Freezing meals - do's and don'ts

[curlingandtwirling]

This month we are skint. So in order to save money and for convenience and I going to try and cook up loads of meals this weekend and freeze them.

I have bought some plastic tubs in preparation and will be making the usual chilli, curry and soups, but looking for suggestions for cheaper meals that I can batch cook and that freeze well.

Things I'm not sure about - cheesey sauces and rice.

I need meal ideas too. Quite like the egg fried rice suggestions in other threads, but does this freeze?

I'm not a very good cook, as you can probably tell!

Can any provide me with some inspiration please?

Cheesy sauces freeze fine, as does grated cheese. You could freeze batches of cheesy white sauce for lasagna / macaroni cheese etc.

I think freezing rice is more dodgy, unless you have professional flash-freezing equipment - nasty health risks.

I cook up large batches of tomato & red pepper sauce (gently fry chopped onion & garlic, then add halved tomatoes (of any type) and chopped red peppers. A capful of white wine vinegar, a dash of honey, some herbs, black pepper, then add a very small amount of water to stop it all sticking, and simmer for 2-3 hours. Whizz up in a blender, and you have a delicious sauce for topping pizzas or for putting on pasta, or on meatballs, or chicken etc. At the time of serving, just heat up (you can stir in a couple of spoonfuls of creme fraiche if you have it, for a thicker creamier sauce).

I also make large batches of pizza dough and freeze. Also cupcakes / loaf cakes sliced, and then I can take out individual portions for kids treats.

Buy some stewing steak, slow cooked in a casserole sauce is lovely and cheap. Freezes really well. I also use this cut for making a Thai massaman curry adding potatoes.

We also like oxtail but it's not to everyone's taste, again it need to be cooked slow for around 4-5 hours until it's falling off the bone.

Lamb shanks slow cooked.

Pasta sauce

The cheaper cuts are really tasty so long as you cook them on a low heat for several hours

Can I hijack your thread to ask the best way to freeze home made potato wedges? Par cook? Fully cook? Don't cook!?

All sounds good .

I have recently tried potato wedges (slimming world style) and find they either stick together in a huge lump, or disintegrate as they cook?

I tend to buy meat and freeze it anyway, but if I cook a meal with it, can I freeze it again

Dahl freezes well, as do robust pulses like chickpeas.

Maddhur Jaffreys spicy chickpea curry is gorgeous and freezes fine if you have a good spice stash to start?

2 medium-sized onions, finely chopped
8 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 tbs ground coriander seeds
2 tsp ground cumin seeds
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 can chopped tomatoes
2 cans chickpeas
2 tsp ground roasted cumin seeds
1 tbsp ground amchoor (I've never used this as never have it in the house, so you can do without if need be)
2 tsp sweet paprika
1 tsp garam masala
1/2-1 tsp salt
1 tbsp or more lemon juice
1 fresh hot green chilli, finely chopped (or dried chilli flakes are fine and cheaper)
2 tsp finely grated fresh ginger

Fry the chopped onions and garlic in some veg oil over a medium heat till they're soft and cooked. Add the first lot of spices (coriander, cumin, chilli powder, turmeric) and stir for a few seconds. Now add the tomatoes, stir and fry till everything's amalgamated into a lovely fragrant red-brown mess. Add the rinsed drained chickpeas and 8floz water. Stir. Add the second lot of spices (roasted cumin, amchoor, paprika, garam masala), salt and lemon juice. Stir again. Turn heat to low, cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the green chilli and ginger, stir, and cook uncovered for a few minutes longer.

Also homemade burgers, meat or bean freeze fine and certainly bean burgers can be cooked from frozen.

Curry sounds lovely!

OP, I believe it is fine to defrost meat, cook, then freeze again - as long as:-

1. First freezing was done on the day you bought it
2. Both times you have cooked the meat thoroughly (so hot throughout for a period of time)
3. You don't refreeze a third time.

I do this a lot, and have never had any problems.

I also will use raw meat from the freezer, cook a big batch of something, then freeze it in individual portions.

Just make sure you freeze the meat the day you purchase it. Then ensure it's cooked through, cooled, then freeze again, but don't refreeze raw meet or cooked once defrosted.

I'm on a health kick and also doing this. So far this week I've done 6 portions of bolognese and 7 of chilli. I also made a curry with leftover roast meat and froze that too.
This evening I'm making a chicken casserole, enough to freeze portions too.
I brown onions and chicken, add chicken stock (2 chicken oxos, gravy granules and veg oxo) and more vegetables, salt and pepper and a ton of tarragon.
I've got a similar recipe for paprika pork, using paprika not tarragon
(Polishing my halo here, I'm usually crap and eat ready meals)

I meant to say that bacteria/germs are killed by cooking til piping hot or freezing. So defrosting meat, cooking it and then freezing again is fine. Defrosting it then heating til piping hot is also fine.

I have frozen again but I think it's against guidelines, but only when it has been heated back up to piping hot. Defrosting then re-freezing is really bad apparently.

Rice - just cook what you need. I use a microwave rice cooker so it's no hassle.

I freeze diced onions (usually bought from the supermarket whoops shelf), butter, grated cheese, bread etc.

Fish straight out of the freezer with a bit of diced onion and grated cheese (also straight out of the freezer) and baked for 20 mins in the oven is nice

My understanding is that freezing doesn't kill bacteria, but it stops them multiplying. Warming food then gets the bacteria multiplying, but heating it till it is piping hot all the way through (and stays that way for at least 20 mins) kills them.

