Freeze ahead food

zcrat41

Morning all.

I have a really busy time at work during August so am looking to stock the freezer but I'm
Running out of ideas.

So far I have:
Bolognese
Chilli
Savoury mince
Lasagne
Fish pie

Oat and honey muffins.

I need some non mince family meal ideas please. I also need things like muffins I can add to picnics to bulk up - do flapjacks
Freeze? Any good suggestions?

I'm also toying with the idea of freezing sandwiches. Maybe ham or cheese with butter. Would mayo freeze? Any other fillings or experience of doing this?

[purplesignup][/purplesignup]

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dan958

Flapjacks freeze well.

Burritos freeze well, so does anything with chicken.

For breakfasts you could freeze homemade egg and bacon mcmuffins, breakfast burritos, or homemade pancakes/waffles.

For dinners you could freeze stews, soups, curries, and really, any sort of chicken recipe will be fine (orange chicken, garlic and honey chicken etc)

For snacks, you could freeze cookies (although freezing the cookie dough is better, and then just baking when needed). you could even make some homemade sausage rolls.

Mayo on bread will probably make the bread go soggy when defrosted. Mayo will also seperate into it's parts when frozen, fine to eat, just may not look great. I would probably just put on mayo after you defrost.

DigForVictory

I can vouch for the hot from the oven minutes after frozen in freezer biscuits being wildly popular.

It got to the stage where I hid the dough inside a container apparently full of spinach, and required a clean plate before biscuits were cooked.

Sandwiches freeze fine & defrosting on the way in does them no harm, but I too would add mayo later.

getmore4less

Pizza, ready topped but have some stuff kept back to pimp them up to taste on the day.

12-15mins from frozen

Mozzarella balls(small) in ice cubes to defrost quickly in the micro.
Chorizo lump in the fridge to add slices.
fresh mushroom
...

Another good one is marinaded strips frozen as flat as you can get.
then do stir fry with fresh veg add the meat from frozen(or quick zap) then add precooked noodles.

Aug should be BBQ weather, if you have some help to get it started
marinade and freeze, fridge 24hr before.

Just about anything in a sauce freezes OK.

rice/pasta/noodles/jackets can be done to bulk up while the item is getting reheated.

Fire_Fox

As a Cooking for One regular with chronic heath/ energy issues I recommend buying as many different vegetables and fruits frozen as possible, go to a couple of shops for choice. Then batch prep even more. Bell peppers green separate to other colours, chopped celery and grated carrot are all really versatile.

Otherwise hearty blended soups, blended smoothies or ready-to-go smoothie mixes. Fish curries, seafood paella since you have only one fish dish. Chicken leg casseroles: onion/ leek/ mushrooms/ wine or cider, Mediterranean tomato and veg, tagine with lemon, green olives and chick peas.

I do *very lazy* two person stir fries in the microwave, more steam fry but it works! Cooked frozen jumbo prawns or hard-boiled eggs or fish fillet, bag of stir fry veg, jar sauce, very fine brown rice noodles.

HTH!

Frozen sarnies could go in a sandwich toaster to feel fresh again. Might need some research or experimenting though.

zcrat41

dan958 wrote: »

Flapjacks freeze well.

Burritos freeze well, so does anything with chicken.

For breakfasts you could freeze homemade egg and bacon mcmuffins, breakfast burritos, or homemade pancakes/waffles.

For dinners you could freeze stews, soups, curries, and really, any sort of chicken recipe will be fine (orange chicken, garlic and honey chicken etc)

For snacks, you could freeze cookies (although freezing the cookie dough is better, and then just baking when needed). you could even make some homemade sausage rolls.

Mayo on bread will probably make the bread go soggy when defrosted. Mayo will also seperate into it's parts when frozen, fine to eat, just may not look great. I would probably just put on mayo after you defrost.

Thanks. Will try flapjacks. Burritos also sound like a winner!

zcrat41

getmore4less wrote: »

Pizza, ready topped but have some stuff kept back to pimp them up to taste on the day.

12-15mins from frozen

Mozzarella balls(small) in ice cubes to defrost quickly in the micro.
Chorizo lump in the fridge to add slices.
fresh mushroom
...

Another good one is marinaded strips frozen as flat as you can get.
then do stir fry with fresh veg add the meat from frozen(or quick zap) then add precooked noodles.

Aug should be BBQ weather, if you have some help to get it started
marinade and freeze, fridge 24hr before.

Just about anything in a sauce freezes OK.

rice/pasta/noodles/jackets can be done to bulk up while the item is getting reheated.

I regularly freeze a ball of pizza dough but have never made them prepped. How do you freeze them? On a big baking tray of some sort? Do you cover them with anything? Love the idea of this!

Scrimps

I can also vouch for the bulk prepping and freezing veg. This month I food process-chopped onions, peppers, carrots and broccoli and layered a bit of each into takeaway containers so I could add veg to any meal very quickly without having to do any prep. They were used for fajitas, a Thai fish curry, chilli, Mediterranean (added garlic too) chicken and just veg pasta. Even though brocolli wouldnt usually go in fajitas it was chopped so small no-one really cared

If you like lentils/pulses we also freeze lentil cottage pie and aduki bean casserole and the like in advance

Nicki

Curry sauce is a good one. Then you just add fresh (cooked) chicken or prawns to the sauce and heat it through.

I also like to make huge vats of beef or chicken casserole which you can either serve with rice or mashed potato or top with frozen puff pastry for a beef or chicken pie (use boneless pieces of chicken!)

For picnics how about sausage rolls, Cornish pasties, sweet and savoury scones, scotch pancakes, cheese straws, spanakopita, and samosas

getmore4less

zcrat41 wrote: »

I regularly freeze a ball of pizza dough but have never made them prepped. How do you freeze them? On a big baking tray of some sort? Do you cover them with anything? Love the idea of this!

Look at prepped pizza from a store, the fresh ones freeze well.
They come on card/styrene wrapped in film, I take them out of the boxes to use less room.
Have used tray or cutting board to keep homemade flat while freezing.

I get mine very cheap from waitrose and M&S reduced end of day, not worth making very often.