Does anyone have some REALLY SIMPLE RECIPES for stuff that can be frozen?

[Mossie]

I am only just learning to cook, have started my maternity leave (today! yippee!) and want to make loads of stuff that I can put in containers and freeze for when my lo is born so I don't rely on dh or the takeaway!

But they need to be FOOL PROOF! I have had many, many cooking disasters over the years. I mean really, really fool proof. No "pinch" of this, no "approximately" that, no "put in the oven until the juices run clear". Oh no, that way lies ruin!

I also need ingredients that I can buy from the Asda / local grocer / butcher.

And if at ALL possible in metric! But now I'm just being ultra fussy!

Thank you kind people in advance!

Anybody? Or are my criteria just too stringent?

I will think of something mossie.

Hows mat leave feeling then?

In fact, I could come round and wash my nappies in your machine next week and do some cooking stuff for you

Hi Jilly!! Oooh that would be brill!!!! I am proper rubbish at cooking but I do want to learn!

Maternity leave is feeling lovely thank you very much it hasn't quite sunk in yet that I am not there... and that I never have to go back to that awful place!!!

Rose Eliot's veggie chilli is really simple. Fry 1 chopped onion and one chopped red pepper in oil for 10 mins. Add 1 can chopped tomatoes and 1 crushed garlic clove. Add 2 cans red kidney beans (drained and rinsed first) and 100g of green lentils (which have been simmered in plenty of water for 40-45 mins beforehand). Add 1 tsp chilli powder, 1 tsp paprika pepper. Stir and simmer for 15 mins and serve with a jacket potato and loads of grated cheese! This freezes really well so you can make double quantity which should do you and dh four meals. I know the lentils sound a bit guardian reader/ knits own sandals but trust me - it's gorgeous and so so simple.

do you eat beef casserole? I could post my Mum's recipe which is lovely & v easy......it freezes well & we eat it with mash potato

Foolproof chicken and broccoli casserole -

• 2 or 3 skinless chicken breasts (depending on how "meaty" you want it) - lighly cooked
• 1 head of broccoli lightly cooked.

• leave chicken and broccoli to cool and then shred them both and lay them in a casserole dish - or two little dishes.

• Take 2 cans mushroom soup, 1 cup of mayo and a splash of lemon juice to taste - mix all together and pour over the chicken and broccoli.

-leave to cool and freeze -

• when you are ready to cook it, add breadcrumb topping with some parmesan or paprika and bake in oven for about 40 mins or until casserole is hot and topping is browned - serve with whatever you like.

Ooh, I'd like the beef receipe please! I make and freeze single portions of mash (doesn't work so well in larger quantities) and make sure I have fish fillets in the freezer. I think I'll get off this thread...

Easyiest way is buy a vat load of mince and have 2 pans going on teh hob at once. One for Chilli, one for shep's pie and one for bolognaise.

Allf freezes really well.

mossie - you so sound like a man!..well apart from the maternity leave bit..giveaway there..

I know you have been offered a beef recipe already but this is what I had in my freezer

Beef with stilton
500g beef, 100g stilton, about 10 mushrooms, chopped and 1 pint of stock. simmer for an hour and a half.

Beef with guiness
as above but replace half pint stock with half pint guiness (the alcohol will boil off while cooking)

Feel free to add potatoes and carrots but DH will not allow them in his stews....

Oh thank you everyone for the responses!

(Lol Pann, I am actually a hairy arsed trucker, and I'm not really pg, it's actually a very large beer belly )

A few questions. These are going to sound really stupid. Apologies in advance.

Coolmama when you say, "lightly cooked", is that fried, in the oven, or boiled?

Chirpygirl how thin do you cut the beef and stilton, or do you get it as mince? Does it matter what type of stock you use?

Shivs1974 yes beef casserole would be great!

Thank you everybody for this, dh normally does the cooking but given I'm on maternity leave I thought we should swap! It's a hell of a lot easier for him to learn to do the dishes though!!

Slayerette don't worry my dh has "lentil weaver" tendancies anyway so I think he will be amazed if I cooked that!

Mossie, I couldn´t cook before having a family. Am now perfectly capable of telling people to add a pitch of something or another and to leave it on the stove till it´s cooked... You will be amazed at how much progress you can make.

You could maybe start with soups. Easy to make and almost all freeze well, albeit nicer in winter than mid-summer...

HappyasLarry thanks for that I do feel a bit silly I'm nearly thirty and I can't cook, I sometimes watch dh, or his Mum, with their "pinch of that" and their "ooh we've run out of X oh it's okay we'll just use Y instead" and am not quite sure how they know, iyswim.

What soups are easy to make then?

buy The Dinner Lady cookbook

seriously easy recipes and nice dishes too

here's one (excuse the paraphrase)

12 sausages .. brown them (either under the grill or in a frying pan) .. make the skin all nice and brown .. takes about 10 minutes normally

throw them in a casserole pot (with a lid)

add a tin of baked beans, a tin of tomatoes, a tablespoon of mixed herbs

bung in the oven (with lid on) for about 45 mins to an hour at 180

serve with mashed potato

Thanks Twiglett!
Sil got dh that Jamie Oliver one for Christmas but it keeps going on about different cuts of meat and is full of ingredients that you can't get unless you want to drive out to the super-huge Tesco (which is fine for him, but I can't drive!)

Will look into that one!!

Ooh now yes that does sound like something even I could get my head round!!!

this one

seriously you make a dish a couple of times and you stop measuring cos you get an eye for how much to bung in .. and if you read the ingredients in stuff like mixed herbs just so you've a vague idea over time when you run out you think oh I haven't any mixed herbs bollocks I'lll just throw some of xx in instead

honestly we all started somewhere

(PS I also add a tin of chick peas to the sausage casserole cos I like them but they're not needed)

Thank you Twiglett that is brill!

Pork Chilli

Ilb minced pork (you can use minced lamb too)
2 onions chopped
2 garlic cloves (I use more cos I love garlic)
2 tsp harrissa paste (BArts do a nice one - hope you can get it in ASDA)
2 teaspoons hot chilli powder
Half teaspoon of Cumin powder
tin tomatoes
150 mls of veg stock.
Salt (how ever much you like)
tin red kidney beans

Fry onion and garlic for about 5 mins
Add mince and brown
Add harrissa paste, chilli powder, cumin,tomaotes, salt and stock.

Put into a lowish oven - 150 degrees - for One hour 15 mins. Take out add more stock if is dry and then add the rinced kidney beans and back into oven for half an hour.

Serve with rice or pitta bread.

my chilli is simpler

500g minced lamb or beef
beef stock cube
2 garlic cloves crushed
1 can kidney beans in chilli sauce
tin tomatoes (400g one)
1/2 tsp chilli
1.5 tablespoons cumin

brown mince (in saucepan stir until no red left)
add crushed garlic
(can add chopped onion at this stage and / or mushrooms .. optional)
add tin kidney beans and tin tomatoes
add chilli and cumin and simmer covered for 30 mins

serve with rice and green veg

actually its not is it? but it IS delicious