12 Easiest Make-Ahead Freezer Meals

One of the most frustrating things we have found with typical freezer meals is that you spend a lot of time prepping them, only to have to turn around and make a regular dinner that day because a lot of freezer meals are made for the crockpot or work best if frozen first.

We’ve put together a list of our favorite dinners that can also be frozen!  Now when we make any of these, we make up 2-3 batches and eat one for dinner and freeze the rest!

We recommend that you purchase tin foil casserole dishes or other disposable food storage solutions so your nice ones are stuck in the freezer (and therefore unavailable to make brownies!).

Cheese Sauce

While this isn’t a meal itself, we use it all the time in our casseroles, enchiladas, or with pasta.  Don’t freeze it on its own or the texture will be funny, but we will reference it several times in this post.

• 1 cube (8 tbsp or 1/2 cup) melted butter
• 12 tbsp flour
• 6 cups milk
• 1 tbsp chicken bouillon or flavor base
• grated cheese

Melt butter on medium temperature stove. Mix in the flour to create a very thick paste. Add milk and stir constantly (do not walk away at all or it will burn on the bottom). Continue stirring and as the sauce thickens, add the bouillon. Keep stirring until all lumps are out and sauce begins to boil. Continue stirring constantly while sauce boils for at least 1-2 minutes (be careful of splashes). Then add as much grated cheese as desired.

Simple Tuna Casserole

• 2 cans cream of mushroom soup
• 8 cups egg noodles
• 4 cans drained tuna
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 chopped onion
• grated cheese

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Cook and drain noodles. In a large bowl, mix all of the ingredients together except for the cheese and pour into the casserole dish. Bake for 15 minutes.  You could probably add peas or something to this recipe, too.

Chicken and Broccoli Casserole

• 1 package frozen croccoli
• 3 cups cooked rice
• 4 chicken breasts cooked and diced
• grated cheese

Sauce:

• 2 cans cream of chicken soup
• 1 cup mayo
• 1/2 tsp lemon juice
• 2 tsp curry

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix the sauce ingredients together. In the casserole dish, put the rice for a bottom layer and top with the chicken and broccoli. Then pour/spoon the sauce on top. Top with grated cheese. Bake for 25 minutes.

Ham and Cheese Roll-Ups

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp sugar
• ½ tsp cream of tartar
• ¼ tsp salt
• ½ cup shortening
• 2/3 cup milk
• grated cheese
• diced ham

Stir together flour, baking powder, sugar, cream of tartar, and salt. Cut in shortening mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Make a well in the center; add milk all at once. Stir just till dough clings together. Knead gently on a lightly floured surface for 10 to 12 strokes. Roll or pat to ½ inch thickness.  Sprinkle on cheese and ham, then roll up and slice (like cinnamon rolls).

Transfer to an ungreased baking sheet. Bake in 450* oven for 10-12 minutes or till golden. Serve warm. Makes 10-12 biscuits.  After they are baked, top with cheese sauce. If you are going to double this recipe to freeze the rolls, we usually make 1/2 cup of cheese sauce per roll.

Chicken Enchiladas

Make 6 cups of cheese sauce. At the end, when you add the grated cheese, also add a can of mild chili peppers.

• 3-6 cups rice, cooked
• 6 chicken breasts, cooked and diced
• Package of about 16 flour tortillas
• grated cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat tortillas in microwave for about 10-15 seconds to make them more flexible. Dip a tortilla into the cheese sauce about halfway or 3/4 and lay on plate. Put as much rice and chicken as desired on the tortilla and roll it up, placing in a casserole dish. Repeat with each tortilla. At the end, pour remaining cheese sauce on tortillas and top with grated cheese. Cook for at least 30 minutes (look for cheese to be bubbling a lot)

Lasagna

• 1 pound cooked hamburger
• 1 box cooked lasagna noodles (I cook with a tbsp of vegetable oil in with the water to prevent sticking)
• 24 oz cottage cheese
• 4 eggs
• 3 Tbsp parsley (optional)
• 2 large jars of tomato sauce
• grated cheese

In a bowl, mix the eggs, cottage cheese, and parsley (also some grated cheese if desired). In a casserole dish, layer tomato sauce on the bottom. Then place a layer of lasagna noodles. On top, layer cottage cheese mixture and then sprinkle hamburger. Repeat these layers one more time, then top with a layer of noodles and put the rest of the grated cheese. Bake in oven at 350 for about an hour.

