Help with taking frozen meals on SC holiday

astep70uk

I've decided that on our SC holiday at CenterParcs starting monday i'm going to take some frozen meals to keep the cost down.
Shepherds pie and lasagne spring to mind.

Couple of questions though as I've never done this before:
Do I make and freeze it in one large portion for the 3 of us or individual portions?
Do I freeze it in plastic or disposable foil containers. Is it best to reheat in the oven or microwave?
Do I defrost before reheating??

Thanks in advance

Bogof_Babe

How are you going to get it there without partially defrosting?

Is there a freezer in your accommodation, or are you planning to have your frozen meals for your first couple of days?

Sorry, more questions than answers...:o .

MATH

I do this all the time and my tips would be:

1 Freeze in 'family-sized' plastic containers rather than individual portions.

2 Use them in a coolbag to act as ice blocks keeping milk, butter, cheese nice and cool while traveling.

3 Store in the fridge when you get there and leave to defrost gradually.

4 Re-heat in the micro using the grill to brown/crisp if necessary.

5. Slightly undercook the dish initially to allow for extra cooking through when re-heating.

6. If a pasta dish always cool the pasta with cold running water before adding the sauce to stop the pasta soaking up all the sauce during the freezing/re-heating process.

apples1

Once you have made the meals and frozen in family size portion (assuming you will all be eating together) I would put them together (along with anything else frozen you are taking) then wrap the parcel of food in lots of carrier bags (assuming you have a drawer full like I always seem to!).

Then put the bundle into a cool bag and put in boot of car - you can pack towels etc round it (if you're taking them anyway) just for added insulation. I've done this many times and food still TOTALLY frozen on arrival. I have also frozen cartons of orange juice which act as ice blocks to keep food cold but you can then defrost them and drink them once you're there!

The only freezer we had in our "villa" was the ice box in top of fridge (so not very big). I agree with other post... defrost slowly in fridge once you're there and cook from chilled. If you want to eat one on first night just defrost in microwave.

First time we went to C parcs we took all our food to save money. Have to say tho that the onsite shop is not over expensive. Prices were fair and on future trips we did shop there more. Its about the only reasonably priced bit about C parcs in my view! Worth taking own wine/beer tho as that seemed expensive.

Have a lovely hol.

astep70uk

Wow - thanks guys

I've frozen my milk and juice to act as ice packs and I've made a shepherds pie for when we get there in the evening and some bolognese sauce for the following day.
Thanks for all your help and advice - i've never done the frozen meals thing before!!

Gingham_Ribbon

We went on holiday when I was weaning our son at about 7 months old. I cooked a load of veg and fruit, cooled it in the fridge, then put it in a cool bag with ice packs and froze it when we got there. (B and B but sorted it out with the owner before we got there.)

I was worried about it partially defrosting on the journey and thought it was safer to keep it cool on the journey but wait till we were there to freeze it.