Home made ready meals

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Hi Rachel,

I work alternate weeks and on my week off I try to spend a day doing some batch cooking for the freezer.

Some of the things I do are:

bolognese sauce - which can easily be used as it is or converted into chilli, lasagne, or even topped with potato to make a sort of cottage pie.
mince onion and veg - which can be used as a base for cottage pie, pie made with pastry or throw in some potatoes to make a stew.
Any roast meat - slice when cold and freeze in gravy so it just requires heating. Gammon is good for this, just add a cheese sauce when defrosted.
Cheaper cuts of meat (brisket, stewing steak, lamb shoulder etc- cook and freeze then add veg and use to make quick curries, casseroles or pies topped with sliced potatoes, mash or pastry.

Sometimes I will cook the dishes completely eg lasagne but I prefer to have the components ready in the freezer so that I can choose to make what suits us on the day.

Thriftlady started a great thread here that may help:

Meal building blocks for the freezer

There are also lots of suggestions for things to cook and freeze on this thread:

Cooking for the Freezer..

Batch cooking ideas please

I'll add your thread to the most recent of those to keep the ideas together.

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kirstyreanne

Rachel85 wrote: »

Thanks everyone - there's some really good ideas here! We seem to be on a weekly meal rotation which I know DH hates (he likes variety) so it'd be great to have some new things.

I don't have a slow cooker, but would definitely consider investing in one given the number of recipes on here. Particularly in the winter it'd be nice to come home to a hot meal. The only thing that worries me is that I'd not have time to prepare anything in the morning and would it be okay if it was on for nearly 12 hours? I don't want to come home and find my house is a pile of ash!

I love the frozen mash idea - its not that its hard to do it just takes time peeling, chopping and then washing up every utensil in the house. But I do love mash and it opens up options like pork chop, sausages etc which we don't tend to have during the week.

I'm planning to spend Monday night shopping and then Tuesday cooking so that I have lots of meals in the freezer ready for the nights when I just want to get into my pjs when I get in and slob about! If it all goes well I think I'll dedicate one Sunday a month to stocking the freezer.

I had the same worries about not having time in the morning to prepare the food & since I've had my slowcooker I've found that the most time I've spent prepping is about 20 minutes. By doing this first thing, when I get home I feel like I've got a lovely home cooked meal for no effort at all!!!

rsdiscos

I put a timer on the plug I use for my slow cooker so it comes on around 1 o clock.
I made a mistake last time I used it though and had turned it on high instead of low OH and the boys wouldn't touch the 'burnt' goulash but I sloshed a bit of water in it and mixed it up it was gorg had it for lunch the next day too.
Melissa

alittlebitofmagic

rsdiscos, they often say in the slow cooker booklets not to use a timer. I am not sure of the reason for this to be honest, maybe someone will come along who knows why they say it? In all honesty as long as you have plenty of liquid and it is on low, if you got caught in traffic it should still not dehydrate too much.

Ladyhawk

So - I have been wondering for a while how you guys do this. I generally freeze the constituent parts of a dish and then put together when I am ready to cook it.

So tonight I have a massive pile of beef mince (stuffed chocka with lentils, beans and veggies) and a massive pile of mashed tatties. How do I freeze it so that I can bake it when I am ready to have a cottage pie? Usually I freeze the goods in plastic bags or plastic tubs.

CupOfChai

Personally I'd do it exactly how you said you already do - portions(s) of mince in bags/tubs, bags of mash, then when you want to use them just defrost, put together to make up the dish and bung in oven.

I can't think how else you easily could unless you had the room and enough cookware to freeze it already made up in its oven dish.

Ladyhawk

Ah - maybe I just misunderstood how people did this. thanks!

wogglemaker

When doing up meals for my recently widowed dad, I made up cottage and fish pies in the individual foil dishes, also his lasagnie and spag bol.

For home I make up basic mince base for Bol, Chilli, and freeze in 2 portion plastic boxes. Savory mince varies I usually make it up into individal pies etc.

Most of of my other HM ready meals are extra portions of meals we have had.

HTH

Pink.

Hi Ladyhawk,

I do it both ways...sometimes I freeze the individual parts separately and make the meal up once defrosted, and other times I make up the meals and freeze them as they are.

To do it as a 'ready meal', I line the dish I intend to reheat it in with foil or cling film. Add the ingredients eg shepherds pie, lamb mixture then top with mash and pop the whole dish into the freezer. Once frozen I lift it out and carefully use the lining to remove the food from the dish. Wrap well and return to the freezer. That way the dish/container is free to use until you want to reheat the 'ready meal'. To reheat, I remove the meal from the freezer and unwrap it, slot it back into the original dish/container, then let it defrost thoroughly before reheating.

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Ladyhawk

Thanks - but doesn't the cling film or foil get stuck to the meal?