Freezer meals... for the rest of us.

You've probably seen blogs with these claims:

• "Make 50 freezer meals in a day."
• "30 days of freezer cooking."
• "16 freezer meals in one hour."

This is not one of those blog posts. Instead, this is the story of two friends who live in the land of reality and who got together to make freezer meals. Think of the story as "Freezer meals... for the rest of us."

So here's how it went down. 

Toni and I decided it would be fun/practical to get together and prepare some freezer meals. A couple of weeks ago we got together to choose our recipes, so we could plan our shopping lists. Since this was our first time doing a freezer day, we wanted to start small. We chose to each select three recipes: a pork dish, a chicken dish, and a beef dish. We would double the recipe (if necessary; if it was already a large portion, we didn't double it) so we each got enough for one meal and leftovers. Our husbands are "meat and potatoes" kind of guys. Nothing too crazy for them. We looked for recipes that were simple enough to make but were different from something we already make, so we could add some new dishes to our normal line-up. 

Here's what I picked out:

• Hawaiian Pizza Pockets 
• Doubled the recipe
• Put in foil pans, ready to freeze and ready to bake
• We each ended up with 6 pockets.
• Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole
• Doubled the recipe
• Put in foil pans, ready to freeze and ready to bake
• We each ended up with 2 small pans (each pan is enough for 2 meals.)
• Crockpot Pizza Casserole 
• Doubled the hamburger, nothing else
• Put in gallon-size freezer bags, ready to freeze and put in the crockpot
• We each ended up with 1 bag (enough for 2 meals.)

And Toni chose:

• Peachy Pork Picante 
• Doubled the recipe
• Put in quart-size freezer bags, ready to freeze and reheat
• We each ended up with 1 bag (enough for 1-2 meals.)
• Chicken Bacon Ranch Casserole 
• Did not double
• Put in foil pans, ready to freeze and ready to bake
• We each ended up with 2 small pans (enough for 2 meals.)
• Million Dollar Casserole 
• Did not double
• Put in foil pans, ready to freeze and ready to bake
• We each ended up with 2 small pans (enough for 2 meals.)

A note on the recipes: Six Sisters Stuff has awesome recipes (an crafts, and decor, and tips, etc.) It was hard to find "freezer meal ideas" that involved pork. We relied a lot on Pork: Be Inspired. That website (funded by hog farmers!) has over 75 categories of recipes you can search by.

There are lots of ways to do freezer meal get-togethers, but we decided that we would each bring the ingredients for our recipes to my house, where we would cook and assemble the meals. If we do this again, we might bring the meat pre-cooked, because that took the bulk of our time. We each also had containers to put the meals in. (Freezer bags and foil pans with lids are a must!)

Four hours later, here's what we had:

Now, four hours seems like a long time, but we each ended up with nine dishes (which will generate leftovers as well.) You'll notice we labeled the pans with the recipe name and baking/cooking directions. Basically, all of the recipes we completely prepared except the baking part, so all we have to do is take the pan out of the freezer and stick it in the oven. Also, the four hours included clean-up time, which was nice to share with another person.

Oh, and did I mention dessert?

• Frozen Strawberry Fluff (did not double, poured into pre-made graham cracker crusts)
• Easy Ice Cream Cake (layer ice cream sandwiches and cool whip, top with candy bars of your choice and chocolate syrup)

All in all, I think we were happy with our efforts. We can't wait to taste these new recipes and enjoy good, home-cooked meals with the effort out of the way!