Freezer Meals Series · Equipment Guide
You don’t need a kitchen full of gear to run a good meal prep system. You need four things, and once you have them, you use the same four for every Lego lunch recipe from here on out.
Here’s exactly what to buy, in the order it matters, plus what you can skip. New to the Girl Carnivore meal Prep system? The beginner’s guide covers why the Souper Cubes mold method works before you spend a dime.
4
Items You Need
2
Mold Sizes to Start
15
Recipes This Gear Covers
3 mo
Freezer Life
The Mold System (This Is 90 Percent of It)
This is the whole trick behind the “Lego” method. Uniform, straight-sided silicone molds portion your food and let the frozen blocks stack flat in a bin, so you can see and grab what you need instead of digging through a pile of unlabeled bags. Every recipe across all three Cook Sets, fifteen recipes and counting, runs on the same mold sizes:
| Mold Size | Handles | Example Recipes |
|---|---|---|
| 1-cupMost Used | Sauced and heartier proteins, vegetables, most rice/bean/pasta sides | Bourbon Chicken (Set 1), Mississippi Chicken (Set 2), Salisbury Steak Meatballs (Set 3), Lemon Garlic Broccolini |
| ½-cup | The richest, densest starches, they read fuller in a smaller portion | Stick of Butter Rice and Boursin Mashed Potatoes (Set 1), Cream Cheese Mashed Potatoes (Set 3) |
| 2-cup | Family-size portions, or doubling a single dinner into one block | Not used in any of the three Cook Sets yet, optional |
What to look for when you buy: food-grade silicone, rigid enough to hold its shape full of hot liquid without folding over, and straight sides, not rounded or fluted. Rounded molds pop out fine, but they don’t stack, and stacking is the entire point.
The Souper Cubes Silicone Freezer Molds Gift Set covers all three sizes this system runs on, the ½-cup, 1-cup, and 2-cup molds, in one box, plus a bonus 2-tablespoon mold for stocks and sauces.
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Recipe tester Dee Broughton tested the MIU Silicone Freezer Trays with Lids from Walmart (also sold at Costco) against the Souper Cubes set. Here’s what she found:
“
Souper Cubes are definitely the gold standard for quality, but they can be expensive. For those on a budget, I was incredibly impressed by the Miu cubes. Not only are they cheaper, the set comes with five trays. Souper Cubes comes with four. While I can’t speak to which will last longer over years of heavy use, the Miu set gives you more bang for your buck if you’re just getting started.
Dee Broughton
Recipe Developer, GC Meat Labs
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A Vacuum Sealer
(Optional, But It’s the Difference Between 3 Months and Freezer Burn by Week 6)
Air is the enemy of anything in your freezer. A vacuum sealer pulls it out of the bag before you seal, which is what actually gets you that three-month window instead of a gray, freezer-burned edge by week four.
One rule that trips people up: never vacuum seal a portion that’s still soft. Freeze it solid in the mold first, then bag it, then seal. Suction pressure on a portion that’s still soft will crush the shape and pull sauce into the seal, which stops it from sealing at all. Once it’s a solid block, use your sealer’s gentle or pulse setting so it doesn’t crack the food.
If you’re not ready to buy one, a layer of heavy-duty foil and a good freezer bag with the air pressed out by hand gets you most of the way there for a few weeks. A vacuum sealer is what makes the “up to 3 months” claim on every recipe card actually hold up. For the full breakdown on why freezer burn actually happens and the exact sealing sequence that stops it, see Vacuum Sealing and Freezer Burn.
The FoodSaver Vacuum Sealer. This is the exact model we’ve used in the GC kitchen for years, through every Cook Set in this series.
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Freezer Bags and Containers (For After the Mold)
The mold is a shaping tool, not long-term storage. Once a portion is frozen solid, pop it out, bag it, and get it out of the mold so you can freeze the next batch. Reach for freezer-weight bags, not the thin sandwich kind. They’re a heavier mil and hold up to months in a cold freezer without splitting at the seams.
For anything delicate that could crush in a bag under other frozen items, like a portion near the top of a full bin, a rigid stackable container is worth the extra step. Everything else does fine in a bag with the air pressed out.
FoodSaver Vacuum Sealer Bags, built to pair with the sealer above. For stackable containers, the same Souper Cubes molds from the mold system above come with lids, so a solid portion can stay right in its tray and stack in the freezer instead of getting bagged. The budget-friendly MIU trays work the same way.
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Labels (The System Breaks Without This One Cheap Thing)
Every portion gets a label with the recipe name and the date it went in the freezer. That’s it, that’s the whole requirement, but skip it once, and you’ll be holding a frozen brick over the sink trying to guess if it’s chicken or pork by smell. A cheap roll of freezer tape and a permanent marker works exactly as well as anything with a subscription attached. For the full labeling format and the bin system that keeps a freezer organized once you’re a few Cook Sets deep, see Freezer Organization and Labeling.
What You Don’t Need
- A second freezer. One Cook Set (5 recipes, roughly 30 to 40 portions) fits in the bins and one shelf of a standard freezer. You don’t need a chest freezer until you’re running more than one Cook Set at a time. If you have the space, we have a generic $200 freezer from Home Depot that has lasted us years. Check their scratch-and-dent options for the best buy.
- Glass storage containers as your primary system. They’re heavier, they take up more freezer space than a stacked bag, and a mold-then-bag workflow gets you more portions in less room. Save glass for leftovers, not the freezer prep itself.
One 1-cup mold, one ½-cup mold, freezer bags, and labels. That’s the entire equipment list for all three Cook Sets, fifteen recipes, thirty-plus dinners stacked in the freezer. Buy it once and every future Cook Set uses the exact same gear.
Guides Worth Bookmarking
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Quick Summary
You need a 1-cup and a ½-cup silicone mold, freezer bags, and labels to run every recipe in this system, all three Cook Sets, start to finish. A 2-cup mold is a nice bonus, not a requirement. A vacuum sealer is optional but it’s what actually gets you the full three months in the freezer without burn. Skip the second freezer and the specialty trays until you’re running more than one Cook Set at a time. Buy this gear once and it carries you through every Cook Set this series releases: see the full Freezer Meal Prep System for how it all fits together.
❓ FAQs
No. A freezer bag with the air pressed out by hand works for a few weeks. A vacuum sealer is what stretches that window out to the full three months every recipe card promises.
You can in a pinch, but they are sized for liquid, not a full protein or starch portion, and they don’t stack once frozen. A straight-sided 1-cup or ½-cup silicone mold is worth the small upfront cost.
Most food-grade silicone molds are top-rack dishwasher safe. Check the specific product’s care instructions, since this varies by brand.
Start with a 1-cup and a ½-cup mold. Together, those two sizes cover every protein, starch, and vegetable across all three Cook Sets in this system, not just Cook Set 1. Add a 2-cup mold later if you’re feeding a bigger household.
Yes. The mold is only a shaping tool for the freeze. Once a portion is solid, it comes out of the mold and gets bagged, which frees the mold up for your next batch the same day.