Anyone have any good freezable recipies?

Mrs_Ihenetu

I am a busy wife and mother to a toddler and am looking for some recipies that can be cooked in advance, frozen and then reheated in the microwave. If you have any recipies then can you please also state how long they can be frozen for and the time it takes to reheat a portion from frozen (you can probably tell i'm not used to preparing meals in advance).

Many thanks

Maitane

I have tonnes! Is there anything you particularly like or dislike?
I pretty much portion and freeze everything. Soups, stews, lasagne, cottage pie, the lot!

Mrs_Ihenetu

In our house we eat pretty much anything. I just really need a guide as to how long food can be kept in the freezer and how long it takes to reheat it from frozen. I would also like to know if you can freeze cooked rice, mash potato, etc...

Pink.

Hi Mrs Ihenetu

Food will not go off in the freezer but the quality may deteriorate if left too long. As a rule of thumb I try to use things in the freezer within three months, but it doesn't always work out that way and we've always been able to eat it.

This thread may help with what you can and can't freeze:

What foods can/can't you freeze?

And these may give you some ideas for meals worth cooking in bulk for the freezer:

Batch cooking ideas please

Cooking for the Freezer..

Pink

ariba10

If it smells OK when it is defrosted, we will try it.

We fond some blackberries in the bottom of the freezer a week ago that I froze in 2001.

They tasted OK in a blackberry and apple pie and we are both still alive.

ariba10

We buy a Jam and coconut sponge in ALDI, cut it into eighths, freeze what we don't eat and have them with custard when wanted over a few weeks.

You can freeze almost anything. If you don't like it when you thaw it, don't freeze it again.

babyshoes

Why don't you tell us what sorts of things you like to cook, then we can tell you if they are freezable. I know mashed potato freezes ok, but not sure of cooked rice, though they use rice in those ready meals so I would have thought it would be ok. Almost any food in a sauce will freeze well, and other things often freeze ok too. I usually freeze things like stews and curries and tomato based pasta sauces. Creamy sauces tend not to freeze as well.

Our freezer recently defrosted when the plug got knocked out the socket, so we cooked all the meat on the day, then re-froze it cooked to have as a quick meal later on - the roast pork is frozen in strips for stir fry as it wouldn't be ok as roast pork afterwards, the bacon is in pieces to use in a pasta sauce, the lamb was made into a curry etc etc. We have since eaten some of it and we are still alive!

As for heating it in the microwave, there is no specific time as all microwaves vary, as will each meal. I start it on a defrost setting for a few minutes until it can be stirred, (or leave it in the fridge to defrost all day) then put it on full and nuke it for a couple of minutes at a time, stirring in between, until it seems the right temperature for eating - at this point you want to nuke it a whle longer, until it is PIPING hot all the way through to kill off any germs. Make sure it is too hot to eat when it comes out of the microwave and let it cool to the right temperature. If there are bits of meat in a sauce, make sure those are hot through too, and you don't just have a hot sauce with cold bits of meat!

Mrs_Ihenetu

Well we are an african/carribean/british family so we eat a variety of things from all of these cultures. Stuff like joloff rice (rice cooked in a tomato sauce with veg and meat added), meat/fish curries, sausage casserole, mash, lasagne, pasta bakes, macaroni cheese ... the list goes on. I know that curries can be frozen but i'm not sure if things like joloff rice can be though.