much of whatever else? If you didn't eat all your meal tonight, you're in luck. Rather than eating the leftovers for lunch tomorrow, freeze for future consumption and pack a PB+J instead. We often store leftovers in the fridge with good intentions to gobble them up, and they go to waste anyway. If you freeze straight away, there's no risk! Do this for two or three meals each week, and it adds up fast.

#3: Use It Up

If you have time on the weekend, dig deep into your refrigerator to find the ingredients that will soon go bad. Lay them out in front of you and figure out what you can make. Consider whatever you create a bonus meal -- and freeze it up! We often have half blocks of cheese, a couple cups of almond milk, half of an onion or pepper, a limp head of broccoli, super ripe bananas, etc. I most often use our tips to Eliminate Food Waste and some of the recipes on that page. Otherwise, I -- again -- use the slow cooker. Here are some tips for making awesome crockpot meals without recipes.

#4: Think Part vs. Whole

You don't need to make dinner from soup to nuts to take advantage of freezer cooking. Think about the different parts of a meal you can make easily the day of . . . and make the rest for freezing. Pasta cooks up simply with little cleaning required. So, make + freeze just the homemade tomato sauce or perfect pesto to accompany and thaw the night of.

#5: Freeze Ingredients

When we went blueberry picking, I used up a lot of them making jam + brie grilled cheese, muffins, and other goods. I still had a good number left that I rinsed, dried, and froze whole. We've been getting gazillions of tomatillos, so -- along with making tomatillo salsa -- I've washed them well, cut in half, and frozen on a baking sheet before stashing into a container. I also freeze cooked beans (here's how) that we end up using all month long.

#6: Plan Ahead

You can also just choose a list of solid vegetarian make-ahead meals and pick a couple days each week to crack away at them. No need for an intense bulk cooking experience. Just make an extra dinner here and there and watch them pile up. Before you know it, you'll be cooking and cleaning far less and enjoying the fruit of your efforts much more.


Here are some more tips + recipes:



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Reheating Frozen Foods + One-Bowl Corn Muffins

So here we are nearing the halfway point for the month of vegetarian freezer meals. Having most of our dinners decided and already made is crazy amazing. Though the cooking process was intense, I'm already thinking about what we'd like to put on next month's monster menu.

I must say, though, being a rookie at all of this freezer stuff, I underestimated the sort of knowledge I would need with regard to reheating our meals and making them the tastiest they could be (especially related to texture). It's been trial by fire, so I'm picked up some tips pretty quickly and continue to find new ways to make the best of these make-ahead meals.

#1: Don't Cook Completely.

What I should have mentioned in my cooking tips + tricks is that before you freeze, don't cook your meal to mush. I did a pretty good job with this at least with the lasagna and chili (the burgers weren't pre-cooked), but our stuffed peppers are pretty mushy when they're re-heated.

If I could do it over again, I'd cook everything only 3/4 of the way through. Think more al dente (tender/crisp) than done.

#2: Leave Time for Thawing.

I was so excited our first night of eating the freezer meals. I went down to the freezer and put the lasagna in the oven to bake for a while at 350 degrees F, only to discover that I really, REALLY should have thawed the lasagna for a while first. We ate dinner at around 9 PM the first night because the inside of those suckers was ice cold. Literally ice in there after 30 or more minutes of cooking.

Now I take my meals out either the night before (and place in the refrigerator -- when using the pre-made pizza crust) or by noon the day we're eating it (and place on the kitchen counter). That way, it's still cool, but not rock hard in the center. With my soups and chili, I leave it in the airtight container and place it in a bath of hot water to aid with thawing. And as a general rule, I try to use whatever I've thawed within 2 days. I don't know if this is necessary, but I'm weird about food going bad.

#3: Use Your Oven or Stove.

We banished our microwave to the basement long ago, which is another story entirely and definitely an issue of personal preference, but to keep the best texture and flavor, etc. -- I think it's best to take the time to re-heat meals in the oven or on the stove. Yeah, this means time for pre-heating and extra cook time, but it's worth it.

You can use your microwave successfully, just note that the machine tends to cook meals unevenly, leaving hot and cold spots in random places throughout your dish. I have had mouth-burns and just weird reactions in the past. With the microwave it's also hard to guague when something is over-cooked before it's too late.

#4: Be Patient.

Basically, there's no standard rule for all frozen dishes, so you need to go on a case by case basis. We learned a lot in the first week what works best for the meals we specifically made. We also learned that tofu is great in lasagna, but watery in stuffed peppers. I learned that I really should wait past the second rise before freezing pizza dough (a frozen EXPLOSION!).

