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Freezer Meals: a Healthy Way to Save Time & Money

Freezer meals are the perfect way to cut down on your budget and your waistline! They are so much easier to make than you'd think. Definitely pinning this one!

In the spirit of all things 2016, I vowed to jump (back on!) the freezer meals trend. I used to be really good about making meals and freezing them for an easy go-to lunch or dinner, but hadn’t done it since we moved into the new house. No longer my friends, I’m back on that train in a big way! Time and money are two things we all would like to have more of, so I think EVERYONE needs to try these freezer meals! Four hours of time on a Sunday for enough dinners and lunches to cover 2-3 weeks? I’m in. 🙂 Here’s how I do it:

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To save a bit more green, I usually first scan our grocery stores weekly ads to see what is on sale. We shop at Sprouts in the Dallas area and they always have good deals on produce and fresh meats. Generally either pork, chicken or beef will be the featured item on sale. I always base my meal plans off that since I get the most bang for our buck that way!

This last round they had an awesome deal on ground beef. After checking the ad online and seeing that, I started researching meals I could make with ground beef as the main ingredient since usually we do chicken-based dishes. I searched through Pinterest (of course!) until I found two stews that I thought sounded really good. I like having soups for lunch, so I knew these would be my lunches over the next few weeks! (By the way I used this recipe for hamburger soup and this recipe for chili!).

Freezer meals are the perfect way to cut down on your budget and your waistline! They are so much easier to make than you'd think. Definitely pinning this one! :)

I then make my shopping list with all the ingredients using my planner. I break it up into meat, produce, canned goods, spices, etc, so I can quickly get everything I need. Always remember to add a bottle of wine so you can enjoy a glass while cooking! 😛

Once we were at home, Scott and I split the tasks to make the stews as quickly as possible. He chopped the veggies while I browned a million pounds of ground beef and opened a trillion cans (it felt like!). While we were working we used our InstaPot (love!! definitely will share more in an upcoming post!) to make delicious steamed white rice that we also froze. The great thing about freezer cooking is it’s almost as easy to make a triple batch as it is a single! You’re already using the same amount of pans and pots, so might as well make it count right?

Between the two of us, it took us about 2 hours to make enough soup to last me 3 weeks! I purchased these BPA-free 32 ounce freezer-safe containers as well as these smaller 16-ounce versions. We filled them about 3/4ths full with soup and rice respectively, labeled them with freezer labels and froze. That’s it! It’s been awesome to be able to spend my lunch hours at the gym and know I have a healthy, homemade soup waiting for me when I’m done. Talk about motivation right? 😀

Freezer meals are the perfect way to cut down on your budget and your waistline! They are so much easier to make than you'd think. Definitely pinning this one! :)

Also, if you give this a try (please do!) I’d suggest thawing your soup in the fridge the night before or the morning of. I forgot to do this and it literally took me 20 minutes to microwave. It tasted great but I was so impatient waiting! 😀

Freezer meals are the perfect way to cut down on your budget and your waistline! They are so much easier to make than you'd think. Definitely pinning this one! :)

Have you all given freezer meals a try? I’d love to have some of the recipes you use, leave them down below! 🙂

PS My most popular blog post of all time is a freezer burrito post! It went crazy viral on Pinterst and people still email me to tell me they love it. Check it out here!

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Tania Griffis is an accomplished writer, blogger, and interior designer with a Journalism degree from the University of Oklahoma. She started her popular blog, Run to Radiance, in 2011, demonstrating her design expertise through the personal remodeling of six houses to millions of readers across the globe.

Tania also owns The Creative Wheelhouse, a respected ghostwriting agency for bloggers, further showcasing her talent for creating engaging and informative content.

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13 Comments

  1. a bunch of my mom friends get together to make baby meals that they can freeze and then popout throughout the week. i used to love going to the market and getting inspired every day, but now with time feeling shorter than ever… freezer meals might be more realistic. maybe i’ll start with the burrito post? imma go read it right now 🙂

  2. I love to freeze. I usually freeze my rice in a freezer bag squished flat for easy stacking and a quick thaw. I love frozen soups also. I make marinara sauce that works well for me. I like frozen cornbread muffins and biscuits and scones. When you pull these out of the freezer when I have guest for lunch they think I am so clever. 🙂

    Now after all that I want to say I am jealous that your husband is willing to be your sous chef. 🙂

    1. I just tried frozen rice for the first time and it was awesome! Marinara sauce is a great idea and I bet your guests are so impressed having all those nice homemade goodies. i would be! 🙂 I am lucky to have his help, but he likes to eat too so it’s fair. 😛

  3. This is brilliant! it would save so much time for the week! Adding this to my to-do along with the sugar scrubs 😀

  4. Great! This is something I always say I am going to do, but I don’t do it! Thanks for the inspiration and motivation! I love those little containers. They would make it easier. Thanks for sharing at Thursday Favorite Things!

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