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Healthy Foods for the Freezer

July 27, 2011 by Laura 28 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

One of my big Two Week Tackle projects was to pre-make some healthy convenience items for our freezer. This way, on busy days all I have to do is grab burritos or pizza pockets out of the freezer and warm them up quickly for us to eat.

I didn’t do all of this cooking at once. This is the result of 14 days of off and on work in which I simply made one extra batch of food to put into the freezer, whenever I could find a spare moment. Sometimes, I just doubled what we were making for dinner and froze half. This is the best way (in my opinion) to do freezer cooking without stress!

I feel like it’s possible that I’ve broken some sort of tortilla making record during the last few weeks. I lost track of how many tortillas I rolled out and cooked. I think I made at least five double batches, in which we ate or made into burritos. We now have loads of frozen burritoes and around 18 plain whole wheat tortillas in our fridge for easy quesadillas next week! (Just doing some quick math, I think this means I may have made 120 tortillas between last week and this week. Not that you cared. I just felt like multiplying it out. Why do I do these things?)

I was excited to try making Chicken Burritos and will be sharing the recipe soon.

And, not that you can tell them apart, but because I somehow feel the need to prove my tortilla making madness, here is a big batch of meat and cheese burritos. (Are you bored with my tortilla picture parade yet?)

I hate to disappoint you, but the rest of the pictures have nothing to do with tortillas. Instead, we have a pan full of lovely pizza pockets that are now frozen and ready to bake for a quick lunch.

I made a batch of homemade hamburger buns and didn’t let us eat any of them. Buns in the freezer means easy burgers, sloppy joes or even turkey/cheese melts.

I made a quadrupal batch of Whole Wheat Waffles – these are the BEST for toasting in the morning when we need a fast breakfast.

One of my favorite main dishes:  BBQ Meatballs. I intentionally made way more than we needed for one meal so that I could freeze the leftovers. Meatball subs anyone?

I needed a batch of homemade rolls for something last week. Therefore, I made bunches. I have no idea what happened to the rolls in the upper right-hand corner. Mysteries like this happen in my kitchen regularly. We may never get to the bottom of it.

I surprised the boys one morning with homemade donuts, then because we had quite a few leftover, I froze them for another breakfast soon.

Last but not least, I shook up a jar each of Taco Seasoning, Ranch Dressing Mix and Italian Dressing Mix. I LOVE having these in my pantry to grab and use in a moment’s notice.

And that, my friends, is the result of the intentional extra cooking I have been doing in an attempt to get ahead before August begins.

What are your favorite ways to get ahead in the kitchen? (Yeah, yeah…I know. Getting ahead in the kitchen is almost like getting ahead on laundry – next to impossible. But still.)

In case you’re curious, here are a few posts that might help answer some of your questions about how I freeze foods and try to get ahead in the kitchen:

  • How I Freeze Food
  • Two Simple Ways to Get Ahead in the Kitchen
  • All of my Make Ahead Meals posts and ideas

 

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Filed Under: Make Ahead Meals Tagged With: cooking ahead, freezer cooking, healthy, homemade, kitchen, organized, Recipes, whole wheat

Comments

  1. The Prudent Homemaker says

    July 27, 2011 at 10:20 pm

    I’ve never thought of freezing my leftover homemade donuts. Then again it’s hard to have leftover donuts here!

    Good for you! That was a lot of work!

    Reply
  2. jenn foy says

    July 28, 2011 at 4:18 am

    nice work! i’m always inspired by your posts. any chance of you sharing the homemade roll recipe?! :)

    Reply
    • jenn foy says

      July 28, 2011 at 4:23 am

      i just saw that the roll recipe is in the hospitality ebook. my birthday is this saturday….maybe that’ll be my present to myself!

      Reply
  3. Shar says

    July 28, 2011 at 5:51 am

    I can’t wait for your book on teaching kids to cook! My girls are 5, 4, & 9 mos and my big girls already beg me to let them help in the kitchen. Most of the time I’m in to much of a hurry to let them help. But at least once a week I plan a dinner that they can help make (like pizzas). It’d be great to have new ideas for things that we can make together. Thanks for all of the healthy recipes! Your site is such a blessing!

