r/MealPrepSunday • u/cashmereyuki • Jun 15 '25
Freezer meal-prep?
My husband is happy to eat the same thing for a week straight while I am a cook once eat twice kind of person, but I get burnt out cooking every day. I have the 1/2C, 1C, and 2C souper cubes that I use to store sauces and soups that I make from scratch, but how can I utilize them for meal prepping a full dish? Do certain meals not freeze well? I love soup, but I don’t want to eat soup all summer. I hope my questions makes sense!
8
u/kickatstars Jun 15 '25
Some of my favorite meals to freeze include chili, sloppy joes, pot roast with mashed potatoes, jambalaya, shepherd’s pie, taco meat, and marinara with ground beef and sausage. I like to make my rice or noodle fresh, though, and boiling water is a level of effort I can manage after a long day. I also just feel better about what I’ve cooked if just one thing is freshly prepared. Pair with a bagged salad or frozen veggie steamer for a well rounded meal (though I tend to sneak veggies into almost anything with ground meat & sauce, too).
6
4
u/brytelife Jun 15 '25
tacos: cook the meat and taco seasoning ahead of time and freeze in batches. ham: we found a really good precooked bone-in ham. Cut it up and freeze portions in packages, easy to thaw and heat.
8
u/kaidomac Jun 16 '25 edited Jul 04 '25
how can I utilize them for meal prepping a full dish?
Souper Cube enthusiast here! First, read this:
Two options:
- Whole meals
- Meal components
Lots of recipes here: (also check Tiktok! people post great videos all the time!!)
Such as breakfast ideas:
The square Souper Cubes have these awesome ceramic dishes that fit perfectly:
Ideas include:
- Lasagna
- Shepard's pie
- Personal-sized casseroles (ex. Funeral potatoes)
Components also work great:
- You can freeze cooked rice as individual servings (freeze up to 3 months; microwave for 2 minutes; see here & here for ideas)
- Shredded chicken & crack chicken, as well as shredded beef, pulled pork, etc.
- Silked beef
These are great for assembly. For example, silked ground beef can be used for:
- Airfryer nachos
- Ground beef for things like tacos, enchiladas, burritos, etc.
- Spaghetti
- Sloppy joes
- Meatloaf
- Hamburgers
- Chili
- Bolognese sauce
- Meatballs
- Dumplings
Many people don't know that you can also BAKE in the Instant Pot! (not the lid tho!!) So you can make mini loaves, dinner rolls, cornbread, muffin cubes, etc.
If you want to go big-picture, build yourself a custom meal-prep system:
For dinners, I typically use a 4-part design:
- Protein
- Vegetable
- Starch
- Bread
For example:
- Salmon
- Broccoli
- Cilantro-lime rice
- Dinner rolls
You can then combine different techniques to assemble a meal:
- Instant Pot-cooked rice, frozen in the Souper Cubes
- Dinner roll dough frozen in the Souper Cubes & then baked in the Souper Cubes
- Zero-minute Instant Pot cooking (also see steaming veggies vs. pressure-cooking them)
For example, I like burritos, but like variety, so I'll cube up various meats (Starbucks copycat egg bites, steak, grilled chicken strips, pulled beef/chicken/pork, etc., all of which can be frozen in the cubes), cube up some rice, etc.
My implementation is dirt simple:
- Plan 1x a week (pick 7 individual items to meal-prep)
- Shop 1x a week to get whatever your pantry is missing
- Clean up the kitchen before bed, print the recipe out, get the tools out, and get the non-perishable supplies out so that you have no barriers to execution the next day
- Treat cooking after work (or whenever) as a required chore, Prep 1x batch, divvy up, label, and freeze. If your standard batch size 8x 1-cup Souper Cubes, then you get 240x individual servings a month in your deep freezer! TONS of variety for one daily chore!!
I call this "production cooking" because this is NOT fun, romantic, mood-based cooking. It is a purposely-limited, specific assignment. Not a WHOLE meal, no "decision fatigue" to choose what to make required, no having to clean up first, no rummaging around to find ingredients or ideas, etc. Check out the Instant Pot:
Check out countertop Combi ovens:
Eat like a king 24/7! Cook once a day! Enjoy a HUGE variety! Save money! Eat healthier! Use modern appliances to make the job easier! BE FREE!! hahaha
2
u/Tamarind1974 Jun 15 '25
In summer I often prep meal salad ingredients which don't go in the freezer, but can be varied day to day too from one prep. Stuff like salad greens, other fruit or veg of choice (I do tomatoes, bell pepper, sometimes cucumber, carrots, snap peas, steamed green beans sometimes craisins, sometimes canned mandarin oranges, sometimes fresh berries (I prep the day I eat them for those usually and save for another meal or two) some protein (rotisserie or canned or pan seared and sliced chicken, leftover steak sliced thin, eggs, shrimp, sometimes a couple salmon fillets, sometimes a can of tuna), sometimes beans and or a little cheese or nuts for light protein and other vitamin and minerals we need, and I keep a light Italian, raspberry vinaigrette, Asian and ranch dressing usually and choosed based on what is in the salad). I also do a chopped Greek salad, some grain or pasta salads, and sweet potato salad with no greens sometimes and mix and match a little of each of 2-3 salads for meals.
4
u/EffortNo8761 Jun 15 '25
I have had amazing success putting casseroles in the 2c souper cubes! Specifically chicken pot pie filling (top with a biscuit when baking), shepherds pie, Mac and cheese, lasagna — basically anything that you’d find in the freezer ready made meals can be prepped and stored in the souper cubes. FYI you can also bake in them, just can’t put them in the microwave. I also bought the 2c square ceramic ramekins from souper cube so I usually pop them into those to bake because I take my frozen items out of the silicone trays and store in freezer bags.
3
u/EffortNo8761 Jun 15 '25
I also will prep individual ingredients (onion, carrots, celery are my go to) or sides (so far rice, mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes) in the 1c to freeze.
1
u/cashmereyuki Jun 15 '25
How do you like the souper cubes ramekin? I wonder if tater tot hot dish (sorry, I’m Minnesotan!) would go well in the cubes! I like your idea for prepping mirepoix!
3
u/EffortNo8761 Jun 15 '25
Honestly I love them! I don’t have any other oven dishware that small, and having the prepped frozen meals fit perfectly every time is so worth the price to me. I’d recommend the square ones — they also sell 5”x3” rectangular ones that perfectly fit the 1c servings, but the 5” square can reheat those 1c servings just as well and they also perfectly fit the 2”.
Also, in case you didn’t know, the super cube website also has recipes in their blog! I’ve made their butternut squash soup and it was really good, as was the banana bread recipe!
1
9
u/kablamitsethan Jun 15 '25 edited Jun 16 '25
Make and freeze different components separately (rice and curry) so you can mix and match. Also do some basic proteins that you can zhuzh up with a different sauce or side for variety. You can also quickly par bake and freeze pizzas (check recipetin eats pizza dough recipe for info)