Lovin’ these freezer meals from Jessie! She’s giving me some great ideas to help me get ahead in the kitchen! 

Freezer cooking. Batch cooking. Once-a-month cooking, once-a-week cooking. Bulk cooking. Whatever you call it, having freezer meals can be a lifesaver.

I’ve filled my tiny freezers with a month’s worth of meals (for the last 4 years, I’ve only had a small over-the-fridge freezer). And sometimes, like this morning, I’ve just flash-frozen four pieces of French toast that didn’t get eaten and put them in a freezer bag for an easy toddler breakfast.

Any way you do it, having some extra food on hand in the freezer is always going to be to your advantage. Don’t feeling like cooking? There ya go. Need a meal to take to a friend in need? You have one already made up! Get sick? Your spouse can defrost something and throw it in the oven or in a slow cooker.

Here are some of my favorite recipes to make and throw in the freezer for later.

Honey Parmesan Pork Roast can be put into a slow cooker frozen or thawed. The rich gravy that develops is perfect over mashed potatoes. It’s a great crowd-pleaser and a no-fail meal for me.

Pizza Pockets with flaky, yeast-free dough are a little time-intensive but totally worth the effort. You can fill them with whatever you want and pop out just a few out a time to bake. My husband and kids LOVE these, and we’ve even filled them with peanut butter and jelly.

Muffins

Muffins are the easiest thing in the world to freeze, and these French Breakfast Muffins are some of the best muffins I’ve ever had. They are decadent, eggy, and just delicious. May I also suggest Double Chocolate Zucchini Muffins and Whole Wheat Hawaiian Muffins?

Smoothies

We always have extra smoothie when I make a blender-full for me the kids. I freeze the excess in a silicone muffin pan, then pop the “smoothie discs” into a freezer bag. When we want some, I can defrost one or two discs for the kids by putting them in a cup and then microwaving for 20-30 seconds until they get slushy.

I adore this recipe for Cran-Raspberry Smoothies from Simple Bites. The cinnamon added in makes the smoothie feel like fall! These three-ingredient vegan smoothies are pretty great, too!

And what would life be without dessert? Cookie dough freezes well. You can either just freeze the dough as a whole and defrost before baking, or scoop individual cookies onto a baking sheet and flash-freeze them. Then take frozen cookies and place in a bag. When you want to bake, just take them out frozen and bake a few minutes longer than the recipe calls for.

Don’t these Mocha Cinnamon Chip Cookies look divine?

I will share that Once a Month Meals helped me get over my fear of freezing things. It’s a great resource for all kinds of freezer recipes in a great variety of diets (gluten-free, low-cal, vegetarian, and more). For a fee they will even plan an entire month of meals for you, complete with recipes, grocery lists, and instructions. Pretty awesome.

So, is your freezer stocked? Why or why not?

Jessie is a wife, mother of three kids under 5, freelance writer, and Christ-follower. She has been blogging at Vanderbilt Wife since 2006, where she talks about food, faith, parenting, plus-size fashion, and her complete lack of housekeeping skills. She’s active on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest, too! (But not Instagram. Stupid phone users unite!)

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