In a perfect world my favourite food would just arrive on my table every night without me having to lift a finger.
In a slightly less perfect, but still totally awesome, world, all four of my kids would eat whatever I put on the table, and love it.
In a slightly less perfect, but still pretty darn good, world, I would have a freezer full of these magical meals and making dinner would be a whole lot easier.
In the real world, we live so far from town that there isn’t even any takeout that delivers!
And in the real world, I have two kids who don’t eat spaghetti bolognaise (what kind of kid doesn’t eat spag bol?), one that doesn’t eat potato (not even chips!), and one that doesn’t eat chicken, but all four of them would eat tacos for dinner every single night.
But I am working on creating that last kind of world, where my freezer is full, and making dinner on the nights when we are late home from activities, or my husband is on late shift, is quick and easy.
Back when I first wrote about freezer meals I was struggling to come up with even a handful of meal ideas, but these days I’ve got a freezer packed full of dinners!
14 Freezer Friendly Meal Ideas
Porcupine meatballs – freeze pre-made meatballs and just add sauce when you are ready to cook them
Beef and spinach burgers – make a huge batch and freeze uncooked.
Pizza pockets – freeze the dough, or freeze the whole pocket, uncooked.
Easy Chilli – make it with meat or without, freeze as a sauce or make it into burritos or enchiladas and freeze.
Veggie Filled Bolognaise sauce from Kidgredients – I haven’t given up on spag bol yet!
Lentil Bolognaise – A veggie version of traditional spag bol.
Tomato and broad bean pasta – make a big batch of sauce while broad beans are in season and freeze.
Falafel style Veggie burgers – an easy vegetarian dinner
Wheat-free chicken patties from Childhood101 – I tried telling my non-chicken eater that this was beef, he didn’t buy it, but everyone else loves these.
Beef and veggie pot pies – freeze the filling.
Meat and veggie pasties – freeze them cooked or uncooked.
Chicken Noodle Soup from The Organised Housewife- make stock after you have roast chicken and freeze it on it’s own, or freeze the complete soup.
Veggie nuggets – these freeze great and work as a great side or as veggie burgers if you make them a bit bigger.
Crust-less quiche – four ways to make it and they all freeze well.
That’s a fortnights worth of freezer friendly dinner ideas. So in a perfect world, or even in a half decent one, if I make a double batch of all of these meals, once a month, I end up with an entire month’s worth of dinners.
But it’s easy to make many of these recipes in really big batches. A really big batch of chilli will make four or five different mexi-meals (tacos, burritos, enchiladas, mexi bake etc), you can easily make several dinners worth of burgers, and one roast chicken dinner will make two chicken noodle soup meals for the freezer. That means I end up with a while lot of extra meals in my freezer.
Fitting it all in the freezer can be an issue, so make sure you have enough space to store food properly before you go crazy. Flash freezing individual items on a tray, then storing them in freezer bags is a good idea, and freezing sauce in zip locked bags laid flat is a great space saver.
Do you make lots of freezer friendly meals?
I’d love for you to share your favourite freezer-friendly recipes and ideas, as well as your best tips for making and freezing food.
Feel free to share your tips or links to recipes in the comments below.
I first shared this post back in 2010 (which is why some of the comments have such old dates on them), back then I was struggling to come up with freezer friendly meal ideas, but these days I have a whole heap that we love, so it was time for an update and reshare.
Leah says
Chow mein from back of packet soup recipe, baked beef risotto (google betterhealthchannel) and apricot chicken (from nectar can not continental mix) are my 3 suggestions, hopefully 1 will past picky muster lol
Leah says
Oh and forgot lamb shank stew, it freezes up a treat! Also I know they are expensive and un eco friendly and probably bad for you but I found those 90 second microwave rice pouches very handy after Owen was born. You’d probably need too many for the whole family but it’s worth having a few on hand I reckon, to eat leftovers with. Nice to have a hot lunch in the cold winter!
Marita says
I <3 Frozen Mashed Potato – available from safeway, aldi and coles. It makes for a very easy bangers and mash at dinner time. You could probably make and freeze your own mashed spuds too.
I often make up things like a large quantity of beef stroganof or other slow cooked stew and then put it in individual servings with frozen mashed spuds. Easy Peasy.
amandab says
Are they totally off pasta? Princess won’t touch lasagne, but I love a spinach lasagne with a bit of bacon and ricotta, if not the regular kind
Nic says
OMG at the non bolognaise eaters ! LOL
Potato, leek and carrot soup is something my kids love.
