Complete meal suggestions that can be frozen?

nesssie1702

Your fish idea sounds like a goer, but it might work better if it's had time to defrost first rather than cook it from frozen. It'll depend how thick a piece of fish it is, but it shouldn't take tool long to cook.

What about minced beef along with some mashed potatoes and mixed veg like peas and carrots?

kellyw8800

Hi shopndrop, sorry to hear about your troubles, hope things get easier for your folks as well as you.

Believe me, you will save more money if you cook n freeze rather than paying someelse to do it. Here's a couple of my suggestions (what I do)
1. Stew
2. Cassaroll(Can't spell this evening)
3. Curry
4. Soup
5. Pies
6. Sausages in gravy (sausages cooked first)
7. Chicken Chassuer (Again, bad spelling)

With things like rice and pasta I keep in the fridge but no longer than a week (might need to confirm guidelines).

Oh and just to confirm you can freeze Mash potatoes. I always have some left over, add to a bag in the freezer, soon adds up so you can have an 'easy' night. You can also precook wedges and chips in oven but I only half cook then freeze (come out like fresh me thinks).

I may have just confirmed that I'ma careless cook but I'm still alive so can't be that bad lol. Hope this helps

Pitlanepiglet

I'm trying to plan something similar for my Dad, my thinking is that you'd need to part cook veg so that you could plate it with a portion of meat and either a blob of potato or some potato rosti, rice or something similar.

I've bought a new big nozzle for my piping bag and I'm going to try potato swirls that will look nicer than just a lump of mash! That way you can open freeze the potato on a tray and keep a bag of it in the freezer as well.

For meat, it needs to be "wet" I think so meat in gravy, stew, savoury mince etc.

Your Dad should then be able to take the meal out in the morning (or the night before for lunch?) to let it defrost and then put it in the oven for 20 or 30 minutes or so with foil over the top (stop it drying out? I also wonder whether a bowl of water in the bottom of the oven would encourage steam?) . Or alternatively microwave for 5-10 minutes (prob depends on power of microwave - slower for longer is probably better).

I'm thinking that I'll need to play with the veg cooking times to avoid it being too overcooked although my Dad likes his veg that way anyway!

buxtonrabbitgreen

My late mum had those meals from Wiltshire foods. She really liked them. They were just the right size for her as she didn't have a big appetite. And they were quite different and interesting. Stuff like salmon steak with vegetables. I used to always plate up a sunday dinner for her and take it round while it was still warm.
Why dont you let them get the catologue and see what they do. Then maybe you could copy some ideas from it.
Mum started having these instead of meals on wheels whcih used to come at wierd times like 11 am.

rev229

I par boil potatoes freeze them then roast from frozen, just add some oil. I also freeze yorkshire pudding mix in a silicon muffin tray or you could use foil cases like those from mince pies for individual ones and cook from frozen. I do this quite often for a quick roast as I always have extra roast meat that I slice and freeze. The meat I defrost and heat in the microwave with some instant gravy. I also have used sausages and batter mix to make a toad in the hole which again can be cooked from frozen. Also make a batch of beef/ chicken stew/casserole which can be eaten as a stew or made into pies. you can cook the pie crust topping and freeze ready cooked deforst meat and topping and pop in the oven. With veg you could portion out frozen veg in plastic containersto be steamed in the microwave. How about home made fish cakes,or breaded chicken. When my in-laws came to look after DS while I was in hospital with my daughter (planned admission) I had a freezer full of ready made food all home cooked although they eat anything rice, pasta, pizza etc so slightly easier then meat and potatoes.

the_other_mce

Hello - Good luck with this...I've found you can freeze most things actually... in my freezer at the moment I have several roast dinners in microwave dishes - meat, roast potatoes, veg ( I love roasted winter veg like parsnips, carrots), swede, carrot and potato mash. I always make a really good gravy using veg juices and meat stock and freeze it in portions. Yorkshires I leave to Aunt Bessie - she does them in 4 minutes!! If your parents like onion gravy then it's worth making a load of that too.My Dad always loves my mince n' onions - and I cook loads of mashed potatoes in portions to go with it. Irish stew is a real winner! Cottage pie is easy to make and quick to cook!He isn't adventurous in his tastes but I also cook and freeze indidual portions of spag. bol, chilli con carne and korma and rice for the kids.Soups and casseroles are great, fish pie is fab, rice and curry, kedgeree freezes well. So does cheesy mash and sausages.Another idea I got from this brilliant website is to make and freeze sandwiches. You would be amazed at the things you can make - any meat, cheese etc - a nice cheese and onion sandwich and some hot vegetable soup is hard to beat.For breakfasts (or lunches actually) freeze some cooked bacon, scrambled eggs, black pudding, cooked sausages and a COOKED hash brown, to serve - heat up a tin of chopped tomatoes and voila!!Hope this helps a bit - best wishes.....

champys

And as for pudding......
Something I learned on this website is making sticky toffee pudding in 1-person portions in a muffin tin. I have a bagful of these in the freezer: cook in the microwave for 2 or 3 minutes from frozen and hey presto, a lovely warm pudding. I serve it with a drizzle of maple syrup because we usually have that handy.
I am very grateful to the person who gave me the tip, really must start writing down names when I copy/save recipes so I can give credit where it's due....:-)

Pitlanepiglet

Champys, any chance you could post the recipe?

shopndrop

I have regularly made sticky toffee puddings in individual moulds. I cook them as soon as I have made them, leave them to cool, take them out of the pudding moulds and freeze, so I can re-use the moulds. Will post the recipe I use tomorrow.

shopndrop

Just realised I can't post the exact recipe because of copyright. It is Delia's little sticky toffee puddings. These freeze really well and re-heat in less than a minute.