    Reply
  4. Karen says

    July 28, 2011 at 5:52 am

    Around here we like to freeze bread dough. Simply prepare as usual, let rise, punch down. Then at this step we shape into either loaves or a ball, wrap in plastic wrap/freezer wrap of choice. Rolls get covered on baking sheets till they are frozen, then just pop them off and store in an airtight container in the freezer. So easy on a busy day to pull something out to thaw and rise on the kitchen counter or thaw in fridge the night before. Just remember to label and date what goes in the freezer!

    Reply
  5. Melissa says

    July 28, 2011 at 5:53 am

    Wow! Lots of work you’ve done! I thought of you and all your freezer prep this summer when I saw that Foodsaver was having a sale on it’s bag and rolls. When you buy 8 of a size it’s 30% off and you can add the code G1FV80B and it takes 50% off! You can get 8 rolls and 8 boxes of the quart bags for around $3.50 each!

    They had a facebook promo last week and I was able to score a unit for 75% off so I’ve been stocking up on bags, but I’d loved to see a post on how you use yours!

    Reply
    • Laura says

      July 28, 2011 at 6:46 am

      That’s so great to know. I am SO BUMMED as yesterday I pulled out my Seal-a-Meal to get bags ready for putting up corn, and the thing WON’T WORK!!! My hubby is out of town today so I’m at a loss as to what is wrong with it. :(

      Reply
      • Melissa says

        July 28, 2011 at 7:21 am

        Oh no!!!!!

        Reply
    • Amy says

      July 28, 2011 at 9:21 am

      Thank you for posting this great deal! I haven’t bags for a very long time because they are so expensive. I just bought several that should last me quite a while. They have some pretty cool reusable zipper style bags for the fridge too. The attachment is only 7.99 and the bags are 7.99 and included in the volume pricing and 50% off sale. Plus there is free shipping if you spend more than $55. Yay!

      Reply
  6. Lana says

    July 28, 2011 at 7:43 am

    Food mysteriously dissappears from the corners of pans and baking dishes in my kitchen too—hmmmmm :)

    Reply
  7. Heather T. says

    July 28, 2011 at 9:38 am

    And I thought I was busy, I have made 11 jars of peach jam, two different kinds of pickles and am trying to decide what to do with the other box and a half of peaches and its only 11:00 am. I truly need to make some of your hamburger buns and regular buns, they look yummy.

    Reply
  8. Kika says

    July 28, 2011 at 11:11 am

    I appreciate posts like these. My 15 year old son will be heading to highschool this fall (for the first time – HS’ld to this point) and I dread packing lunches. Although we cook little meat in our house, I’ve been really checking out all your food-related posts to glean ideas for lunches… and thinking about what I can prepare and freeze in advance for healthy options. Anyways, pizza pops and burritos are ideas I will definitely try for him. I was thinking of making and freezing ‘egg mcmuffins’ too but wonder how they’d work for thawing and eating the next day?!

    Reply
    • Kika says

      July 31, 2011 at 4:44 pm

      I made the pizza pops and they were fabulous. I made one little pizza with the dough too to try that out (since my youngest can’t have yeast so we were thrilled to try a ‘safe’ pizza base for her) and she loved it. So simple… loved, loved, loved it.

      Reply
  9. Randi says

    July 28, 2011 at 12:20 pm

    I love your site! It’s so inspiring. Thank you. And for those who are gluten free we make most of your recipes with 1/3 sweet sorghum flour and 2/3 brown rice flour mixture. I’ll add xanthan gum to things like breads and baked goods.
    Cookies and pancakes I rarely use it in because we’re not picky as far as the fluffiness is concerned. I’m also trying to stay away from it when possible because it is made of corn or soy, which in the US is highly likely to be a GMO. If I do use it for cookies/pancakes then 1/4 teaspoon per cup of flour.
    Cakes and muffins 1/2 teaspoon per cup of flour
    Breads 1 teaspoon per cup of flour
    Pizza Dough 2 teaspoons per cup of flour

    Reply
  10. Laura A says

    July 28, 2011 at 1:16 pm

    By the way, your taco seasoning makes ordinary tomato sauce into an excellent enchilada sauce, in just one step!

