Freezer meals for the summertime?
June 22, 2013 11:15 PM Subscribe
We're about to have our second baby...basically any day. We're a little late to the game, but we'd like to have some meals in the freezer for the postpartum period, like we did with our first. But our first was born in February, when things like soups, stews and lasagne make a lot of sense. This is summertime, in a house with no air conditioning. What the heck do we eat?
Normally in the summertime we eat things that require as little processing as possible: dinner might be cheese, crackers, complicated salad/crudites, and fruit. Or a giant bowl of quinoa salad. Or a hunk of meat and a pile of asparagus, done as quickly as possible. But even though those are really simple meals, they still require planning and preparation. What do you eat in the summer when you have a newborn and a two-year-old and no time or energy to plan and buy food?
The special snowflake details for us:
- My spouse doesn't do wheat; otherwise, we eat everything.
- We have a half-full upright freezer, so space is not really an issue.
- We are expecting friends to bring food, but we're also expecting to hit a point where we have to fend for ourselves.
- We like leftovers.
Normally in the summertime we eat things that require as little processing as possible: dinner might be cheese, crackers, complicated salad/crudites, and fruit. Or a giant bowl of quinoa salad. Or a hunk of meat and a pile of asparagus, done as quickly as possible. But even though those are really simple meals, they still require planning and preparation. What do you eat in the summer when you have a newborn and a two-year-old and no time or energy to plan and buy food?
The special snowflake details for us:
- My spouse doesn't do wheat; otherwise, we eat everything.
- We have a half-full upright freezer, so space is not really an issue.
- We are expecting friends to bring food, but we're also expecting to hit a point where we have to fend for ourselves.
- We like leftovers.
Frittatas are great, because you can freeze the individual pieces, and it can be eaten cold, at room temp, or hot. Just fill a big pan with chopped cooked veggies and starch (like rice or sautéed potatoes), cover with beaten egg, and top with cheese. Bake until the egg is set. Cut into squares and wrap tightly before freezing.
posted by Night_owl at 11:30 PM on June 22, 2013 [4 favorites]
posted by Night_owl at 11:30 PM on June 22, 2013 [4 favorites]
how about cold soups like gazpacho or vichyssoise (potato leek) or even (yum) melon soup...you could freeze those too right? (low-salt/baked?) chips and salsa...do you have Trader Joe's? they have a lot of healthy(ier) snacky options. (gluten-free) pasta salad?
posted by sexyrobot at 12:32 AM on June 23, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by sexyrobot at 12:32 AM on June 23, 2013 [1 favorite]
Quiche freezes well, and is quite tasty cold or just-cooler-than-room-temp when it's hot as balls out. You can do crustless, or whatever your default non-wheat crust is.
I make Larabar-style fruit bars, and those could easily be frozen. (They keep well on the counter for a while, too.) You process together equal parts dried fruit, nuts, and dates (and oatmeal, if you want), plus whatever spices you like, then press the resulting mixture into the bottom of a pan. Give it a bit to set up, and then cut into squares or bars. Either wrap them in wax paper or shake them up in a cornstarch/powdered sugar mix so they don't stick to each other. They'd keep great in the freezer, and you could defrost a few at a time and keep them in the fridge for midnight feedings, etc.
Pulled pork freezes like a *dream*, especially if you freeze it in sauce. All you need to do is add buns and you've got pulled pork sandwiches. (Boneless chicken, cooked in the crockpot and then shredded, freezes well like this, too.)
Cooked rice, white or brown, freezes very well--freeze it in ziplocks with all the air pushed out, and reheat them with a wet paper towel over the rice. Do some rice now, and then later you're halfway there for fried rice, or rice salads, or rice + grilled whatevers.
Stuffed peppers might not quite be summery, but they freeze well. They also feel more summery if you stuff them with rice mixed with salsa, black beans, corn, and cheddar or cotija cheese. Cook them, then freeze them, and they reheat quickly and easily. Add more cheese and salsa when you reheat. (Bonus: If you do a couple of mild hot peppers like this, they make a good burrito filling. Just take the reheated stuffed pepper, stick in a tortilla, add condiments, and roll.)
Make fruit and yoghurt pops now--just blend together yoghurt (or kefir) and fresh fruit, plus sweetener to taste. You can pop them out of the molds and store them in a bag, which means you can make a couple batches and stock up.
Maybe this is me being super, super lazy, but when I know things will be crazy, I keep smoothie bags in the freezer--just ziplocks with all the stuff that goes in the smoothie, so I just dump them into the blender, add juice or whatever, and hit the button. If you're not into green smoothies, consider getting into green smoothies, because a green smoothie with some yoghurt in it counts as a meal, in my book.
