Good Freezable Meals

kriss_boy

Can anyone recommend good meals that can be batched, frozen, then microwaved or oven cooked at a later date?

Im a runner so I eat a lot of pasta. Presumably spag bol is the obvious one. Is it a case of letting it cool down in the pot, then freezing. Do I simply defrost in the fridge the night before then microwave for 5/6 mins just like any other ready meal?

unimaginative_user_name

Bolognese sauce is the most obvious though you could just brown off some minced beef with chopped onions and perhaps a few mushrooms. When you defrost it you could add tomatoes for bolognese, lasagne or pasta bake, or tomatoes, tabasco and red kidney beans for chilli con carne, or mashed potato for cottage pie so you've got more flexibility and the original mix takes less room in the freezer.

Curries and casseroles also freeze well. From a food safety point of view the faster you cool the mixture the better, but you are right about defrosting in the fridge. Personally I prefer to reheat previously frozen food in a saucepan as I find it reheats more evenly than in a microwave, but that might just be me.

meritaten

yes you can do that way. or cook from frozen but give it about 12 - 15 mins. and stir halfway through!
another easy pasta meal is with leftover chicken and mushrooms - make or buy a white sauce and fry the mushrooms add the chicken and sauce and let cool a bit while you cook the pasta (or retrieve leftover pasta from the fridge. combine them and freeze.

Elliesmum

Chilli veg or meat
Minestrone Soup
Curry
Stew

I would check out the slow cooker thread as most of the meals on there could be portioned off and then frozen.

While your meal is defrosting/cooking in the microwave you can cook your pasta, rice or couscous to go with your chosen meal...

HTH's

EM x

meritaten

tbh - I find you can freeze almost any meal! just take a look at all the ready meals! but freezing home made meals is best.........just reheat THOROUGHLY!

Linda32

kriss_boy wrote: »

Im a runner so I eat a lot of pasta. Presumably spag bol is the obvious one.


Is it a case of letting it cool down in the pot, then freezing. Do I simply defrost in the fridge the night before then microwave for 5/6 mins just like any other ready meal?

Yes, freeze in portions though. I re-heat in the oven, because I just prefer it that way. If its cheese pasta based, I find adding further grated cheese makes the sauce again. The pasta tends to suck it all up.

If you have tinned meals and only use half then you can freeze this as well. I do this with Chilli as I don't like it buy OH does.

HTH

krlyr

I tend to batch cook, divide into plastic takeaway tubs (mostly 2-person portions but the odd single portion for lunches or if OH is away from work/I'm out at college), let cool a little and then freeze.

I freeze stuff like bolognese, chili, meat in gravy, etc. so then I can assemble it into various meals. For example, I might layer the bolognese with lasagne sheets, or I might serve it with pasta, with rice, on a jacket potato and so on. The chili is usually just with rice, though we may try different rice recipes. Meat and gravy is often assembled into a cottage pie but for a change I might pop it in a pastry case for a beef & onion type pie (made some homemade shortcrust pastry that went lovely with it). Building blocks, as opposed to entire meals, but there's nothing to stop you freezing your rice, potato, etc. with it for a HM ready-meal.

I tend to just microwave straight from frozen. Things like the lasagne and cottage pie, I'll defrost in the microwave and then assemble and bake for 20 mins or so in the oven - just to cook it through (in the case of the pasta sheets) and to help crisp up the top (usually add cheese to both and this needs browning). You could just defrost in the fridge the night or morning before needed but we often wait until we're both home from work to decide what we fancy for dinner, and by having such a variety to hand and usually ready in 10-20 minutes, it really helps in our case.

samejh

I find that after rice is frozen (after making biriani or chilli) then it is mushy when reheated.

Any tips out there for stopping this ?

sorry not trying to hyjack thread. x

lushlifesaver

Lasagne! As a student I made huge trays of lasagne then froze in portions (in those foil trays you can get usually) and reheated ,usually, straight out of the freezer.

Also did;
Spag bol
Curry
Sweet and Sour chicken or pork
Casserole
Chile
Soups

and more

If it was something that needed rice though I tended to stock up on them when they are on offer (2 for £1/2). Actually have been thinking of going back to that as we now eat rice a lot less frequently and it probably works out to a similar price as the boil in the bag stuff we buy!

jackyann

I find that when freezing stews, casseroles etc. that it isn't easy to get the liquid just right. So I make it a bit more liquid and then let it evaporate a bit more. I also find that some veg mush up a bit (trial & error!) also that some spices change a little.
So if I have a bit of left over curry or tagine, I might freeze it and try to eat it up fairly soon. But if I am batch cooking, I keep it a bit bland, and add seasoning as I am heating it up.

Rice mushes because when cooking it absorbs a lot of water. Freezing water expands, and it breaks the casing on the rice grain. I think some commercial operators have got this sussed, but at home it rarely works. I presume you only want to freeze rice to avoid waste? These are the things I do with left-over rice:
Fry up to make a kedgeree or any variation
make a rice salad (looks beautiful and is especially tasty if you get a bit of oil & lemon on it whilst warm)
add a bit of garlic & chilli, beat in an egg, and fry in dollops (usually the morning after)

samejh

jackyann wrote: »

Rice mushes because when cooking it absorbs a lot of water. Freezing water expands, and it breaks the casing on the rice grain. I think some commercial operators have got this sussed, but at home it rarely works. I presume you only want to freeze rice to avoid waste? These are the things I do with left-over rice:

Fry up to make a kedgeree or any variation
make a rice salad (looks beautiful and is especially tasty if you get a bit of oil & lemon on it whilst warm)
add a bit of garlic & chilli, beat in an egg, and fry in dollops (usually the morning after)

Thanks for your reply. I mostly have leftover biriani, and you are right I absolutely hate waste :mad:. To the extent of putting on weight cus I clean my plate. lol