I am in a domestic goddess mood. What should I cook/bake for the freezer?

[nkf]

Reasonable amount of space, currently empty apart from some frozen veg and some cooked ham (idea of another poster on here.) What would be useful to have in there?

No ideas? Ice cream it is then.

Lasagne? But the Delia cheese one. Yum. www.deliaonline.com/recipes/type-of-dish/italian/pasta/spinach-and-ricotta-lasagne-with-pine-nuts.html

Casseroles and stuff. Single portions for lunches.

(And veg curry)

banana bread - slice it before freezing it, so you can just take out a couple of slices at a time

quick blast in microwave, dollop of cream, yum!

That lasagna thing looks very good. I don't know how to make banana bread so will have to miss out on that one. Will look up some casserole recipes.

Homemade tomato soup. I made a big batch for the freezer the other day, using a Jamie recipe. Delicious!

Homemade tomato soup for the freezer. Please, why are you on my freezer food thread? Link please.

Why aren't you?

I make a great cauldron of bolognese and freeze in portions.

Good idea. I have a slow cooker so can easily make a couple of casseroles. Will do a ragu and freeze. And some other kind of casserole.

Dare I say it ... maybe get a head start on Christmas and bake a couple of batches of mince pies? They freeze really well - just defrost and warm in the oven when you want them.

Someone at work recently posted a photo on FB of all her meals ready to go in the freezer in little foil pots like a takeaway. I thought it was a fab idea, better than me spooning stuff in freezer bags.

But she was freezing rice with her chili and pasta with her bolognase. I didn't think you could freeze pasta?

I would also cook off lots of onion or soffrito to freeze in portions to make it quicker to cook curries etc. Also stock. Fish cakes too. I also make up loads of crumble topping and freeze it, and biscuit dough.

Cookies! I have the most amazing recipe for cookies from the Takeaway secret book. You need to chill before slicing anyway so I always keep a 'sausage' of them in the freezer. 25 minutes in the oven and fresh chewy soft american style cookies.

If you're into Jamie's 30 minute meals, I'm a big fan of the Jool's Pregnant Pasta dish. Really easy and quick to make and freezes well.

Ooh. That cookie recipe please. Mince pies yes. I will make some of those.

125g/4oz Butter
100g/3 1/2oz Caster sugar
100g/3 1/2oz Brown Sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
225g/8oz SR flour
100g/3 1/2oz Chocolate chips

Cream the butter and sugar then add the egg and vanilla extract mixing again.

Add the flour and chocolate chips, mix well and shape into a long log shape. Chill dough for 2 hours (I freeze at this point)

Preheat oven to 180c/350f/Gas mark 4

Slice dough into individual cookies. Bake cookies for 7-8 minutes from chilled or 10-12 minutes if frozen.

Remove from the oven and let them rest for 2-3 minutes they should be soft and will firm up when they're cooling.

Try not to eat them all at once.

I don't bother with brown and caster sugar just caster. You can also replace 50g of the flour with the same amount of cocoa to make even more chocolaty.