What Meals Have You Frozen With Success?

Penny-Pincher!!

Hi Guys!

Just wondering what meals you have frozen with success? I often cook and extra Shepards Pie, FishPie, Spagbol (sauce), chilli, stew etc and freeze.

What are your favourite and easy meals that can be frozen, then either cooked from frozen or defrost and heated up?

I was wondering if I could cook a pack of say high quality sausages (8) and seperate into the tin foil plates with lids, add mash, gravy and freeze Would I need to defrost before cooking if its ok to do so?

Also, what would be the best way to freeze a roast dinner? Could I add everything onto the plate including veggies, meat, spuds etc and freeze together then heat through together? Or would the veg/spuds go mushy?

We are always buying reduced meat, poultry, fish etc and to save time and energy would like to cook some batches of meals for the freezer so they can be pulled out easily of a morning or even cooked from frozen.

I will be attending the hospital alot over the next few months and although I love the SC and making stews etc, it can still be quite difficult to chuck it all together at 7am in the morning when hubby is helping me get ready to go to the hospital.

My successful freezes are:

Shepards Pie
FishPie
Stew
Spagbol Sauce
Chilli

So what are your best meal freezes?

Thanks and look forward to your replies.

PP
xx

lil_me

Embarrassed to say just ready meals until this board but these since then

Bolognese sauce - can use for spag bol, lasagne, canneloni, ravioli and spice it up to do a Mexican enchilladas, burritos etc :rotfl: what a cheat

Gammon, Beef etc from roast joints, quick and easy proper dinner

Mince and gravy - another versatile one for pies, shepherds pie, in yorkshires, on baked potatoes

Recent on baked potatoes - buy bigger amount cheaper cook all at same time saving on costs and microwave when defrosted, saves time and £

Beef Stew - it's lovely pleased I made so much, trying lamb stew next

Corned beef hash - easy especially for nice hot lunch

Curry- have frozen some with rice aswell, nice

Sausages in gravy - another versatile one

With plated dinners, my partners Grandma has done them since her partner passed away, but she does the veg and meat seperate as takes different time to heat up, bless her she can't get used to cooking for one. Trial and error with that one, she was saying by the time the meats reheated properly the veg has gone nasty.

I always defrost everything before cooking, I don't trust microwave to do it or reheat from frozen. I would freeze it all seperate, portions of veg etc, meat dishes, mash, roasties, then can mix and match. Wish I had the freezer space as I would do it more often. I tend to have to cook seperate for me and DP and the kids and bulk cooking to reheat saves me so much time now.

Penny-Pincher!!

How does the frozen baked spuds work? How do you freeze the meat-in gravy or dry?

Thanks

PP
xx

**purpleprincess**

I regularly freeze chilli con carne, bolognaise, curry, thai curry, risotto, casserole, macaroni cheese, stew, all with great success!! What I usually do is take it out of the freezer in the morning and then reheat for dinner in the evening.

Hope this helps hun x

lil_me

Meats - Gammon dry, but was cooked in SC so moist anyway then served cold with egg and chips but could be reheated, beef, lamb, pork and chicken was in gravy just defrosted then reheated in oven (could go in microwave) Veg all done seperate in bags and frozen.

Baked spuds just cooked them in oven, allowed them to cool and threw them in the freezer in bags, then I just microwave to reheat once defrosted (I hate them just microwave cooked) heats in minutes, was suggested on here by someone. Then can add bolognese, prawns, curry etc to make a meal from it.

This is a bit 'American' but there are a lot of ideas http://www.momsbudget.com/freezerrecipes/index.html with reheating instructions.

comping_cat

I freeze stews, curry, spag bol, shepherds/cottage pie, macaroni cheese, casseroles, coq au vin (any sort of meat/sauce/gravy meals).
I often make extra roast potatoes and yorkshire puds, and freeze them in a bag. Left over meat, if not going in a stew/casserole etc i sometimes freeze in left over gravy, and i also freeze any left over cheese sauce. Its frozen seperately, but when defrosted, its really quick and easy to put on the plates, then i just add the veg (havnt tried freezing this as well).

Penny-Pincher!!

Thanks guys!

I often freeze leftover yorkies and roast spuds. I make 12 yorkies at a time and we have between 3-4 between us, so will either do 3 or 4 meals.

PP
xx

Kazonline

Oo, lil_me, you star! That website is fab. I particularly like the idea of gifts of 'soup in a jar' as I've just been F/L my cupboard and desparing at all the empty jars!
Love the thread Penny pincher - I'm trying hard to think of things that are frozen that haven't already been mentioned.
One idea might be to batch make some sarnies & freeze as I know that you like to try to take lunch with you when you go to the hospital, and that must be hard when you're trying to get ready to go.
Kaz x

Ps - just thought of one, Savoury pancakes!
Had a lush cheese & garlic mushroom pancake the other day, and I'm sure these would freeze well. I would guess that they would micro straight from frozen too. Eggs seem to be the most frequently reduced item in our supermarket

RacyRed

Hi PP.

Over Christmas/New year whenever I did a roast dinner I made extra (lots extra!) packed roast dinner meals, thinly sliced meat, roast spuds, roast parsnips and whatever other vegetable I’d had into foil containers and froze them.

They have been great when defrosted and heated up for 25 mins. Keep covered for 20 mins then remove the lid for the last 5 and they stay crisp. Obviously not so nice as freshly made but very acceptable!

Other things I’ve done are meat and vegetables in gravy, which defrosts/heats up in the microwave very well, Make sure the meat is well covered with the liquid before freezing to get the best results. I also press a small freezer bag onto the top of the container before lidding and freezing to keep the air off the food while it is freezing. Apparently this helps keep the ice crystals small which preserves flavour in meat..

I’ve also done an assortment of mashed vegetables, bagged them up for the freezer (getting as much air out as possible) and they have been great as well.

Had good results with toad in the hole as well.

Stuff that I cannot get to work, pasta, it just went gooey, but the cheese sauces to go with it seem to freeze fine.

Penny-Pincher!!

Will try that with the roast today, even just one extra portion to see what it turns our like.

Thanks eveyone.

PP
xx

Penny-Pincher!!

Looking at that website Lil_Me, think I will try the following:

Quiche Lorraine (normally have the ingredients in, ideal for lunches or with a salad or jacket.
Bran Apple Muffins sound scrummy-not as a main meal though:D
Marengo Chicken sounds delish
Ham Omelettes(I didnt know you could freeze these)
Meatloaf sounds great
Fried Chciken-yummy

Basically, my main priority is easy to re-heat food but nutricious and balanced at the same time. Also putting the oven on for several items, makes more sense and not false economy.

PP
xx