Meal prep is here to help and these four family size pasta freezer meals will help you come up with dinner in a pinch!
With our current living circumstances and restricted ability to visit the grocery store whenever we like, making dinner needs to be easy!
I've never been much of a meal prep person but not because I don't like it. Actually I think it's a great idea but everyday I have to cook for the blog in some way so there's always something for dinner that just needs to be reheated.
If I meal prepped I'd probably end up with too much food!
Pasta is a great way to feed a family and there's so many different ways to serve it. It's definetly a staple ingredient in my kitchen and helps me whenever I'm in a bind.
These four fully prepped pasta freezer meals will take the pressure of, all you need to do is pull them from the freezer straight to the pot! All the exra work is done.
How to make your easy freezer prep meals
There's a little bit of prep work to be done but nothing too intense. These easy freezer meals use simple store bought pasta sauce which I never have a problem with.
Making your own pasta sauce is a fun thing to do but that's a project for another day. For now we're just keeping things simple and with so many great choices for pasta sauce, sometimes your time is more valuable doing something else.
I made four different pasta meals but you could do as many as you like.
Prepping your freezer meals kit
I recommend prepping your freezer meals the night before and filling your ziplock bags the next day. Waiting for the sauce to freeze is the most time consuming part.
Begin by filling an ice cube tray with the sauce, any leftover sauce can go in the fridge for another day, but you shouldn't have much leftover if your ice cube trays are pretty deep. Freeze overnight.
Cook the pasta just as you normally would but after cooking, rinse it well under cold water. You need to remove the starch so that the pasta doesn't become stuck together in one giant lump.
Transfer the rinsed pasta to a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. If you're adding anything else to your meal kit like chicken or meatballs then you'd cook those too and just store in the fridge until it's time to build your meal kit bag.
Building your freezer meal bags
Take your cooled pasta and transfer it to a gallon sized ziplock bag. Working quickly, add your frozen cubes of pasta sauce to the bag along with any other ingredients such as meatballs or chicken.
Seal your bag, write the description and date on the label and place it in the freezer.
Reheating your pasta
Take the bag from the freezer and give it a good slam on the counter just to loosen up everything in the bag. Transfer all of the contents to a large pot or pan and add whichever liquid is recommended.
For regular tomato sauce based meals adding water is fine but if it's Alfredo sauce or pesto I recommend using half and half or milk. By adding a liquid it'll help bring the contents back to a saucy consistency as it cooks.
Cover with a lid and simmer stirring often to loosen everything up as it becomes soft.
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