I love marinades, especially during the summer when I seem to have much more to do. The neat thing about marinades is that you can pair them up with poultry, pork, meat and seafood up to a month in the freezer stored in a large heavy-duty freezer bag. Whenever you are in the mood to grill or cook up your favorite recipe, it’s ready for you. The meat will continue to marinate as it thaws out.

Here are some of my favorite recipes with marinades.

Lemon Garlic Herb Chicken
Healthy Delicious Steaks
Citrus Marinated Pork Chops
Chicken Tikka Masala
Chinese Egg Rolls

More tips:

Only freeze fresh meat or poultry that was not previously frozen.

Always rinse off your meat, poultry or pork and pat dry with paper towels before freezing.

Save lots of money by buying in bulk. HAVE YOUR MARINADES READY and divide into freezer bags and have several dinners ready for you.

Meat frozen with a salty marinade might actually have less damage from freezing than un-marinated meat due to salt’s freezing point depression capabilities. Salt will prevent less water from freezing/expanding. That, in turn, should result in less damage to the protein framework.

Be sure to squeeze out all of the air in the bag before closing the bag up.

If possible, lay the plastic bag flat on a sheet pan in the freezer until it is completely frozen. Then, remove sheet pan and stack with other bags. This helps keep things organized, and you can also store in Tupperware containers to keep the bags from breaking if they are bumped around.

Is it chicken or is it pork? Label your bags with the date and what the recipe is so that you know what great marinade is being used and when you placed in the freezer.

When you are ready to thaw out the meat, put it in a glass or plastic bowl in the fridge. This tip will prevent it from leaking out onto your shelves and other food if you happen to have a leak in the bag.