During the last week of December things were slow at work. I had some days off and worked from home during others, so it was the perfect time to do some freezer cooking!
In the past all of my meal plans were based around Shabbos. I had a good handle on our week night dinners, but now things were different. We had gotten into such a bad dinner routine I’m even embarassed to tell you that sometimes we didn’t even eat dinner.
I get home from work between 6:30pm and 7pm. Then I spend time with my kids and put them to bed. By the time I have a minute to do anything for myself it can be 8:30/9pm and at that point I do not want to start cooking!
So, I took the opportunity I had and decided we needed individual freezer meals. I chose a few easy recipes and for around $100 I had 18 healthy, portion sized meals in the freezer.
Here’s what we made along with the shortcuts I used:
Main Dishes:
- Chicken fajitas (store-bought fajita seasoning)
- Chicken stir fry (store-bought stir fry sauce)
- Sesame teriyaki salmon (store-bought sesame teriyaki sauce)
- Turkey (this was leftover from the previous Shabbos)
Side Dishes:
- Rice (Trader Joe’s frozen rice and Near East boxed rice mixes)
- Veggies (all frozen)
In order to make the meals easy to serve I bought the right containers on Amazon.
I did not do all of this in one day.
Sunday: shopped for all ingredients
Monday: Cooked the fajita’s, stir fry and Near East rice
Tuesday: Assembled all meals
To assemble I put out all of my containers. I then put in the main dish. Then added 1/4 of rice to each. Then it was time for the veggies. I literally just took them out of the freezer, opened the bag and placed them into my dishes.
Once all the food was in I covered and labeled all of the containers and brought them downstairs to my freezer where they now live.
Each night we need dinner DH and I each get to choose the one we prefer. Then I uncover the tray and place it into the microwave (with the lid loosly on top). I found that the sides cook more quickly than the main dish, so after about 5-6 minutes I’ll take out the container and put the main dish onto a separate plate and back into the microwave. In less than 10 minutes we have a delicious meal!
Until next time,
Shaindy
