Freezer Meals

I've learned so much in my first years of parenting. One of the most easy to remember is particularly easy because it's still a frequent reality - the need to prepare food and eat.

When my husband and I were still dating I remember once, when he reached his newest duty station that I prepared a lot of his favourite foods and then froze them. Overall it went pretty well. He ate just fine while I wasn't around and it probably saved him a bit of money.

I'd forgotten about freezer meals until I came across a pin about them on Pintrest. The moment I saw the pin I knew that was what I was going to need in preparation for our newest little bundle of joy - especially with a two year-old and a puppy in the house as well.

Ready to and eager to begin making and freezing meals I had to wait until when I thought would be the best time to make them. Although you should be able to safely eat a freezer meal a year later - you run the very high likelihood of the dish losing a lot of its best flavor in that time.

Nearly mid-February I was so ready to plunge in, but not due until April I knew it was best to hold off. I was fortunate enough to be able to spend some of my puppy money on a 17 dish set of glassware from Amazon,

they are freezer, microwave, and top-rack dishwasher safe. I was still going to need something oven safe in my arsenal. I still had my online baby shower so I decided to wait and hope that people would order the other, smaller glassware sets that I'd added to the list for use in freezer meals.

I kept looking around online for a solution to my oven safe issue and found Sanctus Mundo airtight containers with stainless steel lids. Unfortunately they are super duper pricey so I had to think about if there were any other options or if I was really going to have to spend the last of what I had on those containers and once again forgo other things I needed as well.

I had to decide against them :(

There were Pyrex containers that were comparably more affordable, but only one of the sets I saw said that the lids were BPA free.

My parents vacuum seal and freeze food but I didn't have a vacuum sealer and preferred to avoid that sort of excess, possibly toxic plastic touching our food and feeding our landfill.

Before you begin freezing make sure that your freezer is set at the proper temperature and that all of the vents are not blocked. You will need for vents to still be accessible when you put food in otherwise your freezer will not maintain its proper temperature. Ideal temperature for your freezer is  0 Fahrenheit (-18 Celsius) for storing food. And -10 Fahrenheit (-23 Celsius) is recommended when freezing food. Make sure it's properly set at least 24 hours in advance.

Generally it seemed that freezer meals last 3 - 6 months. I put together a chart of collective info I saw on how long things should remain frozen:

Fruits and Vegetables – 6-12 months
Fruit pies, unbaked: 8 months
Poultry, uncooked – 9-12 months
Poultry, cooked – 4-6 months
Fish – 3-6 months
Lean fish: 6 months
Fatty fish: 2-3 months
Shellfish, uncooked: 3-6 months
Ham, cooked: 1-2 months
Bacon: 1 month
Chops, uncooked: 4-6 months
Meat, Roasts, Steaks, etc; uncooked – 4-12 months
Steaks, uncooked: 6-12 months
Ground Meat, uncooked – 3-4 months
Meat, cooked – 4 months
Cured or Processed Meats – 1-2 months
Casseroles – 2-3 months
Soups and stews – 2-3 months
Butter: 6-9 months
Bread and cake: 3 months
Cookies, baked or dough: 3 months
Ice cream and sorbet: 2 months

There was one other thing standing in the way of making freezer meals right that second. I still had frozen food waste in our large freezer. Thankfully, I had a plan for that.

Related Reading:
Getting Started: How Long Do Meals Last?
How Long Will Food Last in the Freezer? 
Issue #18: Safe Containers for Freezer Meals Five Best Containers for Frozen Food Storage
Plastic-Free Freezer Storage
Ideal Freezer Temperature 

Saturday Snack - Pin Fail - Cloud Bread

All I ever do is think about food, because it seriously seems there's nothing I'm ever allowed to eat. I spend my nights hunting for recipes I can eat the next day. I wake up starving and all day I have to plan how to make the next meal while I continue non-stop cleaning the house all day. What makes matters worse is having mealtimes where I have to make three meals. One for myself, one for my daughter, and one for my husband (who doesn't eat vegetables, cheese, or condiments.)

I am alone in my struggle in this household.

Once again I was truly starving and needed to find something I could eat. I was still having periodic energy crashes, plenty of fatigue, and regular migraines.

Cloud bread sounded heavenly, and not just because you can associate heaven with a land of clouds.

No money in the bank account and no gas in my car, I only had four eggs left in the refrigerator - this recipe really had to work or I'd now be out of a source of protein that I was in desperate need for.

3 eggs, separated 3 tablespoons cream cheese 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar 1 packet of stevia - which by using this chart I tried to substitute with 2 tsps of sugar


Preheat oven to 300 degrees.


Separate the eggs.
 

In one bowl, mix together the egg yolks, the 3 Tablespoon Cream Cheese and the one packet of Sweetener until smooth. My Magic Bullet was still out from the morning so I chose to use that.
 

In the other bowl add 1/4 teaspoon of Cream of Tartar to the whites and beat the whites on high speed until they are fluffy and form nice peaks. I accidentally put 1/8 tsp into the wrong bowl but I sallied forth and put the other 1/8 into the correct one. Genuinely week with hunger I did my best to whip the egg whites.

 Very carefully fold the egg yolk mixture into the egg whites until mixed, but try and not break down the fluffiness of the egg whites too much.

Prepare two baking stones or sheets with parchment paper.
 
With a large spoon, "scoop" the mixture into 8 rounds on the sheets. And that's where it all went to crap. I tried putting it on a pizza stone.

Then I tried putting it on some aluminum foil on a baking sheet (I have no parchment).

Having the correct amount of cream of tartar was key as was properly whipping the eggs until they formed peaks. I'd meant to use the Magic Bullet to do this but in my desperation to get some food into my body I got it all mixed up.

I threw everything into the sink and came back into the bedroom to post about my epic fail. I have no idea what I'm going to eat tonight.