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Episode Summary
While Amy’s not big on what you might know as traditional “Freezer Meals,” she has some time-saving tips on setting up your freezer to cover you when your dinner prep hours are teaching-filled hours.
Items Mentioned
Episode 004 – Dinner Hour Meets Teaching Hour
Episode 081 – What’s for Lunch
Transcript
Do you want to lead life to its fullest as an independent music teacher? You’re in the right place!
Welcome to episode 102 of The Piano Pantry Podcast. I’m your host, Amy Chaplin – a piano teacher who is also on a quest to support and enrich the lives of this community with amiable advice, practical products, and simple solutions.
If you’re tired of your life and business feeling like it’s on overload, take a step back because I’ve got your back.
Today, thanks to a request from teacher friend and fellow blogger Jennifer Foxx, I’m maximizing on my joy in cooking and sharing tips for how you can be more intentional in utilizing your freezer to get dinner on the table.
While most of us, I’m sure, would like to eat our evening meal and feed our families at a somewhat reasonable hour, as independent teachers, we often work through what would normally be dinner prep hours.
While we’re on the topic, you might want to go back and listen to episode 4, Dinner Hour Meets Teaching Hour, where I share 6 different things you can do to help get dinner on the table.
In today’s episode, we’re focusing on how you can prep your freezer to make mealtime more streamlined and less stressful.
After publishing episode 81 of the podcast last fall entitled “What’s for Lunch?” where I share some easy and healthy go-to eats for the midday meal, Jennifer – who I mentioned in the intro – messaged me inquiring if I had any freezer meal ideas on my blog.
What I told her, and I’ll tell you now, is that I’ve never been a big freezer meal person. When I say that, though, I just mean in regards to what most people probably think of when we say “freezer meal,” and that’s a recipe where you can dump every (or almost every) item into a gallon Ziploc bag and freeze so it’s ready to pour directly into a slow cooker or instant pot and voila.
I have nothing against these types of meals – I’ve just never gotten into doing this type of prep. Perhaps some of it is also that not everything freezes well, so you might often end up with similar ingredients, and I like lots of variety. I don’t know.
What my mom did a lot growing up over the years, and what I tend to do is to keep staple ingredients on hand in the freezer – some of which might require or at least do better if you prep before freezing and some which may not.
I thought this was a perfect topic for this month as everyone is usually a little more hyper-aware of what they’re eating in January after the holidays. Plus, those of us who get colder weather are looking to utilize our slow cookers and ovens more over the next two months.
Here’s my first bit of overall general advice. When it comes to meats especially, don’t just throw them in the freezer. Even a pack of two bone-in skin-on chicken breasts freeze in a thick solid state and have to be defrosted almost entirely before they will separate. Take the time to segment out and freeze things in a way that will allow them to defrost more quickly. That means in smaller segments or single layers. We’ll talk more details as we go along, but just keep that in mind. Smaller is better for easy, quick access, ease of use, and flexibility.
When considering how to make the freezer work for you and your family, I think it helps to name and recognize your cooking style. What works for you?
Do you have a handful of go-to meals you frequently make? Do you follow things like Taco Tuesday to keep things simple and streamlined? Great – you’ll want to figure out what ingredients from those staple recipes could be frozen beforehand so you know they’re always on hand. Depending on how big of a family you have, I would suggest 4-6 weeks’ worth, so if you do tacos every Tuesday and need 1.5 pounds of ground beef to feed everyone, then you would want 4-6 1.5-pound segments of meat – even better if you can precook and preseason it so you’re just reheating.
Are you someone who likes to get creative and make lots of different things with no recipes? Consider what base ingredients you prefer. Maybe you eat a lot of smoked sausage, salmon, or pasta. So, pre-slice smoked sausage, lay it flat on a sheet pan to freeze, then toss it into a Ziploc bag or container. Buy a whole salmon – which is much cheaper than smaller portions – and slice it into portions. A 2” wide piece of salmon defrosts much faster than a whole salmon filet. If you do a lot of pasta, maybe you keep 1 cup containers of marinara sauce in stock or baggies with a 1/2 cup portions of fresh pre-shredded parmesan cheese.
That’s the thing about this type of freezer meal prepping – there’s a lot of flexibility.
If I can encourage you to keep one thing on hand that you’ve taken the time to segment out and freeze separately, it’s protein. Take fresh chicken portions out of the prepackaging, lay them out on a sheet pan, and freeze until solid, then put them into a plastic bag or container so you can grab as many as you need individually. Most chicken breasts are really thick and can easily dry out when we cook them whole, so I often cut them into smaller pieces, first horizontally so they’re not so thick and then sometimes even in half if they’re really large.
