My Go-To Batch and Freeze Recipes
Sunday meal prep has been a habit of mine for as long as I can remember. I can’t imagine what I would do without a fridge full of lunches ready to eat each day. However, I am not immune to busy summer plans getting in the way and leaving me stressed about what to do! Luckily, I know the secrets to sticking to meal-prep during a busy summer (and I wrote about it in full, here).
My favorite secret: batch and freeze recipes. I use these three recipes on repeat all summer. Make them ahead of time, freeze them, and defrost them as needed!
Ambitious Kitchen Green Turkey Meatballs
These are a staple in my household, and my husband and I have yet to get sick of them. Whenever I make them for a week night dinner, I purchase Jennie-O’s 3 pound pack of ground turkey and knock out a triple batch — 3 pounds of ground turkey yields about 48 meatballs — in 30 minutes! Then, my husband and I will have some for dinner and freeze the rest for later!
When I have time, we follow the whole recipe to make the feta sauce, veggies, and orzo, too. When I have less time, I’ll do a faster version by boiling quinoa, pearl couscous, or orzo, chopping up cucumber, tomato, bell pepper, and mixing it all together with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste. Then, I top it all with a little bit of crumbled feta!
Valerie’s Kitchen Slow Cooker Chicken Taco Meat
This is another staple in my household and is one of my Sunday go-to’s when I stay local but am still away from home all day. My favorite way to efficiently and effectively knock out dinner and meal prep is to dump everything in the slow cooker before I leave for my Sunday plans and return home to a delicious taco dinner that’s ready to eat. Then, with the leftovers, I’ll make taco bowls with rice, black beans, and whatever other taco toppings I used for dinner! My favorites are shredded lettuce, diced tomato, chopped bell pepper, and sliced avocado.
The best part is, dinner and meal prep are both knocked out with minimal cooking required. The chicken also freezes well if you want to use my previous idea of making for dinner one day and saving the rest for future use!
HH-HM Quinoa Beef and Broccoli
This one is, you guessed it, a weeknight staple in our house. It cooks up in 15 minutes and can easily be doubled or tripled. It also freezes really well. Since this recipe is a full meal and there’s nothing else to do, I don’t have any trips or tricks for you other than to portion it out before freezing to make your future meal prep even easier!
Truly, a freezer stocked with ready to eat meals is the best insurance you can give yourself. Give one of these recipes try, and be sure to follow me on Instagram for more meal prep and quick recipe ideas!
