Freezing home made meals...

[BertrandRussell]

I batch cook and freeze often- but always whole dishes. If I made something like Hunter’s chicken with green beans and new potatoes, could I put a portion in a Tupperware and freeze it- like a commercially prepared ready meal? I would usually freeze the chicken and then do fresh vegetables. But if the Co-op can do it, why can’t I?

You could. The only reason I don’t is when the veg taste better fresh or don’t reheat in roughly the same time as the rest of the meal.

You definitely can! We do it all the time. The only thing I'd look out for is that they don't keep as long. In my experience, they grow a frost blanket or get freezer burn which affects the taste. For anything sloppy (soup, chilli etc) I dump it in a glass jar, let it cool to create a seal and then freeze- that works brilliantly.

You can but veg doesn’t defrost well. I usually make lots of the main ingredient and then steam veg to go with it. You can do it while the main cooks.

Potatoes don't freeze that well.

We batch cook the meat part and freeze portions in margarine tubs. The tubs seal well and are no stick.

We used to use foil cartons for batch freezing, but got a little seeing a film of frost when we took them out.

Big fans of press-seal freezer bags now. Pour/spoon the food in, press air out and seal, and whack in freezer. They stack nicely too.

Last night we had stew, of which we freeze just the meat & veg, and add gravy when cooking (to save space).

It’s fine but you need to blanch the veg.

Yes you can. I've just eaten something I batch-cooked last week, portioned into tupperwares, then taken out of the freezer this morning.

It was a traybake of chicken thighs/drumsticks, halved new potatoes, red onion quarters and garlic.

I microwaved green beans & carrot batons to accompany. I find that veg is fine particularly if there's a sauce/gravy but nicer fresh.

Hmm. I was wondering because I have a family member who works very erratic hours, and comes home late and very tired. I’d put money on them not cooking themselves separate vegetables, but would certainly rather them if they could microwave one Tupperware......

You could do a stew type thing with mash and the veg in the stew? They freeze and defrost really well. As do things like traybakes, frittatas, quiche, pie. Basically anything you can mix the veg into is usually a good shout.

Colcannon works, and gives you mash and greens at the same time.