Cottage make-ahead recipes from your freezer

It’s a make-ahead meal concept that’s spawned thriving new businesses across North America: Do some of the prep work for a dish in advance, bag the ingredients and freeze them, then thaw and cook when you need a quick, easy meal. You get the time-saving advantage of a ready-to-cook dish, with the distinct textures and flavours of a recipe made from scratch—no more mushy, homogenous stews from the freezer. Plus, many dishes that don't freeze well after they've been cooked will work beautifully when the prepared ingredients are frozen before cooking.

We adapted the concept for cottage cooks in the April 2008 issue  of Cottage Life. You’ll find the full recipes there, and if you’re making some of them, a PDF file here with the Finishing Instructions—just print them out and pop the instructions into the freezer bag for easy reference at the cottage.