Meals to Freeze

[Seekrit]

I know, I'm WAAAAAAAAAAY ahead of myself as normal.
Can anyone let me know of some recipes easy to make, freeze and reheat?
Well they don't REALLY have to be that easy to make... just able to be frozen and easy enough to reheat. :)

[Melo]

Spag Bog, Lasagne, Curried Sausages and Rice....

Hmmm thats all in our freezer at moment, if I think of any more i'll get back to you! :)

Oh maybe not the Curried Sausages if your going to breast feed, I know DS didnt like it!

[five]

All of the above, plus any sorts of casseroles and soups are easy to freeze and reheat. Another quick easy meal that we always have on hand is fresh ravioli in the freezer and a jar of pasta sauce in the cupboard, boil up the raviloi, heat the sauce, voila, dinner :D

[natasha]

Cottage pie+ shepards pie.:smiliedance: I'v got tonnes of the stuff in my freezer!

[MummyCharmzy]

lasagne and spag bol freeze brilliantly as has already been suggested!

Vegies freeze up okay too so at least you've got something healthy to just grab and heat to go along with whatever else you're having and not have to worry aboud peeling chopping and cooking it all!

desert wise is you like tapioca that freezes well and rice pudding probably would too1

[wattle]

I made a batch of pikelets (with sultanas in them) last night and froze half of them. They should make a nice snack down the track. I think nut loaf and some cakes freeze well too.

Not dinner suggestions, but they're still handy.

Actually I was thinking of cutting up serves of vegies and freezing them in snap lock bags, then they can go straight into the microwave. Has anyone tried that?

[Seekrit]

good ideas all :D
We're not fans of lasagne (I'd ratehr eat my own toe nail clippings to be honest) but the other stuff sounds great :) lots of stews and I imagine mince meals.

Wattle - that's and interesting idea, all our vegies are frozen anyway (bird's eye and the like) but I would be interested if you could just snap-lock them and microwave for a few minutes instead of boiling them up

[hayleylea]

I actually have a womens weekley Cookbook thats titled "Meals from the Freezer" lol

Theres heaps of recipies in there, i havent tried any i got given this book as a gift and havent tried any of the recipies below are some of the things in there, i have no idea if they are good or bad...of course the pictures in the book look good lol. If you like the sound of any just pm me and ill write down the ingreedients. Or if you have a GO-LO near you I have seen the cook books there for i think $4!

Chicken
Bombay-spiced Chicken Skewers
Chicken & prosciutto Cannelloni
Chicken Pancetta ragout
Vietnamese spring rolls

Beef & Veal
Chunky beef & Vegie soup
Satay beef with aromatic rice
Piroshki
braised beef curry with dhal
bbqued red wine beef
american meatloaf with Caramalised onion
Chile Con carne
Beef turnovers
osso buco
mediterranean burgers

Lamb
Chermoulla lamb with roasted beetroot puree
hearty winter soup casserole
lamb & ricotta ravioli
lamb & rosemary Pie
madras lamb curry with roti
lamb souvlakia
curried lamb shanks with naan

Pork
cassoulet of sausage and chicken
hungarian cabbage rolls
auntie rose's pasta sauce

[veve]

ooh seekrit... dont forget that cakes freeze easily too... good for when you have unexpected guests after bubs is born... take it out in the morning... and voila.. home cooked cake!!!! :)

(or ... when you have a sweet tooth... buggar the guests :laughing: )

xx

[Seekrit]

I'll look out for that book, thanks hayleylea

And veve.. me? entertain guests? Bugger 'em, if I didn't invite them they can bring their own (and MY OWN) chocolate.. er.. cakes and morning tea.

[veve]

And veve.. me? entertain guests? Bugger 'em, if I didn't invite them they can bring their own (and MY OWN) chocolate.. er.. cakes and morning tea.

aw c**p... does that mean I have to BRING stuff!!!??? :laughing:

[SixtiesChild]

I know it's not a cooked meal but I've been freezing sandwiches for dd's and dh's lunch and they're really fresh when they thaw out.
If you're into time saving and saving a kitchen from daily mess of making sandwiches.
Once a month I buy 2-4 loaves of really fresh bread. Ham & cheese freezes well and can be popped into an electric sandwich toaster straight from the freezer if you just butter the outside.
Other deli-meat freezes well too along with cheese. There are limitations though- you can't use tomatoes, lettuce and other vegies as such because they just don't freeze well.
The frozen sandwiches keep for about 1 month when wrapped in cling wrap but not much more than that. They thaw out in about half an hour at room temp.
It takes a little preparation but it's worth it when I only make sandwiches once a month or once a fortnight. It's nice to just grab a sandwich out of the freezer and pop into dd's school lunchbox each morning without the mess.

[Seekrit]

aw c**p... does that mean I have to BRING stuff!!!??? :laughing:
:laughing: Malteasers. :p (i might be over them by then!

Nadia - great idea on the sammiches! I hadn't thought lunches (I'm thinking more of when I'm hope with bubs and I don't want to cook) but that's a good idea for dear boy when I'm on leave and we can't afford the luxuries we do!
(although he's a good boy and takes marg, bread, cheese and meat to work and toasts his sammies there.. I could be a good wife and make them myself!) :chef:

Brings back memories of mum making us our favourite sammies and putting them in the freezer with our names on them! Chicken and Mayo for me!

