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Freezer meals are a must to have on hand for dealing with the little family emergencies that come up from time to time. They are perfect to have on hand as a part of being prepared for the flu, helping to hedge against rising food prices, or just a night that you can’t get it all together and need a helping hand.

Whenever you cook a favorite family meal that could freeze well, double the recipe and cook two!  We do this every time my husband smokes meat. We have one brisket for meals that week and one well wrapped and put in the freezer for another week. If you watch sales carefully this is an excellent way to build up a supply of meat while prepping on a budget. Buying a stock of the aluminum pans at a big box store is excellent for this. The best part is, you freeze it already cooked so in an emergency you don’t have to worry about the fuel needed to eat this stocked meat. We also do this with chickens (smoked chicken bones make an excellent broth base).

But we can’t always freeze amazing smoked meat so I made a collection of some of my friends favorite recipes that will freeze well to have on hand for emergencies. My suggestion is to cook one for your family to have as part of your weekly meal plan and prepare one that can go in the freezer.

Favorite Freezer Meals Recipes

Jen from Two Kids and A Map suggests these:

• Chicken Divan Casserole

• Sausage and Egg Casserole

Catherine from Evolving Mommy suggests her two faves:

• Thai Peanut Chicken (I bag the ingredients and freeze them.Then I can grab the bag from the freezer, dump it into the crock pot I expend virtually not effort.)
• Black Bean Soup MANY friends have made this and loved it. It is so good she jars it for family at Christmas.

Emily for Colorado Moms went with a different twist and suggested a smoothie mix. I like this especially since fruit prices are so volatile.

• Freeze Ahead Smoothies

Another approach to making freezer meals is a great idea that I found on Six Sister’s Stuff. I really like this because it promotes the idea of community and looking out for one another that I like to encourage in my prepping (to a point!)

About a year ago, I was part of a “Freezer Meal Group Swap” in my neighborhood and once a month we would all get together and swap freezer meals. I would usually spend a couple of hours in the kitchen one Saturday a month, cooking up a storm and in the end, it was so nice to have 5-6 meals prepared that I didn’t have to worry about for that next month.