Freezer Prep Recipes?

[Hudson1984]

Hi all,

New here and hoping to pick your brains. We'd like to save some time in the evenings and of course, eat a little more sensibly (less take aways!) so, with this in mind, we've just bought a chest freezer, and the intention is to prep as many meals as we can of a sunday, ideally once a fortnight! and stock it up.

Just wondered if anyone could recommend any recipe books for this? or can share some go-to freezer meals? I love a BBQ and was intending to batchup some rubs/marinades and cover various meat and chuck in the freeze. Then 24 hours or so before the cook, chuck them in the fridge and cook in the evening. That really is as long as I want to spend cooking in the evening.

Ideally I can get even that down - essentially I want to make ready meals, but hopefully healthy and not always meaty! We've got plenty of trays.

I'll be getting pizzas and stuff as we all cheat after all. But would like to have a decent stock of ready prepared foods to ensure those easy take away calls aren't as easy as just grabbing something from the freezer.

 

[The Late Night Gourmet]

Welcome, @Hudson1984! When you have a chance, please properly introduce yourself at the New Member Forum.

I can tell you that what you're looking to do is more or less what I've been doing the past several months: I make a large preparation of a dish, freeze half of it, and eat the rest over the course of the week. The following week, rather than using the rest of what I made, I do the same thing (freezing half, eating half). After a while, I have a variety of different things I can eat in weeks when I'm not so motivated. I sometimes surprise myself by not looking at what I'm taking from the freezer.

When freezing something, it's important to consider how the freezing process will affect the consistency. Some things recover very well; chili, stews, and the like come through perfectly. I was also happy that the fried rice I made defrosted without issue. And, anything that's a ground meat will also work perfectly.

I will have to give a think on more, and I'm sure others can provide additional insight.

 

[rascal]

We are all lazy really and always looking for shortcuts. I plan a week ahead. The freezer is your friend.
Btw welcome.

Russ

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Hi,

I find that most of my meals freeze just fine. I cook larger amounts, we'll eat one or two portions each and the rest is frozen. that system works really well because it allows us to see what is a decent portion for that particular meal. But I don't tend to freeze rice. At its worst, it takes 30 minutes to cook the nice wholegrain brown rice. That's walk in through the door, put the rice on, get changed and do what's needed and before you know it the rice is ready and you haven't yet reheated the food from the freezer! we deduct 10 minutes from the buzzer to allow for this, it helps us with timings when we know we are going to be tired and or rushed and often not in the mood for cooking or concentrating. It is also just about the time that any additional veggies take to cook, so they can get thrown on at the same time. One thing we often do is to throw a sauce over rice and veg (and tofu or some other protein) and pretty much eat it as though its a soup. There are so many variations on this theme that you never really eat the same dish twice!

 

[CraigC]

We often make two batches of lasagna, stuffed shells, etc. One to have for a planned weekly meal and one to freeze. I'll fire up the smoker and do large batches of sausage that will get vacuum packed and go in the freezer, most of which are ingredients in other dishes and aren't available locally. Stocks and broths are perfect for making ahead and freezing.