Worst thing would be to leave lukewarm food standing for long periods of time, then refreezing, then defrosting and partially reheating. That would be a nice bacterial soup.

I am definitely going to try the curry, it sounds delicious!

My idea was to make half and half curry and rice meals to save time, but maybe that is just being lazy!

Still working on my meal planner , not as easy as I thought when we old really eat 3 meals!

You can freeze pizza dough and it is really really easy to make!! I'm a recent convert.

I use this recipe which makes 5-6 good sized pizzas & they are really delicious.
www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/recipe/pizza-dough

I'm batch cooking ATM too. So far I have made

Burgers - 8 1/4lb
Curry
Chilli
Spaghetti Bol
Stew
Fish pie

I also have sausages, chicken thighs and steak in the freezer to make other things with on non hectic days.

Frozen veg is a god send

My suggestion is that you fill the freezer with the curries, sauces, casseroles etc and keep the rice, pasta, spuds in the larder dry. In the 10 - 15 minutes it takes to cook the starch element, you can defrost and heat up your batch-cooked portions. I'm also going to suggest you get hold of a lot of eggs and master 'the frittata'. My standard recipe which serves 2 - 3 is....

4 - 6 eggs
2 tomatoes, chopped
3 spring onions, chopped
1 large cooked (microwave) potato, diced
Grated cheese

You can also add other chopped vegetables, peas, spinach leaves etc

• Heat a little oil in a non-stick omelette or frying pan and fry the potato and any veg/spinach until tender
• In a bowl beat the eggs and stir in the tomatoes, spring onions and plenty of seasoning
• Tip the pan contents into the egg mixture, stir briefly, then return all of it to the frying pan and allow to spread out and set.
• Finally.... sprinkle on some cheese, put the whole pan under the grill and cook until risen, bubbling and golden. Serve cut into wedges

Whole thing takes sub 10 minutes

Someone has probably said this already, but be careful with rice. I always used to cook too much, keep it in the fridge, then fry it up a couple of days later. Until someone told me rice harbours some really nasty bacteria that multiplies even in the fridge and can make you very ill indeed. If anyone knows this to be untrue I'd be glad to hear it since I still cook too much.

I batch cook ratatouille. I don't think anyone has mentioned that. Easy to cook. I basically slice and chuck the ingredients in the pan in this order: 2 onions, 2 or 3 peppers, 2 cloves of garlic, 3 courgettes, 1 good sized aubergine, a handful or two of mushrooms then a couple of tins of tomatoes followed by herbs and seasoning. Add water if it needs it, and keep it simmering on a low heat for a good while.

Lasagne is pretty easy and most sheets fit those plastic tubs nicely per layer :)

Otherwise, moussaka, mac and cheese, sausage casserole, chilli, gammon "pie" (basically,shredded gammon with cauliflower, broccoli, leek, carrot, peas in cheese sauce, top with mash) fish pie, paprika chicken, stuffed cabbage leaves

for pudding - bread and butter pudding and apple crumble

Interesting about rice. I always cook extra rice so that I can cook egg fried rice the next day. It's then drier and doesn't stick together so makes better fried rice. I've never had a problem with it and always make sure it is piping hot when I stir fry it.

Can I ask something really daft... How do you cook the frozen meals? Do you have to defrost first in the fridge/outside the fridge and how do you know how long to heat up for?

Feeling as I feel by my age I should just know but I don't!

Hope you don't mind me asking OP good luck with all the batch cooking!

We defrost overnight in the fridge, then heat up in the oven :) Normally 20min or so but have also done 45min from frozen. Just check the middle is piping hot

Haven't got any more meal suggestions to add but can recommend freezing into freezer bags for better storage space! We freeze individual portions and then flatten them so that you can fold the bag in half. Very thin and very easy to stack in freezer drawer. Then defrost in a tub and tip into saucepan to reheat.

We also defrost overnight and reheat in oven for things like macaroni cheese and pies.

I buy a load of those small takeaway foil trays and make individual portions of things such as lasagna, moussaka, fish pies, sausage and lentil stew, pork with prunes etc. Make them up to the point you'd normally shove in the oven (or in the case of stews just make as usual) and pop in the freezer instead. You can then cook straight from frozen and it's much nicer than freezing portions of things that have already been cooked. Also the foil tins stack in the freezer brilliantly so you can get loads in (ok not v environmentally friendly but as long as you rinse and recycle I don't think it's too bad)

I buy a load of those small takeaway foil trays and make individual portions of things such as lasagna, moussaka, fish pies, sausage and lentil stew, pork with prunes etc. Make them up to the point you'd normally shove in the oven (or in the case of stews just make as usual) and pop in the freezer instead. You can then cook straight from frozen and it's much nicer than freezing portions of things that have already been cooked. Also the foil tins stack in the freezer brilliantly so you can get loads in (ok not v environmentally friendly but as long as you rinse and recycle I don't think it's too bad)

I buy a load of those small takeaway foil trays and make individual portions of things such as lasagna, moussaka, fish pies, sausage and lentil stew, pork with prunes etc. Make them up to the point you'd normally shove in the oven (or in the case of stews just make as usual) and pop in the freezer instead. You can then cook straight from frozen and it's much nicer than freezing portions of things that have already been cooked. Also the foil tins stack in the freezer brilliantly so you can get loads in (ok not v environmentally friendly but as long as you rinse and recycle I don't think it's too bad)