Be patient with yourself and with the process. It takes time to learn any new technique, and freezing and entire month's worth of dinners is no different from mastering the perfect crepe or something equally difficult. I'm sure I'll discover new tricks along the way -- but it takes time.

#5: Make Something Fresh. 

To keep from getting the blahs with the same meals week after week, I like to make at least some aspect of the meal fresh that night. I know this sounds counter to one of the main reasons I decided to freezer cook this month (saving time + dishes), but even a quick one-bowl corn muffin can really liven up a meal.

We also budgeted to get some sweet potato fries to have on hand on burger nights. The pizzas themselves aren't premade, just the dough, so that meals also seems semi-fresh and we customize with whatever CSA veggies are in the basket that week.

Here's a quick recipe that goes wonderfully with stuffed peppers, chili, and other soups!


ONE-BOWL CORN MUFFINS
loosely based off our Olive Oil Skillet Cornbread recipe

What you'll need . . .

• 1 cup Greek yogurt
• 1/3 cup applesauce
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup almond milk
• 2 tablespoon maple syrup
• 1 cup cornmeal
• 1 cup bread flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• couple pinches salt

Method . . . 

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Generously oil the tins of a standard size muffin pan and set aside. 
2. Mix together the Greek yogurt, applesauce, oil, almond milk, and maple syrup. 
3. Then toss in the rest of the ingredients and mix until just combined.
4. Scoop out evenly in your muffin tin.
5. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until edges brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
6. Let cool before turning over pan and serving.

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Freezer Month: 8 BIG Cook Tips + Tricks

I love tooling around in the kitchen. I have also been known to spend entire afternoons baking with a few glasses of cheap champagne. So, I was completely surprised when this "big cook" for the vegetarian freezer month got the best of me.

At one point, I just stood back and marveled at the mess and the many, many things going on at once. "This is far more intense than Thanksgiving," I said, exasperated. I mean, that was a lot of recipes to make all at once. A lot.

Here's how I kept it from getting too out of control + kept my sanity.

#1: Familiarize yourself with your recipes. (Here are the meals I planned.)

If you can, try to cook meals you could make without looking in a book or on a webpage. If that's not possible, be sure to read over your plan a few times before diving in. Reading your recipes is a good practice to do normally, but when you're planning to make several simultaneously, it's almost a requirement.

#2: Simplify prep as much as possible. 

Look for parallels in your recipes (or plan them that way). If you know that recipes 1, 4, and 5 all have chopped or diced onions and peppers -- make those together and prep the onions/peppers at the same time. If you know you'll be plopping cans of beans or tomatoes, open them ahead of time so you're not fumbling around looking for the can opener. Basically, let your kitchen become a (contained) explosion with everything you need on hand.


#3: Use one large bowl for all kitchen waste. 

Whether or not you compost, catching all your organic food waste (and by that I just mean anything you can put in a composter) in a big bowl will help you clean up. Instead of pushing it to the side of my cutting board or making trips to the compost bin (because there would have been many), this seemingly simple tip really did help save time and keep things tidy.


#4: Utilize different cooking tools at the same time.

Again, try to plan your cook this way because it will allow you to make the most food in the least amount of time. I planned a slow cooker recipe (Indian stew), a stove-top one (pumpkin chili), an oven bake (veggie lasagna), one that require nothing but mixing and mashing together (burgers), and another that could be made + risen while the others cooked (pizza dough).


#5: Use your hands.

As much as possible, find ways to cut back on utensils, bowls, and other items needed to make your foods. I used my hands to blend together veggie burgers (I chopped all the ingredients into small bits instead of using a food processor), to mix pizza dough, and to create a tofu "ricotta" cheese.

Along these same lines, I used the same spatula to mix the pumpkin chili and Indian stew. And then again to prepare the sauce for my lasagna. Come to think of it, I did a quick rinse of the chili pot and used it to make that sauce as well. Less stuff equals less dishes at cleanup time.


#6: Find novel uses for your tools.

I ended up baking my stuffed peppers by placing them in the cups of my muffin tin. It helped me not have to fumble around when I filled up the cups. Then during bake-time I wasn't worried about dropping them all over the floor. And did you know you can make almost anything in a slow cooker? Yeah. I even found a sourdough bread recipe recently. Take a look at the things you have and think of new ways to use them to get the job done ASAP (and with minimal frustration).

#7: Don't sweat the small stuff.

If you forgot to get cumin for a certain recipe, just leave it out or supplement with some other spice. You aren't a contestant on Master Chef, so no one will be looking for certain flavor notes the day the meal is thawed and re-heated. Substitute other ingredients when you can, but if you're just missing something -- unless it's the main ingredient in the dish -- just leave it out.


