Bulk cooking (to bung in oven later) tips and help with foil trays

[Deleted User]

once the boot sales start (if we ever get any summer this year) buy some of those individual brown eathen-ware type bowls for around 20p each I use these all the time and have quite a stash of them built up over the years .Great for doing sheppards pies in straight from the freezer to the oven ,or put them in the fridge in the morning to defrost then pop in the oven to heat through.
You can also find Pyrex dishes at bootsales .I don't believe in buying stuf to throw out after use.When I bulk cook I often make extra for my Dd's house as she works full time and her two children come in at different times of the evening.She came for coffee this morning and went home with a large casserole of lamb that I cooked in my SC yesterday and froze, and two small sheppards pies . Sc's really pay for themselves within weeks .Especially as you can chuck almost anything in them and 8 hours later you have a cooked meal the running costs are around the same as if you had a single light bulb burning so cheap to use as well.

kr15snw

We like the idea of cooking in the oven as we can ignore it. While tea is in the oven we tend to get on with other housework, or have a shower etc.

The idea of freezing in a plastic tub and then popping it out into freezer bags and then into an oven proof dish sounds good. Do people who do this cook from frozen? And does it come ok? I have this image of a block of mince slowly cooking, lol.

Peggy: How does the rice come out? We currently only use microwave stuff as it's easier (had a few bad rice experiences) and you never seem to be able to make a small bit of rice. Lol. The idea of making it and freezing it sounds great!

Thanks for the advice guys, off to read the other topics

Pitlanepiglet

The cost of microwave rice is horrendous!

The easiest way to cook basmati rice which means that you can leave it alone, is to put the correct amount of rice in the bottom of a saucepan, cover it with twice as much water (so 1 mug of rice/2 mugs of water), bring the rice to the boil and then put the lid on, turn the power off and walk away from it for 20 minutes or so, it will steam beautifully. I also add frozen beans or green beans and it all cooks on its own (edited to add, you do of course need a lid that doesn't have vent holes - if it does put foil over the top of the pan and then put the lid on.

I also make extra portions for the next day or the day after. As long as you cool the rice quickly and then reheat it well it will be fine.

I prefer not to cook my "ready meals" from frozen, partially because I can't stand waiting an hour to eat!

babyshoes

For sauces like spag bol and such, you can always microwave them from frozen - I do this quite often. Put it on the defrost setting for a while, until you can give it a stir, then blast it on full until it is very hot, and stir a few times in between. We use the plastic takeaway tubs for this - always keep the tubs after having a curry, and that way you don't feel bad throwing them out if they become mishapen or badly discoloured!

I agree with poundshops for the foil containers - I use them for taking cakes, bakes, rice crispy treats etc to functions, and for freezing things like aubergine bake (great side dish - cook in oven along with something like chicken kiev and a baking potato for an easy meal!). I also use them for freezing pre-cooked but not browned crumbles made from whoopsied fruit or allotment glut etc. Again, can go in oven with main meal - all in one cooking with plenty of variety!

I checked prices of the foil containers in Mr T the other day, and didn't buy any as I kept thinking "I can get twice as many for half the price in the 99p shop!"

Nargleblast

I have found any stew/sauce-type dish is better when cooked one day. reheated and eaten another. Bolognaise sauce, casseroles, curries - the flavours seem to mellow and improve if you cook the dish and keep in the fridge a couple of days before reheating and eating. Or you can freeze them, as has been suggested.

Nargleblast

Another thing I have done is stretch out a small portion of something from the freezer. If I make a bolognaise sauce, for example, then leftovers are frozen away in individual portions. If there is a small portion or two amongst them, not big enough for a meal, then I fry up some onions and garlic, add the small portions of readymade sauce, tart up with extra herbs/stock cubes etc, and maybe some leftover veg to bulk it out - result, a whole new meal.