Do you use frozen food?

[HaggardMumofToddler]

I feel like we’re so busy all the time at the moment, I work part time and DH works away a lot. Very demanding 18 month old. Getting meals ready can sometimes feel like a struggle.

It’s one of those things I said I wouldn’t do as a parent, we generally try to eat well but recently DD does have fish fingers, waffles and peas on occasion.

What’s your go to frozen food when you just can’t be bothered to cook? What can I just stick in the oven that will still be relatively healthy?

I know I could batch cook of course. But I’m awful at remembering to defrost stuff!

My most-used frozen foods are diced onions, peeled shallots, peas, chips and chicken burgers that cook from frozen. Frozen pizza is my ‘can’t be arsed to cook’ meal.

We have freezer food one night a week on club days, Kiev or fish dinghies, chips and peas. I can't get upset about it we eat well the rest of the time.

DD has fish fingers every week! I also use frozen prepared vegetables such as diced onions, garlic, etc. And we have some vegetable fingers, falafel etc that does our lunches sometimes. I also freeze
stuff I've made a lot, such as bolognaise or lasagne.

We have lots of frozen veg - already prepared, cook from frozen and no waste. Higher in nutrients than stuff which has been sitting in shops.

Lots, yes.

We have frozen veg regularly and we freeze fresh meat.
I also meal prep and freeze.
Dss has fish fingers too.

ASDA have got a new range of frozen plant-based food and some of it is really nice!

Frozen baby leaf spinach and frozen peas. Oven chips, veg sausages and veg pies. There's the odd pizza or quiche, salmon and chicken.

Fishcakes and Quorn "chicken" nuggets are winners in my house. Frozen veg is still healthy.

I like stuff that is cook from frozen - prawns, quorn pieces, salmon fillets (the sort in a microwave pack), pulses, frozen veggies of all sorts (inc my fave new discovery of chargrill veg mix) and rice. I bought cooked chicken strips from Aldi the other day that I haven't tried, but ds said they were good in his ramen dish.
A dish with prawns and rice noodles plus some peas and spinach takes less than 5 min and zero prep.
Frozen jacket pots are far better than you'd think and make a super fast dinner - and nicer than a totally microwaved one.

Loving these suggestions. Keep them coming.

I just have this awful guilt about cooking fresh and worry about what DD is eating. We did baby led weaning and she’s done so well with her eating. However, she does seem to be going through a phase of wanting to just eat tomato pasta or potato waffles/ toast.

It’s a typical case of ‘ when I become a parent I’ll never do this’. Then before you know it, they’re sitting in front of Peppa Pig eating biscuits!

Frozen beans, green beans and mashed potato.
Chicken nuggets /fish fingered served with pasta and token cucumber and tomatoes.
Frozen pizza.
Frozen Uncooked croissants
Frozen Thai veg mix from Aldi

Thanks @CMOTDibbler that’s a great idea she does love prawns with noodles. And also vegetable egg fried rice.

I might see if I can get some fish in a bag for her to try. She loves salmon. Not sure if they add too much salt, though?

I just batch cook and cook from frozen. This like pasta sauce can be made in a huge quantity, frozen in smaller tubs and then defrosted in the microwave while pasta cooks on the hob. Handful of frozen sweetcorn in with the pasta while it cools to up the veg content.

Nothing wrong with fish fingers or nuggets occasionally, especially if you can serve them with green veg which can be done from frozen. If you have time you could make your own fish cakes or similar and freeze, which can be cooked from frozen alongside waffles or whatever.
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1094668/classic-chunky-fish-cakes

I live alone so frozen is much easier for me and reduces waste.

I like frozen veg, rice and mash because I can take as much as I want.

Protein - frozen fish, chicken and beef. All good, can be chucked in the oven or a stew easily. I like Birds eye chargrills, they're nice with veggies as a quick but filling meal.

Do you have a microwave OP? Can’t you defrost in that if you forget to take stuff out of the freezer in advance?

I try not to buy unhealthy frozen food personally as if it's not there I can't eat it!

Usually I have a supply of:
Peas, various veggie mixes from Birdseye.

