Nutritionally good meals for the Freezer?

Lillibet_2

Hi Everyone

I am looking for insprination for balanaced meals which I can make in advance & keep in the freezer for post-birth weeks. I always seem to end up defaluting to pasta for freezable meals which gets a bit repetitive after a while, no matter how much I vary it!

As a bit of background, we like both meat (mostly chicken or beef) & veggie meals, also love fish. I like meals to have a good vegetable content. Hubby won't eat tomatoes for love or money & he can't eat spicy food so chillis, currys etc are no good, garlic is fine. Hubby, who I guess will be chief cook for a while, is not kitchen-inclined so I really am looking for heat & serve ideas, he can just about stretch to grating cheese on top! Any suggestions or recipes would be most welcome as my brain seems to have left my body & I just can't think of what to cook:eek: !!

Thanks very much;)

Pal

You can make chillis and picadillos without adding too much chilli. Then eat with rice, or even better, tacos, sour cream, salsa etc.

You could make (or buy ) some pizza bases and freeze them along with a simple tomato sauce in a tub. He can then stick what he likes on the top with some cheese and bake it for 15 minutes until cooked.

Any meat stew will freeze fine. Just bake a potato to go with it along with some frozen peas.

The chilli and pasta sauces could also go on baked potatoes.

Galtizz

Quiche/ flan. You can make loads of cases and fill with egg then just vary the filling. I use loads of veg in mine. Courgette on it's own or with tomatoes (I know) or pepper and something or just cheese and herbs or ham or salmon or just cheese and herbs. You name it, you can probably put it in. You do need to fully cook them first though or the egg will separate. I just heat them back up with the foil still on the top so that they don't burn.

Lasagne. You can make loads of variations on that either a meat one or loads of veg in a tomato sauce or leeks in butter sauce (hmmm) or peppers or whatever...

erm... I'm sure I can think of some more, there is a thread somewhere, I think. I'll see if I can find it.

Found THIS one which isn't too nutritional and THIS one for vegetarian which has some good external links too (not just veggie)

Ticklemouse

I have to laugh here as it reminds me of when I had DS2.

Birth - early hours of Monday morning - home by lunchtime - friend turned up mid afternoon and ended up staying for tea - I'd pre-cooked a shepherds pie Saturday evening and placed in the fridge. (They freeze quite well and you can add lots of veg BTW)

Tuesday evening - I made tea, from scratch, cos as Mr TM said, I was only standing up in the kitchen, so I may as well do it cos I am a much better cook. I set the midwife on him on Thursday - he never got any better though!

(Oh, and I packed the whole house to move when DS2 was 10 weeks old too - so be thankful if Mr Lillibet cooks your tea, even if he does just grate cheese over the top )

Chipps

Shepherds Pie (or Cottage Pie)?
Make it in a dish lined with foil, freeze in dish then take it out when frozen & wrap well in clingfilm. To serve, take it out of clingfilm and replace in the original container to defrost & cook. Of course if you already have loads of pyrex dishes you don't have to do all that rigmarole!

Queenie

My experience of babies are that:
a) they wake at inconvenient times so "planning" has to have a wiiiiiiiiiide degree of flexibility
b) they *always* wake up when you sit down to eat. Without fail
c) despite many endeavours to have a "routine", each baby is an individual and will happily (vindictively, it appears at times your lacking in sleep! ) put a spanner in the works of any plans you may have/think you have/*want* to have
d) It is absolutely FINE to ask dh to "grab something in on your way home from work!" - no guilt trips
e) If anyone asks "Do you need anything for the baby? What can we bring? The right answer is: Yes - a couple of casseroles for the freezer/tonight's dinner and thank you *very* much :whistle: Any weird looks should be met with the ultimate answer: "I'm breastfeeding and that is baby's favourite meal via the milk supply"

HM meatloaves freeze well, as will pies, soups, heck, most things you make ordinarily are great for the freezer.
If you simply make double the quantity of the meals you are already eating, freeze the excess, I have no doubt it will carry you through all the times you need to turn to the freezer

spendaholic

I'm with your hubby on the tomatoes/spices front - I can't stand either, erm, either, but garlic is ok.

Most stews and casseroles will freeze. If you get those foil trays with the cardboard lids (shop around, they're very cheap from Crash, Bang, Wallop type market stalls), you can save portion sizes and write on the lids how long to defrost/cook and on what temperature. I have a great recipe for chicken casserole with parsley dumplings and even the dumplings freeze well.

You can also make pies with pastry lids.

But August ... hmm. Hopefully it will be far too warm for cooking, so you could get loads of salads in and serve them with chicken, tinned fish, quiches, cold pies, boiled eggs, cheeses, etc. My husband is a good cook, but he's just as good at tossing a salad together. Only trouble is, he seems to think we need everything in it. :rolleyes:

elona

Don't forget that omelettes can be made quickly as can home made salads, coleslaw , potato salad etc.

Brainwave - do you have a barbecue ? - if so let hubbie do the cooking as it is " a man thing!" lol :rotfl:

Ticklemouse

If you don't want to use foil trays, so you can pop things straight in micro, I found a shop near me called The Range, that sell those plastic ones with lids, like the takeaway ones - £1 for 6 (I think)

Other than that, do you have 'access' to mum/MIL? They usually do a great job in cooking and cleaning in the first few days/weeks

crazyhazy

I haven't ben on here in a while, so apologise if this has been covered recently, but couldn't see anything in the search. My freezer is really empty just now and in preparation for when i go back to working silly shifts and also for h2b when I'm away, I need to stock up. Howevere, apart from spag bol and chicken curry, I am totally out of ideas of what to cook and freeze. So, looking for some inspiration! What does everyone else make and freeze? What works best? Would chicken pasta bake freeze ok?

rchddap1

At the moment my freezer is full of meat portions. I haven't had time to do any cooking. However, I will do some of my shepherd's pies on bank holiday Monday. However, it would be good to see if there are any other dishes that I could try whilst I'm at it.