Saturday was the perfect day to meal prep! My husband and I made a plan for him to watch the kiddos so I could get everything done. I love to meal prep freezer meals because I love just taking something out of the deep freeze, throw it in the microwave or InstaPot and go about my business. I usually try to thaw the meals in the refrigerator for a bit, but I don’t always remember!
I had all the food I needed since I did my grocery pick ups on Friday (see my previous post about comparing prices to find the best prices). I had my plan of what meals I was going to prep. I had my Ziploc bags and I had my phone to turn on some tunes while I prepped. My husband took the kiddos out for a morning of fun and adventure and I got started.
To make meal prep easier, I do cheat sometimes. I like to but the bell pepper and onion frozen vegetable starters so I don’t have to prep those. All of the stores I shopped ended up being out of that blend so I settled on the seasonings starter blend. It has the bell peppers, onions, celery, and cilantro. No big deal. The celery and cilantro doesn’t really change the flavor. I tend to buy frozen vegetables unless I KNOW I will be using the vegetable before it will go bad. We have a habit of our vegetables going bad before we cook them. That just wastes food and money so I will spend a little extra on the frozen vegetables. Sometimes I remember to prep veggies to be frozen before they go bad, but not often. I also buy frozen meatballs. As I mentioned in my previous post, I haven’t found a gluten free meatball recipe that really holds together. If you want to save a little extra and don’t mind the prepping of those veggies and meatballs, go for it!
I think the best way to start is to start with a mostly clean kitchen. Make sure you have enough empty space on the counter to prep. I also like to pull out a couple of pots I know I will be using for my first meals. I will also take out a casserole dish if I know I will be using it for one of my first meals. In our previous home I didn’t have the space to pull out pots and pans I would need for a couple of meals so I would take out what I needed for 1 meal at a time. Back then I also prepped fresh veggies and would cut up ALL of my veggies as my first step. Then I had all the veggie prep done and could just throw them in as needed. I don’t do that now just because my brain doesn’t always function right (pregnancy brain is a REAL thing) and I end up forgetting to throw in the veggies or forget to prep the right amount of veggies. Plus, as I mentioned, I bought the frozen veggies so I didn’t have to worry about prep or the veggies going bad!
I started with one of my meals I knew I was going to cook up and then freeze. That way I can prep other meals while my food is cooking. Then that food has to cool before I put it in a freezer bag, place it in the fridge to ensure it is completely cooled, then put in the deep freezer. My first meal was my Cracked out Tater Tot Casserole. I mentioned in my previous post that I thought I was so creative when I came up with this one, but have since found several very similar recipes on Pinterest. I looked on Pinterest for other breakfast casseroles and was so sad when I saw others had my same idea! Maybe I shouldn’t be sad. Maybe I should be glad that others love bacon, eggs, cheese, ranch, and tater tots as much as our family does!
I got all the needed ingredients out to put together. I thought I had taken pictures of this delicious meal, but, apparently pregnancy brain struck. I mixed my tater tots, bacon, and cheese together. Which reminds me, I cheated on the bacon too. I hate cooking bacon because of all the splatter and I have tried cooking it in the oven with good results, but I didn’t feel like messing with that so I bought bacon bits instead. In a large bowl I mix together my milk, eggs, and ranch dressing mix. Then I pour the egg mixture over the tater tots and cover the casserole. Put it in an oven preheated to 350 degrees and mine usually takes about an hour. While it is cooking, I write the instructions on my bag and clean up. I rinse my dishes that I used and clean up any spills. I make sure to wipe the area I used down so there aren’t any germs hanging around to get in my next meal. This also ensures my space is clean and ready to go for the next meal prep.
When it is done I take it out and put it on the counter to let the casserole cool down. Once it is cooled I put it in a Ziploc bag. Make sure to label and write on your Ziploc bag before you put your food in the bag. It will be a million times harder to write on it with food in there. If you don’t write on it, sometimes you may find you can’t remember what it is when you are looking in your freezer. I put the name of my meal on the top of the bag and then write out instructions. This one is easy and just says “Thaw. Reheat in micro or preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put in a 13 x 9 dish, cover with aluminum foil, and heat in oven until warmed through.” Now it will be ready to go in the deep freeze once I am confident it is fully cooled. I let it cool down before going in the bag because otherwise you get a lot of condensation on the bag. Condensation on the bag going in the deep freeze means you will have a runny, watery mess when you pull it out and heat it up. I’m adding a recipe that is close to how I make my casserole. I don’t really measure everything out so that’s why I’m adding a recipe that uses the same ingredients. https://www.plainchicken.com/cracked-out-tater-tot-breakfast/
As a side note: For ALL of my freezer meals I prefer to double bag the meals. I have found that some of the bags leak so having a second bag helps ensure I don’t have a leaky mess everywhere. This can happen either when I’m prepping it or when I’m thawing it in my fridge (if I remember to thaw it first). I also prefer the Ziplock brand gallon freezer bags because I haven’t had good results with other bag brands. If you have one you love, use it!
While my casserole was cooking (it was actually 2 because I doubled the recipe) I started on my next few meals. These didn’t have to be cooked up. It was just taking out of the freezer and putting in a Ziploc bag and adding all the ingredients so it could go back in the freezer all together for easy fixing when I’m ready to use it. I’m not hunting down ingredients or hoping I didn’t accidentally use the ingredients for another recipe.
