Good old fashioned home cooking/freezing... for two small children only?

pinkie_pie

I've never frozen a meal in my life (I once debated it with a lasagne, but how would it work? Would you slosh it into tupperware? How would you cook it???) but now I'm off work for a few weeks I want to get thoroughly back to basics.

However due to needing to lose some weight I'm on Cambridge Diet so I'm only feeding the kids, who are 5 and 2, and while they have healthy appetites obviously cooking massive portions isn't going to work somehow!!!

So how do I go about this? Anyone got a suggested mealplan for a week including lunches n bits? and tips on freezing igreatly appreciated. Thank you in advance

Pink.

Hi snowedunderital,

Have a think about what they normally enjoy eating and cook double (or triple) amounts. Feed them one portion then freeze the rest in individual portion sizes for them. If you do this for a couple of weeks you will have quite a few homemade 'ready meals' that you can just lift out of the freezer, defrost, reheat and serve. With lasagne, I cook it as normal then let it go cold (so it won't fall apart so easily) and cut it into portions, wrap in tin foil or a freezer bag and freeze.

Soups, stews, homemade pies, quiches, pizzas, pastries, casseroles, cottage pies, shepherds pies etc are all great for freezing. For lunches I'd go with soups, sandwiches, fruit, sausage rolls, yoghurts, cheese on toast etc

These threads should give you some ideas for what will freeze well:

What foods can/can't you freeze?

Cooking for the Freezer..

Batch cooking ideas please

This thread may help with freezer storagage:

Freezer containers (merged threads)

And this thread may help with ideas for meal plans:

The Complete Menu Plans Collection


Pink

cchase_2

I brough some plastic containers (from Wilkinsons or the 99p shop) just like the ones you get your chinese take away in.They aren't huge but certainly big enough to freeze a decent portion of something. They only cost about a pound for 10 containers and I found that one is just enough for a snack for my 15 year old who never seems to stop eating! I freeze pretty much anything in them and always have a ready suply of homemade food that I can pull out of the freezer and reheat in the microwave.

BitterAndTwisted

Pop into the freezer once you've let the food cool down completely. And don't forget to label your containers. I know it's bit blooming obvious but I fell into that trap myself, stupidly. I can't imagine how I thought I'd remember what was what