Building up my freezer

Mnoee

I have African peanut stew in mine at the moment - I use this recipe, making it with chicken instead of beans for my bean-hating partner and leaving as is for myself - https://www.itv.com/thismorning/articles/african-peanut-stew-rachel-ama-recipe

I also make individual pies - I do puff pastry pot pies (no base, just a lid) which I know is controversial, but my cholesterol is high enough without extra pastry. I usually do a white sauce and fill with mushrooms and either chicken and chorizo or halloumi and broccoli, but you can chuck virtually anything in a pie. I did 'bakes' before I got my pie dishes, they freeze well too. Any leftover puff pastry is great for a few sausage rolls. 

I also did a tray of cinnamon and apple swirls two weeks ago that have frozen well - https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/caramel-apple-cinnamon-buns I baked them until almost done, chilled on the counter, then seperated and froze before chucking in a big tub. I tried to be smart and freeze some homemade caramel sauce in an ice cube tray, but it's far too sticky and needs spooning out. Oh well, at least I don't need the tray for ice cubes in this weather. 

twopenny

While working I used to stock the freezer for 6 weeks all except fresh veg and fruit.

So tomato soup, easy peasy and there's carrot & ?, surprisingly broccoli and cauliflower is tasty. Just using stock cubes and buying veg when reduced.

A marrow can be sliced into handy pieces like you would slice a carrot the old way, the middle taken out and filled with a tomato and minced beef flavour. It will keep a while without going soggy and is a healthy quick meal.

As said, batch for chilli, spag bol, shepherds pie, curry.

I also have some ready meals that can be cooked straight from frozen and no washing up. Tesco do a good maccoroni cheese for 85p. A Toad in the Hole.

I buy one of those curry 'meal for 2' boxes from Tesco when they are reduced and portion them into 4 meals, curry and rice seperately. The portions look small but I find with fresh sliced tomato, chutney, a couple of bajis and half a Naan it's quite filling. Save the instructions for cooking from frozen.

A cheap cheesecake which I partially thaw, cut into portions and then put back in the box.

Carolines chocolate fridge cake (no cooking) and flapjacks can be taken out of the freezer and thaw in minutes - also cake can be portioned or individual cup cake type can be frozen.

Cooked down fruit which only needs a crumble topping made is good to have also.

A mix of hearty, healthy and totally indulgent is good to have.

Longwalker

I freeze just about everything other then veg, not fussed on frozen veg - except peas and corn

For me ( having two small freezers ) I fill with reduced meat and fish, chicken I get from the chicken processing plant outlet, and left overs. Not all left overs are cooked, left overs for me is that one burger from a pack of 4 ( 3 of us here) those four sausages from a pack of 12 etc. Hell Ill even freeze them as singles, it means not one of us is eating for the sake of it and sometime down the line Ive enough singles to save buying a pack

Basically if its not being used, in the freezer it goes, I had a 3 pack of chicken fillet tonight, one and a half was plenty, so one and a half into the freezer for another time, plus a takeaway box with the left overs of the cooked meal ( a Chinese style chicken dish and rice )  When I cook rice, I always cook too much, whatever is left - in the freezer - ideal for an egg fried rice some other time . Too much mash? bagged and frozen - comes out when I need mash for a cottage pie or fish pie 

ArbitraryRandom

Brambling said:

I make a large lasagna (meat or veggies) and usually portion it into 6.  Things like bolognese, curries, cottage pies all bulk cook really well and freeze

Rather than make specific things, one thing that works well for us is to cook a batch in the slow cooker and portion into tubs of 'mince' (which is to say meat, lentils, grated carrot, onion and a tin or two of tomatoes, with some stock). This then forms a base for a wide range of quick meals and we don't face the situation of not fancying what's in the freezer:

- Adding tomatoes, a diced bell pepper, and sometimes half a butternut squash, I can use it as the red layer in lasagne

- adding mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes, a spoon of mixed italian herbs, a spoon of sugar and a splash of vinegar, makes a decent bolognese 

- adding tomatoes, a tin of kidney (or other) beans, and cumin/coriander/chilli powder it becomes chilli for ' con carne, natchos and/or enchiladas 

- adding gravy and peas/carrots it becomes the base for a cottage pie

- add garlic, egg and breadcrumbs (and wrap with smoked bacon) to make a simple meatloaf 

- or just add a good onion gravy and have mince and tatties  

CliveOfIndia

As others have said, stuff like soup, stew, spag-bol, chilli, curry (whether home-made or left-over takeaway), cottage pie all freeze really well.  Portion it up into Tupperware boxes/old takeaway tubs/freezer bags, then you can easily reheat just enough for one meal - you then just need to cook a few spuds/rice/pasta/whatever to go with it.  Depends what you like to eat, of course, no point in doing a massive batch of chilli if you don't like chilli !

