Freezing Sliced Meats for packed lunches

[TeaOneSugar]

DD wants to swap to packed lunches in the new year.

I try to do one on-line food shop a week and then only pick up extras if we really need something, so I'm trying to think of things that will be healthy, but will also keep a week or that can be frozen.

The only sliced meats I can see on the Ocado site that say you can freeze them are from Bernard Matthews, which I'm sure are fine but not my usual choice.

Has anyone tried freezing pre packed sliced ham where it's not specified on the pack? What might happen.

Any more ideas for sandwich fillings would be good, DH and I don't take packed lunches so it needs to be economical for one.

Urgh, one of life's annoyances - packed lunch! I do dh's lunch everyday - I alternate between cheese sandwiches as cheese keeps, and I buy 1 or 2 fresh sandwich fillers from supermarket which are about £1 or £1.50 each and that does for the week. I find sliced meat is too expensive so tend not to use it, I do buy frozen lunch box fillers like mini pizzas, sausage rolls, chicken strips, pasties and then add crisps and granola bar, yoghurt, fruit.

We tried freezing cooked meat. Didn't come out all that well I'm afraid! I usually find the packs have quite a long date on though. I only end up throwing it away if I buy too much.

imamma The packs do have a fairly long date, but you have to use them within 2 days once they're opened, so unless I can buy a really small pack there will be waste. Sounds like that's what I'll have to do, she'll have to take ham two days running.

daisy Unfortunately I've tried sandwich fillers and those little pots of meat spreads before and she doesn't like them.

Two days of ham, two days Cheese and maybe tuna on Fridays :)

I think you can safely use ham for quite a bit longer....we usually keep it five or so days and it's fine...use your nose and common sense! The cooked meats on a deli counter are there unsliced for Weeks!

Hot food flask? Jacket and beans for DD twice a week

I freeze sandwiches - ham, cheese, honey, luncheon meat, etc. never had any problems.

I freeze individual slices of salami, pastrami, ham, prosciutto absolutely fine - they don't really "freeze" because there is so little water content. Just pop a slice in a roll and it's ready to eat at lunchtime.

Any sliced deli meats seem to freeze fine. My db makes his lunch in two week batches and freezes and has for years. I make them the night before and fridge so I can choose more toppings.

Ham and salad, egg and lettuce with mayo, peanut butter and alfalfa, salami and lettuce, tomato and mayo, ham and cheese etc.

I freeze Ham, cheese and jam in sandwiches. Not for myself, for ds1, he's not complained

I always freeze ham sarnies... never had a problem and been doing it since DD started school years ago!

We freeze packs of salami. No problems there at all as long as you give it time to defrost of course!

The waitrose wafer thin meats come in small packs within the big pack so you can get them and they are good quality.

I freeze ham, I have found that it's best to defrost naturally, rather than zapping in microwave.

I also freeze ham, and other cooked sliced meats if I have them, never had a problem with it.

Do you make the sandwiches and then freeze them? DDs also want to change to packed lunches. Most annoying and expensive, you just know they'll rummage for the packed lunches 'treats' throughout the week.

I'm going to give it a go, thanks.

I've put anything purchased for dds lunches in the salad drawer in the fridge and everyone has had strict instructions to leave it alone :)

Ds likes tortilla wrap made with left over chilli or bolognese which is really easy to do after having spag bol or chilli for tea. I also sometimes make pasties or sausage rolls (with the ready roll pastry) and freeze them for packed lunches.

Taken from canyoufreezethis.com .........

Ham can be frozen and many people freeze it on regular basis. It?s not that difficult to do ? you just need some aluminum foil (or freezer wrap) and an airtight container or freezer bags for prolonged storage. Of course if you have the ability to vacuum-seal the package, it?s even better, because food always freezes better when it?s vacuum-sealed. When it comes to freezing ham, just remember it needs to be wrapped very tightly, so it won?t suffer from the cold that muc

You could cook chicken breasts or thighs, slice/portion up and freeze.

I've also used the pre cooked chicken thighs/pieces and picked off the meat. You can freeze this. It's about £3 for a pack of 5/6 thighs.

Greaseproof paper is good for storing the portions then put several portions in one freezer bag.

A tin of tuna or salmon with a tin of sweetcorn did a couple of days. I tried to buy the tins of fish when they were on offer.

So do you freeze individual slices of ham or do you make a ham sandwich and freeze like that? Sounds labour intensive and wasteful of foil etc if you need to do individual slices. Sorry for all the questions, I can't get my head around it.

I make a batch of sandwiches and freeze those.

Thanks. I'll give it a try for me. If they're passable then I may try on the children. I've spent 20 minutes today on three lots of packed lunches and we had to go back to the supermarket for more food as everything bought on Friday is gone already!!! I so hope this fad will pass and they'll want to go back to school lunches.

I find packed lunches really easy - I make a batch of sandwiches that last for the week and then buy a few things that stay in a 'only for packed lunches' place and don't let the kids eat them. Children tend to need far less in a lunchbox than most people give them so it's a matter of a minute or so in the mornings to get out one sarnie and shove in one juice carton, one piece of fruit and one other thing (pack of 'healthier' crisps, homemade flapjack, yoghurt etc) into a lunchbox. In fact, making sarnies aside, I find this quicker than sorting out the money for school lunches!

Well I buy the meat sliced off the deli then lay the slices out on a silicon sheet, on as baking tray and put in freezer. it contains almost no water so it doesn't freeze 'hard'. When frozen, I put all the slices in a sandwich bag together and store in freezer. Just take out one slice at as time as needed. Silicon sheet washed and reused so no waste at all.