Frozen food

[Coops1221]

Hello all,

Im doing my best to support my wife through her pregnancy and subsequently read numerous articles and books. Many of which advise that in preparation to the first few weeks with baby to make a load of frozen food which can be reheated and used as and when. However, I'm a complete novice when it comes to cooking food to be frozen, what to cook and what not to cook, how to store, how to reheat etc.

Therefore I'm hoping the mumsnet community can help!

I'm perfectly fine cooking and normally make all meals fresh every night but I'm looking for your ideas and guidance on tip and tricks of freezing (even down to what is best to buy and where is best to buy to storage for frozen meals). but most importantly (and hence why I'm in this section) your recipes for food that is great to eat once it has been reheated!

Thanks in advance!!

Bolognaise Sauce
Chilli con Carne

Cook a big pot, fill into plastic containers and put in freezer.
...
...
Take out of freezer in the morning or defrost in microwave, heat in pot, cook pasta or rice, serve, eat.

Simple.

In case you start running out of plastic pots, you can line a bowl with silver foil and cling film, spoon in the food, seal up the cling film then silver foil (I use both to protect the food from freezer burn, but make sure you take off the foil before you microwave it!) and you can put a few of these in a labelled freezer bag.

I like these recipes:
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/778636/roasted-squash-risotto-with-wensleydale (I put the cubes of cheese and squash just on top and they freeze fine)
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/748653/smoky-beef-stew (Good with bread or rice)
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1167641/chilli-bean-bake-with-soured-cream-mash (I like that this is everything, including veg, all in together!)

Also, buy chocolates for snacking on and I would recommend buying rolls and ready made fillings for lunches (easy to put together while also holding a baby!).

What stuff is in your normal repertoire coops?

Thanks for the quick replies!

Cavemandave - We normally have meals like lasagne /Cottage pie. Generally we either have food with chicken, mince beef or fish... My wife does not eat lamb and only occasionally eats pork.

In terms of my ability to cook I'm happy to try anything and enjoy to cooking and trying new things so any recipes are welcome

Well I'd start by doubling up on what you normally make and then freeze the extra, or its constituent parts anyway. Google once a month cooking or power cooking for some good blogs on bulk cooking for the freezer. Sounds unpromising but also google Dump Chicken. It is a method of bagging up all the raw ingredients for a recipe and freezing them together. Then at a later date you simply defrost the bag and "dump" into a dish and shove in the oven to cook. We found the steam and serve little bags of veg useful when the DDs were newborn - preparing veg would have tipped me over the edge.

Howdy Coops

Tesco do some ziplock bags in medium. Buy some of these. Write the date on and also how many people it will feed. Try and freeze in two person portions.
Freeze food when cold (put in the plastic when cold too) (you can cool pans down in the sink if you want). Don't have the zip lock tops folded at the bottom where they may leak over the freezer (never happened to me but you never know).

You can freeze raw meat, thaw it, cook it and freeze the now cooked food.
You cannot freeze cooked food, thaw it, heat it up then decide you don't want to eat it all and then re-freeze it. (If that makes sense).

Basically try and do any one pot meal.

Lasagne - cook a large one and then portion it up before freezing.
Fish pie - cook and freeze the filling bit - add the spuds later
Chicken breasts marinaded in the freezer bag (sweet chilli sauce, garlic, pesto etc) can be oven baked when thawed.
Bolognaise - can be made into cottage pie, lasagne, chilli etc once thawed
Cheese sauce - for Cauli cheese, making up a lasagne etc
Hugh FW's stoups (probably on his website)

Once your baby arrives cook more of everything! Making mash, cook loads of spuds, mash those required, then over the new few days you can slice and fry up the others with onions and cabbage and have that with poached eggs on top. Boil 6 eggs at the beginning of the week so you have a quick snack or sandwich filling available. You get the idea!

Oh and ask friends when they say is there anything you'd like once the baby arrives, say enthusiastically 'yes, dinner bringing around would be fantastic'. Or drop hints that you've heard people give £10 M&S vouchers to new parents specifically to be used on their night-in meal deals (I have done this for new parents) or bring a bag of nice nibbles from a deli.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/food/1408792-I-think-Saint-Hugh-of-RiverCottage-is-going-to-save-me-120-this-month This link is all about Hugh FW's new cook book. The book is fabulous if you want new ideas.

Good luck!

we use freezer bags or pour and store bags for freezing leftovers.