7 Simple Meal Ideas to Clean Out the Freezer

I'd like to avoid the grocery store and instead I’m going to clean out the freezer. This freezer clean-out challenge made me use what I already had on hand to make dinner for my family for a week.

I hope these freezer-challenge meals will give you some great dinner ideas for your family.

This is what my freezer looked like at the beginning of this challenge!

Day 1: Chickpea bowl

I had most of the ingredients and substituted some other ones.

Ingredients:

• Farro
• Veggies of your choice
• Olive oil and seasonings, including salt
• Chickpeas
• Sour cream
• Lime

1. Boil the farro

Farro is a healthy whole grain that goes great with chickpeas.

2. Prep veggies

Chop up the veggies, add some olive oil and seasonings. Add chickpeas to the veggies.

3. Bake

Put the veggies and chickpea mix on a baking sheet lined with foil and bake at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for about 15 minutes.

4. Make the sauce

Make the sour cream and lime juice sauce. Use half a juiced lime and 2 tablespoons of sour cream plus salt. Stir and taste for seasoning preferences.

5. The result

We had some feta cheese in the fridge so we added that on top of the bowl.

Day 2: Salsa chicken bowls

I made this to try to use up the salsa I had on hand.

Ingredients:

• Chicken
• Seasonings
• Salsa
• Rice
• Black beans
• Other leftover ingredients to add to the chicken or to make the dressing

1. Cook the chicken

I used an Instant Pot to cook the chicken. Season with salt and pepper before cooking. Add the salsa, which was about ½ cup. I also added in the rest of this fire-roasted corn that I had left. I topped it off with ¼ cup of water. I cooked on manual pressure for 10 minutes.

2. Make the rice

I prepped the rice and added a little bit of this cilantro in a tube I had left.

3. Make the dressing

I used a lot of leftover ingredients from the fridge to blend up this experimental dressing.

4. Shred chicken and add beans

Once the chicken cooked, we shred it in the pot and stirred in a can of drained, rinsed black beans.

5. The result

We put it in a bowl over rice and topped it with guacamole.

Day 3: Creamy Italian crockpot chicken

Ingredients:

• Chicken
• Cream of chicken soup
• Cream cheese
• Italian dressing mix

1. Layer the ingredients

Layer the cream cheese block, chicken soup, and packet of the Italian dressing on the chicken breast that’s in the crockpot. Put on the low setting.

2. Shred chicken

Shred the cooked chicken.

3. The result

Serve this over noodles and steamed broccoli.

Day 4: Chicken strips and fries

Ingredients:

• Chicken
• Flour
• Garlic and onion powder
• Crushed pepper
• Paprika
• Italian seasoning
• Salt
• Panko breadcrumbs
• Egg

1. Make flour mix

Add ½ cup or so of flour and eyeball the amount you prefer of garlic and onion powder, crushed pepper, paprika, Italian seasoning, and salt to a plastic bag to coat the chicken. Mix it all up in the bag.

2. Dip in egg

After flouring, dip each piece of chicken in the whisked egg (use two eggs for larger batches) that’s in a separate bowl.

3. Dip in breadcrumbs

Roll each piece of egged chicken in panko breadcrumbs mixed with parmesan cheese that is in a separate bowl.

4. Bake

Bake the chicken in the oven at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for about 12 minutes.

5. The result

We ate these with a dip and homemade fries.

1. Make pasta and sauce

While the pasta is boiling, prep the sauce. For the sauce, melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a fry pan. Add in the onion, minced garlic, cook till the onions are translucent.

2. Add ingredients to sauce

When the onions are cooked, add in a tablespoon of flour and stir for a minute. Then add in a cup of beef broth plus ¾ cup of heavy whipping cream (or milk in my case ).

Cook till it thickens, then add ½ cup of sour cream mixed with a tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce, ½ teaspoon of Dijon mustard, plus salt and pepper to taste. Then add the pasta into the sauce.

3. The result

This is a family favorite. I served it with a side of corn.

Day 7: Spaghetti and meat sauce

Ingredients:

• Spaghetti
• Bread sticks
• Sauce
• Ground beef
• Noodles

1. Make pasta and add meat, sauce

Boil water for your pasta, drain, add cooked beef and sauce. Stir it all together in a large pot.

2. Make breadsticks

I put the breadsticks in the air fryer.

3. The result

What a tasty dish! I served more corn as a side dish.

Clean out freezer

That’s it! I cleaned out my freezer and plenty of other things from my fridge and pantry.

Do you have any plans to clean out your freezer and make some basic freezer meals? Let me know in the comments your favorite freezer-challenge recipes!