Meals to Freeze

trying-very-trying

If you're freezing mashed potatoes, use an icecream scoop to portion them out. Then freeze the portions on a baking sheet, once frozen pop them all into a bag. This way you can just take out the number of portions you need at a time.

[Deleted User]

I freeze the shepherds pies/cottage pies with the mash already on top. Always come out fine and dandy.

EmmaJ_3

I freeze pretty much anything really! I usually overcook and freeze leftover portions.

Recently I've frozen
Two portions Penne with roasted tomatoes, aubergine & mozzarella, as a homemade ready meal, cos I vastly overportioned for dinner
Egg fried rice leftover from takeaway
Several portions of veggie chilli when I cooked up a huge batch
Ditto for moussaka and lasagne
Homemade pasta sauces, plain tomato and bolognese
Some roasted aubergine, it was going to go off as we hadn't used it, so I chopped it, roasted it and froze it ready for adding to a pasta sacue
Some barbecued veg kebabs that were left over from bbq, took the cooked veg off the skewers and froze, will have as a side portion or add to pasta sauce or maybe a jacket potato filling.
A leftover portion of stuffed lamb loin
And a load of apricot & pinenut stuffing cos I made far too much
Also have lots of frozen veg - mini corn cobs, broccoli, green beans, spinach, homemade bread rolls, homemade garlic butter, and a few pints of milk.

noseypoots

Thanks for all your great ideas, I've alrerady cooked and frozen 3 shepherds pies and I'm going to try a few more things at the weekend. Could I just check, what's the best way to reheat things that aren't a 'sauce' kind of food? For example, I put my sheperds pies in foil containers, so hopefully it can go in the oven? Do you reheat most things in the (like veg etc)? If so, how do you know how long to do it for? Sorry if that's a stupid question!

happyevs

I use the Plastic chinese containers for curry or mince/bolonaise type foods and you can heat these up in the microwave so start saving these containers as they make great time saving dishes

odds-n-sods

it's not a meal, but of you have leftover fruit that is a bit old you can chop it up and freeze it - bananas etc. for smoothies. Apples made into applesauce and frozen.

angelavdavis

Currently sitting in my freezer are the following HM delights (!)

Shepherds pies (indiv sized)
Fishermans pie (indiv sized)
Salmon encroute
Chicken curry
Lamb stew
Chilli con carne
bolognaise
Turkey schnitzel

In addition I regularly prepare and freeze stuff before it is allowed to go off and for convenience:

Sliced and blanched carrots, mixed sweet peppers, blanched parsnips & turnip, cooked mashed potato, grated cheese

noseypoots wrote: »

Thanks for all your great ideas, I've alrerady cooked and frozen 3 shepherds pies and I'm going to try a few more things at the weekend. Could I just check, what's the best way to reheat things that aren't a 'sauce' kind of food? For example, I put my sheperds pies in foil containers, so hopefully it can go in the oven? Do you reheat most things in the (like veg etc)? If so, how do you know how long to do it for? Sorry if that's a stupid question!

I get them out the morning I am due to cook them to defrost and then pop them in the preheated oven on a backing tray. They usually cook in about 20 minutes. If in doubt, poke the centre with a metal skewer or knife, take it out and test whether the skewer/knife is hot - if it is, then you know its cooked through.

chivas

Hi! Quick question - hopefully not too OT!

Someone mentioned foil containers - I was wondering where you get these from, how much they cost and if they're reusable?? I usually use tupperware, but foil would be better for oven items - and I guess probably for storing tomato-based sauces to avoid staining?

noseypoots

I got the foil containers from Instore. They were 99p for about 6 I think. I'm not sure if they are re-usable yet as it's the first time I've used them, but they're probably not because they have a kind of cardboard top (like some chineese takeaways use). They also have a pack of 8 re-useable plastic ones for 99p so I got some of these too.

boo81

I have some staples in my freezer:

casseroles, normally chicken or turkey
Veggy curry
Mashed potatoes
Ratatouille
Spag bol

I freeze them into the lakeland stackable pots which ive recently bought and they are the perfect shape and size ofr individula portions.

There are so many things you can freeze, in winter ive frozen soups and when my mum was ill my brother used to make huge batches for her to freeze.

I also recently have made sausage rolls, chicken pies, cheese and tomato tartlets and quiches for lunches and they all turned out lovely. My mum makes malt loaf and cheese or plain scones and muffins are good. You can make savoury ones for snacks instead of sweet.

There are loads of things so im sure you will have fun cooking up a storm;)