Filling the Freezer!

[Deleted User]

We work long hours running a caravan park so I'm wanting to use this week (before we open again) to stock up the freezer a bit. Not so much for spending less but so we can still have decent meals at our busy times. I'm wanting to do some lasagne, cottage pie type things but a bit wary of how to store them in the freezer (what do you put them in), do I cook them as usual, wait for them to cool and freeze them or freeze the part-cooked?

How long would I then need to defrost them/cook them once we want to use them?

What do you all have in the freezer? I need some inspiration please

Barneysmom

If I do a cottage pie, we'll eat half then freeze half in Lock & Lock containers, then microwave straight through from frozen.
I find it better to freeze in single portion sizes so we can have what we like without having to make each other eat the same thing.

Pink.

Hi poohspals,

These earlier threads may give you some ideas:

Once a month cooking

Cooking for the Freezer..

Batch cooking ideas please

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

Pink

msb5262

Hello OP,
I sometimes freeze cottage pie etc in the dish and leave it in the freezer till I want it - other times I'll line the dish with cling film before putting the cottage pie in, so I can lift out the frozen block of pie and store it just in a plastic bag. When I want the pie out, I plonk the block back into the original dish and leave to thaw.
Re. unfreezing - the easiest way is to choose Tuesday's evening meal either on Monday evening or first thing Tuesday morning, and leave to unfreeze by itself. Official advice for unfreezing is to let food thaw in the fridge but it takes ages and can take up too much room in the fridge, so I sometimes put food to thaw in the unheated oven overnight so the cats can't get to it!
HTH
MsB

nic1lou2

Hi poohspals

I'm not sure which part of York you are from but if you have a Morrisons near you - they sell pyrex type oven proof dishes that have plastic lids for freezing etc. They are perfect for batch cooking and freezing and can go in either microwave or oven.

I bought a few last year to freeze and take away with us when we go off in our caravan (probably near you lol:rotfl:)

Other than that we use the plastic containers from chinese meals.

gingin_2

I've just done this today. 4 pans on the go, chilli x 2 meals, bolognese x2, tomato chorizo sauce x4 meals. Lentil and bacon soup x 4 meals. Chicken casserole x 2 meals.I also keep lots of chicken breasts in the freezer as i can always make a quick meal from those.

I think there is a thread here on building blocks of basic sauces. The tomato and chorizo sauce is one I use for 3 different meals - pasta bake, chicken and rice and meatballs in tomato sauce, that way I can pull the sauce out and make a tasty meal with 10 mins prep.

I tend to save old ice cream boxes and stork margerine tubs and put my food in there. I'm not hot on proper food safety but i tend to either pull mine out the night before and leave it on the side (unless it is very warm weather) until the morning or leave it to defrost during the day. I never part cook meals and freeze them always fully cooked. I usually just ping them in the microwave in the same container.

Linda32

Hiya, what I do and just have done is this, I have a receipe in a book called million vegetable mince, so I made the receipe and we had some of it tonight, then portioned it into plastic boxes.

I got these from Tesco, about £1.50 each, (they are very sturdy and can be used over and over again, I use them for pack-ups rather than placcy bags)

Anyway, these are now in the freezer, and as it has been said, say if we want this dinner on Wednesday then we take it out of the freezer or Tuesday night and pop in the fridge.

We don't have a microwave, so I tip it into a oven proof dish and cook until piping hot, which in my case is gas mark 6 for 30 mins, you will know your oven

With this we just have mash.

Slinky_Malinky

Intrigued by the million vegetable mince - what book is that from please?

I freeze my bulk cooking in a variety of ways. I have some Lakeland Stack-a-boxes, some of the cheapo takeaway containers and some food frozen in freezer bags. I usually leave it on the draining board to defrost then heat up in the microwave.

Linda32

http://bookshop.blackwell.co.uk/jsp/welcome.jsp?source=rss&isbn=1906650012

:eek: - looking at the price


I bought it from The Book People for about £4.00 :money:

2 Carrots
2 Onions
1 red pepper * didn't bother with this
2 courgettes * ditto
150g mushrooms
500g minced lamb
1 clove garlic * I used two
2 tbsp tom puree
1 tsp dried oregano * didn't use this either
300ml lamb stock - used chicken because thats what I'd got
salt and black pepper - only used pepper
400g can of chopped toms.

Chop all veg and mix with mushroom - it says to wizz in a food processor which I did.

Fry mince

Add veg, garlic, tom puree and oregarno cook for 5 to 10 mins

then pour over stock and tinned toms season and bring to the boil, then simmer for 30 mins.

I split over two saucepans and the stock and toms absorbed wonderfully.

This gave us five portions to have with mash.

[Deleted User]

nic1lou2 wrote: »

Hi poohspals

I'm not sure which part of York you are from but if you have a Morrisons near you - they sell pyrex type oven proof dishes that have plastic lids for freezing etc. They are perfect for batch cooking and freezing and can go in either microwave or oven.

I bought a few last year to freeze and take away with us when we go off in our caravan (probably near you lol:rotfl:)

Thanks for that - we do have a Morrisons so will look out for them - may also have some in the cupboard - didn't realise that I could freeze them to be honest - I'd love to know where you go in your caravan btw - maybe you've been here!!

Pink-Winged - Thanks, will have a look at all those links you have given

MSB5262 - Thanks for the great tip re. clingfilm - I'll have a go at that one

I've always kept the boxes we've got from the take-away so i'll be digging them out and getting some cooking done this week.

Trinny

Hello there

Can i add the Thriftlady - freezer building blocks thread to pink's list - the ideas in that thread really saved me time and ££

Trin