It happens to the best of us. We get really excited about stocking our freezer—maybe at the end of the summer, or maybe just in general. But then, it happens.
We end up with a freezer so full, the only way out is to cook through its contents. We’re going to talk about how to cook through your freezer stash, friends.
This happens for a number of reasons. It’s ok. We’ll teach you how to cook through your freezer stash.
Maybe we grow a lot of veggies and then freeze them. Or, we were gifted some food from a friend’s garden (or three), and so we freeze some more things. In the middle of all of that, we prep a lot of meals, and those get saved in there, too. Our freezer requires a lot of excavation and carbon dating. When exactly DID you put that leftover chicken carcass in there?? (Ok, I joke, but only to illustrate that you can freeze a leftover whole chicken to make stock with later. Truth!)
Or maybe you bulk shop, and then sometimes forget you have certain veggies (hello, PEAS!), and then wonder, what am I going to do with this? Or maybe it’s more like, you can’t close the freezer (guilty as charged) so you need to get down to brass tacks and cook through that freezer stash.
If you’re at all concerned, you can check out the lowdown on food safety and frozen foods,
Assess the Contents
Take everything out of your freezer. Make sure you have cleared enough counter space to do so, first.
Make piles of fruits, veggies, meats, and anything else. Pitch anything freezer burned or whose contents are unidentifiable. Just being real here. It happens, right? (Sorry, it happens).
Do you have a lot of veggies? What are the most common ones you have? What do we do with them?
Veggies
- Peas
- Spinach/greens
- Corn
- Edamame (please toss them into stir fries!)
- Tomatoes (am I the only one? I can’t be)
- Green beans
Fruits
Smoothies, smoothies and smoothie bowl meal prep. Mug cakes, or this berry parfait with homemade granola? Defrost and serve with ice cream (yes, even in winter. It’s ok). I feel like most of us have good ideas about what to do with fruits, but they can be great if you defrost gently and then use them mixed in with oatmeal or as part of a crisp maybe (depending on the type of fruit) or something similar.
Related: Freezer Meal Prep Tips!
Ground Meats
One look at our round up of what to do with all that ground beef, and you should have ideas for chilis and so forth. There is so much you can do with ground turkey, chicken, pork, and beef.
And then of course there’s our Meal Prep Burger Bowl with Shack Shack Sauce! (Say that three times, fast!)
Meatballs! Who doesn’t love meatballs? Use them in these Easy Turkey Meatballs with Pesto Pasta!
Grains and Legumes
Do you ever freeze leftover rice from takeout or meal prepping? How about making a batch of quinoa and then freezing it? Or maybe leftover beans? Pop the rice into dishes like pineapple fried rice, or defrost the quinoa and use in this Quinoa, Kale and Butternut Squash Salad.
As for beans? WWL is loaded with bean recipes, whether it’s the Easy White Bean Veggie Burgers (they also happen to be freezer friendly–the beans come full circle, lol!), or these 5-Ingredient Vegetarian Black Bean and Spinach Enchiladas!
Make a Meal Prep Plan
Once you’ve figured what you have in abundance, you can make a plan.
Loaded up with peas, broccoli, corn, and other basic veggies?
Try these with freezer veggies:
What about chicken?
Mediterranean Grilled Chicken Salad
Thai-Inspired Chicken Lettuce Wraps
Easy Chicken Tortilla Soup
What do you have in your freezer? What do you need help with? Please leave us a comment!
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