Also worth mentioning: most kids will quite happily eat frozen fruit. If your kid is one of those kids, consider it a blessing and pre-chop all the fruit you can now. Freeze it on a baking tray until it's frozen, then scoop it all into a bag. It'll stay loose, and you'll be able to fish out child-sized servings of frozen grapes/melon/strawberries/whatever.
Ribs can be parcooked and then frozen--all you have to do to finish them off is defrost, slap on some sauce, and toss them on the grill for a while.
Twice-baked potatoes might be towards the wintery side of things, but they make a good meal with a salad, the they freeze well. Definitely double wrap them, though--I tend not to bother, but potatoes get freezerburnt faster than anything.
Kabobs are relatively easy and fast, and you can chunk the meat in advance and freeze it in a marinade. When it's time to cook, you cut up a pepper, wash some mushrooms, and chunk an onion, then stick everything on a skewer.
If you like vinegar-based coleslaw, that freezes relatively well, and thaws quickly. Goes well with the pulled pork or ribs mentioned above!
posted by MeghanC at 1:25 AM on June 23, 2013 [8 favorites]
I make Larabar-style fruit bars, and those could easily be frozen. (They keep well on the counter for a while, too.) You process together equal parts dried fruit, nuts, and dates (and oatmeal, if you want), plus whatever spices you like, then press the resulting mixture into the bottom of a pan. Give it a bit to set up, and then cut into squares or bars. Either wrap them in wax paper or shake them up in a cornstarch/powdered sugar mix so they don't stick to each other. They'd keep great in the freezer, and you could defrost a few at a time and keep them in the fridge for midnight feedings, etc.
Pulled pork freezes like a *dream*, especially if you freeze it in sauce. All you need to do is add buns and you've got pulled pork sandwiches. (Boneless chicken, cooked in the crockpot and then shredded, freezes well like this, too.)
Cooked rice, white or brown, freezes very well--freeze it in ziplocks with all the air pushed out, and reheat them with a wet paper towel over the rice. Do some rice now, and then later you're halfway there for fried rice, or rice salads, or rice + grilled whatevers.
Stuffed peppers might not quite be summery, but they freeze well. They also feel more summery if you stuff them with rice mixed with salsa, black beans, corn, and cheddar or cotija cheese. Cook them, then freeze them, and they reheat quickly and easily. Add more cheese and salsa when you reheat. (Bonus: If you do a couple of mild hot peppers like this, they make a good burrito filling. Just take the reheated stuffed pepper, stick in a tortilla, add condiments, and roll.)
Make fruit and yoghurt pops now--just blend together yoghurt (or kefir) and fresh fruit, plus sweetener to taste. You can pop them out of the molds and store them in a bag, which means you can make a couple batches and stock up.
Maybe this is me being super, super lazy, but when I know things will be crazy, I keep smoothie bags in the freezer--just ziplocks with all the stuff that goes in the smoothie, so I just dump them into the blender, add juice or whatever, and hit the button. If you're not into green smoothies, consider getting into green smoothies, because a green smoothie with some yoghurt in it counts as a meal, in my book.
Also worth mentioning: most kids will quite happily eat frozen fruit. If your kid is one of those kids, consider it a blessing and pre-chop all the fruit you can now. Freeze it on a baking tray until it's frozen, then scoop it all into a bag. It'll stay loose, and you'll be able to fish out child-sized servings of frozen grapes/melon/strawberries/whatever.
Ribs can be parcooked and then frozen--all you have to do to finish them off is defrost, slap on some sauce, and toss them on the grill for a while.
Twice-baked potatoes might be towards the wintery side of things, but they make a good meal with a salad, the they freeze well. Definitely double wrap them, though--I tend not to bother, but potatoes get freezerburnt faster than anything.
Kabobs are relatively easy and fast, and you can chunk the meat in advance and freeze it in a marinade. When it's time to cook, you cut up a pepper, wash some mushrooms, and chunk an onion, then stick everything on a skewer.
If you like vinegar-based coleslaw, that freezes relatively well, and thaws quickly. Goes well with the pulled pork or ribs mentioned above!
posted by MeghanC at 1:25 AM on June 23, 2013 [8 favorites]
Vichysoisse will be grainy out of the freezer -- potatoes are very tricky to freeze -- but apparently gazpacho can be done. Gazpacho - Easy-to-Freeze Recipe ("The author of this book notes that her guests always ask for this recipe and can't believe it came from the freezer").
Crepes freeze wonderfully (put a circle of waxed paper between each one, slide the stack into a freezer bag) and you can fill them with anything, not necessarily hot.
