Not all of your meals are going to be prepared ahead of time and frozen. In some cases, you are just going to freeze certain ingredients that are then used as prepped parts of a meal, but put together at a later date. Here are some healthy meal ingredients that are good for putting in the freezer.
Veggies
The first type of ingredient that works great in the freezer is your veggies. Whether this is greens you tear apart and put in a container to be used for salads, or chopped celery, carrots, and corn for soup and stew, you will love having frozen veggies always on hand.
Vegetables can be purchased n bulk from health food stores or farmer’s markets, then added to your freezer containers to be used later on. They don’t even need to be defrosted before adding to some meals if you don’t want to. This keeps you from having spoiled veggies.
Fruits
Another thing you can freeze ahead of time is fruit. Like veggies, fruit can be frozen for a long time and added right to many recipes without thawing it. The great thing about frozen fruit is that it actually thaws rather quickly, so you don’t need to worry about it too much.
You can take out a small bag of frozen strawberries, keep it on the counter for a few minutes, and soon it is good for adding to yogurt. Frozen fruit like berries and bananas is also perfect for your morning smoothies.
Meat
Meat is another ingredient often used in healthy meal planning and prepping, and also happens to be something you can buy in bulk. You are able to buy a large package of chicken breasts, store them in a container or individual freezer bags, then pull them out as needed.
By freezing them individually, it is much easier to control how many you need, instead of being stuck with an entire package of freezer-burned chicken that wasn’t stored properly.
Chili and Soup Ingredients
Another direction to go is actually gather the different ingredients for a dish, such as chili or soup, and put them together in a freezer bag. These can lay flat in your freezer so they don’t take up a lot of space, and it keeps you from measuring and prepping when it comes time to actually cook the meals. You just remove the bag, add it to a pot or slow cooker, and you’re done.
