I'm in love with freezer meals.

I know I've said it before, but I don't think I could ever say it enough: freezer meals are (one of) the best things that has ever happened to me!  My good friends Kim + Jessica are my freezer meal exchanging buddies and I have loved it.  We just had another exchange today and I came back with some gold for our freezer.

So I thought I'd share a few tips (and recipes!) with you in case you'd like to venture down the freezer meal path yourself (and I highly recommend it!)

+ Having a few girlfriends to exchange with has been fabulous.  There is usually three of us who exchange and we each make two meals.  You can't beat having six meals waiting in your freezer!  Precious gold I tell you.  It's always nice to get some new meals to try (since I often seem to get in a rut...making the same meals over and over again) and many of the meals I've gotten have become some of our very favorites.

+ Plan on spending a good chunk of time preparing (but don't worry, it'll pay off!)  I'm a bit of a procrastinator, so I usually end up making all of my meals the night before our exchange.  That can get a little crazy.  This time I was able to make everything a full day in advance (which is huge for me) and today was much less stressful.

+ You can freeze almost anything!  I feel like we've gotten more adventurous as the months have passed and I love it!  Don't be scared, just have fun with it and experiment!  Some things don't reheat as well as others, but at least you tried :)

+ Use mason jars, freezer ziplock bags, tupperware, disposable pans, etc... to freeze your meals in.  My personal favorite are ziplock bags since they take up the least amount of space.  If I'm using disposable pans, I've also learned to put a layer of plastic wrap first, before the foil to prevent freezer burn.

Here are some recipes from our most current freezer meal exchange:

The Best French Dip Ever

Pizza Dough Recipe + Pizza Freezing Technique (Top with whatever you like!)

Delicious Homemade Bagels

Cilantro Lime Chicken Taco's

And more tips on freezer meals if you're really interested!:

Marta Writes

Annie's Eats

Our Best Bites (Scroll down to the bottom for freezer friendly meals)

Martha Stewart

I'd love to hear about your freezer meals!  Have you done them before?  What have been your favorites?  Don't have enough room in your freezer?  Think again :)

freezer meals

one of the best things is not knowing what to throw together for dinner...

and then remembering that you have freezer meals in the freezer!

a few months ago, my friends kim and jessica got together for the first of (hopefully) many freezer meal exchanges!  we started out simple the first time--we each made three of the same meals, and then swapped (so we came home with three different meals.)  the next time we each made two meals to trade + a dessert.  and the last time we did it, we each made two meals + a side.  

we've come away with some awesome meals:

chicken taquitoes from our best bites

soup + rolls

pizza dough + sauce

cookie dough

ice cream

mini cheesecakes

calzones

breakfast burritos (we personally love these!!)

hamburger buns + patties

for our last swap, i made:

sweet and sour chicken

shepherd's pie

granola bars

the granola bars were a hit.

among the girls, and among my little family.  i couldn't feed them to avery fast enough!

they are super yummy (the chocolate chip ones tasted like cookie bars!) and they are very healthy.

enjoy!

p.s. i even snuck some quinoa into the shepherd's pies!

cook the quinoa, mix it into the hamburger...and the meat stretches 3x as far!!

plus, when it's mixed in with hamburger, you can't even tell.  the textures are identical.

do you have any yummy freezer meals you'd like to pass along?