Yes, You Can Totally Batch Prep Freezer Meals (Here's One Easy Way) - (2024)

It feels overwhelming just thinking about a prep sesh where you batch prep freezer meals all at once, doesn’t it?

I mean, let’s chat for a second about how modern, busy, working parents don’t have 3 hours to spend in the kitchen on a Saturday prepping bags and bags of freezer meals.

That time suck feels like the elephant in the room when we’re talking about batch cooking, right?

I can hear your thoughts now:

“Big-ass batch prep sessions are just for bored parents, parents with time to spare…. that’s what they can do.

Not me.

I got no time for this.”

Sound familiar?

Or maybe your thoughts are a bit more harried, something like this:

“I’ve got a meeting to prepare for and kids to pick up from practice and two loads of laundry to fold and kids’ backpacks to go through so all I have time for is to throw together a 20-minute meal for dinner.

The last thing I have time for is spending three hours on an otherwise busy Saturday doing a batch prep of freezer meals that we won’t even get to eat that day.”

But the thing is, batch prepping some freezer meals is exactly the kind of thing the busiest parent can do in order to free up their time at home.

Having that backup stash of meals in the freezer gives a busy parent more time to spend doing the things that bring them joy; whether that’s hanging with your family, getting some self-care time in, or anything else.

Take it from me, lady: I’ve got two young kids at home with their own school and activity schedules, a side hustle, a day job, no family living nearby, a husband who juggles a demanding job, his own side hustle, and just life in general.

We ain’t got no time for anything that takes forever to do with very little return on time investment.

So that’s why I’m here to tell you: a batch prep of freezer meals is the ULTIMATE return on investment activity.

I always ignored it, thinking it was something that moms with way more free time were doing. But once I started cycling it into our crazy weekly schedule, it hit me like a ton of bricks:

I am that busy mom who benefits from batch prepping.

Squeezing in the time to make a batch of freezer recipes has saved me so much time and, surprisingly, money that I’m kicking myself for not doing it sooner.

And the best part? You totally don’t need to get like, 30 meals ready all at once.

It’s all about baby steps, my friend. It’s about doing what we can with what we have.

I Plan Out a Handful of Recipes First, Before Anything Else

I start my little batch prep of freezer meals the same way every time: picking a handful of recipes I know we LOVE eating.

Not 25 recipes. Not even 10 recipes. Just 5 or 6.

I know my time schedule, my kitchen/freezer space, and my attention span- this means that I know my “sweet spot” for freezer prep is usually about 5-8 meals at a time.

Then, I look for commonalities in those recipes.

When I’m choosing the recipes I want to make, I pair “like with like”, which means I keep some of the ingredients or cooking styles similar. This saves me energy during the prep by not doing 50 things at once.

For example, if I’m prepping some soups, I’ll get the mire poix (carrots/onions/celery) chopped for everything at once, and then I’ll divide them out per recipe. This way, I’m not starting from scratch each and every recipe.

Once my recipes are decided on, I plan the shopping trip -either in person or via Instacart, load up my podcasts or playlists to listen to while I cook, shoo my family out of the kitchen, and get to work.

“But where do you FIND your recipes?”

There are any number of ways I seek out the recipes I use in every batch prep: Pinterest, a good ole’ Google search, cookbooks that are aimed at freezer meals, and recipes on my website here in the category Make Ahead or Freezer Meals.

But the best service for finding a ton of meal prep and freezer-friendly recipes is Once a Month Meals.

It’s an incredibly easy-to-use membership that’s one-stop-shopping for finding recipes, creating a freezer-friendly meal plan, and then making a prep sesh out of that meal plan.

What is Once a Month Meals and How Does It Work?

I’ve been using Once a Month Meals to create batch cooking days for a few years now and guys? I’m freaking hooked.

I love how OMM divides its service into recipes, favorites, and my personal menus. This helps me break up my planning into finding, sorting, and plotting.

They also have an extensive video library that covers everything from replays of Live Cook-a-thons, Instant Pot tips and tricks, safe thawing practices, recipe videos, and more.

What’s more, they have a really strong community and live chat feature, so you can always get answers to questions super quick- even when you’re in the middle of cooking and need assistance, stat.

Let’s take a quick tour through the service, shall we?

The video is a 6-minute long walkthrough of what Once a Month Meals is and why I love it so much. They’re currently closed for new enrollment, but if you join the waitlist they’ll let you know as soon as it’s open- and once it is, I recommend you JUMP!

Once a Month Meals has truly changed how I meal plan, how I cook for my family, and just knowing that I have a short stack of finished meals in the freezer takes a huge weight off my shoulders.

If you have any questions about Once a Month Meals, drop me a line in the comments or click “contact” up above in my menu of the site to email me directly! I’m more than happy to share my honest thoughts, or point you in the direction of the OMM team to help further.