Freezing "ready to slow cook" casserole mixes?

JodyBPM

Hi everyone, I'm more of a lurker than a poster, but I have got loads of useful info from this board, and have a question I hope you can help me with!

Due to changes in my childcare arrangements, I'm going to need to come home to ready to serve meals 3 days a week, so that I can feed the children as soon as we get home from work so they get to bed on time! At this time of year, the obvious thing to me is to use my slow cooker for all in one casseroles, stews etc, which have all the pots and veg already in. Obv, I can ring the changes with different meats, and different types of casserole, eg Beef & tom, or pork and cider etc...

Now, on my working days, I'm really, really pushed for time in the mornings as my DH leaves before we get up, so I have to get a 3 and 4 year old up, washed, breakfasted, dressed for school, beds made etc as well as myself ready, before leaving the house at around 8.20 and not getting back until 6.10 ish, so, although I do load the slow cooker sometimes in the morning, there are times that I just don't get time, so we end up with takeaways etc, not healthy or moneysaving:(

I've been to the butchers at lunchtime today and bought 2KG mince, 2KG diced chicken fillets, 2KG diced steak and 1KG diced pork (for £30.99, didn't seem bad to me, and I think it'll prob last a month?)

I've made my fortnightly meal planner in anticipation of a visit to the supermarket tonight, and it struck me that nearly half the meals are stew/casserole based, and therefore have the same base ingredients. I really don't want to go shopping again for a fortnight if possible, so I was wondering whether it was possible to have a chopping evening, and freeze down everything ready to go, to save time, and to save wastage of veg.

I'm thinking for eg, put the correct amount of meat, plus sliced onion, garlic, carrots, parsnip, pots, turnip, tinned toms, herbs, crumbed stock cube all in one bag/tub together and freeze it, then the night before I need it I just take it out of the freezer, in the morning, I can just dump the defrosted mix into the slow cooker, stir, switch on and it'll be ready when we get home! (haven't worked out what to freeze it in yet, extra large freezer bags, perhaps)

Do you think this would work? I've never really frozen veg before. When I use the slow cooker, due to time, I don't brown anything anyway, so that wouldn't be an issue.

What do you think?

hot.chick

I think this sounds like a great idea.

Very time saving

JodyBPM

My main concern is freezing things like raw cut potatoes, raw sliced peppers, onions, courgettes etc. I don't know if this would work, or if the end result would end up tasting like the frozen casserole ready meals that you buy in supermarkets taste!

ukmonkey

I've frozen raw cut peppers and onions before and they were fine. Admittedly I didn't use them for my slow-cooking, but can't see why it'd be different...

hotcookie101

raw uncooked spuds, really do not freeze well-they go all black and horrid (like peeled spuds left out of water-yuck)
Raw onions am sure would be fine, peppers too (prob a bit soggy but SC food is always a bit soggy isnt it?) Maybe freeze those bits, but would not freeze uncooked pots, and would be wary of carrots and parsnips raw too, but they would prob be ok, just texture may be affected, but don't do the spuds!

JodyBPM

hotcookie101 wrote: »

raw uncooked spuds, really do not freeze well-they go all black and horrid (like peeled spuds left out of water-yuck)
Raw onions am sure would be fine, peppers too (prob a bit soggy but SC food is always a bit soggy isnt it?) Maybe freeze those bits, but would not freeze uncooked pots, and would be wary of carrots and parsnips raw too, but they would prob be ok, just texture may be affected, but don't do the spuds!

Maybe I'd be better off with "plan B" then, which is just to freeze down the meat in portions, and then load the veg into the slow cooker the night before, so that I just have to add the meat in the morning. I'm guessing that pots, onions, veg etc will be OK in the slow cooker overnight (switched off!) or would the potato go black even then?

charliee_3

i have frozen raw veg before ( i had one of those mixed veg packs that i wasnt going to use in time) i can vouch that the carrots go really spooky, as does broccolli. i think they need blanching at least (ive never frozen anything properly before but i seem to remember my nan 'blanching' things).. might be an idea, you could add them ready blanched to the casserole?

waddy80

What I do with potatoes is cut and slice the night before, and leave in a tupperware with water. Then all I have to do is drain them and chuck them in.

Mojisola

Could you cook larger batches when convenient, divide that into meal-size amounts and freeze them. If you took them out of the freezer the night before, you could warm them through in a pan or microwave them in the evening.

Tia_Maria06

Here's another idea, I tend to put my casserole on when I go to bed, and then its ready in the morning, you could just heat up at hometime.

JodyBPM

I was trying to avoid doing anything in the evenings on my working days, just serve and eat! Basically it's between 6.10 and 6.20 when I get home, tiddlers bedtime is 7.00, so in 40-50 mins we need to get dinner on the table, eat dinner, get the children washed, ready for bed, tidy bedrooms which are a TIP after I've been out all day, into bed, read story etc. Even 10 mins reheating would be a problem. Also, as its grandparents who are looking after them at our house, I want to say to them that if the children are hungry, they can scoop and serve from the slow cooker, rather than wait for us to get home if necessary.

It's hard work being a working Mum On the bright side, there's 4 days of the week I don't need to work, hopefully increase to five soon:)