Cooking for the Freezer..

poppy-glos

chilli, curry, chicken pie (base in a pot plus frozen puff cut to amount for pie next to it), bolognaise, soups, pizza bases (with tomato topping frozen into icecube tray, just use a cube or two for each pizza).

good luck

twiz21

These aren't all complete meals, and the vegetable things save a lot of peeling chopping when you are tired or not feeling well and want a tasty good meal.

Bolognaise sauce - I use two packs of Lidl mince when it's on offer, 99p or £1.34 for lean mince, 500g packs.

Roast sliced meat in gravy - joints bought on half price offers. Just make a pot of gravy, slice the cooked meat and freeze in portions with the gravy.

Soups - make a big batch and freeze. Handy to use up vegetables. I've found you can also defrost and heat in a pressure cooker.

Base for bolognaise, soups and sauces - No minced beef at the moment but plenty of cheap carrots and onions around. Fry chopped celery carrot and onion together.
I did a load at a time and put 8 servings in a freezer bag. Then used a kebab stick to press on the bag to separate the portions horizontally. Just take the portion you want each time.

Mashed potatoes - with cream/milk butter & seasoning.
Put into tubs, each tub serves 2 of us.

Roast potatoes - big pan or two of peeled potatoes boiled for 5 minutes. Drain and sprinkle with paprika, fine semolina and salt. I measure 2 portions at a time using the roasting tin I'll be using, put into bags, seal and freeze. I think these make better roasties than fresh. Cook from frozen, takes about 45 minutes.

Kaz2904

My main issue for things like this is the fact that I don't have enough dishes of the same size or shape that I could fit in the freezer. If I had enough that I could lay them out on the bottom of the shelf, I would make them up in the dish and freeze. Then remove the frozen block in the correct shape for shoving in the dish when it comes to cooking and then bag it and tag it.
We tend to just have a list of 20 minute meals or meals which can be chucked in the slowcooker and left all day. Or meals which can be thrown in the oven for an hour or so and served once I've done the whole afternoon clear up thing!

Mrs_Veg_Plot

My top10 are

Chilli
Bolognaise
Any form of stew
Any form of curry
Any type of soup
Fish pie
Quiche
Any type of crumble
Any type of pastry pie (savory or fruit)
Cottage pie

I also think the slowcooker is a must. When I did 12 years of night s this is often the only way my family got fed .

lizzywig

Ratatouille, Mousakka, Homemade meatballs (for busy saturdays mmmmmm), Jacket Potatoes (I always buy 4 packs from the shops but only ever use 2 whilst they're still good, so I cook the other two and pop them in the freezer), Leek & Potato Soup

singlestep

I have the same problem with a job that goes through phases of completely taking over my life as opposed to just keeping me busy. I'm on my own and so can please myself and, to be honest, more often than not when I get home after 8 I'll have some soup or toast or, if I'm home early, veggie stirfry. I'm not much of a cook but I do try to have the following:

- Soup. I make much more than I'd need and freeze the rest. Currently, I have leek and potato, spinach, lentil and bacon, carrot and coriander, chicken broth and mushroom.

- chilli con carne. LOVE this and it's nice to come home to when the weather isn't great.

- tomato sauce. Some of this is for pasta (or to go with meatballs), some of this is a bit more condensed and can go on pizza, some could be added to ingredients to make an easy-to-assemble meal.

- curry. Currently, I have beef and spinach but am running a bit low on curry. Will make some next weekend.

-stews. Most of what I have seem to be variations on beef stews at the moment although I usually only buy red meat once or twice a month if that. I have beef and ale, chinese-style braised beef and boeuf bourguignon (a friend of mine made me this!). I'll usually have chicken chasseur or chicken cacciatore there too. These are a great stand-by if I know somebody's going to be over for dinner.

I'm also looking forward to seeing more of the great ideas others will have.

valerie57

I like to make a big pot of onion gravy and portion that up. Mash also freezes well. Keep some sausages in the freezer and you have the makings of sausage and mash for those cold winter nights.
Keep a big bag of breadcrumbs on the go in the freezer alongside some fish portions. Make a crumb topping for the fish by mixing the crumbs with whatever you have in; herbs, lemon or orange zest, a couple of nuts, a knob of butter, a grating of cheese, a bit of chilli. Experiment. Press it on the fish and bake in the oven.
Shepherds pie is a favourite of mine. Between the meat and potato layer I like to add a layer of cubed mixed root veg; carrots, turnip, celeriac for example. I cook those off to brown them in a splash of oil first until they are just softening. It means that the meal is more complete as veg are included.
Good luck and enjoy.

SailorSam

I've just sat down with a cup of coffee after filling the Slowcooker with sausage casserole, turn it off tonight and that will be one for tomorrow and 4/5 for the freezer.

MrsCrafty

One of my recent bestest ever freezer's was when I managed to get about 1.3kg of lean steak mince reduced to about £2.

I fried it put it in a pot. Then fried tiny cubes of carrot and onion in olive oil, chucked it in with the mince. Added some dried mustard, thyme and 2 oxo cubes. Pour on enough boiling water to just cover and simmer for about 25 minutes and admittedly used some gravy granules after this to thicken it. This was my pie filling.

I then made pastry, enough to fill two tray bakes, baked the bottom halves for about 8 minutes, then added the mincy filling and topped with pastry. Cook and let cool.

Then cut into portions, open freeze and pack in bags when frozen. Delicious pie that reminds me of school dinners but better. I got 18 portions out of this. Serve with boiled potatoes and veg and more gravy..............

Flibsey

my top 5 are:
lasagne
spag bol sauce
donner kebab slices (takeaway secret book: £1.99 from the works)
chilli and
blanched veg when there's a glut.... I include finely chopped onion in this cos sometimes it's nice to not have to peel and chop one!

for my chilli (around 2.5-3 litres ; 12 large adult portions or so) I use 3 onions, about 5 cans of varied beans: kidney, pinto, black eyed, haricot, chickpeas etc. tomato paste, about a tubefull; 2-3tins chopped tomatoes, 2-4 tsps garlic paste, loads of cumin, 4tsps oregano, the same of thyme, 4tsps coriandar powder, 4-8tsps liquid stock like Bovril or the same of stock powder; thats about 3-4 cubes and salt and pepper to taste.

chop the onion and fry off. chuck in all beans, tomatoes, stock, garlic paste, tomato paste and add in all spicesand herbs. simmer for a while, keep stirring. taste. if it doesnt quite taste like chilli, add more cumin. seriously. if it's not right yet, add more cumin. you need a lot more than you'd think!

it freezes amazingly well. if you fancy a bit of meat one night, brown off your favorite mince and chuck on some defrosted chilli... OR you can add cubes of roasted meat too. I've even chucked in leftover stir fry veg lol. it was a bit wierd finding beansprouts in my chilli, but nobody else seemed to notice!!!

We make this about once ever 4 weeks and hubby eats it at work, as well as me chucking bags in the microwave on "CBA" nights.