Freezing dishes for lunch?

Pitlanepiglet

I take lunches like this as it's easier than making sandwiches, I do veg pasta, pasta bol, chilli & rice, cottage pie, tuna, mushroom and pasta bake.

Personally I mix the sauce with the pasta before freezing as I find the pasta on its own goes really sticky without a sauce. I happily freeze and reheat rice - the key point with rice is to cool it quickly after you've cooked it initially and not leave it lying around. As said above, I've kept and used cooked rice from the fridge and the freezer with no ill effects.

I also freeze portions of soup in freezer bags as well.

Kitchenbunny

This is something I've wanted to try to make for work. It looks just the kind of thing to make a batch of, and then heat up in the microwave at lunchtime in the canteen. The sauce could be varied a bit with whatever is laying around in the fridge so I can definitely see a bacon and tomato sauce with gnocchi, and a spicy chorizo version too.

I frequently take leftovers the next day - sometimes I'll reheat them and others I'll just eat them cold.

KB xx

Lilith1980

Thanks all

We do cottage pie quite regularly - think we just need to eat smaller portions of it and divide the rest up for lunches. We're on a diet anyway lol

flutterbyuk25

I do this all the time!

The key to pasta is to rinse it well in cold water to get rid of the starch before freezing (or adding a sauce if making meal for fridge/freezer). This stops it sticking. I also spray it with the oil spray stuff to prevent sticking when making something like pasta salad.

With rice, I've always made extra and frozen it, never killed me yet!!

x

meritaten

stews and casseroles also freeze well and can be warmed up in the microwave - just make sure they are defrosted enough before taking to work as they take ages to defrost + cook even in the ding! I would take them out the night before and leave on the worktop.

krlyr

I have frozen rice and reheated with no ill effects. As someone else said, it's not the cooling of rice that's an issue but how long it remains warm/room temperature. Cooling it quickly and heating it quickly prevents it sitting at the ideal temperature for the bacteria to produce the food-poisoning-inducing toxins.
http://www.bexley.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=3554

I either rinse with cold water in a seize (I use a seize rather than a collander so the rice doesn't pass through the holes) or if I've done a flavored rice, e.g. mexican rice cooked in passatta and stock, I'll spread on a baking tray or two - you want the thinnest layer possible to increase surface area and speed up cooling. I let it cool for 5 mins, then into the fridge, then into the freezer. Reheated by zapping in the microwave until piping hot.

Bluegreen143

Lilith1980 wrote: »

Hi all,

Just a quick question, might sound daft

My OH had become fed up of sandwiches for lunch, and we wanted to cut down on the bread we ate as well.

I've been making some 'mini meals' and putting them into plastic containers. One meal was pasta, chicken, veg, mixed with pesto and the other one was chicken and veg but with rice instead of pasta and with a chinese sauce. I am trying to think of new ideas too lol.

It's going to get a bit much to do this every night after work so I wondered could I freeze them? I just wasn't sure if pasta and rice freeze ok?

Thanks

I have to say, I don't like frozen pasta, it seems to go a bit soggy. But you can make a batch up on Sunday night and it will easily keep 3-4 days in the fridge as long as everything is properly cooked and cooled quickly.

What I tend to do is take HM soup in (which I do freeze) and alternate with leftovers and sometimes pasta or couscous salad which I've made in bulk but just kept in the fridge.

Honeythief

I don't like frozen pasta much either although it's alright in macaroni cheese so I'll freeze that quite happily.

We freeze takeaway tubs full of rice on a regular basis and it's so handy to just defrost one to go with a quick stir fry or curry. I also freeze rice-and-curry lunch portions, half and half in the same tub, all the time and have never done anything special or worried about becoming ill. Other people may be more particular about it but we are happy to take our chances

I've experimented with freezing mashed potato too but it can go very soggy when defrosted. It works as a topping, e.g. on a frozen portion of pie, but not as a tub full of potato to use as a side dish.

krlyr

Honeythief wrote: »

I've experimented with freezing mashed potato too but it can go very soggy when defrosted. It works as a topping, e.g. on a frozen portion of pie, but not as a tub full of potato to use as a side dish.

I find it works if you make the mash up thicker than you'd normally eat it, more butter for flavour and less milk. Often serve it as a side, e.g. bangers and mash with barely any difference to fresh mash

Lilith1980

Thanks for all of your replies, they are really helpful

I will give freezing pasta a go and see how it turns out, will also try the rice. With both I had been rinsing them with cold water once cooked before putting them into the plastic containers so looks like that's the way forward.

My OH went mad once and made loads of soup, which he froze and we gradually worked our way through, so think we should do that again too. Can't beat some HM soup and crusty bread