    Reply
  11. Nicole says

    July 28, 2011 at 8:37 pm

    That’s rather impressive! I purchased your Totally Tortillas e-book and its great. But I must confess, I’ve only made tortillas once. I only have a french rolling pin so it took me FOREVER to get them fairly even. I need to get a normal one.

    Reply
  12. Jamie says

    July 28, 2011 at 9:11 pm

    I am really interested in the Teaching your Kids to Cook, because I teach a cooking class in a homeschool co-op,(actually 2 classes, one for 6&7 year olds, and one for 8,9&10) and I am always looking for new recipes that are not too difficult for these ages.

    Reply
  13. Amy says

    July 29, 2011 at 6:53 am

    I am really interested in your book learning how to cook. I’m a young, single female who has a desire to grow in preparing now for marriage and family. I have a strong desire to grow in my understanding of how to provide healthy, nutrious meals that are budget friendly. Thank you so much for your willingness to share with others what you have learned over the years! Blessings!

    Reply
  14. Lori says

    July 29, 2011 at 10:42 am

    Why do all of your bread products look so much less um… Wheaty? They almost look like my husband wouldnt notice that they were wheat. I made your waffles recently and he did eat them without any mention of the wheat flour though so that is a big step. I know you usually grind your own wheat berries so mayb that is why mine always look so dark. I do buy white wheat tho. I bought some sprouted flour to make my hubby chocolate chip cookies (and btw am looking forward to trying your chocolate chunk recipe soon) so we will see if that makes less wheaty looking and tasting cookies.

    Reply
    • Laura says

      August 3, 2011 at 6:22 am

      I’m guessing it’s because I grind my own flour from hard white wheat – although it’s a good step that you are at least using white whole wheat. The freshly ground flour makes a difference I’ve noticed.

      I remember being shocked too the first time I saw bread made from freshly ground white wheat – I couldn’t believe it was 100% whole wheat!

      Reply
      • Kika says

        August 3, 2011 at 9:55 am

        I used fresh-ground spelt – delicious.

        Reply
  15. Jessica says

    July 29, 2011 at 2:03 pm

    Is there any way I can beg you to make a freezer cooking e-book? I REALLY want another one, and something with breads like this would be perfect!

    Also, if you don’t want to make one, can you recommend one? I guess I could also go print all of your freezer recipes and put them in a binder.. hmm..

    Reply
    • Laura says

      August 3, 2011 at 6:22 am

      That’s been on my to-do list forever. Someday I really will get it done. :)

      Reply
  16. Jackie Brown says

    August 1, 2011 at 1:34 pm

    Ha, I tried to get ahead making these pizza muffins for the freezer, http://momonamission.me/?p=2230, and we ate them in one day, I’m going to have to take your advice and do the two week cooking to feed our half dozen crew!

    Reply
  17. Jamie says

    August 7, 2011 at 11:58 am

    Love what you have done. I need to do more freezing. i havent dont it for a while. I don have a questions. What do you do with the taco seasoning/ranch mix. Sounds good but I`m not sure what you do with it. Do you have a recipe for it?

    Reply
    • Laura says

      August 7, 2011 at 7:00 pm

      With the ranch mix, besides making dressing and dip, it’s great to use with these Ranch Potato Wedges: https://www.heavenlyhomemakers.com/high-five-recipes-ranch-potato-wedges.

      The taco seasoning I simply use to season taco meat when I make tacos!

      Reply
  18. Kim McDonald says

    May 10, 2013 at 7:13 pm

    I made tortillas tonight with a cast iron flat skillet and they were great! I’ve made them before and used an electric skillet. I must say the cast iron is the way to go. I was wondering though, what is the best way to reheat them? Do they stay moist in the fridge and how long will they keep? If you freeze them, should you put parchment paper in between? Thanks!

    Reply
    • [email protected] says

      June 3, 2013 at 12:31 pm

      The best way to reheat them is in the skillet. They will stay moist in the fridge in an airtight plastic bag. There is no parchment needed if you freeze them. Frozen, they should keep for a few months.

      Reply

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