Batch cook and freeze?

[Pinklimey]

Olay, I've jumped. I normally batch cook and refrigerate, but I have to go away for a few days, so I have frozen the food.
I can't find information on how to defrost safely. Any ideas?

I take mine out the night before and stick it in the fridge.

Thank you. I'm quite new to having a freezer, so get a bit scared of it.

You’ll forget sometimes but don’t worry I just got into a habit of lifting out what I want - so when I was making dinner this evening, I lifted out what I want tomorrow at dinnertime tonight. 24 hours is plenty of time for something to defrost.

Just a word of warning on soup - it doesn’t always look like most appetising when defrosted, it’s fine when you heat it up.

If I forget to take things out, I can still often use them. Depends on what it is. I put frozen lasagnas into a cold oven when I turn it on and it's fine (user a lower heat, for a longer time). I would do the same if I ever had anything like frozen shepherds pie!

Things like mince/stews etc can be defrosted in the microwave. Otherwise in a pot on the stove they'll defrost slowly (might need to add a bit of water to stop them from scorching before they start to defrost.

As a word of warning I have never ever been able to successfully defrost something in the fridge!

Defrost in microwave if anything needs to be crispy then crisp up in oven afterwards. Check heated through before serving.

All interesting ideas. I asked at the butchers once and the woman said to leave to defrost on the surface, then I went to the Pork Marketing Board website and it made it sound like I would die of food poisoning if I did this.

I take out last thing before bed and leave on the kitchen counter ( no heating on overnight) and put it in the fridge until I use it that evening. The advice is to defrost in the fridge but that takes days in my experience.

Don't refreeze if you don't use it. Make sure it's piping hot when you heat up.

It's not complicated, take out of freezer, let it thaw.