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!

We do chicken nuggets or goujons in wraps with salad. Feels healthier than chips and beans and it's quicker to make.

My favourite is Birds Eye Steamfresh with the carrots, broccoli & sweet corn - tastes amazing! Honestly. Surprisingly nice, crunchy and sweet.

I don't work for Bird's Eye, honestly! Just a big fan

Tonight I'm having mini kievs, waffles and beans, delicious and I don't feel guilty at all, it's just food.

Fish fingers, sausages, peas, beans, bread, pizza, ginger, parsley, chillies, chips, hash browns we have always in freezer. We have cut onion too but I prefer fresh ones. I use the frozen onions if I have run out fresh ones.

What’s the guilt around?

1. Frozen what is often called junk food?
2. Too much frozen what is often called junk food?
3. Or frozen ingredients (frozen vegetables, frozen onions garlic, frozen fish etc)?

I am yes to No 3 all the time and see zero reasons for guilt around frozen peas versus peas you’ve hand shelled.

I am yes to No 1 some of the time and there is zero guilt around that too because it makes not a bit of difference once a week or fortnight or whatever

I do not have experience of No 2 but can see how it could be the case in times of crisis and pressure. In which case also there wouldn’t be any guilt.

You can batch cook and defrost in the microwave if you forget. As long as you have time to cook it in the first place.

I use my freezer a lot, frozen veg, batch cooking, fish fingers, stuff I have cooked myself and have too much of, ie; tonight I am making a turkey and ham pie with left over meat from Christmas and (ready made ) pastry served with frozen peas and a bit of old broccoli that is left in the fridge. Seems a perfectly good meal to me.

I don’t worry at all about the ‘nutritional’ value of frozen food.

I buy occasional ready meals for the freezer, typically the Indian meal deals from M & S or Waitrose which are really nice.

Frozen chopped onions, various vegetable mixes and spinach as it goes off before we use it fresh. Also just got some frozen basil leaves and coriander. We also have frozen mince meat, and various little portions of things I've cooked, stews and such, for the baby. And fish fingers! and sometimes things like good quality cordon blue as they're popular. It's actually been great since I realised freezer food wasn't just old school farm food / Iceland stuff. I made a mistake with the frozen Richmond sausages though, salty and horrible.

Yes, DC are 2 and 5 and we have frozen "junk food" once every week or two. This is usually oven chips, veggie fingers or Linda McCartney cheese and potato slices, and peas.

I also batch cook things like chilli, macaroni cheese, lasagne, pasta sauce and have that for one meal a week. And I also use frozen chopped onions, garlic and ginger in various dishes to speed up prep time.

If you're looking for inspiration for easy mid week meals, couscous and roasted veg is pretty quick - if you can't be bothered to prep the veg, you can use a bag of frozen "Mediterranean veg". Add some lemon juice, feta and chickpeas to the couscous to bulk it up. We also do pasta, pesto and broccoli quite a lot, fajitas and stir fry. Slightly more prep is risotto in the pressure cooker, or lentil dhal in the slow cooker.

Seeing as im here can you freeze fresh spinach ? It is just me that eats it so a bag sometimes gets binned

And I'm going on a crusade about all this 'guilt' people, especially women, feel at every opportunity. It is such a harsh way to treat yourself and even in a jokey way spreads pressure and unrealistic expectations.

I guess the guilt just comes from me being ridiculous and putting pressure on myself but this thread has made me feel lots better. .

Brilliant ideas. I do actually keep wraps in the freezer so I will definitely steal the goujons wrap with salad suggestion. DD is dairy free so it can be tricky to find things that she can have.

Love couscous. DD makes such a mess but she will always eat it. I’m going to buy a few packs and then can serve it with salmon/ or chicken.

Adding that Birdseye veg thing to my list too!

Yes you can Mrsjayy.

What you can also do is just crumble the frozen leaves into whatever you're cooking near then end and it just wilts into the sauce.

We use lots of frozen food, mostly veg, but also pizza, fish fingers, quorn products, all sorts really. Plus reductions, mostly from M&S or meat or fish bought in bulk and frozen in meal sized portions. And batch cooking. Saves food waste and reduces the time spent having to cook.

I'm always surprised when people say they don't have a freezer or don't eat frozen food. I thought that just about everyone had one (except people in studios/bedsits).

