How to Save Money Making Your Own Frozen Dinners
Homemade TV Dinners or Frozen Entrées Saves Time and Money
Nov 6, 2008
With only the same amount of time you’d take to make your own meal, why not put some of it away in the freezer and keep a small stash of your own pre-made frozen TV dinners? All it takes is some spare freezer-proof plastic containers, or some Tupperware if you’re lucky to have some extra ones with lids that fit.
Why TV Dinners are Bad for You and the Planet
Take a look at the ingredients in the average frozen dinner. That first ingredient is usually salt, or has sodium appearing in different forms throughout the listing. The meat portions are skimpy, and sauces are often dubious: And let’s not even start with how it’s packaged. The non-recyclable plastic and the amount of energy it consumes to be driven from the manufacturing plant to the store makes its carbon footprint Bigfoot-worthy.
Save Money and the Planet While Saving Your Health
By preparing your own make-ahead dinners, you’ll be sparing yourself the time it takes to go to the convenience store, not to mention saving a small fortune in upset stomach remedies.
It doesn’t have to be food that you normally wouldn’t have: You can give it a fancy name, if you like, but dish itself can just be leftovers from last night’s dinner. Just put in a freezer-safe container like a Ziploc freezer container, or a Tupperware box, and label it clearly, with the date you made it. (If it’s more than two months old – even frozen – just toss it.)
How to Prepare Frozen Entrées
There are two ways of making your own frozen dinners
- Make a full meal of four servings that you will be freezing individually in one-service size containers, or:
- Make a double helping of tonight’s supper, and put the leftovers into individual freezer-proof containers.
Safe Freezing Techniques
Be aware of the freezer life of your meals: As previously mentioned in this article, we recommend you label the food clearly, listing the main ingredients. It doesn’t have to be printed using a label maker, computer printouts using address labels or even marker on masking tape; most adhesives loose don’t work in temperatures below zero. Most freezer experts rely on the oil pencil to mark their foods. Some stores sell freezer labels, but most simple living shoppers agree it’s a waste to buy something you’ll be tossing in the trash once it’s used.
While making a “cute” label may make one feel a bit more like you’re buying a polished store-bought item, it’s advisable to refrain from names like “Joe’s Fantastico Specialty” and stick to “Beef Stew: Veggies and Barley” and adding the date you made it.
Use Only Microwave and Freezer Safe Containers
One frugalista once saved up her old margarine tubs and used them as food storage containers. While her resourcefulness was to be commended, she wasn’t aware that the plastic used in making pliable plastics containers could leach dioxins into food when heated in the microwave. DEHA is also a possible carcinogen, though the U.S. EPA has removed it from its list of toxic chemicals, citing inconclusive evidence.
Either way, when you buy the containers read the manufacturing instructions to ensure they are both microwave and freezer safe. Some recommend buying ceramic or Pyrex containers with leak proof lids.
Add the Date to Your Frozen Dinner
This article may be repetitive in it advise to mark the date, but spoiled food is no laughing matter. Food poisoning can even be fatal in some cases.
If you’re unsure of what foods have what “best before” date, a good resource to check is the Old Farmer’s Almanac Freezer Storage Life Guide.
It would be a shame to save all that time and money making something healthy only to have your family succumb to illness.
Let us know what your favourite dishes are to make ahead and freeze: We’d like to hear what our readers have brought for their lunches!
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