The new school year is upon us! Kids are back in school, or about to be, and parents and kids alike are having to fall back into the often hectic hustle and bustle of school-day routines.
Back to school activities can mean cramming more and more stuff into less and less time. Family dinner tends to pay the price in my house.
Years of dealing with the stress of getting home from work late and scrambling to thaw something out that is nutritious and delicious for the family prompted me to try something new. I decided on freezer meal planning to see how much time, stress, and money it would actually save me.
I always struggled with coming up with the meal plans myself. Imagine my excitement when I discovered MyFreezEasy where I didn’t have to.
Put simply, MyFreezEasy is a monthly membership service that provides easy freezer cooking meal plans for any dietary needs. It’s the brainchild of Erin Chase, the creator of 5dollardinners.com.
The goal of the service is to help facilitate the creation of 10 to 12 freezer meals in less than one hour, making it very appealing for busy families on the go.
Membership comes with lots of support, including detailed plans, printable recipes, shopping lists and more. A FREE online freezer cooking workshop is also included, which provides tons of helpful information and how-tos.
Special promotion: Get a FREE meal plan from MyFreezeEasy (for a limited time)
Ten meals in less than an hour? It seems incredible.
I realized that if I used the freezer and MyFreezEasy to make nutritious cooking and meal planning easier, dinner could actually make a comeback.
Freezer meal planning advantages
Evenings reclaimed.
A huge personal benefit of prepping for a week’s dinners beforehand is time savings. Even if I did manage to have a recipe in mind for a single dinner, that meant I had to spend a good deal of time prepping the side dishes and putting together the ingredients for the entree when I got home from work.
By setting aside a few few prep hours one day a week, it seemed that I would be able to reclaim large chunks of my evening back. Amazing, right?
My plan was to use the detailed shopping lists from the MyFreezEasy membership to put together a weekly grocery service delivery order. That’s right, I hate going to the grocery store. No apologies — it’s just not my thing.
On Sunday, all I would have to do was chop and prep for a little over an hour in order to have dinner ready to roll for every day that next week. It really does sound like it would make weekday dinners seem like a no-brainer.
Besides time savings, freezer meal planning with MyFreezEasy has other big advantages.
Eating healthier.
One of the frequent traps I would find myself snared in is the last- minute takeout trap. I come home and either nothing is thawed and close to ready, or I have no remote idea of how I could throw together the random items in my pantry and fridge to make a cohesive meal. Sometimes it was easier and less stressful to grab takeout then try to fix my life choices.
Having a freezer stocked with a week’s worth of budget-friendly, easy meals could go a long way towards curbing the urge to grab takeout and help my family to avoid that trap.
Recipe variety and cooking methods.
Recipe flexibility is also a big draw for me. I could select recipes by dietary preference or cooking method on MyFreezEasy. With so many options, how could it get old or boring?
Luckily, my family is not picky, so we are keen on trying a wide variety of dinner options. I already use my Instant Pot regularly and my husband loves to grill out in the summertime. MyFreezEasy provides subscribers with a variety of recipes for the slow cooker, Instant Pot and the grill, to name a few methods.
Portion control.
Portion control is also something I am always seeking help with. When I don’t plan, we almost always overeat. I make more than we need and we eat what is there. Freezer meal planning allows prep for only the serving size my family needs, helping to keep dinner portion sizes in check.
Save on groceries.
I also wanted to take advantage of the cost savings associated with freezer meal planning. I found I could get most of what I needed for available recipes from Costco and ALDI. Planning ahead definitely helps to control spending and keep the grocery budget down as well.
MyFreezEasy has all of the tools needed to help cooking beginners and pros alike save time and money. No matter how you choose to do it, the point is to make dinner easier and more approachable! Freezer Meal Planning can definitely help to eliminate the dinner-time panic that comes with poor planning.
Party and prep
I also found lots of friends and family were looking for the same dinner stress relief I was looking for. It has always been easier for me to try something new or stick with a plan if I have partners who are doing it with me. Sasha, a blogger at suchatimeasthis.com, wrote a helpful review of the program that also mentioned getting a friend to help, at least for your first time prepping.
Freezer Meal Party anyone?
Learn more about Freezer Meal Prep parties at MyFreezEasy and take advantage of this special promo
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