There’s a point every September when the slow cooker migrates back from the cabinet to the counter, and it stays there until spring. We’re at that point — which makes this a good moment to talk about the freezer-friendly side of the archive.

The recipes that freeze like champs

Not every dish survives the freezer equally well. The ones in this archive that do, tested again this season:

  • Slow-cooker paleo chili — the most freezer-stable recipe on the site. Cool it completely, freeze flat in bags or in portioned containers, and it reheats as if you’d made it that afternoon. The flavors genuinely improve after a week.
  • Homemade chicken fajitas — freeze the seasoned, cooked strips with the peppers and onions. Reheat in a hot skillet straight from frozen; the pan does the work of bringing back the char.
  • BBQ cheese meatloaf — freeze it baked and sliced. Individual slices reheat in minutes, which is the whole point of a weeknight safety net.

Soups, stews and saucy braises are the general rule: anything with enough liquid to protect it from freezer air comes back well. Crispy coatings and cream-based sauces are the usual casualties — we note this on each recipe card where it applies.

What we updated this fall

While re-testing, we made a few practical updates across the archive:

  • Thawing guidance on every freezer recipe. The safe path is the refrigerator, not the counter. Each freezer recipe now says so explicitly, with realistic timing (a full meatloaf needs overnight; a flat bag of chili thaws much faster).
  • Container notes. Glass containers with locking lids beat takeout-style plastic for anything saucy; zip bags pressed flat win on freezer space. Both work — we just mark which suits which dish.
  • Reheat temperatures. Where a dish contains poultry or ground meat, the recipe now states the reheat target instead of assuming it.

A small seasonal suggestion

Pick one Sunday between now and the holidays, double whatever you’re already making for dinner, and freeze half. Three weekends of that and the busiest stretch of the year has a freezer full of backup. That was the original blog’s whole freezer philosophy, and a decade later it still holds up.

More seasonal notes as we keep re-testing the archive through the fall.