Meal Prep + Freezer Meal Tips – EP 262

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Say no more to takeouts after a long busy day or a cold chilly night, coz ‘tis the season for freezer meals. All about Meal Prep Freezer Meal edition such as freezer meal prepping, cooking, and eating, we’re going to talk all about it in this episode that will have you stocking up your freezer and keeping it full!

The longer we spend making decisions on the day, our brains get less motivated to do what’s right and that’s normal!

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Top 5 Reasons You Need Freezer Meal Cooking in Your Life

Sometimes your meal plans just don’t go the way you want it to go and this is when the freezer meal enters! Fabulessly Gal shares good reasons why you need a freezer meal in your life. 

What Jen + Jill have to say:

You won’t be ordering as much fast food and takeouts, making you save money. Jen and Jill talked about decision fatigue plenty of times in the show and Jen thinks having a freezer meal also saves you brain power and saves the day for someone else. 

On the other hand, Jill values how freezer meals save us time, especially during busy seasons for families who might not be able to plan ahead of time. It also allows you to be more intentional about the meals you’re making with the ingredients being used. 

10 Genius Tricks for Freezing Food That'll Make Meal Prep a Snap

There are plenty of rookie mistakes one makes when freezing food and we don’t want you to commit those. This Real Simple article hosts practical tips for making freezer meals and how to freeze certain food ingredients.

What Jen + Jill have to say:

Jill believes that the faster the food gets freezed, the more it will maintain its freshness and flavor when cooked or reheated (i.e freeze roasted veggies on a single layer on a tray rather than a clump). Blanching your greens first by bringing salted water to a rolling boil in a large pot, then placing the green vegetable until it becomes tender. Once it becomes tender, shock it in ice water then there you have it! Don’t forget to not toss your leftover herbs. 

Avoid food with crispy and crunchy textures as you won’t be able to recreate it after freezing. Jen advises allowing enough time for defrosting as she usually gives it a full 24 hours to defrost. 

Our favorite simple freezer meal

Jen loves Indian food, hence, most of her freezer meals consists of Butter Chicken, Chana Masala, BBQ pulled pork, Chili, Chicken Tortilla Soup, Smoky Tomato Soup, White Bean Soup, Carnitas, and Minestrone.

On the other hand and as surprising as it may be, Jill freezes her bread! It apparently freezes well and it can be reheated nicely and crispy rather than letting it get moldy and go to waste. 

Bill of The Week

Thank you Megan for sharing your bill about your son making the decision to move his money from his savings account to an investment account!

Thanks so Much for Listening!

Thanks so much for listening! Many of you know we have a private community where we do monthly money challenges and offer accountability groups. We want to congratulate one of our members for a big win:

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This month I am doing a no spend challenge, with the 30 Day No Spend Challenge Workbook and having read the No-Spend Challenge Guide.

Instead of cutting multiple categories. I am choosing one a month and adding on a new category every month. This month is no online shopping. The first three days of the month were easy. I had no temptations and did not find myself going to my favorite websites to browse.

Today I am very proud of myself. I got a text about a sale a company I like is having. I ended up clicking the link and even adding items to my cart. Before purchasing I reminded myself that I don’t want to spend online this month. I removed from cart, closed the website and sent a STOP to the text thread so I wouldn’t receive future texts. The purse I almost bought is on my Christmas list and I reminded myself that the purse will be there in the future when I have the funds to add it to the budget.

In the past I would have moved money around, taken money from other saving goals to make the purchase. I’m very happy with my decision to say no!

Congrats! Thanks for listening and if you want to check out our monthly challenge community head to frugalfriendspodcast.com/club to see what challenge we have coming up next.

Keep leaving us reviews on iTunes or Stitcher, and sending the screenshot to reviews@frugalfriendspodcast.com. And don’t forget to share your favorite quote from the episode by using the hashtag #FrugalFriendsNote. 😉

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