Cooking from the Freezer

Anastacia

Hi everyone. Hope you are all well. Can I pick your combined brains for a bit please.

OH does not like convenience foods including foods that have been frozen after cooking. After 20 years he has worn me down and I am not so keen on them myselfs these days. I seem to be able to taste that it has been around a while (honest!). However it is very convenient to have food available in the freezer which just needs to be cooked & all the preparation is already done. I make meatloaf, burgers, meatballs, marinaded turkey or chicken. Can anyone please help with anything else which can be pre-preapred and frozen to be cooked later ?

Thanks in advance.

Anastacia

Wendrie

We are the same - so most of the food in my freezer is raw and ready to be cooked.

I do the meatloaf/burgers stuff that you mentioned. I also prepare strips of meat and freeze them on a piece of greaseproof paper for a few minutes before putting them in a bag - means you can pull them out and put them straight into the frying pan or wok. If you use chicken or fish and bread them then you have "fingers", I make up kievs (make garlic butter, flatten chicken breast slightly, roll around knob of butter and dip in egg/milk and bread crumbs to bread them) Also put cheese inside and wrap bacon around - there are a variety of recipes. Go look down the frozen food aisle at the supermarket and take notes then try to recreate the recipe.

Pizza bases can be made and covered with tomato sauce/veggies/cooked meats and then frozen - on greaseproof again for a few minutes until surface frozen then slipped into a gallon zip locked bag. Or make up the dough and freeze in balls ready to be rolled out and topped later.

Veggies can also be frozen on greaseproof and then tipped into a box or bag - I don't do onions or peppers but no plenty of people who do, mushrooms freeze well for stews and sauces but not stir fries. There are several books and sites on "Freezer cooking" but do try out any suggestion with one meals worth to make sure your family like it.

HTH

Anastacia

Excellent idea with the Kievs. I can see that being very popular. I think I should make an effort to slice, dice, marinade etc & the freeze on trays, else we sometimes use more than we need because it is all stuck together. I'll try the pre-prepared veg too.

Excellent, thank you

Anastacia

GardenMillie

If you have left over herbs or there are any going reduced at your local supermarket I like to chop them up and then freeze in ice cube tray - a bit fiddly but really worth it as you can just pop a cube into soup, stew etc.

Also chopped fresh rhubarb freezes really well then when defrosted you can stew it and make crumble etc.:cool:

Heth_2

You can make filo pastry parcels (two of my favorite fillings are leek and chestnet, and butternut squash, chestnut and pear) and freeze them before cooking them.
We also often have breaded fish in the freezer for days when I get home late and don't want to spend ages cooking.

annie-c

Onions freeze really well, so it is worth peeling and whizzing several kilos through the food processor at atime and freezing in portion sized bags for using in cooking later.

Any foods which generally taste better on the second day (due to the flavours having a chance to develop) also freeze well - bolognese and chilli especially taste different-and-better after freezing.