These make ahead casseroles below are all freezer-friendly for cheap simple freezer to oven meals on busy weeknights – plus tips for casserole dishes, freezer meal prep shortcuts to make cheap dinners on a budget and free cookbooks I’ve found.

I’ve already shared all my lazy easy crockpot dump dinners and all the SUPER cheap dinner recipes I’m making, but today, it’s all about the casseroles!

Let me show you the make ahead casserole recipes I’ve made, where I found the best tips and advice for batch meal prep like this AND a really awesome free pdf Freezer Meal prep cookbook with batches of meals you can make ahead batch-style in one hour or less.

Best Make Ahead Casseroles To Freeze Plus Freezer Meal Prep Shortcuts I've Learned

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If you’ve been hanging around here for even a few minutes, you know I am ALL about finding fast, EASY and really cheap dinners to feed my table of picky eaters.

Now that it’s back to school time with winter right around the corner, making dinner is literally the bane of my existence.

Everyone is busy, someone always has to go somewhere, I work, HE works… ugh!

In short, ain’t nobody got time at the end of the day to MAKE a meal that every stinkin’ mouth at the table will eat.

I love all these easy throw together crockpot meals – dinner is ready AT dinner time since they’ve been cooking all day.

And my grocery budget LOVES all my cheap “Struggle Meals” I’ve been making.

But now I want to load up my freezer with pre-made casseroles – not only for OUR dinners, but also to have on hand to take to family covered dish dinners, as potluck main dishes, as funeral comfort food and even to the new parents in our church.

When I was a new mom, I SO appreciated every, single frozen casserole that came my way.

Especially when it was this ‘Tater Cheese casserole – yum!

So, that’s what I’ve been doing. The family thinks I’m nuts, but when ya got a happy mom at dinner time…. well, you got a happy mom (and that’s always a good thing!)

Below are the recipes I’m making plus where I learned how to do all this.

Hamburger Hashbrown Casserole

Cheese, ground beef, and shredded hash browns come together in this Hamburger Hashbrown Casserole, creating a delightful and satisfying dish. It’s an ideal dinner choice for any day of the week.

See the recipe.

Casseroles With Pasta

If you love pasta like I do (it’s SUCH a comfort food to me – plus pasta is CHEAP!), you’ll love all these yummy and easy dinner recipes and casseroles with pasta!

See all pasta recipes here.

Hamburger Enchilada Casserole

This super easy hamburger enchilada casserole is filled with seasoned ground beef, loads of cheese and then topped with all your favorite taco toppings.

And YES! You can definitely make this casserole ahead of time and then freeze for later.

See the recipe.

Salsa Chicken Casserole

Baked Salsa Chicken Casserole is the perfect one pan dinner recipe for busy weeknights or any night that you want a quick and easy dinner that’s full of flavor!

One dish – it’s easy to make and an all-in-one casserole meal.
Minimal ingredients – only 7 pantry staples.
Family favorite – you can use whatever “heat” of salsa your family likes.

See the recipe.

Great recipes plus LOTS of tips, tricks and shortcuts✅ I Found It Here

Pasta Chicken Alfredo Freezer Casserole

With just seven ingredients, this is the perfect make ahead meal that you can store in your freezer for up to six months!

I recommend doubling (or even quadrupling) the recipe to make sure your freezer is stocked for a quick and convenient weeknight meal that is comfort food at its finest.

See the recipe.

Canned Chicken Casseroles

You know what a really cheap shortcut is for making chicken casseroles?

Using CANNED Chicken (yes, it’s tastes just the same because it IS real cooked chicken breast!)

I have a lot of Casserole Recipes Using Canned Chicken Here.

Lasagna Roll-Ups Casserole

Lasagna Roll Ups combine the best of classic Lasagna but are much easier to serve, bake faster and can be enjoyed right away – no resting time required! They are make-ahead, freezer-friendly, and reheat well.

See the recipe.

10 Make Ahead Freezer Meals For Parents With Picky Eaters

I was able to make over a months worth of dinner casseroles (By the way, I doubled all the recipes)! I simply pull a casserole out of the freezer in the morning, let it thaw all day and bake as soon as we get home from school. These freezer ready casseroles make family dinners on busy weeknights SO much easier (and yes, those picky eaters DO eat these – yay!)

Just mix all the ingredients together, throw them in a 9×11 aluminum baking dish, label with the cooking instructions and pop it in the freezer.

Don’t bake until you’re ready to eat these casseroles!

Yes, you will need to cook some meat and boil some noodles but overall the prep time on these yummy dinner recipes is minimal.

See the recipes.

Freezer Casserole Meal Plan For Two

This is a REALLY helpful blog post about batch prepping freezer casseroles in “for two” casserole sizes (that also will have leftovers for lunch the next day).

She buys her aluminum foil freezer-safe casserole pans at Dollar Tree and buys all her ingredients in bulk at Aldi to make it all MUCH cheaper.

The post shows everything you need to make all her freezer casseroles – plus ingredients and directions – so you can stock your freezer with easy meals!

I got a LOT of useful info for her post – highly recommended!

See the meal prep plan for two.

Freezer Meal Prep In One Hour Or Less