Cooking for the Freezer..

bigmomma051204 · 9 April 2011 at 9:59PM

Hi all - i have recently discovered the satisfaction of cooking individual lasagnes in foil trays with lids and then freezing a load for easy but healthy dinners (and i also grate loadsa veg in to trick my 6year old LOL)

I am now trying to think of other things i couly batch cook and then put into individual (one portion) containers to then reheat from frozen in the oven as i do the lasagnes....... what do you guys do? Lasagne works well as it has a fair amount of sauce in so it doesnt dry out when reheated but i worry with some other dishes, they may go dry etc.....

Any ideas (and recipes if u have them!) gratefully received!

imogen-p · 9 April 2011 at 10:04PM

The main ones I batch cook are chilli, stew or mousaka (I'm not sure it really a proper mousaka, more a lasagna recipe with the sheets of pasta swapped for slices of aubergine). Shepherds pie or fish pie works quite well as well.

bigmomma051204 · 9 April 2011 at 10:04PM

oh and a question....i want to do a basic bolognese sauce with mince and tomato etc to then freeze in individual portions. BUT how would i then reheat it?? And what would i freeze it in to facilitate ease of said reheating ???? lol!

anna_p86 · 9 April 2011 at 10:05PM

I think you're right about the saucy (ooh-er missus!) bit. I've freezed HM curries successfully, stews & things like chicken goujons, homemade fish fingers (before cooking).

One thing that didn't work for me was left-over pasta bake. May be better freezing before cooking as it just really dried out when re-heated

anna_p86 · 9 April 2011 at 10:06PM

bigmomma051204 wrote: »

oh and a question....i want to do a basic bolognese sauce with mince and tomato etc to then freeze in individual portions. BUT how would i then reheat it?? And what would i freeze it in to facilitate ease of said reheating ???? lol!

I do mine in a saucepan on the hob, slowly until it's hot through (about 20mins or so)

Pink. · 9 April 2011 at 10:10PM

Hi bigmomma,

These threads should give you lots of ideas:

Cooking for the Freezer..

Batch cooking ideas please

I'll merge your thread with one of them later to keep the suggestions together.

Re the bolognese, I freeze it in a freezer bag, take it while still frozen and pop it into a saucepan until it's defrosted, then reheat it on the hob, but it can be reheated in a microwave if you prefer.

Pink

bigmomma051204 · 9 April 2011 at 10:11PM

anna_p86 wrote: »

I do mine in a saucepan on the hob, slowly until it's hot through (about 20mins or so)

so what did u freeze it in? bags, tubs etc?? Then do u just kind of pop them out once they start to defrost after 5mins etc? or do u wait until totally defrosted then reheat??

bigmomma051204 · 9 April 2011 at 10:49PM

meant to say originally... i reheat the lasagne in the oven from frozen, i do not wanna have to defrost things really... so, rephrase, what can i batch cook that i can then safely reheat somehow from frozen?!?!

Pink_Giraffe · 9 April 2011 at 11:00PM

I freeze bolognese in a plastic tub, and pop it out still frozen into the pan and heat on the hob, stirring every few minutes, for about as long as it takes to boil pasta!

maman · 9 April 2011 at 11:04PM

I freeze my bolognese sauce in those plastic boxes you can buy from the £ shop (like the ones from take-aways). It would be wasteful to put the oven on to reheat. If you have a microwave then it can be defrosted/reheated in there. If not, then just take it out of the freezer for as long as possible beforehand then reheat on the hob while you're cooking the pasta.