When I was nine months pregnant I heard about freezer meals for the first time and convinced my husband we needed to have them for the first few days after getting home from the hospital, and they honestly saved us!
Being a new mom, I had no idea what I was getting into, and I am so glad we prepped the freezer meals before going into labor. Some days it was hard enough to find a chance to throw the freezer meal into Our Multi Cooker, I cannot imagine cooking an entire meal! If that alone does not convince you to prep some freezer meals ASAP, below are five more reasons followed by a collection of our favorite freezer meals.
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1. They are Affordable
My husband and I found a grocery and recipe list for Aldi and headed out. We spent about an hour in the store (my husband had never been to an Aldi before, if you can believe that, so I took him on a tour!) and the total came to about $60, which is less than we typically spend.
2. Provide Shopping List
I found the supplied shopping list feature essential to a quick grocery store visit. We were able to go in, only purchase what we need, and get out. This is very helpful if you have a young child with you, or don’t have time to flip thru all the recipes and hope you aren’t missing something when you get home! I am also someone who likes to check out things I do not actually need, much unlike my husband, so the grocery list really helped us (or me anyway) to stay on track.
3. Quick and Easy to Prep
It just took us about an hour and a half total to prep ten meals that lasted us two weeks! It probably would have taken a lot less time if my husband hadn’t decided to start making dinner for that night while I was preparing these meals, but the prep is so simple that you don’t even need to use that much of the kitchen, you can just grab a cutting board and set up shop on the dining room table (just make sure to remove your tablecloth so you don’t stain it with tomato sauce like I did).
4. Just Dump and Go
Literally, all you have to do is put the freezer bag down to defrost the night before, toss the meal into the Slow Cooker in the morning, and you are done!
Okay, some meals we had to shred the chicken after it was cooked, but that took all of two additional minutes.
5. They Last!
We were able to survive two weeks on these meals alone! We always had leftovers, even when we had in-laws staying with us. We were able to eat the leftovers for lunch the next day. The only meal we had to make on our own was breakfast, which was a huge help since our little girl insisted on being held!
Below are a few of our favorite freezer meal recipes and grocery lists from other blogs:
Thirty Handmade Days – 19 Deliciously Healthy Chicken Crockpot Freezer Meals
Thriving Home – 70+ Healthy Freezer Meals