Make Now, Eat Later: Recipes For National Frozen Food Month

It's National Frozen Food Month- all the more reason to make the most of your grocery haul and freeze ingredients and meals yourself. When properly frozen, foods can stay preserved and at their peak of freshness for much longer than even a 3-day stint in the fridge. We're sharing some of our favorite freezer-friendly recipes to get you started. Enjoy!

This recipe for freezer chicken fried rice is the perfect meal to prepare for a crowd or portion out and freeze to have a pre-made dish at the ready on busy weeknights – it's affordable, hearty, easy to freeze, and simple to serve. Blogger Christy Jordan purchased everything in bulk and made a double batch that she froze in family size portions using her FoodSaver® FM5000 Food Preservation System, which will keep your food fresh up to 5X longer compared to traditional storage methods.

Another one of our favorite ideas for the freezer are pre-prepped smoothie packs! The Taylor House has four delicious recipes ready to go – from peanut butter banana smoothies to very berry and blueberry peach. You can grab these ingredients when they are on sale, chop and portion everything out, then vacuum seal the individual portions so that all you have to do the next time you want a fresh smoothie is pull out the bag and add the ingredients to your blender with a little milk or water.

We love this recipe for one-pan salsa chicken and vegetables from The Wicked Noodle. Using chicken breasts that had been previously vacuum sealed and frozen help make this meal super quick. Once defrosted, all you need to do is put them on the sheet pan. The veggies can also be chopped in advance and stored in FoodSaver® Fresh Containers in the fridge to keep them fresh up to 2X longer than traditional storage methods until you are ready to make the full meal.

We thought we'd end things on a sweet note with this recipe for freezer apple pie. Yes, you really can prep a whole homemade pie in advance- even adding the top layer of crust! Once everything is together, you can vacuum seal the entire pie using an expandable vacuum seal roll and then put in the freezer. For optimum freshness, bake within 6 months-1 year.

What are your go-to freezer meals? Share with us on social @FoodSaver!

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