Reheating precooked foods?!

[babygirlisla]

Hi
After a little advise .....
I am wanting to make a batch of foods then freeze them and serve them each evening meal time, I have a 2 year old and a 10 month old they will pretty much eat the same foods.
The thing that worries me is how do I reheat things like chicken, fish sausage etc once they have been cooked cooled and then Frozen?! Same goes with pasta and rice etc. I would be making meals like spag Bol, chicken hot pot etc etc
Thanks in advance for your help .... Scared of poisoning my little ones!!
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Take them out of the freezer the night before and defrost in the fridge. Then cook in the microwave as you would a ready meal or put in a saucepan and heat on the hob. Stir frequently with both methods and just check it's cooked through.

Whatever you cook has to be reheated to piping hot for it to be safe. I'm not a fan of reheating meat from frozen, especially in the microwave as you can get cold spots. I defrost first (either in fridge as per pp, or in microwave) then heat to piping. Stir halfway through.

Things like pasta taste rubbish when cooked & frozen, so I use quick cook & add that to whatever I've reheated.

I used to do things like shepherds pie & fish pie as seperate portions of pie & mash topping, so you can stir it & it doesn't end up gunky mush, also they have slightly different reheating times.

Be wary of rice as it's a particularly hazardous thing for growing bugs & tbh I've never got my head round what's safe. I do it from fresh as it's only 11mins to cook.

Gnocchi is very handy cos it only takes 3 mins to cook.

rice is ok as long as it is cooled and put in the fridge or freezer very soon after cooking. I would not freeze pasta unless it is something like lasagne. We freeze bolognese sauce, cheese sauce, curry, chilli, etc and cook the pasta/rice to go with them when required.

Good idea to cook and freeze the sauce then add pasta fresh, hadn't thought of that as it only takes a few mins.
Thanks for advice I will take out night before like you say and defrost in the fridge then zap at tea time. Will double make sure it's hot throughout tho!
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