| |

Super Simple Freezer Meal Plans to Have on Hand for When You Don’t Want to Cook

Stock your freezer with these super simple freezer meal plans so you can have meals ready when you don’t want to cook or hard days if you’re cooking with arthritis.

Note: This blog contains affiliate links or referral links. Purchases from these links provides a small commission or discounts towards future purchases to me at no extra cost to you. Medical and health information and these recommendations are from my personal experience and do not constitute medical advice. Please seek professional medical advice for your health. Refer to my Full Privacy Policy and Disclaimers here.


I can’t believe it’s already almost December and I know the next month is going to go in a flash when we’re busy with school, activities and the holidays. Last thing I want is to worry about getting dinner on the table and with my Rheumatoid Arthritis, the cold and rain make it harder for me to move and my energy is at about half it’s normal.

So understanding my chronic illness, I want to focus this week’s meal plans on stocking up our freezer for those days I don’t want to cook, which let’s face it is a lot! I love to eat and gather around our family table (and my family loves my cooking) but I don’t enjoy cooking and cleanup.

Stay tuned, in this post I’m sharing last week’s meal plan, what was good, and what my plan is for next week to get that freezer stocked and meals on the table.

Last Week’s Menu Plan

You can check out my super simple Thanksgiving meal plan, it’s what i do every year except this year I made a slow cooker Copycat Honey Baked Ham Recipe instead of buying it. It was excellent! I spent $22 on a 9 pound nitrate free ham at Target, which would have cost $103 at Honey Baked Ham (with lots more sugar and nitrates).

Now I’m not a food photographer, just real life here….but looks good and tasted even better so that’s what matters 🙂

Copycat Honey Baked Ham, Creamed Corn, Sweet Potato Casserole and Cranberry Fruit Salad
simple strawberry pie
Slow Cooker Barbacoa nachos with cilantro lime rice

This Week’s Menu Plan

This week I’m stocking up the freezer so I’ll be using two of Passionate Penny Pincher freezer meals plans, and I’ll freeze half the dinners hopefully. The meals I’ve made out of these meal plans we tend to eat right away.

Passionate Penny Pincher Freezer meal plan week 8 is:

  • homemade beef meatballs for spaghetti or subs
  • cheddar ranch burgers
  • sweet and spicy barbecue chicken
  • incredible baked oatmeal – i’ve made this before and it’s awesome for grab and go breakfasts. one of my favorite recipes for using overripe bananas. this one doesn’t normally make it into the freezer cause it smells so good when it’s baking. I put it in a muffin or brownie pan to make individual servings. Really I should double it so i can put half in the freezer for later.
  • slow cooker cilantro lime chicken
  • chocolate chip cake

Passionate Penny Pincher freezer meals week 5 is

  • slow cooker steak chili
  • slow cooker sausage and white bean soup – we’ve had this before and next time I’ll add more broth but it’s very good!
  • breakfast burritos – these don’t usually make it into the freezer cause my boys love them.
  • sausage and cheese quiche – another really good one that we ate right away.
  • slow cooker orange chicken
  • the best chocolate chip cookies – well let’s see if they are the best!

Cyber Monday Sale on Passionate Penny Pincher Meal Plans

My favorite home planner and money planner company, Passionate Penny Pincher, also makes these done for you meal plans. I have the pdf version of the Summer Menu Plans, Freezer Menu Plans and Slow Cooker volume 1 and highly recommend them. They also come in lovely menu plan boxes if you prefer recipe cards. The recipes are pretty tasty and each makes enough for my hungry crew of boys with leftovers. Really each week of recipes (5 dinners and 1 dessert) lasts me about a week and a half to two weeks because the portions are generous. 

Passionate Penny Pincher’s Cyber Monday sale will run from November 27-30, 2022 and is 50% off all their digital pdf products, use the code CYBER. The pdf meal plans are my favorite anyway so now is when I stock up on the ones I don’t have, like the Celebrations meal plan so my Christmas dinner is planned, slow cooker volume 2 and low calorie.

They also have a pdf downloads bundle that includes the:

  • 2023 home planner pdf
  • 2023 money planner pdf
  • 2022-2023 academic planner pdf
  • home planner checklists and chore charts pdf
  • celebrations menu plan pdf
  • freezer menu plan pdf
  • low calorie menu plan pdf
  • lunch menu pdf
  • sides menu pdf
  • slow cooker volume 1 pdf
  • slow cooker volume 2 pdf
  • and summer menu pdf!

If you don’t have any of these already and don’t mind printing it yourself or keeping it on goodnotes/pdf digitally, its a totally great deal!

my absolute favorites to make my life easier are the home planner and slow cooker box volume 1 pdf. if you get nothing else, get those. I will tell you, there are biblical scripture quotes and family blessings on the home planner and menu plans. If this bothers you, then don’t get it. If it encourages you or you can ignore it and still find value in these awesome products, then now is the time to snag the digital versions before they sell out.

If you’re new here, grab my favorite meal planning resources! 

Grocery Restock List Freebie!

I made you a copy of my grocery restock list. If you want it, subscribe to my simple cooking newsletter and it’s linked in each of the emails I send out. You’ll get my weeklyish menu plans, cooking tips, meal planning resources AND my free spices to keep in the pantry printable so you can make your own super easy and delicious seasoning mixes to save money and are better for your health.

.


The restock list has the most commonly used items in our household. I print them up and hang it on the side of the fridge so whenever we run out of anything, we can highlight/write in what we need. This really helps me not forget anything that I or my hungry crew needs. 


You can rearrange the restock list in the order of your favorite grocery store’s aisles. It’s a huge timesaver if your list is in the right order so you aren’t running all over the store and backtracking.  

My Favorite Meal Planning and Prepping Tools and Cookbooks

If you like to plan on paper, the Erin Condren Meal Planner is my favorite. You can see how I use it on my Instagram.  (the newer versions are less colorful on the inside and have some additional pages like a price tracker, recipe log and conversion chart which is great!)

If you prefer digital meal planning, Plan to Eat is my favorite tool. I just renewed my subscription for Black Friday when it’s 50% off! Only until November 28, 2022!

Simple Meal Planning - Plan to Eat

Be sure to head to my Exclusive Subscriber Library and grab my free meal planner and homemade seasoning mixes) I’m still looking for a good blender and food processor so if you have one you love, let me know!



Happy cooking until next time! What looks good to you? What’s cooking this week in your house?

Tanya  

4 Comments

    1. me too, they are easy and super tasty. We had the slow cooker cilantro lime chicken, the taco spaghetti and the baked oatmeal this week (they didn’t end up in the freezer) and it was so good. i’ve really been enjoying the freezer plans and i like knowing a few are stocked in the freezer for a rainy day (beef meatballs, sweet and spicy barbecue chicken and some extra baked chicken to throw in a recipe).

      Reply

  3. Planning meals and batch cooking is brilliant in winter and when we need to economise! Your meal ideas look so tempting. Thanks for linking

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *