I downloaded an ebook from "Hillbilly Housewife.com," today about Freezer Cooked Meals. I have never done this but believe I am going to try it because I am working full time again and I am not here for dinner 5 nights a week.

Has anyone or does anyone fix meals ahead and put them in the freezer? Is it economical? Does the meals taste good? Is it worth the time and money?

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I do this all the time. When I make spaghetti and chili I make 5 times the amount needed for one meal and freeze the other 4 portions. I also do this with several of my casseroles. I bought a Food Saver years ago and that is how I package all my stuff that goes in the freezer. I made lasagna a few years ago and froze several meals of it. They were in 8x8 pans that were then vacuum sealed in bags. One of them got lost until about 9 months after I had originally put it in there. We cooked it and it tasted like I had made it fresh that day. I find that most of my meals are like this. I also make larger than normal roasts and freeze portions of the leftovers.

I have done individual plates as well. If you are going to do this you would need to use divided plates that can be frozen and microwaved. With my food saver I would just make the plate, put it in a bag, seal and freeze. When we wanted to eat it we would just cut a corner off of the bag and microwave just like you would any other frozen dinner. These were great before kids now I just need larger portions.

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I do lots of freezer cooking and it is definitely worth it. Whenever I make any kind of casserole, I always make at least 2. We eat one and I freeze the other one. Also, I when I buy flank steaks or boneless chicken I put them into zip lock bags with marinades and freeze them too. Then when I need them I put them in the fridge overnight to thaw and grill them the next day. They are much tastier when they have been frozen in the marinade. I also buy ground beef on sale and form it into meatloaves, hamburger patties and meatballs and stock the freezer with them. A couple of weeks ago, my grocery store had mismarked 4 packages of ground beef (90% lean). Each 3 pound package was marked $2.58. I bought all four and now we have enough hamburgers for the entire summer! I was so excited!!!!

Thanks ladies. I made chicken pot pie the other night so I made to and froze the filling for another. I wrote the crust directions on a piece of paper and heating instructions and stuck it inside the freezer package with the filling. I figured I may as well start even if a little at a time. Something is better than waiting to do a whole bunch at once and never getting any done. Thanks for the ideas. Greatly appreciated.

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I also started out slow when I was begining to fill my freezer. Now I have a stock of items in the freezer and almost always have something ready. My kids have tons of after school activities and this is such a life saver. The amount of money I was spending on take out food was awful. Now, sometimes I even assemble everything for a slow cooker meal in a zip lock bag and freeze that. With some of the slow cooker things, I don't even bother to defrost them, I just dump it in the crock pot on low for a longer time instead of on high. For example, I make a chicken taco filling in the crock pot. I put the chicken, seasoning and chopped onions and peppers into a ziplock bag and freeze it. On the morning that I want to use it. I run the frozen bag under some water until I get the contents loose. Then I put it the chicken mix in the crock pot on low for about 8 hours. When I get home in the evening dinner's ready! I will make and freeze 3 or 4 of these packets. It is as easy to fix 3 of the same item as it is to make on, it just involves buying a more of the ingredients up front.

While you are stocking your freezer up, you will find that your grocery bill is higher but that will end after you have a good supply set up. Then your grocery bills will probably go down because you can wait until you find a good deal at the grocery store and really stock up again. Today I am off to the store to pick up 99 cent chicken breasts that are on a holiday weekend sale. We don't have an Aldi's or any other really discount grocery stores close by so I really have to shop the sales.

Also have you checked out the freezer cooking section on this board? I have gotten some great recipes there. The one my family loves is the Ultimate Garlic Drunken Pot Roast.