Precooked hamburger and onion is a great item to keep in stock during soup months. 1 to 1.5-pound portions fit well in a pint size. Lay it flat and press the air out of the bag. Not only does it defrost easily in its flat state, but it stores more easily in a flat state. Another protein that’s really handy to do this with is rotisserie chicken. Whenever I see one on sale, I grab one, pick the meat off the bone, and freeze it flat in a plastic bag.
I already mentioned pre-slicing smoked sausage, and the same goes for bacon. When you need a few slices for a recipe, the last thing you want is for the pack to be frozen because you can’t peel them apart! You’ve likely already seen ideas online, like rolling up each piece into a spiral or laying individual pieces out flat to freeze separately. Those are all good ideas. I honestly don’t have a go-to. I just know I’m always annoyed when I need a few pieces of bacon for something, and all I have is a solid frozen pack. If you have a recipe, you do a lot that calls for chopped bacon – you could even pre-chop and freeze it.
Other staples I think are good to keep on hand include frozen vegetables – especially corn – roasted is good – peas, spinach, and green beans. By the way, if you are a Trader Joe’s person, the French-style frozen green beans are about all we eat anymore! It’s a wonderful easy side to do a quick roast in the oven.
There are a few items that you might find surprising that I think are useful to keep on hand. One is tomato paste. More often than not, recipes call for 1-2 tablespoons, not a 6 oz can. I buy one can; portion 1 T. segments out onto a flat plate or container, freeze, then pop into a bag or container once frozen.
Pre-cooked rice has been the most recent lifesaver for us. With just two of us, it’s so nice to be able to grab a bag and defrost it in the microwave in just a few minutes as a base for a stirfry, fish dish, or to accompany chili crisp eggs for lunch – one of our newest favorites and an item I probably mentioned in the lunch episode – number 81.
If I get motivated enough, sometimes I freeze beans – canned beans, believe it or not. I rinse them, lay them out on a paper towel to dry, and then pop them into the freezer to freeze, laying in a single layer flat. That way, I don’t have to mess with the rinsing process later on, or they make for an easy small addition to other dishes like grabbing a handful – what might be a half-can portion – to add to a side of rice or something.
Keeping bread around has never been feasible with just two of us in the house. We don’t eat much, but I like having it when needed, so I started freezing whole loves. Most of the time, you can break a few pieces off individually without it freezing totally solid, so it’s convenient in that you can just toss the whole loaf in.
Our favorite right now is Dave’s Killer Bread brand, particularly the 21 Whole Grains and Seeds. They’re small, thin, and only 70 calories. I also always keep a bag of frozen rolls for when the family comes over. I have two teen nephews, and sometimes I just need a little extra to fill out the meal for them. It’s called food insurance. LOL.
The last two bits of advice to give aren’t groundbreaking. First – always keep a small handful of premade meals; second, make extras any time you can and freeze leftovers.
I can’t tell you how thrilled I was when I discovered Trader Joe’s years ago. I was never impressed with most premade freezer meals at my local grocer, although that was way back in the day, and in the past 20 years, that has started to change as people are looking for healthier options, but TJ’s still has the best. We always keep a few on hand, like chicken fried rice, pork pot stickers, and pizza.
By the way, if you’re a Trader Joe’s fan like me, I have a blog post on the Piano Pantry website on some of my favorite go-to items. Find the link in the show notes.
I hope you found today’s tips helpful and that you find some time to prep your freezer a bit for the coming months.
Before we go, just a reminder that registration is open for the winter session of my online digital organization course.
If you are someone who…
- Opens your computer every day and cringes a bit because of the clutter
- Tells yourself every time you download something new, you have GOT to be more consistent with where it goes
- Hardly (if ever) deletes apps from your devices
- Struggles to keep your email inbox under control
… then this coaching series is for you.
Beginning on January 22, we’ll meet on Mondays and Tuesdays over a three-week period from 12:00-1:00 pm Eastern time and together work to gain clarity and control of six key areas of your digital workspace, including files, media, email, and more. Early bird registration ends THIS FRIDAY, January 12. Visit PianoPantry.com/digital for more details and to register.
If you’d like to follow up with anything I’ve mentioned on today’s show, including links and a full transcript, head over to pianopantry.com/podcast/episode102
