Rachel Donaldson.

Welcome to Dining with Donaldson, the place where I try recipes so you don’t have to!

Believe it or not, the school year is just around the corner! This week, I will be stocking our freezer to help us prepare. It feels like the first week or two of school is always hectic, no matter how much I try to be ready for everything that comes my way. Making freezer meals, whether for dinner or lunch, makes things just a little bit easier.

This week, I wanted to start things off with some useful tips for freezer meal preparation. These are little things I have learned along the way that I wish someone had shared with me sooner. Trust me, taking a little bit of time to have a plan is worth it! And remember, you don’t have to spend an entire weekend cooking 30 meals. Even doubling one dinner and freezing half is a great start!

Tips & Tricks

-Prep for your prep. This may sound silly, but honestly, it has been a mental game changer for me! Remember when I talked about precooking chicken in a previous article? This is exactly the kind of thing I mean. If I know I’m going to meal prep, I may take some time the day before to precook any meat I can. It shortens my work time the next day and makes me feel like I’m already one step ahead.

-Use an assembly line. Lay out your pans or freezer bags, prep one ingredient at a time, and move down the line. If you’re making four of the same casserole, put the chicken in all four, then the sauce in all four, and so on. It keeps things moving and makes the whole process feel much less overwhelming.

-Make multiples, but don’t make them identical. This keeps freezer meals from getting boring. For example, use the same chicken base but change the sauces, cheese, seasonings, or vegetables. You can make several versions of the same basic meal without feeling like you’re eating the exact same thing over and over again.

-Create a freezer meal supply tote. This is a big one for me! On a shelf in our basement, I have a tote labeled “Freezer Meals.” Inside you will find a permanent marker, aluminum foil, plastic wrap, gallon freezer bags, baggie holder clips, and square foil pans. When it’s time to prep, I just grab my tote and get to work.

-Label everything before filling it. If I remember, I try to prepare my foil sheets and gallon bags before I start making the food. This also helps me make sure I have enough pans, bags, and other supplies before I get too far into the process. I write the meal name, date, cooking instructions, and anything that needs to be added later on each one.

-Think flat when possible. Freezer bags can be frozen flat and then stacked upright like files once they are solid. That saves a surprising amount of space! I also try to organize everything by type: casseroles, dump and go meals, pre-made ingredients for later, and so on.

-Don’t sacrifice all your regular dishes. Disposable pans keep my everyday casserole dishes available and make it easier to prepare several meals at once. Plus, once we eat the meal, I can simply throw away the pan, which means fewer dishes to deal with. I usually buy my foil pans in bulk online, we’re talking 25 in a pack!

-Keep an inventory. Even something as simple as a checklist taped to the freezer door can help you remember what is actually in there. I like to list everything we have and then mark meals off as we use them. It saves me from digging through the freezer trying to figure out what is hiding at the bottom!

Hopefully these tips will help you be successful in your freezer prep endeavors! Over the next several weeks, I will be sharing many of my go-to freezer meal recipes. Feel free to start with my first recipe or wait until the end and choose your favorites. Whatever you feel most comfortable with, there’s no wrong way to get started!

Welcome back to Dining with Donaldson, the place where I try recipes so you don’t have to!

Rachel Donaldson is an author, self-described foodie and the current family and consumer sciences teacher at North Tama Community School District. She resides with her family in Vinton.