Pros and Cons of Freezer Meals

For years I have hated the thought of freezer meals, but now that we are expecting a third baby, I have changed my mind. Many women make a month’s worth of meals in one day and throw them in the freezer to save them time and money. In my brain, I thought that by freezing a meal, you were not eating as healthy as if you had made a dinner that day and served it. I am by far not an expert on this subject but would love to share what I have learned as I have planned and made over 300 freezer meals for my family.


Pros of Freezer Meals


Cons of Freezer Meals

  • Saves a lot of time

  • Promote healthier eating

  • Saves money

  • Your home will smell so good

  • There will be fewer dishes

  • You will need freezer space

  • Some meals don't freeze well

  • It is a lot of time upfront

  • You may never end up using your freezer meals

  • You need to have freezer storage products
     

Pros of Freezer Meals

  1. You will save a TON of time! Without a freezer meal to throw into the crockpot, I will spend an hour an afternoon preparing dinner for our family. With a freezer meal ready to go, it may take me less than 10 minutes a day to prepare food.
  2. Freezer meals don’t just have to be dinners! My husband and I have made at least 150 grab-and-go freezer breakfasts. They include breakfast burritos, breakfast sandwiches, waffles, muffins, and protein bars. Pop them in the microwave for a minute or two, and you have a fancy breakfast to go.
  3. Freezer meals help you eat better. Have you come home from work or had a busy day and you are too tired to make food? Instead of ordering pizza or grabbing a hamburger for the family, you have 15 or  20 meals in your freezer. Each meal is stuffed with vegetables, protein and tastes amazing!
  4. Making bulk dinners will save you money! Instead of buying ten small things to make one dinner, you are buying double but making three times the food. I don’t know how it happens, but it does. Now a, 10lb bag of chicken will make over a month and a half of freezer meals when it would maybe last our family 20ish days.
  5. Your home will smell out of this world amazing. Stick our freezer meal in a crockpot, and for hours you will be smelling the mouth-watering aromas with little effort on your part.
  6. Fewer dishes! YAY!! I am all in! One day a month, you may have a lot of dishes to wash while packing the meals. Then for the rest of the month, you will have very little to clean up after meals. Just think of the time you will save!!

Cons of Freezer Meals

  1. You have to have freezer space. It would not have been possible had we not been given a deep freezer! Bless those people!
  2. Some of our favorite meals are hard to freeze. Taco salad does not do well in the freezer. You can make bits and pieces of meals, but some things are too hard to have all in one bag ready to go.
  3. You have to be willing to set time aside. If you want to make 50 breakfast burritos, you need to plan at least 2 hours for prep and clean up. Do you have chunks of time you can spare?
  4. You may never use them. Some people may like the idea of having meals ready but never actually use what they freeze. Start small, so you know if you will use what you store.
  5. You need to have freezer storage products. There are many ways to store freezer meals, but you need to have some basics. Parchment paper, gallon freezer bags, freezer containers, and disposable pans, I try and reuse what I can to keep down costs which helps. Different meals require different storage, so make sure you know what may be best to use.