Freezer Meals-Round 3
Finally done with all of my freezer meals. Freezer is full and we are hopefully just 3 weeks away from welcoming our little angel. It has been 8 1/2 months of mostly me in full baby mode. It's kind of amazing how it's all you can think of. In fact, I find myself forcing myself to not bring it up or ask people how they're doing so they don't feel obligated to ask the pregnant lady how she's doing. However, the last several weeks it's all my husband seems to think about too. He's in and out of the nursery making sure everything is perfect, asking me constantly what do we have left to do. We are both so ready to meet her and now we're finally ready. The to do list is complete and it's a good feeling.
For the last few freezer meals I prepped chicken fajitas, beef burritos, smoothie packets, and energy balls. It was definitely a much smaller (and easier) round, but a good easy one to finish filling up the freezer.
Chicken Fajitas
Ingredients:
Boneless, skinless chicken thighs
Green bell pepper, cut into strips
Yellow onion, cut into strips
Salsa
Directions:
1. Chop up your vegetables.
2. Throw a few chicken thighs, veggies, and salsa into a freezer bag. Mix well and seal.
3. When ready to eat simply thaw it out and throw it in a crockpot. It's always been a go to meal for us when we're swamped and now all my prep work is even finished for it. Have some grated cheese and tortillas on standby and you're ready to munch!
Beef Burritos
Ingredients:
Finely chopped beef
Taco seasoning
Salsa
Spanish rice
Black beans
Cheddar cheese, grated
Directions:
1. Make your spanish rice. I used the Zatarain's Spanish Rice mix and just followed the directions.
2. Drain and rinse your black beans.
3. Brown beef, drain off fat. Add taco seasoning and water, cook down.
4. Assemble your burritos. Similar to the enchiladas from last time, it's much easier when you have everything already laid out. Lay a flour tortilla on top of your aluminum foil and add ingredients: rice, beef, beans, cheese, and salsa. Roll tortilla up tightly seam side down and then roll up the foil.
5. Put rolled up burritos into a freezer bag. Either reheat in a 350 degree F oven for 30 minutes or unwrap and reheat in microwave for 5-10 minutes.
Smoothie Packets
Ingredients:
Frozen fruit
Almond milk, frozen into ice cubes
Banana, sliced and frozen
Directions:
1. Freeze your almond milk into ice cube trays. Trust me, this allows you to be able to get the benefits of the almond milk without having to make sure it hasn't spoiled.
2. Slice your bananas and place them on a plate in the freezer. This again gives you the bananas without having to worry about them getting rotten in the pantry.
3. Put your frozen and sliced bananas, almond milk ice cubes, and frozen fruit into a sandwich-sized baggy.
4. When you're ready to enjoy your smoothie, throw everything into your blender. I also like to add peanut butter, ground flax seeds, and chia seeds into your blender. Turn it on and now you have a smoothie.
Energy Balls
Ingredients:
1 cup oats
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
1 cup shredded, unsweetened coconut flakes
1/2 cup ground flax seeds
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/3 cup honey
Directions:
1. Add all ingredients into a large mixing bowl and mix well. Add more peanut butter and honey if too dry or more oats if too wet.
2. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
3. Roll into ping pong sized balls, wrap in foil, and place in a freezer bag.
4. Allow to thaw a bit and enjoy when you're ready to eat.
Phew, finally done!
Price:
19 meals for $50=$3/ meal
My overall cost for the entire freezer stash was $200 for 47 meals! This means we will be able to enjoy our delicious homemade meals at a menial $4/meal and $2/person/meal, not including the price of about 2 dozen cookie dough balls and 12 energy balls. You can't beat that! Any freezer meals you get from the store are going to be much higher in sodium and preservatives plus cost you twice as much. Trying to eat out at all is going to again cost you easily 3 times if not more. I count this as a win.
You up for some freezer meal planning? Even if you're not pregnant, if you know someone who is these are all great meals to prepare ahead for them.