The summer holidays are not quite over but we already need to think about the back-to-school season and the meal routine that goes with it. This year, don’t get caught off guard—plan ahead! Thanks to these recipes that can be easily frozen, you’ll have the basics to prepare delicious dinners and convenient lunches.

1. Tomato sauce

At the end of summer, tomatoes are abundant in grocery stores, so take the opportunity to stock up on tomato sauce that you can freeze or can. It will be useful for preparing a quick pasta dish, meatballs or a veal parmigiana recipe. Don’t forget to freeze tomato sauce in container sizes that will suit your future use.

3 tips to make your tomato sauce a success

• Cooking: Cook the tomatoes in oil with salt until they are well stewed, then pass them through a tomato press, or blend them using a hand mixer.
• Aromatics: Add onions and garlic to tomatoes, as well as the spices of your choice. Add fresh herbs only when serving the dish.
• Choice of tomatoes: Plum tomatoes are the best choice because they offer a good yield.

Check out our recipe for homemade tomato sauce.

2. Applesauce

The first apples appear as early as August, so you can prepare a bulk amount of applesauce to have on hand for kids’ snacks, to add to a bowl of yogurt and granola at lunch, or to serve with grilled meat, like the perfect pairing of pork and apple.

3 tips to make your applesauce a success

• Cooking: The traditional method is to boil apples in water and blend them, but you can also bake apple cubes in the oven for a creamier sauce.
• Varieties: The best apples to use are McIntosh, Honeycrisp and Cortland.
• Other fruits: Vary the fruits and make pear, peach or plum sauces according to the seasonal produce available. 

Check out our applesauce recipe.

3. Pulled meat

By braising meat that you shred, you get a good protein base to start a variety of recipes such as sandwiches, nachos or pâtés.

3 tips to make your braised meats a success

• Choice of meats: Use meats that can withstand long cooking, such as roast beef pallet or roast pork shoulder.
• The basic principle: Sear the meat in a pan, then transfer it to a casserole. Add liquid (broth, beer, etc.) up to mid-height and cook at 300°F for about 3 hours. The meat is ready when it breaks apart with a fork.
• Bone: If the meat contains a bone, keep it. It will give more flavour to the meat.

Check out our recipes for pulled pork and pulled beef.

4. Roast chicken

It’s the classic ingredient for making sauces, fajitas, pizzas, and many other dishes. Cook it and cut it into cubes or freeze it in pieces (thighs, breasts, wings).

3 tips to make your roast chicken a success

• Seasoning: Simply rub the chicken with half a lemon, sprinkle on a little salt and fill the cavity with onions.
• Cooking: Roast the chicken in the oven at 400°F for about 1 hour and 15 minutes, until a thermometer inserted into the thigh—without touching the bone—reads 180°F (82°C).
• The smart choice: By cooking a whole chicken, bones and all, you get a large amount of meat and you can even make a broth with the bones afterwards. It’s agreat way to make the chicken go the distance.

Check out Josée Di Stasio’s roast chicken recipe.

5. Homemade pizza dough

Making your own pizza dough is super easy and only requires a few ingredients you likely already have at home, like flour and yeast. You can make balls of dough to freeze, and also use them for homemade fridge-cleaner pizzas on Friday nights.

3 tips to make your pizza dough a success

• Choice of flour: All-purpose flour is fine for pizza dough, but you can also prepare it with 00 flour, which is specially designed for pizza dough. It is finer and brings an interesting acidity.
• Adjustment: Even if you follow a recipe, you must always adapt your dough according to the humidity it contains so that it has a texture that is not too sticky, adjusting the amount of flour.
• When cooking: To prevent the dough from sticking to your pizza stone when you put it in the oven, spread it on parchment paper. It will peel off on its own during cooking.

Check out Stefano Faita’s margherita pizza recipe.

 ​​Back-to-school bulk

Here are some ingredients you can quickly prepare and store before the start of the school year to simplify dinnertime or lunch preparation.

• Make spice blends for tacos or for dry marinades.
• Watch for discounts on meat sold in large formats and divide it into portions before freezing.
• Marinate pieces of meat such as chicken breasts or pork chops just before putting them in the freezer. They will already be tasty and ready to cook. 
• Prepare pestos made of basil, garlic flower or rapini that are perfect for marinating meats and adding to sauces.
• Make a mixture of oatmeal with oats, dried fruits, brown sugar and spices for a lunch that you will only have to reheat with water or milk. 
• Freeze seasonal fruit on a plate before putting it into a freezer bag for fresh fruit smoothies.