Preparing and eating freezer meals for two is an easy way to save money and time while enjoying your favorite foods. Meal prepping is a popular way to cook and eat throughout the week. With freezer meals, the process of meal prep is a bit different and lasts much longer. Freezer meals can last for months and still taste super fresh and delicious when cooked. And when there’s only a couple people to cook for, freezer meals for two are quick and easy! All you have to do is throw the ingredients into a bag and throw it in the freezer for later. Then when no one is in the mood to cook after a busy day, dinner can still be satisfying and homemade.
Freezer Meals for Two
If you’re already familiar with freezer cooking, making freezer meals for two is a breeze! Freezer meals are simply meals in which you’ve prepared the ingredients and are stored in the freezer until you’re ready to cook. That means all the busy work of chopping vegetables and measuring ingredients is already done when it comes time to start cooking! The meals can then be cooked through a couple different methods depending on what the food is. Here at FreezerFit, we go for the crockpot and instant pot to keep it all in one for easy cooking and clean-up. And once you’re done eating, you can return those leftovers to the freezer for another rainy day. Each of these steps help save time and money when you’re on a budget especially: No food waste here!
Meals for Two to Make Tonight
Freezer meals for two can be scaled down from other recipes or made all on their own. But some recipes might be easier to cook as freezer meals for 2 rather than large groups like 10 people. And depending on the size of your instant pot and space in your freezer, it can be more difficult to prep those large portions. For example, take a peek at some of these freezer meal recipes to make for 2 people:
- Sheet Pan Garlic Butter Shrimp
- Tex Mex Black Bean Soup
- Easy Vegetable Stir Fry
- Sesame Ginger Tofu
- Vegan BBQ Pulled “Pork” Sandwiches
- Tropical Green Smoothie
- Classic French Fries
Meals on a Budget
When shopping for hearty meals on a budget, freezer cooking is a great way to save money! The FreezerFit method of preparing food ahead of time to then cook later helps both save time and stick to a budget: This includes saving money by reducing food waste, dining out, and impulse grocery shopping. When your dinners are already prepared for you, you don’t have to worry about what to eat every day of the week! And it’s nice to have the freezer meals to fall back on when grocery shopping has to wait until payday.
To learn more about the FreezerFit method with a free cooking class, tune in here! We’ll show you how to prepare 10 meals in about 30 minutes and send you off with a free cookbook and grocery list, too.
Freezing food is also a great way to cook meals on a budget because you can buy things at a cheap price and freeze it immediately: It will still be just as fresh when you cook it in a couple weeks or months! This includes both entire meals and individual ingredients.
Kitchen Staples You Can Buy On A Budget
If you’re looking to grocery shop for meals on a budget, there are several tips to try. A quick internet search yields thousands of results for tips to grocery shop on a budget. One organization to reference for healthy eating on a budget is the USDA’s My Plate. But FreezerFit knows that there are even more ways to grocery shop on a budget with ingredients that can be stored in the freezer. Try shopping for these kitchen staples to buy on a budget — Many of which can be stored in the freezer to avoid food waste via rancid food:
- Canned seafood and meat
- Canned vegetables and fruit
- Vegetable broth and tomato paste (adds flavor to many dishes)
- Frozen meat and seafood
- Frozen produce, including pre-chopped vegetables like onion
- Grains like pasta, rice, quinoa, and oats
- Spreads like hummus and peanut butter
- Root vegetables like sweet potatoes, carrots, and beets (which last awhile anyway)
The Convenience of Freezer Meal Prep
In general, freezer meal prep can be helpful for saving time, saving money, and eating healthy. Just a little bit of planning and preparation ahead of time is worth it! And while many people are familiar with the general idea of meal prep, using the freezer can extend meal prep for weeks rather than days. In the freeze, your food will stay fresh for longer and you can make a wide variety of dishes for later. This is a bit different from some popular meal prep methods where a week’s worth of food is cooked in one day and stored in the fridge until it’s time to cook. When freezing the food instead, you won’t have to worry about Sunday’s chicken going rancid when you won’t eat it until Friday.
To make your freezer meal prep even more easy and convenient, try freezing pre-prepared ingredients that you can later use in recipes. This also helps save food that might get wasted. For example, you can save that half can of coconut milk or carrots that are going bad by freezing these ingredients. Coconut milk could be frozen in an ice cube tray for small servings for coffee, while carrots can be chopped before being frozen. Then, these ingredients are ready for you without extra prep. Consider some of these foods to prepare and store in the freezer for later:
- Chopped vegetables: Including aromatics like onions, pre-roasted garlic, and herbs.
- Leafy greens: Like spinach or kale to use in soups or stir fries
- Leftover tomato paste.
- Leftover bread: Slice before freezing for quick toasting down the road.
- Homemade ingredients: Like breadcrumbs, vegetable broth, and chicken stock.
- Meat and seafood.
When you’re ready to get started with the convenience of freezer meal prep, try cooking out of one of FreezerFit’s free cooking classes. From side dishes, to chicken dishes, to vegan meals and more, there are freezer meals for anyone to enjoy. These cooking class include a free downloadable cookbook and even a shopping list to keep you on track at the grocery store!