First was my meatball sub recipe. First I wrote the instructions on the bag: Empty contents into InstaPot. Add 1 cup of water. Put lid on InstaPot and make sure pressure vent is closed. Set for 10 minutes. Let pressure naturally release, then open the vent to ensure all pressure has released. Once completely released, open lid and serve. OR put contents in a pot and warm on the stove. No need to add water. Heat and serve.” It says something along those lines. I have a notebook that has instructions for the kids for when I go into labor. In said book, there are further, more detailed instructions for those that might watch my kiddos that don’t have an InstaPot. Now it is time to take out my frozen meatballs and my marinara sauce. I also tend to throw in some of my seasoning mix veggies just to sneak in some veggies for the kids and the husband! I throw the meatballs in the bag. I use 2 bags of frozen meatballs because the gluten free meatballs don’t have as many as the bags of meatballs with gluten. Then throw in the marinara and the frozen seasonings blend. Try to get as much air out of the bag as possible and then set it flat on the counter and spread the meatballs out so it is flatter. Now double bag it and put it in the deep freeze!
This month we are trying a meatball recipe that is similar to a Polynesian Meatball recipe the kids loved. Usually I would just do 2 of the meatball sub bags but not this month. Since this sweet meatball recipe is new we will see how it goes. It is also an InstaPot recipe so has the same cooking instructions as above. This recipe calls for pineapple chunks, Worcestershire sauce, and brown sugar. Our usual recipes calls for a few more ingredients so we will see if the kids like this one as much as the other. We serve this one over rice (which can also be cooked in the InstaPot).
Next was my beef roast. We usually make it into sandwiches or tacos! I get my bag ready with instructions then get all my ingredients out. This is another really easy one, one everyone likes, and tends to last a couple of days when made into tacos. I double this recipe. I couldn’t get my normal roast this time so I had to order a different one. I hope it turns out as good as my other one. I had to buy 4 roasts to equal the 4 lbs of roast I use for 1 batch of this. I open up all my roasts first. Then I put my bags (with instructions already on them) into a plastic container to help hold them up. Next I add my rosemary, bay leaves, and soy sauce to the bags. Now I put my roast in (this time my 2 roasts to get my 4 lbs) in each bag. Again I get out as much air as I can and then double bag. The only thing I don’t add to this bag is the water. It takes 6 cups of water. That’s a lot of water to put in my bag. Instead I make a note on the bag to add the 6 cups. This can go in the InstaPot, but I prefer mine to go in the crockpot. I also prefer mine to cook in the crockpot for at least 10 hours. I also try to remember to thaw mine before going in the crockpot. This meal is my one that requires the most thinking in advance since you have to plan for the thawing and then the 10 hour cook time. Otherwise, this one is super easy! And DELICIOUS!
I had to take a little break because my legs and feet were tired. This would not normally occur, but the farther in pregnancy I am, the more tired my legs and feet get. I knew I needed to cook another meal in the oven so I went ahead and started on it before resting. It was my Cajun Chicken Fettuccine. I started my water to boil the fettuccine (this time it was spaghetti noodles since I couldn’t find gluten free fettuccine noodles). This is also a meal I double. While I was resting I wrote out my instructions on the Ziploc bag. I can rest and still multitask! This one only cooks in the oven until the cheese is melted. It has to cool on the counter first and then go into the fridge to ensure it is fully cooled. Then into the deep freeze. During my rest I had another cup of coffee. Still no kids around so it was a nice, quiet cup of HOT coffee! How often does that happen?!!
I got my fettuccine in the oven just in time! The kids came home and I fixed them lunch. We all sat down and enjoyed lunch, I took the fettuccine out of the oven to cool, and it was time for nap time for the kids.
Back to work for Mama. I fixed tacos (doubled) and sloppy joes (doubled). I cook both of these up before putting them in a bag. Again, I let them cool a little, put them in the bag, place in fridge, then into the deep freeze. I also put together my garlic butter chicken (InstaPot recipe). I don’t cook the chicken up before freezing so this is a quick and simple recipe to throw in a bag. I also did my Salsa Chicken (doubled) SUPER easy recipe. I did a post on my salsa chicken earlier so feel free to look at it for the recipe!
I then started on a brisket recipe. The recipe I was following made zero sense to me so I decided to go ahead and cook it up in case it didn’t turn out. It was an InstaPot recipe. I was not crazy with how it turned out. It was still tough after the initial 6 hour cook so I put it back in for another 2 hours. It was a lot better after that but still tougher than I like. I cut it up and froze it. I guess we will see how it is when we eat it. I’m not giving up on brisket in the InstaPot though. I’m determined I will figure out a way to make it so it isn’t so tough! Challenge accepted! I have this Instant Pot. If you click the link, it will take you to Amazon. This is an affiliate link and if you purchase the Instant Pot I make a small commission at no additional cost to you as an Amazon affiliate. See my disclaimer page for more information.
At that point I had no more energy to cook. And it was time for dinner. I had a July freezer meal so I warmed it up (it was the cracked out tater tot casserole). Thank goodness for a freezer meal! I heated it up and we ate dinner! Then we enjoyed a family walk. I still had a few recipes to fix and needed to do my breakfast meals, but decided I would do those on Sunday. I was done for the day and I wanted to enjoy my babes a little! For the first time EVER there will be a Day 2 Meal Prep!
