Quick and Easy Freezer Garlic Bread

As we prepare for baby boy to arrive (I’m past my due date now!), I’ve been stocking the freezer with all kinds of easy meals to pull out, thaw, and reheat! This makes postpartum just that much easier for our family. In our freezer, you’ll find a lot of dishes that pair great with garlic bread, but I’m not a fan of store bought garlic bread (personally). I don’t like the oils in it, and I don’t like the artificial garlic taste. So I set out to make my own — and can I just say, this is it!

Getting the portion size just right

Our family can really put away some carbs, but we can almost never eat an entire loaf of garlic bread. Austin and I will likely each eat two pieces, and each of our girls will maybe finish one. Which means, we end up wasting a lot of garlic bread when we do it by the loaf. So instead of making an entire French loaf, I opted to purchase these hoagie rolls at Sam’s Club today. They’re about half the size of a typical loaf (maybe 75% the size of some), and they are just the right size. And the right price at $5 for six “rolls”/loaves! They were on sale, but they usually cost just under $7 for all six.

Make ahead recipe

I have a go-to butter combination for our garlic bread. I like to combine butter, salt, fresh garlic, dried oregano, and parmesan. It’s a winning combination! For six loaves, here are the portions I combined:

3 sticks of salted butter, softened

1 Tablespoon dried oregano

1 Teaspoon salt

1/4 cup powdered parmesan

2 Tablespoon minced garlic (raw), more to taste*

*NOTE: I like a lot of garlic! I use a bit more than this, but remember: garlic flavor, especially when raw, strengthens over time — even in the freezer! Don’t over do the garlic on the front end. It’s delicious, but powerful.

I sliced each of the loaves in half, lengthwise, spread each side with the butter mixture, put. the two half back together, and then sliced thick slices of the completed “sandwich”.

Freezing the garlic bread

I put the sliced bread into ziplock bags, pressed the air out, and put them in the freezer. This way, I can pull out exactly the right number of slices each time. Even though the hoagie rolls are a better size for our family, we still might even get more than six meals from the six loaves! By pulling out just what we need, we will probably get more like eight meals out of it, and will not waste any. That’s a win.

Two ways to reheat

There are two ways we like to reheat this bread when we’re ready to serve it. You can either leave it sandwiched together, wrap it in foil, and bake in the oven for 25 minutes at 350 degrees. Or, my personal preference, you can open the two half of the sandwich, lay them face up on a sheet pan, and broil them for a few minutes soon high, or until the tops begin to brown. This second way is my favorite because it “cooks”. that raw garlic and makes it oh-so-yummy.

So now we not only have a bunch of yummy meals in the freezer, but easy sides like this too. I’m thankful, and I feel like I’m entering postpartum just that much more prepared. What’s your favorite thing to stock in the freezer when a baby, surgery, or big transition is ahead?