Anyone else batch-cooking for the freezer?

[KeatsiePie]

Just trying to wile away the time as I soak and cook 5 different kinds of beans. And am not quite ready to face chopping up 7 onions and eighty-twelve cloves of garlic.

But I do look forward to having all this food made up. There will be stacks and rows of elegant little tupperwares in the freezer, each containing a highly nutritious and exquisitely tasty meal. And am fantasizing about hardly having any dishes to wash at all during the weeks.

Why not chop your onion using the slicing blade of a food processor? So much quicker (assuming you have one).

Holy crap that's a good idea. I cannot believe I never thought of that. I got a food processor a year and a half ago but somehow think of it as for special tasks only. Thanks

Not the whirry choppy blade thing but the slicer that sits just under the lid. I often just do a batch of onions and stick spares in boxes in the freezer so they are ready for next time.

I wish I was so organised I'm the crappest wife ever! Every night after work I have the same conversation, 'what's for dinner?' Me: don't know, what have we got in? Him: nothing. Me: oh. Cue longest wait for dinner whilst dh and me eat dcs snacks and talk about how we really should get organised and is it bad to have chippy tea. Wish I had a housekeeper like rich folks do.

Mine is really basic so only has the choppy whirry blade, and only two settings, chop and grind. But the chop setting did a good job. It was amazing, actually, and didn't make me cry.

I wouldn't mind a housekeeper either. Think I'd rather have someone cleaning for me than cooking for me.

Yes me. I've just made 4kg of mince kebabs and going to make some chicken and potato patties tomorrow

I keep meaning to do this but don't know where to start!
Can I have some ideas of what you cook?

Shine those both sound lovely.

Mistletoe sure! It's really easy. I do a lot of stew/soup type things as they're so easy to double/triple and so easy to portion out and freeze. This weekend I'm doing

Moroccan chicken stew (recipes.womenshealthmag.com/Recipe/moroccan-stewed-chicken.aspx) but with a whole chicken instead of thighs.

Triple-lentil stew (ohsheglows.com/recipage/?recipe_id=6011418) which doesn't sound like much but is actually really good. Will do one round for me (vegetarian) and one round for DH with chicken (whole chickens were on sale).

Kale, white bean, and carrot stew (smittenkitchen.com/blog/2011/01/chard-and-white-bean-stew/)

Chili (allrecipes.com/recipe/the-best-vegetarian-chili-in-the-world/)

And am trying this new non-pasta pasta, which may or may not freeze well, but with a different pasta sauce as neither of us liked the sound of what was listed here (www.neverhomemaker.com/2010/09/tri-colored-veggie-pasta.html)

I double or triple everything. We do a lot of vegetarian cooking as it's cheaper, but I think it would be easy to adapt these to get some meat in if you wanted to.

Will try to fit in an egg bake or some muffins if I can but probably won't manage it this weekend.

Shoot, I thought those links would work, here:

Moroccan chicken stew recipes.womenshealthmag.com/Recipe/moroccan-stewed-chicken.aspx

Triple-lentil stew ohsheglows.com/recipage/?recipe_id=6011418

Kale, white bean, and carrot stew smittenkitchen.com/blog/2011/01/chard-and-white-bean-stew/

Chili allrecipes.com/recipe/the-best-vegetarian-chili-in-the-world/

Non-pasta pasta www.neverhomemaker.com/2010/09/tri-colored-veggie-pasta.html

These are American but hopefully not hard to convert to UK measurements?

Got back in the swing this week actually.

Two meat lasagna and two veg. Every time I do a pot or dish meal now I'm doubling up the quantities for the freezer.

I'm hoping to stealth stockpile.

Got berry breakfast muffins to do tomorrow - I freeze 9 in a container and get one out for DS morning snack - it's defrosted but cool by the time he eats it.

Wally that's what I usually do too, jut double whatever I'm making, but got a wild hair this week and thought I would do a marathon.

Can I ask how you freeze your muffins? I'm never sure how much wrapping they need. Do you just wrap in plastic wrap, or do you put them in freezer bags?

I have plastic lunch box containers that have a folding lid attached. They are just big enough to put 9 in the freezer, and the lid is high enough not to crush the tops.

They clip open so that you can take one out easily and pop back in the freezer.

I bought in Germany, I'm afraid, so I don't know if/where they sell them in the UK.

The Germans have a level of Tupperware that puts us to shame. I have never seen so many versions, shapes, sizes and specific types.

Oh that's so interesting! I just googled German tupperware and got a couple of very elegant catalogs.

