Freezer Food - come and add to my list!

[PavlovtheCat]

I am trying to get together a good list of food to cook for our freezer and am a bit stuck for interesting things to cook. I want whole meals, as much as possible of the meal to be frozen, in a bit to free up some of our time cooking from scratch and cleaning the kitchen, which has become a bit Groundhog Day.

So, we have to start

lasagne
Curry
rice
chapatti
dhal
individual chicken pies
mash - can be served with pies, or with sausages or wotnot.
spaghetti bolognaise (can you freeze pasta? probably no point eh?
Fish pie
individual fruit crumbles for pudding

Please add! DH and the kids eat red meat, I don't, but eat fish and chicken.

I like the idea of veggie combos, and thanks for reminding about herbs, although atm our herbs are looking ok in their pots, just not a huge variety.

Is coq au vin chicken or meat? that kind of thing would be great as then we can eat really good food without the effort, and saves some money too!

Coq au vin is chicken. And it's best done with only the jointed bits of the bird, not the breast which gets too dry. So it's quite cheap.

I tend to buy a (large) whole chicken and get the butcher to joint it for me. Whack the breast and thigh fillets in a marinade (tandoori is good, or I have a good Moroccan marinade which is effort, but I make big batches of it and keep in the fridge until I buy the meat) and freeze those in the marinade, then turn the jointed bits into coq au vin.

lots of dough - for flatbread, for pizza

breadcrumbs

tomato sauce - but leave out the garlic and add a few whole cloves when you warm through then fish out when warm. If you frezze it with garlic added it tastes a little bitter

fishcakes

stewed apple with cinnamon and sultanas

glut fruits - some precooked

crumble topping in a ziplock bag

pastry cases - I always make double as its a bit of a faff

also not relevant to cooking for freezer but have lots of egg whites and bags with dregs of wine for cooking

love the flavoured butter idea

cauli cheese! How come no one's mentioned cauli cheese? Mental!

I'm not sure about wedges but have frozen parsnips well before. Par steamed then tossed in oil before freezing, then straight on a tray and in oven. Imagine the same would work with spuds...

Dauph potatoes?...works well with swede or beetroot instead. We do all sorts of bakes with layers of potato and root veg, onion, garlic, stock whatever.

We also do mousaka type things but with lentils, and / or yogurt / toms / feta on top.

Also we use the foil dishes from the super market. They come with lids that you can write on, and can be reused a couple of times.

sorry, to be clear, feta on top, everything else within.

moonFace dauph with beetroot? how does that work? can you let me have the recipe, would love to try that! Also, do I cook the dauphinoise potatoes as if I were to serve and then freeze, or layer it already to cook, but then freeze and straight into oven.

These are great, love the crumble idea, I always make far too much mixture, never think to freeze it, just make too much crumble and make pigs of ourselves!

oh love this thread, plan to spend next week cooking and freezing before I return to uni

pavlov i always cook things with potato first as they can discolour otherwise.

For the beetroot dauph i peel and slice them. Layer with some chopped garlic, salt and pepper. Pour over half milk half cream to not quite cover...quantities will vary depending on your dish etc. A few nobs of butter or cheese on top. Medium to high oven. Sorry i can't be more specific!

Chicken eggy rice.

Freezes well and is basically made of leftovers

Is there a Mumsnet Freezer cookbook, if nor we need one!

nor, what is wrong with my typing!

oh i am going to try that moon what is it best served with?

i'm veggy pavlov so am happy with that and some salad or wilted greens eg, kale, or purple sprouting broc. And maybe a bit of bread to soak up they yummy ness. It's rich so doesn't need much imo. Yum!

lol at moon, I read the start of your thread as a recommendation for veggy pavlova, fair turned my stomach

Yuck!

Lamb stew
Pork cassoulet
Oxtail stew

I'm filling our freezer before the birth of no 2 next month.

Aside from the usual chilli/bol/curry, I've done:
Potato Dauphinoise (layer sliced potatoes, onions, dots of butter, add stock & bake till golden)
Cottage Pie
Sweet & Sour chicken
Medallions of Pork in honey & mustard gravy
Bacon & Chilli pasta sauce
Beef stew

Most of these are in those little takeaway containers but the first two I've put in foil containers so they can be defrtosted and go straight in the oven.

Meat balls!

I make these in bulk using 1kg of meat - enough for one meal to eat straightaway and 2 or 3 for the freezer.

Much nicer than bought meat balls and cheap too.

I use the Nigella recipe.

cyanara i bought some foil containers, for lasagne and for other layer type dishes too. they are such a good idea for the ones that need doing in the oven.

tomorrow i am doing

coq au vin
chicken curry
chicken pie
dhal
mashed potato
dauphinoise potato
pilau rice
chapatti x 8
gravy from chicken stock

then later in the week when I have some more time I will do

vegetable soup
spaghetti bolognaise sauce (veggie and meat)
lasagne (individual pots) (veggie and meat)
cheese sauce/macaroni cheese
fish pie
flavoured butter
cooked apple/blackberries to make individual crumbles for the kids/us.

and DH is going to make some pastry and split it into portions, and make some pizza dough to freeze.

Not bad to start eh?!!

Keep them coming though, i want more and varied things!

Waitrose sell ready made frozen Risotto and it is fab - I always have a bag in my fridge and just chuck some chicken or prawns in with it - you heat it from frozen in a suacepan and meal readdy in 10 minutes.

They also do a frozen paella which is scrummy and a bag would feed a whole family - it does have Chroizo in it thoughand not sure you would eat that but bits are big enough to pick out.

oh that sounds nice, although DH makes a fantastic risotto with leftover chicken from the bird. He might be prepared to give it a try.

Does risotto freeze well then? We have never done it, mainly as we normally eat it all, or if some left, have it for lunch the next day

Quiche.

Oooh I have more to add to my own thread!

Egg fried rice & mini spring rolls!!! DH is going to make lots of these one afternoon and freeze them! and we will have with sweet and sour chicken, thai curry or somesuch

These are all great ideas.

Moussaka - you could do this with quorn mince if you don't want to use lamb.
Flavoured butter: blue cheese and walnut is good, particularly with pork chops.
Ratatouille - v good thing to do now with the last of the summer's courgettes, tomatoes etc, for when you need a bit of sunshine in the winter
Stew - freeze in small amounts so you can use as topping for baked potatoes
Veg curry: I like chickpea, sweet potato, spinach and mushroom, with green curry paste, lime juice and coconut milk. You can freeze with brown rice to make a whole meal.

Pancakes freeze well (put greaseproof paper between them), and as well as the usual fillings they go well with meat in a creamy sauce eg chicken, mushroom and tarragon or pheasant and apple. You can roll them up round the fillings and pack them into a dish that you bung straight into the oven (maybe with a little grated cheese over the top).

Also, chorizo, butter bean and tomato stew is delicious and quick to do.