Freezer meals...

ScotinLondon

Evening....re pizza...don't see why not. If you have the space go for it.

Am going off for a bit of shopping tomorrow for ingredients for my veggie quesadillas, as we eating the last of the enforeced defrosted quesadillas tonight.

You can also freezer tiny portions of garlic & ginger too, so it's all ready for you when you are batch cooking. Where I live, we can get a biggish bag for a £1 each. I just liquidate it and freeze in little ready portions. The ice box tray is useful.

HTH
SIL

ScotinLondon

Sorry, just realised not answered your question.

I think that you should be able to add other veggies etc on top after cooking the frozen pizza for a little while. You probably will need to experiment with timings to ensure that it works right for you.

SIL

Feral_Moon

lisa110rry wrote: »

I'm going to come in from left wing here... One of my favourite slow cooker recipes is Red Beans and Rice (not a veg dish) if you like complicated spices. Google 'Deep South Dish' and 'Slow Cooker Red Beans and Rice' together.


Bon appetit!

Pollycat wrote: »

I did Google it - and you're my new best friend! :T

I love red kidney beans and have a part used bag in my cupboard.

Actually, the photos don't make it look like a pretty dish (and I'm not sure I'd serve it up for a dinner party:rotfl:) but I bet it tastes fab.

You've reminded me of a cassoulet recipe I used to do so I'm off to have a rummage in my recipe box.

Hi, could you both tell me which sausages you've used please? I'm not sure I can get hold of andouille sausages and I'd rather not use chorizo if there's a better alternative.

Thanks :beer:

Pollycat

Feral_Moon wrote: »

Hi, could you both tell me which sausages you've used please? I'm not sure I can get hold of andouille sausages and I'd rather not use chorizo if there's a better alternative.

Thanks :beer:

Sorry, I can't help as I'd not heard of the recipe until posted here. I will be interested in the answer though.

helcat26

Hi I batch cook for my father's freezer, so that he has complete meals he can microwave.


His favourites are:


Chicken Stew with carrots leeks potatoes celery and lentils
(fast to make using chicken mini fillets (£2.70 Lidl) saute chopped chicken add stock and veg leave to simmer till potatoes cooked)


Pork stew with apricots- use a pack of 4 pork steaks (£2.60) , chopped onion handful no soak apricots. Brown whole steaks and onions then simmer with stock and apricots for about an hour.


Beef stew- I too have a cooker that sautes and slow cooks but mine is a pressure cooker too! So brown diced beef and onions, add herbs, mushrooms red wine, tomato puree 1 rasher bacon and stock. Pressure cook 1/2 hour. If turning into stew add potatoes and carrots, if making into pie bases portion out.
This one also make do as a respectable boeuf bourguignon mock up for unexpected guests serving it with sauted potatoes.


Tarragon Chicken- cook chicken strips until gold with onion add stock mushrooms and dried tarragon and simmer 30 mins, thicken and add splash cream ( also makes a respectable pie base)


All these serve 4 and I scale up the batch to make future portions.


I find if I am making him Shepherds pie or fish pie then I need to make the mash and put it in the oven to crisp slightly before putting it on the portioned meal and freezing it so that it is not just mush.


Hope this helps . I find I can knock out about 16 meal portions in 2 hours inc cleaning up, then I do not have to do it again for a bit.


I even sometime almost feel like I am kidding myself that someone has cooked dinner for me rather than having to start preparing stuff after work!

greensalad

I've bought big lasagne-sized metal dishes so I can make larger portions of meals, and then also some smaller ones suitable for singular portions (or double portions of veggie/side dishes).

Sunday is my day. We've got the delivery coming Saturday eve and then I'm home alone on Sunday so I can get cooking!

Skint_yet_Again

helcat the beef stew and tarragon chicken sound lovely I will give those a try thanks


I batch cook for DS as he works shifts and needs to eat at odd times occasionally but he doesn't like beef chilli or spag bol or lasagne but 2 favourites are pork mince with choritzo meatballs in tomato and chilli sauce and chicken & mozzarella casserole.


I make the meatballs mixing pork mince adding finely chopped red onion, finely chopped choritzo, dried mixed herbs and garlic salt / black pepper. I make them quite small so they fry quickly and warm up again quickly. The sauce is fried onion, chopped yellow pepper and chopped corgette with passata and mixed herbs/garlic.


Chicken & mozzarella casserole - fry diced chicken & red peppers until chicken starts to brown/colour - add to casserole dish. Fry onions and smoked bacon - add to casserole. Add garlic, mixed herbs and passata. cook in oven about 40 mins until chicken cooked through. Add diced mozzarella and back into oven for another 10 mins

melanzana

For those interested in freezing mash. I have done this with great success, and rarely, if ever cook mash fresh now.

I just steam the spuds in bulk when I have the time. Then leave to cool a little and dry off.

Drop a pat or two of butter in, not too much. and mash with a ricer or potato masher. NO MILK.

Then when cooled down, use an ice cream scoop and portion out on a tray. Open freeze overnight, and next day/evening place in freezer bags say six scoops per portion.

Can be microd from frozen, but I often let them defrost a little before that, but the result is the same.

Yummy mash.

greensalad

This is my shopping list:

2 x Beef Mince 5% Fat 500g
2 x Mozzarella Pearls, Basics 125g
1 x Happy Egg Large Free Range Eggs x6
2 x Passata, Basics 500g -
3 x Onions
2 x English Butter, Unsalted 250g
1 x Packed Bay Leaves
1 x Semi Skimmed Milk (4 pint)
2.00 kg x Tomatoes
1 x Macaroni 1kg
1 x Extra Mature Cheddar 400g
1 x House Merlot 187ml
1 x House Pinot Grigio 18.7cl
3 x Baking Potatoes
1 x Courgettes
1 x Fennel Seeds 28g
4 x White Plait Roll
2 x Raw Jumbo King Prawns, Taste the Difference 225g
2 x Coconut Milk 400g
1 x Chicken Breast Fillet Portions 650g
1 x Thai Red Curry Paste 180g
1 x Red Chillies 60g
1 x Sweet Potatoes 1.25kg

My plans:

- Blanch tomatoes, cook them down with passata, red wine, herbs, onion, garlic to make a big base sauce. One third can go in the freezer for pasta sauce.
- Make lots of bechamel.
- Cook up beef with onion. Mix with red sauce to make ragu.
- Make up a large lasagne.
- Add cheese to some bechamel. Cook up macaroni and make portions of macaroni cheese
- Cut up all the vegetables and roast them a little. Mix with bechamel for a veggie bake.
- Make mashed potato.
- Use ragu + mash for cottage pie. Use mash + bechamel + hard boiled eggs & prawns for a sort of fish pie
- Use flour from cupboard stores to make pizza dough. Use passata + mozza to make pizzas.
- Make a thai red curry sauce.
- Cook up chicken in chilli and also leftover prawns. Mixed with thai red curry sauce to have a chicken curry and a prawn curry ready.
- Mix remaining sauce with boiled sweet potato and chilli to make a thick soup to have with bread rolls.

Means I will have:

• Lasagne
• Cottage pie
• Fish pie
• Chicken thai curry
• Prawn thai curry
• Thai sweet potato soup
• Bechamel vegetable bake
• Pizzas
• Macaroni cheese

mumofthetwins

one thing I do is I freeze sauces/soups in zip lock bags and label them .. they seem to take up loads less space and stack nicely, oh and they defrost quicker too


Lisa x