My daughter was born in August and I went through a lot of those party-size platters of pre-cut fruit and veg all the supermarkets sell now.
You can make and freeze quesadillas and grilled cheese sandwiches, with many fillings besides cheese; hot but possible more 'summer' than stew and the like.
Rice salad would freeze if you were careful about the ingredients (no tomato, blanch carrot bits first, etc).
posted by kmennie at 5:21 AM on June 23, 2013 [1 favorite]
Crepes freeze wonderfully (put a circle of waxed paper between each one, slide the stack into a freezer bag) and you can fill them with anything, not necessarily hot.
My daughter was born in August and I went through a lot of those party-size platters of pre-cut fruit and veg all the supermarkets sell now.
You can make and freeze quesadillas and grilled cheese sandwiches, with many fillings besides cheese; hot but possible more 'summer' than stew and the like.
Rice salad would freeze if you were careful about the ingredients (no tomato, blanch carrot bits first, etc).
posted by kmennie at 5:21 AM on June 23, 2013 [1 favorite]
Chicken breasts frozen in marinades are easily thawed and then grilled to avoid heating up the house. I buy whatever bottled marinades are on sale because I am lazy, but you could also use Italian salad dressing or teriyaki sauce or make your own.
posted by SuperSquirrel at 6:40 AM on June 23, 2013
posted by SuperSquirrel at 6:40 AM on June 23, 2013
I think tacos are the perfect summer food.
Here's your easy taco strategy:
Keep these things on your regular grocery list: big bag of corn tortillas (avoiding wheat), shredded mexican cheese, limes, pre-shredded bags of cabbage. These keep for a long time in the fridge, I'm talking a month easy.
Keep these things in your pantry: jars of salsa, hot sauce, refried beans or prepared black beans (goya brand)
Keep these things in your freezer: chopped red onion, chopped fresh cilantro, Taco fillings.
Make big batches of taco filling: Chicken: take breasts, dump into a big pot (could be a crock pot) with a jar of mild salsa (verde is nice too) and enough water to cover. Let it simmer until the chicken is cooked through and tender, 30-40 minutes. Take the breasts out and turn the heat to high, letting the sauce reduce into an awesome chickeny-salsa. Shred the breasts (can be done in a stand mixer with paddle attachment for huge quantities). Then dump the shreds back into the reduced sauce and mix. Freeze into dinner sized portions. A sandwich size bag is pretty good.
Same idea with pork: use orange juice and water, and it takes more like 3 hours (crock pot is good here). Tex-mex ground beef tacos can also be frozen. Tilapia makes great fish tacos and are already individually frozen. Just dust with cornmeal (or not) and cook in a bit of oil straight from frozen.
Taco time: Take your frozen bag of taco filling and plop it in a skillet with a cover over medium low heat. Heat up tortillas in the microwave. Warm up a can of beans in the microwave in a covered dish. Wedge up a lime. Assemble your tacos with cheese and your prepped cilantro and red onion (they'll warm up on the hot meat) and a lime wedge for squeezing. Fish tacos get some cabbage and maybe a dollop of chipotle mayo.
Dinner in 10 minutes, and only one skillet heating up the place. And really, you could do the frozen meat in the microwave, but its faster in a skillet.
posted by fontophilic at 10:53 AM on June 23, 2013 [1 favorite]
Here's your easy taco strategy:
Keep these things on your regular grocery list: big bag of corn tortillas (avoiding wheat), shredded mexican cheese, limes, pre-shredded bags of cabbage. These keep for a long time in the fridge, I'm talking a month easy.
Keep these things in your pantry: jars of salsa, hot sauce, refried beans or prepared black beans (goya brand)
Keep these things in your freezer: chopped red onion, chopped fresh cilantro, Taco fillings.
Make big batches of taco filling: Chicken: take breasts, dump into a big pot (could be a crock pot) with a jar of mild salsa (verde is nice too) and enough water to cover. Let it simmer until the chicken is cooked through and tender, 30-40 minutes. Take the breasts out and turn the heat to high, letting the sauce reduce into an awesome chickeny-salsa. Shred the breasts (can be done in a stand mixer with paddle attachment for huge quantities). Then dump the shreds back into the reduced sauce and mix. Freeze into dinner sized portions. A sandwich size bag is pretty good.
Same idea with pork: use orange juice and water, and it takes more like 3 hours (crock pot is good here). Tex-mex ground beef tacos can also be frozen. Tilapia makes great fish tacos and are already individually frozen. Just dust with cornmeal (or not) and cook in a bit of oil straight from frozen.
