Freezer Meals Don't Have To Be Dull
Our fast-paced lives sometimes cause us to develop habits we’re not proud of. Our daily routines can also contribute to eating the same things over and over again. Is there a way to step back and enjoy quick and easy freezer meals that are ready when you are? Fortunately, the answer is a resounding “yes.”
A new trend in cooking is gaining popularity for people on the go called “monthly cooking.” People take one day or a weekend in each month to prepare all of their meals for the rest of the month. Sounds like a lot of work, I know. But, think about how much time it saves you over the course of the month if you can just “grab and go” with a healthy breakfast to get your day going right.
Monthly cooking can alter your life, but it takes more thought than you may initially consider. Some meals freeze great, for example, while others falter under frosty environments in your freezer. Here are a few meal ideas for each part of the day, meals that will freeze well enough to satisfy your craving for a new taste during the rest of the month.
Breakfast
Breakfast foods are difficult to imagine freezing well. Most people, for example, wouldn’t care much for frozen eggs. The best way to think about frozen breakfast foods is to look through the chillier isles of your grocery store, which already have a host of frozen breakfast items for you to consider.
Pancakes and waffles freeze easily, making them popular breakfast choices in the frozen food section. If you take the time to cook them yourself, freeze them individually on a baking tray. Once frozen, you can put the entire batch into a Ziploc bag for easy storage. In the morning, you just grab a couple, throw them in the toaster, drizzle a little syrup on them and you’ve got quick homemade pancakes in less than two minutes.
Another breakfast item that freezes well is bacon and sausage. Cooking these meats first is essential, leaving them just a bit underdone. This way you can finish cooking them during the reheating process for the best taste possible.
Lunch
No meal creates more time pressure than lunch does. No time to prepare a quality lunch in advance, you say? Nonsense. A little foresight at the grocery store is all that’s required. There are plenty of pre-cooked options like burritos and other pocket sandwiches that reheat in minutes. Other foods, like pasta dishes, pizza, and other healthy favorites are often layered and frozen before cooking so that their fresh taste comes alive when prepared.
Dinner
Frozen dinners are among the more common choices for quick meals. Anything that can be baked can be frozen either partially or completely uncooked. Casseroles, for instance, can be cooked and frozen in advance. Other dishes like lasagna should be partially cooked first, layered, then frozen to finish cooking when you’re ready to eat. Still other food items that do well as frozen dinner choices would be soups, beans and rice, and even some pies.
As you can see, making a wide variety of frozen foods available, no matter how busy you get, isn’t impossible. Making life more convenient today involves thinking ahead, especially when it comes to preparing nutritious food for your whole family. These are better choices for your diet, since you know exactly what goes into them in advance. Look for some new meal ideas and recipes, then try making your own frozen meals.
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