{ INTRO: 6 Weeks to a Healthier You! }

{ Week 1: “Weekday Vegetarian” }

{ Week 2: Meal Planning }

{ Week 3: Healthy Substitutes }

Back when Jonny and I were just newlyweds, he went on a fishing trip to Alaska with all of the guys in my family. He had a ton of fun, and caught an insane amount of fish. He came home with 50 lbs of salmon and halibut! Soooo good. And also… soooo much space. That we didn’t have.

We were forced to buy a chest freezer to house our fishy friends, and I’m sure glad! We’ve loved having the extra space, and it allows for me to make as many freezer meals as my heart desires.

Unfortunately, my heart didn’t always desire lots of freezer meals. And that beaut of a freezer was empty as can be.

So, as my 4th goal in my Healthy Goal Series, I’ve decided to put that freezer to good use! And boy oh boy, I sure have. Let’s take a peek at what I’ve made in the past week and a half…

I’ve stocked it with a few of our favorites. Homemade granola bars (5 ingredients. So easy), healthy “cookie dough balls” (similar to this recipe here, but we ground nuts instead of protein powder), and whole wheat banana waffles…

Over on the right we’ve got some blueberry muffins and quinoa burgers…

And in the middle, some hummus, clean banana muffins, stacked veggie enchiladas, sweet potato burritos, quinoa salad, and veggie orzo soup. There are 3 big bags of the soup – so good!

One of my biggest downfalls when it comes to healthy eating, is going out to eat. At least once a week (sometimes more…) the day gets away from me and I don’t have time or energy to make dinner. We usually end up making a last minute take-out run, which we regret before the meal is even over.

We spend way too much money eating out. We waste way too many calories eating out. We feel so sick after eating out. We need to stop. eating. out.

The best thing about freezer meals, is if your dinner plan falls through, you have a whole stockpile of backups! No more asking J to pick up some burgers on the way home from work!

Also, it’s so nice to have a bunch of homemade snacks at my ready. Homemade granola bars, hummus, and muffins are so much better for you than store bought (and way cheaper)! Having them stocked up in your freezer makes them just as convenient, too.

SO. I’m officially a freezer-mealer. A food-stock-piler. An I-like-to-hoard-large-amounts-of-food-for-a-rainy-day-er.

Whatever you call it, I am one.

Here are a couple tricks of the trade I’ve learned so far…

Freeze soups in ziploc bags. Lay them down flat, and when they’re frozen you can prop them up like little file folders. Awesome!

When freezing casseroles, enchiladas, etc I lined my pan with plastic wrap. Then I put the meal together and stuck in the freezer. When it was frozen solid, I popped it out and wrapped in in plastic wrap and tinfoil (just for good measure). When I go to use the meal, I’ll unwrap it and pop it back into my pan to defrost. Easy peasy! And I don’t have to worry about buying extra pans for my freezer.

Freezer cooking can be accomplished a few different ways. This past week, to build a good base of meals and snacks, I spent quite a few hours in the kitchen whipping up recipes in bulk. But my preferred method is to add to my freezer a little bit at a time. Each time I make a dinner that can be used as a freezer meal, I’ll simply double the recipe and freeze half of it. It hardly takes any extra effort, so it’s very manageable. And it saves so much time!

I can’t wait to add more and fill that baby up!

>>> Next week’s goal? Drink more water!

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