Jen says
from a new lurker! Maybe they will eat meatballs? look up online for a recipe for porcupine meatballs, very easy and even my super fussy boy will eat them.
Colin Wee says
My children love Boeuf a la Borguignone. You brown of the beef (chuck or casserole) on the BBQ, and chuck it into the oven with stock and light/med bodied red wine. You can eat it with rice, mash, or on pancakes/crepes. :-) Cheers, Colin
Liss says
Kate, I feel for you as no one (worthwhile) delivers out her either! Being organised is the key.
Now your kids sound like my Oliva (mad for chilli con carne)- but she does eat spag bol (I just don’t make it very often)
Make yourself some little pies – put them in muffin trays… later this week I do have a recipe posting for pastizzi – I’m sure your kids will like those. Today I posted quick chicken strips and spicy kumera chips – the child who likes chilli will LOVE those. I’ve had requests every day since I first made them for those…
Feel free to drop me a line and I can send you some more suggestions ;)
Lanne says
Pizza bases – you can just throw on toppings or make your own – even husbands and kids can do it. Lasange (although i worry with no spag bol this might not be a goer). We do lamb casseroles and freeze. I make chicken snitchzels (day old bread and parsely in blender – dip chicken in flour, egg then bread mix) and freeze in portions. Hamburgers and meatballs are also easily prepared a head of time and leave them uncooked (i guess cooked is OK too?) freeze premade pie fillings and combine with some frozen pastry. Beef Bourg. i find the recipe mix from maggi and some simple cooking works well.
Lanne says
ohh and taco mince.. I cook it and freeze and then we simply crack open a box.. heat the shells and then everyone just serves themselves.
Leanne says
I can relate the the spag bol thing. My youngest won’t eat it either. She turns her nose up at anything with mince, the little princess :-(
I can second the chow mein though. Burgers are good too. You can sneak all sorts of goodies into the patties, throw them in the freezer then wack them together with whatever other fillings you have on hand.
Melanie says
Are they soup eaters? Lots of soups freeze well – minestrone, pea and ham, pumpkin, vegetable… Easy to thaw and serve with those parbaked breadrolls – yummo!
Tenille says
Spinach and ricotta cannelloni freezes really well and if you google the Consuming Passions recipe (remember that show?) you’ll find a really nice version. I made double the white sauce though. Would the girls eat a mild curry? I used to make big pots of a coconut based lamb curry and freeze the leftovers with some rice, ready for lunches. I second the pizza base suggestion too.
jodie says
I cook hamburgers and freeze them, just make a double batch, cook as normal and freeze half. You can zap in the microwave and serve as a burger in bun, serve with salad, serve with vegies and gravy, bake in the oven with pineapple rings. Meatballs freeze well, mashed vegies freeze well (on a bad day, mashed vegies and precooked burger means at least the kids have eaten well lol).
How about curried sausages? Curried chicken?
Katy says
OMG I can’t believe they won’t eat good old spag bol!!
What about
Beef stroganoff
Meatloaf
Beef goulash
Chicken & mustard sauce with rice
Beef & gnocchi pie
http://beekaty.blogspot.com/search/label/beef%20and%20gnocchi%20pie
Katy says
Beef casserole
http://beekaty.blogspot.com/2009/07/food-blog-challenge-1.html
Curry chicken & tomato pilaf
http://beekaty.blogspot.com/search/label/curry%20chicken%20and%20tomato%20pilaf
Sausage rolls
http://beekaty.blogspot.com/search/label/homemade%20sausage%20rolls
Katy says
Moroccan shephards pie
http://beekaty.blogspot.com/search/label/Moroccan%20Shephards%20Pie
French shephards pie
Pumpkin soup
Tuna and sweet potato patties
http://beekaty.blogspot.com/search/label/Sweet%20Potato%20and%20Tuna%20Patties
Rissoles
jeanie says
When I was a student, I would make a mild curry base that I freeze for exams and would use on everything – veges, sausages – heck, even nothing over rice!!
Sarma is something totally yummy that freezes and is fantastic in the reheat – although if they don’t eat spag they may have a problem with stuffed cabbage leaves.
Of course, I am a firm believer in the tin of baked beans for kids who won’t eat the goodness offered.
Colin Wee says
You know the italians would serve Bolognaise but put very little of the sauce on the pasta. Maybe the amount of sauce is a turn off? Colin
Dionna @ Code Name: Mama says
I lurve freezer meals. Seriously. If you are a member of mothering.com, there is a wonderful, long thread full of freezer meal ideas. Some of my favorites are chili, lasagna, and breakfast foods (pancakes, biscuits, etc.).