Stock up on healthy foods such as whole-wheat pizza dough, frozen fish and frozen fruits and vegetables—keys to meals in any good plan.
When I’m looking for ways to maximize ingredients for meal planning, I turn to my freezer for help. I like to keep it well stocked with a few essential ingredients that have numerous applications for a variety of plans. Plus, filling my freezer with healthy options makes it less enticing to abandon a meal plan in favor of a takeout run. Here are a few of my favorite foods to have on hand.
Whole-Wheat Pizza Dough
With all the topping combos out there, pizza is one of the easiest healthy dinners to make from the pantry. With the dough on hand, plus some forward planning to make sure it’s thawed in time for dinner, you can have a healthy dinner on the table in no time. (Pizza dough typically needs 24 hours in your fridge to thaw fully.)
Fish Fillets
I’m a huge fan of frozen fish, especially when you can buy fillets in individual, vacuum-sealed packages, which helps to keep them from getting freezer burn. I like to stock up on wild Alaskan salmon and farmed U.S. tilapia. If you buy a big bag of fillets, just pull out what you need the night before you’re going to cook them and put them in the refrigerator. A 5-ounce fillet takes 8 to 10 hours to thaw in the fridge.
Fruits and Vegetables
There are many advantages to having bags of frozen fruit and vegetables on hand. For starters, many of them come already chopped, so that cuts down on prep time. And depending on the season, they can actually be healthier for you. Frozen fruits and vegetables are picked at their prime, which means they have more flavor and nutrients than their outof-season counterparts. And most don’t have added sugar or sodium, like canned fruits and veggies do.
If you thaw frozen fruit and vegetables, drain off any water that has collected in the bag or thaw in a fine-mesh strainer over a bowl. Depending on the recipe, you may not have to thaw them at all. You can find almost any vegetable and fruit frozen, but I especially like to keep peas, spinach and a vegetable medley or two on hand. For fruit, I like blueberries and strawberries. They’re great for blending into a healthy smoothie for breakfast.
Whole-Grain Bread
Bread spoils easily, especially if it’s kept on the counter in plastic. For a while I avoided buying big loaves of bread because of this, until I discovered that bread and bread products, like wraps and hamburger buns, freeze beautifully. They don’t take much time at all to thaw. If fact, slices of bread go from freezer to toaster without a problem. Or just pull out what you need and let it thaw on the counter or in your fridge. It should only need an hour or two (depending on the temperature) to be ready to use.
Precooked Chicken
Chicken is versatile, packed with protein and easy to make—the ultimate dinner saver. Having some precooked chicken stashed away in the freezer is essential when you need to get a healthy dinner on the table in a pinch. You can use grilled chicken breasts to top salads or roasted chicken to stir into soups, or toss shredded chicken into a quick casserole.
Nuts
Nuts are full of heart-healthy fats (especially walnuts, which have omega-3s), so I try to have them around as much as possible. They are great for baking, topping a salad or just plain snacking. And as it turns out, storing nuts in the freezer is actually better than storing them in your pantry: it prevents the oils from going rancid. They don’t take long to thaw—just 10 minutes or so on the counter and you’re ready to go.
Shredded Cheese
Even though I use cheese a lot in cooking, I used to inevitably end up with loose ends of forgotten blocks getting moldy in my fridge. Now I shred what I don’t use and freeze it. This works best with solid cheeses like Cheddar and Monterey Jack. When I need just a little bit (to top a salad or make quesadillas, for example), it’s there. It thaws almost instantly, and the texture and flavor remain unchanged.
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