Freezer Meals Series
· Cook Set 1: Bold & Saucy
Are you ready to stock your freezer for the nights you don’t want to think about what’s for dinner? That’s exactly what one Sunday in the kitchen buys you here. Cook Set 1: Bold & Saucy turns your freezer from a mystery drawer of forgotten containers into an actual system: uniform blocks stacked like Lego bricks, five recipes deep, two proteins, two starches, one vegetable, so you always know exactly what you’re grabbing.
No fancy equipment required, just molds that are preportioned and totally mix and match (yes, we see you, Souper Cubes fan club) and a free Sunday afternoon. Here’s the shopping list, the cook order, and everything else you need to actually pull it off in one session.
This is just one batch of our GC Freezer Meal Prep System that you can customize, mix and match, and stock your freezer so no one complains when dinner hits the table.
🧊 The Lineup
📊 What This Plan Gets You
~2 hrs
Total Kitchen Time
4-8 hrs
Freeze Time
32
Total Portions
Kitchen time covers active cooking plus cooling and portioning. Most of it is hands-off simmering and roasting while you handle the next recipe. Pork adobo sets the freeze clock hours since it takes the longest.
Cook Set 1 makes 12 protein portions, 16 starch portions, and 4 vegetable portions. A full dinner is one of each. Protein and starch stretch the furthest. The vegetable runs out first no matter your household size, so plan on a fresh side most nights and treat the frozen broccolini as the bonus on the nights you want truly zero effort.
| Household | Freezer-Ready Dinners (Protein + Starch) | Frozen Veg Bonus Nights |
|---|---|---|
| Solo (1) | 12 | 4 |
| Family of 2 | 6 | 2 |
| Family of 4 | 3 | 1 |
Math assumes one portion (1-cup portion, 1/2 cup starch, 1-cup veg) equals one adult serving. Pair freezer-ready meals with fresh veggies once the frozen broccoli runs out.
🍽️ Build Your Plate
Protein
Bourbon Chicken or Pork Adobo
+
Starch
Butter Rice or Boursin Mash
+
Vegetable
Lemon Garlic Broccolini
Any protein cube + any starch cube + any vegetable cube = dinner from frozen in under five minutes. Mix and match by mood, and swap in a fresh vegetable any night the frozen broccolini has run out.
More combos join the mix as new Cook Sets launch; think Pork Adobo with Cook Set 2’s Sauteed Peppers and Onions.
Grouped by store section. Exact quantities live on each recipe’s card, this is the sweep-the-store version. Want a printable copy? Grab the Cook Set 1 Shopping List.
- Meat: boneless skinless chicken thighs, boneless pork shoulder
- Produce: garlic cloves, red onion, Yukon Gold potatoes, broccolini, lemon
- Pantry & Sauces: brown sugar, low sodium soy sauce, dark soy sauce, bourbon, apple cider vinegar, hoisin sauce, tapioca starch, white vinegar, Better Than Bouillon chicken paste, whole black peppercorns, bay leaves, parboiled long-grain white rice, French onion soup, beef consomme, garlic powder, red pepper flakes, neutral oil, avocado oil, olive oil, ginger paste
- Dairy & Refrigerated: unsalted butter, whole milk, Boursin Garlic and Fine Herbs
- Broth: chicken broth, low-sodium beef broth
- Plus pantry staples: kosher salt, black pepper
⏱️ Cook Order
- Start the Pork Adobo first. Longest freeze time in Cook Set 1, so the sooner it’s braising, the sooner it’s ready. Sear in two batches, build the sauce, let it simmer.
- Get the Stick of Butter Rice in the oven next. Dry rice, canned soups, butter on top, foil sealed tight, 400°F. Set a timer and walk away.
- While the adobo simmers and the rice bakes, boil the potatoes for the Boursin Mash. Fork-tender in 15 to 20 minutes, then steam-dry before mashing.
- Sear and sauce the Bourbon Chicken. Same two-batch sear as the adobo, then build and reduce the sauce.
- Cook the Broccolini last. Fastest thing in this Cook Set, done in under 10 minutes, and it holds its best texture going into the mold soon after it’s off the heat.
- Cool everything before it goes near a mold. Then portion, chill, and freeze following the timing on each recipe’s post.
📦 Mold Guide
Cook Set 1 runs on two mold sizes. Grab a 1-cup tray for the proteins and the broccolini, sixteen portions total across the three recipes. Grab a ½-cup tray for the rice and the Boursin mash, sixteen more. Most people work with a 6-cavity 1-cup tray and an 8-cavity ½-cup tray, freezing one round solid before popping everything out and refilling for the next.
Here’s the whole trick: same shape, same size, every single time. That’s it. That’s the system. Once everything in your freezer is a uniform block, it stacks flat like a wall of Lego bricks instead of the usual crime scene of mismatched Tupperware and freezer-burned mystery bags. Team Souper Cubes, you already know exactly what we’re talking about. Everyone else, you’re about to become a convert.
Want the full rundown, specific trays and vacuum sealer picks included? The Freezer Meal Prep Equipment Guide has it: mold sizes, sealer picks, and the labeling system, all in one place. For now, any uniform mold in these two sizes gets the job done.
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📋 Shopping Lists
📅 Sunday Cook Order
🔄 Mix & Match Cheat Sheet
Guides Worth Bookmarking
Quick Summary
One Sunday session, five recipes, and a freezer stocked with protein and starch for weeks. The vegetable is a bonus for the first night or two, round it out with something fresh the rest of the week, cool everything before it touches a mold, and Cook Set 1 keeps dinner covered without a second thought.