Anyway, 2 meals done, 3 to go ...

Slow cooked a huge veggie curry today for the freezer, will keep,us going for weeks!

Do you all have massive freezers? I do miss having a chest freezer. Atm I have 3 drawers in the freezer, top shelf is for frozen herbs or ice cubes or parathas or frozen chicken, middle drawer is my batch cooked stuff and bottom drawer is some batch cooked things but mostly stocks and bought freezer food e.g. fish fingers or smilies which the kids have occasionally. So basically I only have 1 drawer for my frozen meals.

Also are those take away tubs the best way to freeze or are zip lock bags? I experimented with the latter this week when I ran out of tubs, and us found it took up less space but I also found it ended up in a kind of block jigsaw puzzle as the food freezes and forms its own shapes which then only fit in with what was around it at the time! Would love to know other ppls views on best containers to freeze in.

I don't, just a normal one. I'd like a chest freezer, especially as we're rural and I have dreams of buying local grass-fed beef in bulk.

About 1/6th of my freezer is taken up with the icemaker, which is a nice luxury but sometimes is really in the way.

I like tubs b/c I'm going for grab-and-heat with our meals, so use tubs that will give us single or double portions usually. Only use bags for things like cooked beans. Some people freeze baking mixes in bags, that seems smart to me. I feel like it would be hard to defrost meals in the bags ... I'm not sure whether you can put freezer bags in a microwave? If so, decanting from them seems like it would be really messy, and if not, I feel like prying the food out would be kind of hilariously awkward.

Crocked have you got a good recipe for veggie curry you wouldn't mind sharing? I've never made that.

I batch cook chilli & bolognaise...have done for years.
Tubs - IME they go brittle stored in the freezer and also unless they are completely full waste a lot of space...
I freeze mine in the tubs and when they are well frozen dip the container in hot water for a few seconds and tip out - then I pile them up in a freezer bag - kept on its side in a freezer drawer...if you do it quickly they won't stick together...
Then I defrost and warm it up in my bowl - dish everyone's out from there and then add rice/pasta to mine - so doesn't create more washing up...
Definitely blitz the onions in a food processor...
When you make mash potato always make a pan full and then freeze the left overs - you can do it in a tub - or on tray in blobs...then combine in a bag so you can just take out the amount you need.

I also freeze cooked cabbage - instead of cooking half and letting the other half rot in the fridge I cook the whole thing, cool it down and freeze the unwanted stuff in a bag...
Sausages....especially if you don't want to buy cheap frozen ones. You can boil them in water till cooked through, cool under running water and then freeze them. Means they don't stick together if you freeze a pack - so quicker to defrost and you can easily take just what you need - also really quick to 'cook' - you can heat them through in the microwave and then just brown under a hot grill/griddle...(And you will realise just how much fat some of them contain and maybe swap ...yuk)

Should have said - you need to smooth the tops before you freeze - so they stack better...

unlucky that is brilliant . Can I ask -- I taught myself about freezer cooking by reading cooking/home blogs, and everyone always writes how important it is not to have extra air in freezer containers (risk of freezerburn, I think?). So when you tip the frozen meals out and slide them into a bag, do you worry about whether they pack really tightly into the bag with no extra air around them? Or does it not matter whether there's a lot of extra space around them in the bag?

Unlucky that is genius I'm definitely going to try that! Interesting what you'd read keatsie about air, I read that a small amount of air is important because food expands as it freezes. And I know when a friend freezes and always fills right to the top her lids always pop off (but she still doesn't listen to me...)

Decanting from the bags was v messy btw you're right! I defrost ed one yesterday and it was a faff. I think unlucky s method might avoid that though because you can just remove the block from the bag. I'm going to try it anyway, because my freezer space is so limited

lightnening no you're totally right about the expansion thing. I usually leave a half inch or so at the top for that, but I put a little sheet of plastic over the food to seal it, leaving the space above, and then put the lid on. So according to what I read you are still making sure not to have extra air touching the food, but it can still expand, if that makes sense.

Never heard that before ...I just pile them on top of each other...thought freezer burn was more of a problem with raw meat etc...guess they are covered in plastic...uploaded a photo...
(Looking a bit icier than usual - a DC ice pop hunting left the door ajar - recently a common occurrence - we now have an ice pop ban!)

Sorry lots of x post whilst uploading photo - trick is to make sure well frozen and pop it out of tub quickly -if it gets too defrosted they will stick together -but only loosely - a tap usually sorts it...