This weekend I knew that I needed to do some smart food prep for the week ahead & beyond – later this week I’ll be gone for a fun weekend & a few days of work at the start of next week. A major project at work is really cranking up as a deadline nears – so the days are long & I know that cooking in the evenings can’t be counted on for meals.

As I started to make a list of possible make ahead meals I noticed that all of the entrees could be baked in muffin cups so that a portion of each could be frozen & ready for smart meals later.

A breakfast treat!

A breakfast treat!

First up, a new to me variation on baked oatmeal: Cinnamon Roll Baked Oatmeal. This was a THM pin-spiration. I “made it mine” by adding some chopped pecans & shredded (unsweetened) coconut to the mix. These baked for about 22 minutes. The cottage cheese “frosting” makes these seem like an indulgence – a clever way to add some protein to the meal.

Breakfast or Lunch or Dinner?

Next, a recipe from the Whole30 recipe feed on Instagram: Buffalo Chicken Breakfast Casserole from Living Loving Paleo. I added some diced mini peppers into each muffin. Even though there recipe has breakfast in the title, they are an any meal muffin for me. These baked for 25 minutes.

A new “go to” recipe in rotation

And then, a new favorite – Cheese Dog Pie – was given the muffin treatment. I mixed about 75% of the hot dogs into the muffin batter and these baked for 25 minutes.

As the week begins, I have 8 muffins from each batch tucked away in the freezer & ready to provide me smart meal options in the coming days & weeks. And, as work zaniness ratchets up in the next 2 weeks the answer to “what to eat” is one less thing to worry about.

What non-muffin recipes have you turned into muffins? What are some of your favorite make & freeze meals?