To ask what are your favourite make ahead freezer meals?

[Taibhse]

Dc4 is due any day now so I am trying to get ahead and have some handy relatively healthy stuff cooked in the freezer for the aftermath. I'm planning on a giant batch of bolognese that can be used for many incarnations, but also have loads of chicken breasts, pork chops and some stewing lamb to use.

I've tried slow cooker dump and go freezer meals in the past but didn't like them at all, and once I had taken the bags out to defrost I found I had no appetite for them.

I'm not the biggest fan of batch cooking but needs must. Need some super tasty options please

Google has loads.

I batch cook only the sauces for curries, pasta, etc as I sometimes don’t fancy the complete meals I’d frozen either.

Bolognese, chilli, risotto, curry, soups..bbc good food app is great

Think about doing a batch curry base if you like curries as you can then make to taste on the day relatively quickly.

Cottage pie
Shepherds pie
Chilli
Lasagne

Hairy bikers old fashioned chicken stew from their first healthier eating book (don't let that put you off). Freezes like a dream and so tasty with rice (buy frozen rice for ultimate speed food). I echo the chilli/ Spag Bol comments and you could freeze shepherd's pie base and then add some frozen mash on top. And I know you can cook yourself own rice/mash etc but you can also cut corners when needs must too! Jamie Oliver chicken stew with carrots and white wine and tomatoes would use up some of the chicken you have but I wouldn't freeze the potato topping.

The batch lady website had lots of great ideas, all really easy to make.

lamb always curries well
cut the pork chops up for sweet and sour pork
i know it's boring but a good hearty chilli with the mince and some shepherd's pie bases will keep you going

and Lockheart I think you should be a bit kinder given that this is a chat forum. FFS
We could all go on Google and have no communication with anyone at all - perhaps you'd like to spend some time there given that you're not so keen on the chat function

Over the years I have tried all sorts of freezer meals. Like OP I often found that I when defrosted the meal I couldn’t actually be arsed with it.

The ones that I find work best are all mince based - chilli, bolognese, cottage pie.

I do huge amounts of cheese sauce and freeze that in portions that to use for quick macaroni or cauliflower cheese. Can also be used with batch cooked meat sauce for a quick lasagne instead of Bolognese.

I also cook bacon and onions together and freeze portions of those. Good for quick quiches (with ready rolled pastry), toppings for macaroni cheese or add to tomatoes and herbs for a quick pasta sauce.

Something I found useful was to to trim and cut up raw chicken breast and freeze in meal size portions. I could defrost a bag fairly quickly and produce a meal - chicken strips/ chicken stir fry/ chicken in any kind of jar of sauce in the space of time it took to boil rice/pasta/spuds.

Those meals tasted less ‘freezery’ but were quick as the chicken prep was done.

I made individual pies in the little foil dishes. They froze nicely.

Cassoulet, pea & ham soup (good when not massively hungry), chicken curry.

Pork casserole, lamb hot pot, or curry, chicken curry...

I like this Mary Berry recipe for pork www.mastercook.com/app/Recipe/WebRecipeDetails?recipeId=20229273

What you could do is prep veg and freeze it in portions ready to chuck in the slow cooker with whatever meat and sauce you want when the time comes so you don't always have to defrost stuff. Also someone gave me a fruit crumble just after having DC and it was lovely to have a nice warm dessert too!

Oven chips, frozen baked potato and microwave rice have been a godsend here as well as leftover veg - I always cook extra so I have some for another meal or two.

Fish pie

If you get some freezer bags (ziploc are good) you can chop all your raw ingredients into meal size portions and just cook when ready.

For instance

Chopped chicken breast
Any chopped veggies
Uncle bens microwave rice
Sauce of choice

Chop raw ingredients up to about the same size, add rice and then freeze.

When hungry, add sauce (my boys do sweet chilli or bbq) microwave on high for 10 mins then eat.

Done and delicious.

I make a meatball receipe which is basically the Swedish style meatballs you can get in ikea / Iceland. Then onions and peppers fried up with a gravy made from beef stick and creme fraiche.

Also freezer chopped chicken as opposed said and just heat in a sauce.