[fiveofus]

we have started buying our vege in bulk - we actually make a trip to the markets and get cheap/straight from the farm vege and then cut them up and blache and store in zip lock bags in the freezer. It means that we can have a easy meal of fish/meat etc and vege even if I haven't made it to the shops.... we also have a wide variety on hand. Makes it very easy also for our 19 month old's meals (luckily he loves his vege).
Other stock standards in our freezer are stews/macaroni cheese and quiche (I always make two and cook them through and then freeze one) as well as spag bol etc. I also always have several batches of savory and sweet muffins which are really handy for Morgan's lunches/snacks when we are going out or when friends come by with their kids.

[cwsmum]

I found myself buying those frozen pasta meals for lunch alot recently, carbonara ones in particular...I'm too lazy to make that myself.
Anyway, it was getting way too expensive so I started buying a jar of carbonara sauce (in the pasta aisle, not the fridge) and a packet of fettuccine and cooking it, adding some fresh mushrooms, and freezing it in portions. DH doesn't like it so I never make it for dinner.
I have found that you need to use less pasta than the jar of sauce says so that when you reheat it there is still plenty of sauce. Takes about 5mins in the microwave :)

I also freeze things like pies, homemade spring rolls, I made sweet'n'sour meatballs last week and froze the leftovers from that.
Have a look at the frozen dinners section in the supermarket for inspiration :D

[~Emmylou~]

We do the old favourites - spaghetti bog, lasagne, and casseroles.

We also make mexican mince (mince with kidney beans and the seasoning) and freeze. You can use that for tacos, enchiladas or burritos :) DH is a mexican nut.

Curries also freeze well and its easy to throw some rice in the rice cooker and microwave some papadums....dinner in 10 minutes!

Beef stroganoff is good, just don't add the sour cream until you are ready to eat it.

We also marinate cubes of meat (chicken or beef) and put them in a ziplock bag with their marinade. Defrost and use for stirfries or skewers for the bbq. :)

[MariaO]

As well as the cottage pies, lasagnes (including chicken,asparagus and mushroom - delicious) and moussaka I had a batch of chicken and broccoli gratin in the freezer.

Poach some chicken breasts in a pot with spanish onion, carrots,bay leaves, peppercorns and then dice the chicken meat when cooked. Strain and boil the remaining stock to 1 pint and add some cream and roux (or maybe lite cream cornflower and water if you want to reduce calories...) until sauce thickens.
Blanch broccoli until just tender and mix with chicken and sauce. Season with salt and pepper to taste and put in a oven ready casserole dish.

Mix 50g breadcrumbs with 15g melted butter and 30g grated tasty cheese - spread over chicken mixture.

You can freeze at this point when fully defrosted cook in 180 preheated oven for 40 mins - cover top with foil for first 15. (if cooking immediately i.e. when mixture is still warm then 20 mins will do) - yummy

[OceBel]

lentils are really easy to make and are excellent for freezing, and to reheat, can stay in freezer for 4 months. i cook alot of lentils and freeze them and then heat them for lazy dinners.

[mythreelittlemonkeys]

kerist! :eek: I not even thought about...only 3 weeks to go too...we just dont have enough room in our freezer either...I might just stock up on meat in the freezer and hope DH reverts to when we first met and cooks me up yummy creations...:rolleyes:

[the_queen]

This is not really technically home-cooking... but I claim it as such sometimes!!
Also, not sure if other people's supermarkets have this fantastic habit, maybe just in my area nobody actually buys this stuff.... You know Latina Fresh (and other similar brands) that do fresh pasta (things like Agnolotti, Capiletti, Ravioli, Tortelini etc etc) these are usually really nice gourmet style stuff; plus they also do fresh sauces, all different flavours. Anyway, I don't usually buy these because they are a bit expensive really - but every now and then the supermarket marks them down to reeeally cheap! I bought about 10 packets of fresh filled pasta (things like chicken sundried tomato and fetta filled capiletti MMMMMMMMM) and a heap of pasta sauces too. They all go straight in the freezer (so use by dates don't matter) and they defrost really quickly, you boil the pasta for 5 minutes and stick the sauce straight into the microwave for about 3 minutes (in the packet it comes in!).
Healthy too!! (Oh, probably not the alfredo sauce... or the pancetta white wine and chives sauce MMMMMM that one is my favourite...) We have had magnificent pasta meals these last 2.5 weeks, not every night obviously (and unfortunately I've had to stop having the tomato-y sauces, it seems to upset Curtis' tummy) but a few nights a week it's quick and easy, plus extremely yummy, and it's a filling meal for not much effort at all!! And my supermarket marks them down so cheaply, the other night we had agnolotti with a white sauce, the pasta was $2 and the sauce was $2 as well, so it fed both of us for $4!!!

Vallerie's not a fan, but to avoid arguments she has been eating Wiggles and Bob the Builder spaghetti for the past 2.5 weeks LOL...
:thumbsup: