What shall I start to freeze?

[LetsHaveAnotherGo]

I'm very excited to have a spare freezer this year 😬

For the first time we'll just be having dinner the four of us at home (me, DH, DSD6 and DD8months). My parents are coming for breakfast and gift opening on the morning. Not sure yet what we're doing for tea, DSD will be at her Mums at that time.

I'm wanting to start picking things up between now and christmas so ideally will only have to get fresh veg and a few bits nearer the time (I'll be working right until Christmas Eve). What would you all recommend for me to start getting in early and freezing? Not even just stuff for dinner, but some nice treats to have in for us and if we have any visitors.

You can make fudge and freeze?

Parboiled potatoes .

Make meals for the weekends in December so you can free up time to do fun festive trips. Ditto stuff for 27/28/29 etc for when you’re bored of turkey sandwiches.

Make jamie’s Get ahead gravy (leave out the star anise!)
Mmake dan leopard’s cream cheese and ground almond pastry for mince pies

Red cabbage. Stuffing. I tend to make these and freeze.
Cakes and pastries. Cookies/cookie dough.

Fancy Christmas flavoured ice cream

Pigs in blankets, stuffings, etc.
Braised red cabbage only ever improves for being frozen. You can reheat it in the microwave and save hassle on the day.

Ooh
bags of ice
ice-cream

Deffo make and freeze a few meals. I like to make a couple of vegetarian lasagne and vegetarian chilli to freeze.
Nice for a busy day to take it out to defrost and have after shopping.

Some fruits maybe for smoothies (I buy the coconut milk 'pouches' that go in the freezer . Near the wafers/ice-cream sauces) Good with orange and pineapple with a dash of lime .

Some great suggestions here, thank you all! I'm listing them all as I read 😀

I make the Jamie Oliver get ahead gravy and Mary Berry stuffing balls and freeze them. Both freeze really well.

I always freeze bread sauce (books tell you you can't but what do they know!) just leave the cream out and add after you've defrosted and heated.
If making mince pies, I prefer to freeze them uncooked (open freeze in their trays then pack in boxes once solid) then cook from frozen.
Delia's Parmesan parsnips and her vegetarian sausage rolls (made with grated cheese and breadcrumbs) freeze well. We don't normally have puddings so pig out over Christmas.Apple crumble and sticky toffee pudding freeze well

Sorry to hijack the thread but does anyone know if I can freeze uncooked grated cooking apple?

I imagine that uncooked grated apple would just turn to mush if frozen.

Delia's sausage rolls

My usual November cookathon results in

2 stuffings
Extra festive meals eg beef chestnut cranberry casserole
Couple of soups
Nigella Christmas muffins- batter in cases
Red cabbage delia style
Mince pies in baking trays ready for oven
Fudges- candycane fudge, white choc& cranberry

Means I can enjoy the busyness of December knowing lots of things are ticked off. I love food!!

Oh and an ice cream dessert made in a pudding bowl.

@ja9r do you freeze the uncooked batter? Not tried that before

@ja9r ditto - so interested in freezing raw muffin batter in cases, genius! Do you just cook them from frozen?

I put the batter in the cases and then freeze in the baking tin. Remove tin next day if need the space. Then, night before I want them (30th Nov and 24th Dec) I put them in baking tray in oven and set the timer for them to cook early morning. Wake to the smell of Christmas muffins! Love!

@ja9r that's ingenious! Love the idea of freezing fudge too, yummy 😊

Delighted to be able to share!

Brilliant, thank you! Am going to try this all year round!!

Thank you sounds great, I had no idea you could do this!