Mealprep: 40 recipes to stock your freezer and free your mind!

One of the best ways to eat healthy is to eat at home more. But for any busy person, this becomes a real challenge when it's 4:30 and you have no idea what to make for dinner. Prepping some ingredients and/or dishes ahead of time to stash in the freezer can save the day. Not only does it save you cooking time, it also saves you brain effort at the very time of day your brain is most overtaxed!

Sure, these mean a little more work on the weekend -- but you can do it at a leisurely pace, when you're rested and not rushed. Which I've found makes cooking so much more enjoyable! 

A week of dinners in the freezer, from The Kitchn. Recipes for: Baked Manicotti - Freezer Taco Kits - Twice-Baked Potatoes - Chile & Sausage Oven Frittata - Cranberry Pork Chops - Chicken and Wild Rice Bake. (Also includes side dishes, not listed here.) You can also find this same list of recipes with additional notes on how to turn prep day into a Freezer Meals Party.

---

Here are tips for stocking your freezer with precooked and seasoned meats, which gives you more versatility than already-assembled dishes. Includes instructions (but not exact recipes) for twice-baked potatoes, two different ground beef mixes, a teriyaki marinade that you can use on any meat, poultry or seafood (lots of sugar in it, though), and shredded chicken plus broth. Also has a few nifty tricks for neater packaging.

---

Here's Pioneer Woman's freezer cooking post. Not a lot of healthy stuff on the list, but I do love her tip for grilling whole chicken breasts and freezing them to have on hand for dozens of uses. I count about 11 main-dish recipes on her list, skipping the carb-laden ones.

---

I also like this method for an easy way to cook boneless, skinless chicken breasts, from Small Home Big Start. 

---

Eight healthy freezer crockpot meals in 75 minutes, from New Leaf Wellness. Well, really four different meals, double batch of each. Beef Roast and Carrots - Chicken Fajitas - Mexican Chicken Soup - Garden Veggie Soup with Ground Beef.

---

10 meals in 1 hour - super organized and detailed; even includes shopping list! Really just five recipes; double batch of each. Honey Lemon Garlic Chicken -  London Broil - Quick Taco Soup - Orange Glazed Pork Chops - Creamy Italian Chicken

---

10 meals in 1 hour, take 2; the no-bake version; includes five warm weather recipes that are cooked either on the grill or in the crockpot—no oven required!

---

A planned/non-planned approach. No recipes here, but some pointers for stocking your freezer with ready-to-go meat and cheese portions, then how to plan meals the weekend or night before, taking into account your schedule, the weather, and what's in your fridge that needs to be used up.

And here are a few ingredients to have pre-cooked and ready in the freezer:

• Carmelized onions
• Roasted garlic
• Perfect brown rice, in the oven

And a few things to know about food safety and quality:

• Learn about safe food storage
• How to avoid freezer burn
• Tips on organizing your freezer

3 hours on the weekend, 10 meals for the week!

Minimizing prep time for dinner by combining two nights of prep is something I've had in mind to write about here, but just haven't gotten to it. Then I found out about a Columbia University student who has this concept completely nailed!

Wow! So impressed by this guy. He's pursuing a PhD in Electrical Engineering, which has got to keep his schedule busy. But every weekend, he takes a few hours to prep and package five lunches and five dinners for the upcoming week.

And this is no tuna casserole or hamburger surprise! His meals feature things like lemon tilapia, roasted carrots, mashed sweet potatoes with honey and cinnamon, Cajun rice.

I have got in the habit of keeping my freezer stashed with healthy homemade burritos, and even though I eat them almost every weekday -- with lapses for leftovers or lunch out with a friend -- I don't get tired of it. I love how easy and thought-less it is to just grab one and pop it in the microwave. And it's been part of the bigger effort that's enabled me to lose more than 20 pounds in the last few months! I will write about that here some day.

But for now, check out Sean's plan. Get the whole story (and a couple recipes) here.