#8: Make freezer favorites work for you. 

A not-so secret secret? I hate pasta. Especially gigantic, brick-like creations like lasagna. But you know what? Lasagna freezes famously well. So, instead of passing over this no-brainer, I decided to add it to my recipe list and make changes that appealed to me. There's no rule saying you HAVE to follow recipes exactly, so I lightened up the tomato sauce by adding lots of veggies and replaced all the cheese with a tofu ricotta.

Casseroles are another natural when it comes to freezing. Experiment with making one using your favorite ingredients. Spend some time researching the types of recipes that freezer well and thinking of special ingredients you like that would work with them.


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Vegetarian Freezer Month: Details

I finished my shopping.
I did all my cooking.
I'm "done" for the month, at least when it comes to 5 dinners each week.
Phew. I need a drink.

There's a lot to write about this whole thing, so today I'll just give the shopping and recipe details.

// MENU

• Pumpkin Chili (+ skillet cornbread) x 4
• Veggie Burgers (on toast + sweet potato fries) x 4
• Crock Pot Indian (+ naan) x 2
• Pizza Dough (topped with cheese + veggies) x 4
• Garlic Knots (+ greens) x 2
• Stuffed Peppers (+ cornbread) x 2
• Veggie Lasagna x 2

= 20 meals for 2.5 people, frozen

That's 5 meals a week for the entire month of September. I could have done more, but I wanted to cook at least one night a week and we usually get takeout or go out to eat once a week. Written out in this way, it seems sort of boring. I mean, we'll be eating the same stuff every week. But when I thought about it, that's what we usually do anyway. I made a few of the meals in smaller quantities to mix things up a bit.

I planned meals we've regularly made in the past with much success -- I linked to a few recipes, but everything I made was actually new, so I'll be trying to get out a recipe list at some point (I tried making everything more balanced nutritionally -- adding protein, etc.). I wanted to find dishes that used the same ingredients in different ways to cut down on the number of items needed at the store (and to take advantage of deals where I could find them).

At the same time, I do think I went a little tomato-heavy, which brings up another point. It's hard to give exact numbers for how much everything cost because I tried using our CSA box as much as possible -- and we had tons of tomatoes! So, while I'm attempting this whole thing for budget reasons, it's also just for ease of cooking + cleaning throughout the month. Trial and error in all regards, too.

// SHOPPING LIST

• Shredded cheese x 4
• Extra Firm Tofu x 4
• Green Peppers x 6
• Yeast
• Sweet Potato Fries
• Frozen Spinach
• Frozen Corn
• Frozen Peas
• Frozen Cauliflower
• Black Beans x 2
• Garbanzo Beans x 2
• Pumpkin x 4
• Whole Peeled Tomatoes x 2 (28 ounce)
• Kidney Beans x 2 (40 ounce)
• Vegetable Broth (carton versus can)
• Lasagna Noodles 
• Red Lentils (dry bag)
• Bread Flour (1 bag)
• Cornmeal
• Breadcrumbs
• Onions (2 lbs)
• Carrots (5 lbs)

= About $70

* Remember -- this is just for dinners. So, 20 dinners would average out at about $3.50 a meal, and divided by 2.5 people = about $1.40 per person. I guess I thought it would figure to less, but I'm still satisfied with these figures.

// OTHER SUPPLIES 

• Freezer Bags
• Freezer Containers
• Plastic Wrap
• Tin Foil

// OTHER INGREDIENTS + FOODS

• Chocolate Chips x 2
• 7 Grain Tempeh x 4
• Earth Balance x 2
• Greek Yogurt x 4
• Lowfat Yogurt x 4
• Ezekiel Bread x 2
• Tuna x 8 (for Stephen's lunches)
• Frozen Strawberries (5 lbs)
• Turmeric
• Curry
• Fenugreek

Would I do it again?

I'm still in shock from how much preparation + how many hours it all took, so it's a hesitant "yes" at this time.

First we need to see if everything tastes good a month later. After thawing, you know? And while I could be bummed I didn't see major $$$ savings, I am also trying to consider that a lot of the extremely low-cost meal plans I've encountered are for stuff like spaghetti + sauce or rice + beans; what we're eating will not only fill our bellies, but also fuel our running.


In my next post on this topic, I'll try to give some handy tips for making foods for freezing and then how to best freeze + defrost them. Till then, at least I know what I'm having for dinner tonight (and tomorrow, and the next day, etc.)!

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