Next Week’s Meal Plan: 5 Big-Batch Dinners to Stock the Freezer
This week’s meal plan is doing double duty as both dinners for this week and as fodder for the freezer for the busy weeks of September ahead. As you can imagine, with two little kids at home it’s pretty rare that there’s a whole day each weekend to cook and prep, but this sneaky method — cooking once and eating twice — means I’ve got some meal prep waiting in the deep freeze when I need it.
These big-batch dinners mostly rely on the slow cooker and will make enough to feed my family of four this week and still freeze four servings for future use with some leftovers for lunch this week.
Welcome to This Week’s Meal Plan
I believe meal planning is the secret to stress-free weeknight dinners. Since I’m frequently asked by friends and family what I’m cooking for dinner each week, I share my weekly meal plan here. Whether you’re just learning to meal plan and looking for a real-life example of how this works or you’re an old pro on the hunt for inspiration, here’s a peek at how I’m feeding my family this week.
New to meal planning? Start here.
Split this giant casserole into two pans — one to eat right way and one for the freezer — and you’ve got two dinners for the work of one. I’m using my favorite store-bought sauce to make it even quicker.
Tuesday: Slow Cooker Salsa Pulled Chicken
One thing I love about this recipe is the ability to completely customize the heat since it doesn’t rely on canned salsa. My two little kiddos are pretty timid when it comes to spice! I’m freezing some of this for future use but also planning on leftovers for taco salad lunches.
Wednesday: Easy Slow Cooker Bean Soup
What is better than soup on a cold day in fall — especially one that you just reheated from the freezer? While late August might seem like an odd time to cook bean soup, I know that we’re going to love having this in the freezer come October.
Thursday: Hoisin Pork Wraps with Peanut Slaw
Yes, this is for the freezer, but it’s also to satisfy a craving I’ve been having for takeout. I’m going to cheat a bit and buy prepared broccoli slaw and dress it up as the peanut slaw instead.
I don’t always make my own pizza for the freezer (I do have a favorite store-bought version), but since Friday is our regular pizza night I’m making the most of my pizza dough prep time to make a few for the freezer too.