You're not crazy; you read the title correctly. This post has nothing to do with World Languages, but it DOES have to do with teaching! While y'all are home twiddling your thumbs over break (ha, ha), why not stock up on some freezer meals to make your life a little easier once the new semester begins next week?
I have been making freezer meals since I began teaching, although I did a lot more if it once I started having kids of my own. I love cooking, but with all of the things that teachers need to do outside of class, it was often hard to put together a 'real meal' on weeknights. It also doesn't help that my husband is a total foodie and HATES leftovers/eating the same thing two days in a row. Freezer meals help me to serve my family with real, foodie-approved meals without having to actually prepare food every night of the week. So today, I am sharing my husband-and-kid-approved freezer meal list (see the notes below each recipe to know which recipes are foodie tolerated and which ones receive full-on approval)! It's not that long because (1) there are a LOT of recipes that I've tried and didn't make the cut and (2) we don't eat pork, which eliminates many otherwise really good freezer meal recipes.
If you are just cooking for yourself or for two people, just divide each recipe into smaller portions (I used to prepare freezer casseroles in aluminum bread pans when it was just Matt and me). If the meal is made in a freezer bag, definitely be sure to lay it flat when freezing to preserve space in your freezer. And if it's a casserole, cover it with plastic wrap before you put foil on the top (and then remember to remove the wrap before replacing the foil and baking). I have freezer meal parties with a few friends every couple of months, and that is a super fun way to put together a bunch of meals! Just have one person create a menu for the day and develop a shopping list for everyone (assigning some ingredients that everyone would share to individuals; ex: not everyone needs to bring salt or eggs--just have one person buy those items that can be shared). Over the last week, I've just been making double recipes of all of our meals and freezing one of them for when the new baby arrives sometime next month. Today, though, I made four meals using stew meat
Bon appétit! Click on the image below to access my Freezer Meals Evernote notebook:
Click on the image to access my list of foodie and kid approved Freezer Meals!
