Numpty needs help with freezing.

[Fo0ffyShmo0ffer]

I would like to ask how you freeze your food. I hear so many people saying cook and freeze batches. This would excellent for me if it wasnt such a pain in the bum.

I've attempted to freeze bolognese before and Chilli in Tupperware containers. When it comes to cooking afterwards, it's frozen to the box, when it finally falls out it takes forever to cook. What am I doing wrong?

stick it in the microwave to defrost or cook it.

or take it out night before and stick in fridge

Take it out the night before and let it defrost?

Really? Is that all I need to do? I forget. That's the problem. I have Chicken in the freezer that's been there months. I forget the night before and remember when it's too late.
Was hoping there'd be a magic tip everyone knew about that I didn't.

Buy foil containers that you can cut off things like chili if need ve and cook it very slowly from frozen.

I also freeze soup in heavy duty freezer bags and reheat that from frozen

Freeze them in strong freezer bags and defrost overnight. If you forget then put them in a sink full of hand-warm water (not hot, otherwise it'll cook bits of it and perhaps go manky)

Or weigh it pre-freezing, and use the defrost setting on the microwave - Bits of it may well get v hot, but this will be fine as long as it's chucked straight into the pan.

Write a menu for the week, check each evening for the next day's meal and make sure you have ingredients or have written shopping list or have taken stuff out of freezer. It takes a few days to get into the swing of it but for the stress reduction it is well worth the effort Also it means my kids know what's coming and have had time to paint fake smiles on their faces

PS does it make me a control freak that I now coordinate my menu with the school dinner menu to ensure a variety of food over the day/week? A written menu for all to see means I can justify the once a week oily fish ("see? You haven't had it yet!") and gets me smug points with other mums

Thankyou I'll order some freezer bags tonight with the shopping and give that a try.

Pinky - I aspire to that kind of organisation but I walk out of the room and forget everything from 2 mins earlier. It's amazing my children get to school in the morning

Children? What children?

Pinky - that sounds like just the sort of thing I'd do

(you can tell I've been ill - poor DS has had fish for the last 3 nights)