We always keep frozen veg in the freezer for a standby.  I know it can be fiddly to freeze home-grown veg, and it sometimes goes a bit mushy.  When I was a kid I remember my mum "blanching" things like runner beans in boiling water before freezing them when we had a massive harvest in a short space of time - not sure if that stops them going mushy or what?  But shop-bought frozen veg like peas and sweetcorn and what-not are always handy to have, whether to eat as part of a roast dinner or just thrown into a stew to bulk it out.

Shop-bought pies or sausages and a bag of frozen chips are a great stand-by if you just want a quick "comfort-food" fix

Pretty much all meat and fish will freeze well.  We often buy meat and fish if it's on special offer (for instance if it's approaching the best-before date), bung it in the freezer and eat it months later, it's always been fine.

If you have empty space in the freezer, it's worth filling it with bread (assuming you eat bread) - again, if you can get the reduced loaves at the end of the day in the supermarket, so much the better.  It freezes well, and a freezer works more efficiently if it's packed full (unlike a fridge which needs the air to be able to circulate around the food inside).

You say you're not great at cooking?  If the idea of learning a bit about it interests you, see if there are any night classes at local colleges - there are often courses available.  Nothing fancy, but stuff like stews, chilli, spag-bol etc. are a doddle to make once you've learned the basics, and doing a night class can be a pleasant way to while away a couple of hours once a week.  This won't appeal to everyone, I realise, but it's a thought.  And home-cooking can save a lot of money.  Just the other week I made a big cottage pie - just a 500 g pack of mince bulked out with loads of veg and tons of mashed spuds on top.  Gave us about 7 or 8 really big potions, I reckon the whole lot cost less than a fiver - and it was bloomin' lovely, if i do say so myself

DigSunPap

I tend to make big batches of bolognese, chilli etc and make enough to freeze around 3-4 portions. This takes up a few draws in my freezer along with frozen veg, some meat and bread usually.

Rosa_Damascena

I am very impressed that the OP bakes. Perhaps the extra time in retirement might encourage him to cook more from scratch?

I say that as someone who has just woken up to the fact that even the food I considered to be non-processed is in fact really bad for me, including supermarket bread. I can eat it endlessly, yet if I eat soup or curry a small portion fills me up for hours. So its well worth using a tall freezer as a pantry for fresh food. All the YS "goodies" I stuck in the freezer are a total misuse of the facility!!

Rosa_Damascena

@Mnoee - I like the look of that recipe! I hadn't heard of her beforer, but I am going to hunt her cookbook out now.

Longwalker

Rosa_Damascena said:

I am very impressed that the OP bakes. Perhaps the extra time in retirement might encourage him to cook more from scratch?

I say that as someone who has just woken up to the fact that even the food I considered to be non-processed is in fact really bad for me, including supermarket bread. I can eat it endlessly, yet if I eat soup or curry a small portion fills me up for hours. So its well worth using a tall freezer as a pantry for fresh food. All the YS "goodies" I stuck in the freezer are a total misuse of the facility!!

Since Ive been losing weight I have had to cut the bread and now I dont miss it and when I do have it, I feel my stomach bloating straight away and I get extremely windy

It was bread that really was my problem. If I started a loaf, Id be up and down all day stuffing my face with it, buy a French stick, it would be gone in a couple of hours.

Now I dont look for it and we barely get through a loaf a week between the 3 of us. Even Mr L has got used to not taking sandwiches for work, he now prefers to take left overs or chicken drumsticks , a hard boiled egg and a big salad with couscous or rice. Ive just to wean him of the crisps now

Miser1964

Have a look at the websites for "Hello Fresh" and "Gousto", they publish the recipes for their food boxes online, no need to buy anything from them. The recipes are all quite simple and easy to prepare with the ingredients obtained at any supermarket and give a welcome variety from the usual spag-bol/chilli-con-carne/curry. The quantities are for two but TBH I find that's optimistic and generally freeze a third to have as a lunch another day with a baked potato.