Thank you @BarbaraofSeville yes I love a bit of wilting too

I make a bastardised version of fish tacos with fish fingers, iceberg lettuce and a bit of mayo and chilli sauce. Plus cheese and/or avocado if I have it in.

I have 4 fish fingers and cut a big wrap into quarters, which is just right for me for a light meal.

Frozen chips
Frozen peas
Frozen steamed veg pouches

For me (I have multiple intolerances) - vegetables including peas, green beans, spinach. I buy fresh turmeric, wash it, chop & freeze it in a little box. Fruit - mango, berries, pomegranate seeds. I batch cook stuff just for me so there are meals in that won't make me feel ill, & that DH can easily prepare.
DH & DD - sausages, fish fingers, chips, etc. DH has loads of portions of haggis. DD loves smoked salmon so we get it on offer.

Also, frozen blocks of garlic & ginger are good. We have a really good farm shop that sells lovely local lean steak mince by the 6lb tray so I freeze 1lb bags of that. We try to buy meat & fish mostly when it's on offer or reduced, so it often gets frozen.
Sometimes we go out blackberrying in the autumn, too. We always come back with absolutely masses, which either goes into the freezer for later inclusion in crumble, or is converted into jam. There are miles of hedges locally. Sometimes we find crab apples, sloes or bilberries as well.

I batch cook and freeze: bolognese, lasagne, shepherds pie, dhal etc.

Otherwise:

Fishfingers
Petit pois
Spinach
Chips

Frozen veg mostly but I also batch cook and buy large packs of things and freeze them in portions e.g. 10 pork loin steaks frozen in twos.

I do always have a stock of fish fingers and chips/waffles/potato wedges for days when I really can't be bothered/we're ill/it's just DD eating though.

What is wrong with freezer food ?! I have a huge freezer with loads of fruit, veg, batch cooking, ingredients, as well as potato waffles, chicken.. things, fish fingers etc. I cook fresh, I cook from frozen. Even if we have something beige from freezer we have loads of veg etc, what's the issue.

There's a lot of snobbery about frozen food. I don't get it. I do prefe r fresh veg on the whole as I think it tastes nicer but frozen is just as nutritious and saves on waste. For instance if I buy a fresh aubergine I often throw quite a lot away, whereas I can pull 2 or 3 pieces out of a bag of frozen and waste nothing.
And what is so bad about fish fingers? Even fairly cheap ones are recognisably real fish. My kids are not keen on lots of fish but they will eat fish fingers. Ok, sea bass in lime and coriander or something is probably better, but I would rather they ate fish fingers than no fish at all.
I'm going to add frozen diced onion to my next shop. Ive never noticed it before and I hate chopping onions as my eyes are really sensitive so I will give it a try.
OP, dont be hard on yourself.

I batch cook sauces and stews and that is my most used frozen food. I also bake my own bread and bagels and freeze those, as well as cake portions (we eat a third of the cake on the day and I freeze the rest in 2 lots for later). I also have cookie dough, stocks, vegetables (peas, sweetcorn), and German sausages in the freezer as well as the do'g food (she is fed raw). Fresh pasta always freezes well and is quick to make last minute (ravioli just boiled tossed with olive oil, cheese, and fresh tomatoes and basil).

However, the fastest meal I can put together are tray bakes (protein + veg + starch) which I just cut and put in the oven.

So many responses here for frozen veg and batch cooked meals, where are the turkey dinosaurs? 😂 I don't believe that of all the people who have commented, no-one has (or has admitted to) a pack of frozen burgers or a pie.

OP, we try to cook from scratch, but at any given point I am likely to have in my freezer:
Fishfingers, fish cakes or breaded fillets (the new ones from aldi in the beer batter are tasty)
Chicken nuggets
Chicken burgers for a sandwich at lunch
Chicken Kiev's
Aberdeen Angus burgers
Frozen lasagne or curry ready meal
Some kind of pie
As well as all of the frozen veg/ mash/chips mentioned. I'm not afraid to admit to eating junk food thats not fishfingers! My guilty pleasure is a chips and curry sauce ready meal with a slice of white bread and butter, or Bernard Matthews golden drummers in a sandwich.

Im all up for quick and conveneint so following for the healthier suggestions.

We do easy peasy pesto regularly (from Bing! ) pesto peas and pasta ...

Pesto is one thing which I don't understand - it takes less than 3m minutes to put together from the original ingredients, so takes more time to purchase frozen for use later.