Stock my freezer (+/- pantry)

[A_Whole_New_Me]

I always stock up my pantry & freezer during my winter vacation so that I can jumpstart good eating habits during the spring semester.  I'd like to start a Whole30 officially Jan 1st, but I want to figure out how to stock up for that beforehand.  I did find the great downloads on this website for pantry items & grocery shopping suggestions (thanks to whoever wrote those!).  I can grocery shop once a week to pick up fresh veggies, but I like to have my staples shopping done already.

 

Do you have recipes that you've found freeze well?  What would you keep around for quick dinners?

- the chocolate chili recipe that's linked frequently looks good (and freezable)

- steaks or burger patties are quick to cook (so I keep a stash frozen)

- ??? 

 

(no slow cooker here - dog likes to knock it over & eat the contents )

 

I tend to come home hungry, so I like to have dinner handy before I get hangry!

 

Please link to similar threads where you've found helpful answers if you can; my search function isn't turning anything useful up (but I'm sure I'm not the first person who wants to have easy dinners frozen ahead!).

 

[Kim.C]

I've been trying to find more recipes for this as well! Recently I've tried (and had success) with butternut squash soup, bone broth, and meatloaf

[leahcarn]

I found a pumpkin chili recipe that freezes well

http://holisticallyengineered.com/2012/08/whole30-day-17-and-pumpkin-chili-with.html

[A_Whole_New_Me]

I've been trying to find more recipes for this as well! Recently I've tried (and had success) with butternut squash soup, bone broth, and meatloaf

I forgot about butternut squash soup!  I do love that, too.

 

I was thinking this meatloaf recipe might be good? http://paleomg.com/paleo-savory-sweet-potato-meatloaf/%C2'> I'd need to either tuck more veggies into the recipe or have a nice side of veggies, though.

 

Do you think the sauces in Well Fed would freeze OK?  That would be amazing to have a stock of delicious sauces in the freezer.

 

All the blogs I find with suggestions on freezing ahead tend to have a lot of complicated ingredients, which I think kind of defeats the point of a Whole30. 

[kirkor]

All the blogs I find with suggestions on freezing ahead tend to have a lot of complicated ingredients, which I think kind of defeats the point of a Whole30.

I don't think that's necessarily the case. "Whole" or "real" food doesn't have to have a small ingredient list, especially when it's made at home. I think for a lot of people who do a W30 for the first time, simpler recipes often make things easier in terms of shopping and prep work ... keeping the recipes simple can help people from feeling overwhelmed, be it from reading labels, deciding on what to cook, prepping more vegetables than they're used to, etc.

But once you get rocking and rolling and the spectrum of compliant ingredients is second nature to you, heck, the sky's the limit!

[Dayleo]

When I tried my first Whole30, I was overwhelmed with how much prep, cooking, stocking, cleaning I had to do on a daily basis. I tried cooking ahead meals I could refrigerate for a week, but turkey Quishe (spelling?) potato salad w/homemade mayo got old real fast. I would normally grocery shop on the weekend and do all my prepping on Sunday (which could take up to 3 hours!) I think I failed after 21 days purely because I felt exhausted with all the food prep and planning. My go to's I found that help (but still needed prep time before the week) was processing Cauliflower and dividing it into portion sizes and freezing it/ buying pre-made Bison patties for quick grilling or saute/ Meatloaf/ Packaged Salmon (which is VERY hard to find here without the soy stuff they can it with) for salmon patties.

 

I work full time, go to school part time as well as take care of all the cleaning and dog stuff at my house. So im trying to find super easy recipes for when I go back on the Whole 30 in January. I asked for WellFED and WellFEd 2 for xmas, so maybe I'll find recipes in there I can tweek. Good Luck!

[A_Whole_New_Me]

I don't think that's necessarily the case. "Whole" or "real" food doesn't have to have a small ingredient list, especially when it's made at home. I think for a lot of people who do a W30 for the first time, simpler recipes often make things easier in terms of shopping and prep work ... keeping the recipes simple can help people from feeling overwhelmed, be it from reading labels, deciding on what to cook, prepping more vegetables than they're used to, etc.

But once you get rocking and rolling and the spectrum of compliant ingredients is second nature to you, heck, the sky's the limit!

You're right; I should have personalized that statement - making complicated recipes defeats the point of doing a Whole30 for me.  I have a few food sensitivities & I'm looking at Whole30 as a way for me to be more aware of my body's more mild reactions to different foods.  It's most straightforward to do that when there aren't 15 ingredients in a recipe.  Your advice makes sense for the Whole30 population who are primarily just looking to clean up their diet +/- lose a few pounds the healthy way.

 

Dayleo, 21 days isn't too shabby!  That's 2/3 of the way through the program.  I love your suggestion for bison burgers; I always forget about those because I have to purchase online but they are a novel dinner that's easy.

[Dem]

Google Whole 30 Freezer Meals and you'll see Once A Month Meals has a list of lots of meals you can freeze.  I haven't made any yet but I am hoping to soon.