Completely thick question regarding the reheating of frozen meals!

[PanicPants]

Ok, with the risk of sounding horrendously thick, I've a couple of questions about freezing and then reheating meals (for adults not babies!)

I've never cooked a meal (for example cassarole/stew etc) and then frozen it before as I don't know what to do.

So:

1. When the meal is cooked, what do you freeze it in? Tupperware type containers?

2. Do you need to completely cool it down before going in the fridge (and THEN the freezer?)

3. Do you need to completely defrost before cooking/reheating? Or can you put it straight in the oven from frozen? And how long for?

I want to do lots of cooking in the holidays and freeze lots of meal so when I go back to work we will have some lovely homecooked dinners ready and waiting.

TIA

As soon as the meal has cooked, put it into freezer-appropriate dishes. These can be tupperware/plastic, or those foil dishes that take-away places use.

I would put it straight into the freezer then. If you have made a lot, it might be a good idea to let them cool down a little bit because you don't want hot stuff to affect stuff that's already in your freezer.

I don't think it will do you any harm to put frozen stuff straight into the oven, but you will have to allow longer time for it to cook through - and to cook without burning, so would probably suggest that you take it out in the morning and leave it to defrost during the day.

If it's defrosted, you can probably cook it through properly in 20-30 mins, but always make sure that it's piping hot in the middle before you serve it.

Hope this helps!

Thank you!