Taco time: Take your frozen bag of taco filling and plop it in a skillet with a cover over medium low heat. Heat up tortillas in the microwave. Warm up a can of beans in the microwave in a covered dish. Wedge up a lime. Assemble your tacos with cheese and your prepped cilantro and red onion (they'll warm up on the hot meat) and a lime wedge for squeezing. Fish tacos get some cabbage and maybe a dollop of chipotle mayo.
Dinner in 10 minutes, and only one skillet heating up the place. And really, you could do the frozen meat in the microwave, but its faster in a skillet.
posted by fontophilic at 10:53 AM on June 23, 2013 [1 favorite]
Sorry to not address the summertime aspect, but I have a 3 week old, and rather than try to figure out what I'd like to eat, I made and froze my (heavy) favs. It was super easy and is now really comforting to have my favs, plus, it's just done and easy/cheap to microwave. GL!
posted by cestmoi15 at 1:10 PM on June 23, 2013
posted by cestmoi15 at 1:10 PM on June 23, 2013
Once a Month Mom is a good place to look for freezer meal inspiration. You don't need to purchase a membership to get to the original recipes they base their cooking plans on and they try to be seasonally appropriate so if you look at past summer months you might get some ideas.
As someone with a newborn and a two year old, the biggest thing I wish I had done was chopped and frozen ingredients for dishes we like. Stirring is easy enough to do one handed but prepping things for cooking is harder, especially meat. Somebody always needs me as soon as I have raw chicken on my hands. The things that have been easiest for me are one handed items like frozen spring rolls or burritos, and occasionally cooking a large pot roast or chicken in the crockpot and using leftovers for a few days in sandwiches, salads, tacos, etc. A CSA box would not have been good for our family, there would have been a lot of rotting veggies in our fridge just due to lack of time.
posted by waterlily at 1:32 PM on June 23, 2013 [1 favorite]
As someone with a newborn and a two year old, the biggest thing I wish I had done was chopped and frozen ingredients for dishes we like. Stirring is easy enough to do one handed but prepping things for cooking is harder, especially meat. Somebody always needs me as soon as I have raw chicken on my hands. The things that have been easiest for me are one handed items like frozen spring rolls or burritos, and occasionally cooking a large pot roast or chicken in the crockpot and using leftovers for a few days in sandwiches, salads, tacos, etc. A CSA box would not have been good for our family, there would have been a lot of rotting veggies in our fridge just due to lack of time.
posted by waterlily at 1:32 PM on June 23, 2013 [1 favorite]
Congrats on baby! Some ideas I have:
- For a healthy cold treat, dip berries in honey yogurt, put on a baking sheet, and freeze. Once frozen toss into a bag. You can eat them frozen or let them thaw just a bit.
- Buy, wash, and chop a bunch of lettuce & veg. Splurge on those pre-cooked chicken strips. Keep everything in tupperware in the fridge so you can just grab handfuls of stuff and throw together a salad any time.
- Make mini quiche and freeze them. You can nuke them for one minute from frozen and be good to go.
- You can also make and freeze those little roll-up sandwich thingies people serve at parties. Just put a bunch on a plate to thaw in the fridge.
- Make burger patties ahead of time and heat them up in the microwave, slap on a bun and go.
posted by annekate at 10:54 PM on June 23, 2013
- For a healthy cold treat, dip berries in honey yogurt, put on a baking sheet, and freeze. Once frozen toss into a bag. You can eat them frozen or let them thaw just a bit.
- Buy, wash, and chop a bunch of lettuce & veg. Splurge on those pre-cooked chicken strips. Keep everything in tupperware in the fridge so you can just grab handfuls of stuff and throw together a salad any time.
- Make mini quiche and freeze them. You can nuke them for one minute from frozen and be good to go.
- You can also make and freeze those little roll-up sandwich thingies people serve at parties. Just put a bunch on a plate to thaw in the fridge.
- Make burger patties ahead of time and heat them up in the microwave, slap on a bun and go.
posted by annekate at 10:54 PM on June 23, 2013
My summertime meals are usually salad plus a hunk of protein. I buy a massive amount of chicken breasts, or pork tenderloin, or tofu blocks, or whatever, and put it in a marinade, the grill it. I'm especially fond of satay skewers and Indian-spiced-yogurt sauces. Then I can slice and freeze the cooked meat (in individual portions), and pull it out whenever. Same goes for bbq pulled pork/turkey sandwiches. The reason this is easy to do is because I commit to having salad as my side dish at least 4 nights a week, so buying a massive bag of prewashed greens is fine, and they'll reliably be there and not rotting; if you just want salad occasionally, it's a lot more work.
posted by aimedwander at 10:53 AM on June 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by aimedwander at 10:53 AM on June 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
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