Chicken Lasagna

Follow the regular hamburger lasagna recipe in cook times and cooking the lasagna noodles.  Layer lasagna noodles with cheese sauce, chicken, and California-mixed vegetables (carrots, cauliflower, and broccoli).

Homemade Macaroni and Cheese

• 3 cups elbow noodles
• 3 cups cheese sauce
• Ham, cooked and diced
• Cooked California-style mixed vegetables

Make cheese sauce and cook the noodles. Then add as much ham and vegetables as desired and stir all together. This freezes really, really well for lunches.

Pancake/Waffle Recipe

This is an old family recipe from Mrs. Crazy’s side of the family.  Her grandparents still make it on their 50-year-old griddle they had when they were first married as college students!

Mix together in a bowl:

• 1 cup flour
• 1 T white sugar
• 1 t baking powder
• 1/2 t baking soda
• 1/4 t salt

At this point, you can freeze the dry ingredients in a Ziploc bag.  On the outside of the bag, label it and write the needed wet ingredients.

In a separate, smaller bowl mix the following ingredients:

• 1 c buttermilk (or 1 c milk with 1 T white vinegar, let stand for 5 minutes)
• 1 T oil
• 1 egg

Then mix the dry and wet ingredients all together. You can use this for pancakes or waffles.

Silly Chili Macaroni and Cheese

• Macaroni noodles
• Cans of chili – one can per one cup of macaroni noodles
• Grated cheese

Cook up the macaroni noodles based on the directions on the bag/box of noodles with about half a cup of vegetable oil so that the noodles aren’t quite so sticky. Warm up chili. Add chili and cheese to drained noodles.Navajo Tacos

Make a bread dough of your choice. Break into balls and roll flat into thick tortillas.

At this point you can either freeze the dough, or you can make the Indian fried bread and freeze then.

Deep fry in oil with a griddle.  Top with chili, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, sour cream, etc.

Meatloaf

Loaf:

• 2 lb hamburger
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp rubbed sage
• 1 cup fine bread crumbs
• 1 small chopped onion
• Dash of salt and pepper
• Canned milk (enough to moisten well)

Mix all ingredients well with hands. Stick in a loaf pan.

Topping:

• 2 Tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tsp mustard
• 1 cup ketchup

Mix together and smooth on top of loaf with a spoon.  Cover with tin foil and bake at 350* for one hour.

Shepherd’s Pie

• Mashed potatoes
• Canned corn
• Canned green beans
• Ground beef
• Cream of mushroom soup
• Grated cheese

Spread cooked mashed potatoes on the bottom of a casserole dish.  Layer corn, green beans, and cooked ground beef.  Spread cream of mushroom soup on top and cover with grated cheese.  Bake in the oven at 350*.

Pot Roast

• Raw roast (we like getting the manager’s special roasts and half-price and freezing them immediately)
• Bag of baby carrots
• Potatoes, chopped
• 1/2 onion, sliced
• Brown gravy powder

Put potatoes, carrots, and onions in a gallon-size ziploc freezer bag.  Put water and brown gravy powder in a crockpot, then add roast and vegetablesPP.  Set crockpot to low for 10 hours and stir occasionally.  We like to flip the roast over halfway through to increase tenderness.

What are some of your favorite meals to freeze?

An earlier version of this post was written by Tiffany on The Crazy Shopping Cart