Bagels, bread.

Basa fish fillets (usually quite cheap and taste really nice baked with some olive oil and s+p. Healthy too.

I don’t think there’s is anything wrong with freezer food once or twice a week. When we have fish fingers, or chicken goujons , we have them with broccoli or salad so the kids are still getting their vitamins.

I keep things like fish fingers, proper chicken Kiev’s (a part boned Chicken breast with garlic butter under a flap - not the processed reformed chicken type), oven chips, sweet potato oven chips, petit pois peas etc, and some form of pizza. Also good sausages. Some of these were bought frozen, others I’ve frozen myself.

I do batch cook as well. The thing to do is to start thinking about tomorrow’s dinner either at the table eating tonight’s meal or while you are clearing up after. So that is when I peel potatoes, peel and chop veg, marinade meat, make a sauce (spag Bol, curry etc) to reheat tomorrow - or take things out of the freezer.

If you make mashed potato for 1 dinner tonight, make enough to go on a. Shepherds pie as well, make the sauce while washing up after dinner, and even if you don’t get it put together until tomorrow that part only takes a few minutes and the rest is time to bake in the oven so frees you up to empty bags, organize the house, listen to the stories of the day etc.

I also keep fresh pasta (tagliatelle AND tortellini with ham/cheese or with mushrooms in them) and some fresh pasta sauce in the fridge.

If you can make time to batch cook, sauces frozen in ziploc bags but laid out long and flat - store better because of their shape but also defrost really quickly and far quicker than the same amount of sauce in a big dollop in a tub IYKWIM.

Go to quick can't be bothered meals are

Pasta mixed with passata, garlic powder & cream cheese or just cream cheese with frozen peasand/or sweetcorn (I'd use jar sauce but ds doesn't like lumps) or pasta with jar pesto

Fish fingers/fish cakes, waffles or rice & frozen peas

Pizza

For dd it's ready cooked chicken chunks, cous cous,
with frozen mixed veg

Dd doesn't like potatoes.

I batch cook bolognese/chilli so that’s a quick 10-minute meal for DD (2.5) once a week.

The only processed frozen food she has is Waitrose fish fingers (more fish in these than other brands) as I don’t like the salt content/sweetness of a lot of the frozen stuff so try to limit it.

I heard that frozen veggies are just as rich in vitamins as fresh ones. I try to buy fresh ones but if it’s not the season then frozen is often a cheaper option. We also buy frozen prawns.

I'm an avid defender of fish fingers! The ones I buy don't even have much salt. They're easy to eat, pretty healthy and my DC have them once a week.

Mine are two and four and have developed an aversion to mixed up foods, so we have a lot of simple meals - cheesy or pesto pasta, potato and meat and gravy, chicken fried rice. Always served with salad or veg like broccoli, carrots and sweet corn (they loathe Mediterranean type veg sadly). I use frozen veg for nearly everything- it's still healthy.

Have you tried her with risotto? Easy to make a batch and freeze portions.

Every now and again mine will eat something slightly more flavoursome but I've tried to relax and accept we've got years to develop a love of varied cuisine. In the meantime I save them bits to try occasionally from our meals they don't normally like but carry on serving up things they do. The main thing is that they are getting a balanced (albeit quite dull) diet with vegetables and fruit every day and mealtimes are usually not stressful for me or them.

The salmon is literally just salmon, but it a bag so it steams in the microwave from frozen. Its so easy to add to pasta (fresh pasta can be frozen and cooked without defrosting), noodles or rice. When ds was smaller I just flaked it into some warmed creme fraiche, chuck peas/broccoli/spinach in, and your're done. Now he likes ramen noodles where I just make miso broth and boil some veggies in it, add protein and noodles which is super fast, or poke bowls which means cooking sushi rice - but a rice cooker makes that a matter of lobbing rice and water in and wandering back at some point.

If you make things like sauces as a batch, just put them in a sturdy bag and freeze them flat. Then you can just grab one and defrost it super fast.

I've heard frozen mash is good if you just want a toddler portion or to top something