The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Easy Freezer Meals

August 23, 2011 ~ 11 Comments

I just cooked for four hours.

I don’t really like to cook and I hate the clean up even more. But, I have been trying to be a ‘good’ mom (as my kids would say) and have breakfast ready for them to wake up to before school. They seem to get out of bed so much easier if I tell them breakfast is ready and waiting.

Up until now through all their years in school, they have been fed cereal or pop-tarts or shoved out the door to eat breakfast at school. But since I’ve been getting up earlier to get the middle schooler up and going, I thought I might as well feed them a nice breakfast.

Easy Freezer Meals

I was excited to try out a few of the tips and recipes in the book The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Easy Freezer Meals. The idea of cooking for one day and not having to again for a week, or even a month, is very appealing to me. And I thought making a bunch of freezer breakfasts would be perfect.

There are nearly 130 recipes. I picked out five recipes from the breakfast section.

Breakfast Burritos

breakfast burritos

English Muffin Breakfast Sandwiches

english muffin breakfast sandwich

Cinnamon Swirl French Toast

cinnamon swirl french toast

Buttermilk Pancakes

buttermilk pancakes

Orange Blueberry Muffins

orange blueberry muffins

I then used the tips in the beginning of the book to make my plan before beginning. I’ve never done anything like ‘cooking ahead’ or freezer meals before, so this was all new to me. With the tips in the book, I was able to plan my grocery list and cooking order very easily.

Some of the tips you will learn in the book are:

How to freeze foods and which ones freeze well
How to care for your freezer, oven, and the tools you’ll need for freezer cooking
Shopping and cooking strategies
How to plan your cooking day

It took me, one who hates cooking and is very inefficient at it, 4 hours to chop, dice, boil, mix, and cook five meals and clean up the huge mess afterward. I ended up with 16 Breakfast Burritos, 12 English Muffin Breakfast Sandwiches, 24 slices Cinnamon Swirl French Toast, 36 Buttermilk Pancakes, and 24 Orange Blueberry Muffins.

freezer cooking

I highly recommend this book for anyone wanting to dip their toes in the waters of easy freezer meals. (Although I wouldn’t cook with that water afterwards.)