Before cooking meats, be sure to trim off excess fat and cut into chunks, slices or whatever is needed for your recipes. To cook flavorful chicken, bake with chicken broth or cook in a slow cooker (for shredded chicken). Cook the chicken until the inside is no longer pink. Let it cool before shredding or cutting your chicken. Separate the chicken into freezer bags and label them. When labeling the bags, it helps to also write what recipe you intend to use the chicken for.

When cooking ground beef, add the appropriate spices depending on what you are going to use the beef for. Once the meat is done cooking, drain the grease and let cool. Separate the meat into freezer bags; again, labeling the bags with the recipe they are going to be used for.

Assembling Meals

Once your meats have been cooked and your vegetables cut, there may be some meals that you assemble and keep stored in a freezer pan. Casseroles and rice dishes are typical meals that may be stored in a freezer pan; all you have to do is take it out of the freezer and pop it into the oven. It's important that you use pans that will store well in a freezer. Glass pans won't work. You can use pans that are especially designed for the freezer or a disposable aluminum pan.

One final trick in storing casseroles is to line a casserole pan with aluminum foil. Put the meal inside the foil-lined casserole pan and freeze. When the dish is completely frozen, take it out of the freezer and wrap some additional foil around it, then return it to the freezer without the pan. This frees up your casserole pan and saves some extra space in your freezer.

Cooking in bulk gives you the benefit of saving money and ensures that a great homemade meal is always waiting for you after a long day of work or taking care of the kids. Once you learn some of the tools of the trade, cooking in bulk can be a very enjoyable and timesaving activity.