Help me fill my new chest freezer!

[FatCatSkinnyRat]

HI all,

Excitement of excitement, we purchased a chest freezer in the sales yesterday. I am super excited to fill it up with meals for the days I work long hours. For info we are a family of 4, two very hungry active teenage boys.

I am a pretty good cook but need some inspiration - I am off work for another 10 days and plan on making a double batch of freezable meals every night between now and then - one for that evening and another for the freezer.

So far on my list I have:

• pumpkin / beef lasagna (two different lasagnas, not in combo!)
• cottage and shepherds pie
• meatloaf from RecipeTinEats (apparently excellent)
• fish pie
• meatballs (thank you Ottolenghi thread! www.bibbyskitchenat36.com/ottolenghis-ricotta-and-oregano-meatballs/)

Does anyone prep slow cooker combinations and then freeze? This seems like a good idea to me, but never done it before.

Help me get organised while the inspiration is there! What else can I freeze? Who knew this would be so exciting.

Take a peek at the Batch Lady's website. I've got her book on kindle and it sets out plans to batch prepare 40 individual meals in a couple of hours. I've got to clear our freezer first then I'll follow one of her plans.

thebatchlady.com/

I like to make a chicken, courgette, pepper and tomato sauce - you can then heat that up, boil some pasta and top mix with grana padano and creme fraîche. Put sauce underneath, cheesy pasta on top, top with cheese and grill til done.

It's not 0 effort in an evening but you don't have to take up all the room of freezing a whole dish which is a good deal.

I also do meatballs with bacon, red onion and a wine and redcurrant jelly sauce which freeze pretty well (which I then eat with leftover mash from another meal and some veg).

Bolognese obviously freezes pretty well.

I do a slow cooker meatballs that actually I wonder if it would work well as a slow cooker bag? I would keep the meatballs separate as I brown them in the slow cooker first, but if you can't do that in yours you could maybe brown them and include in the bag. The ingredients for that are tinned toms, tomato puree, a chicken stock cube, a load of herbs de provence, and a small amount of white wine, which I would add separately. Then veg wise I use an onion or two, garlic, a chopped pepper or two, optionally a courgette if I have one, a grated carrot or two and some lumps of sweet potato/butternut squash. I buy the frozen ones and just add 4-5 lumps per tin of tomatoes. They totally disintegrate in the slow cooker but thicken the sauce up because of the starch.

The name is really unappealing, but 'dump bag recipes' will give you ideas for pre-prepping slow cooker meals.

I never managed to get organised enough to batch cook lots of meals in advance, but chest freezer is definitely useful for picking up meat bargains and I like to keep a couple of bags of frozen veg in there for days when I want something low fuss.

Following in case anyone has useful tips for labelling containers. I find labels/masking tape always falls off and it feels wasteful to use a sharpie and then not re-use the container.

Various stir fry mixes

Just me and DP but we have:

Chilli
Sausage casserole
Beef stew
Ikea meatballs (as we live 40 miles away from the nearest store, I love them and they are really easy for a “I can’t be bothered to cook” evening)
I also freeze meat when on offer and separate it into portion sizes before freezing (chicken breasts/thighs)
Bread and rolls
Butter
An emergency pudding I can cook from frozen - usually Apple Strudel
Frozen Quorn mince for emergency vegetarian meals
Potato wedges

Thanks everyone, so many great ideas here. I found this article here earlier which has a lot of delicious looking recipes on it - in particular teenager style food with pasta
www.goodhousekeeping.com/uk/food/recipes/g38866991/freezer-meals/

Thanks for the Batch Lady recommendation, will have a look through hers as well. LOL at "dump bag recipes", but you are right, there's lots online about it.

So many good ideas, making a massive shopping list now. Hopefully I don't get two days in and lose motivation :-)

Something I like to do, based on the Jamie Oliver 7-veg sauce, but I use pretty much any veg, like buying the reduced supermarket boxes, or anything looking sad in the fridge.
It's just a base sauce of pureed veg, usually tomatoes, onions, garlic, butternut, courgette, celery, beetroot, but I have also added spinach, lettuce, corn, anything goes really.

Then you can turn it into pasta sauce by adding basil and some more garlic, or for making enchiladas by adding smoked paprika etc, whatever you might need a base for.

Have a look at soupercubes. You can freeze things in individual portions and when frozen, turn out, bag, the blocks stack neatly. I take however many out and pop them in individual Pyrex dishes the same size so defrosted ready to heat at dinner. Handy if you have teens that are in/out/dining at different times. I make cubes of
macaroni cheese
fish pie
chilli and rice
lasgane
curry etc.

I have bags of chopped onion, chopped veg, ets to make cooking quicker. I also prep foods into ziplock bags and freeze them pressed flat so they stack and you can snap off what you want rather than defrosting the whole thing: this works well for mashed vegetable, purées, curries and chillis, stews and sauces.

We love the Hairy Bikers Beef and Apple Tagine which is brilliant for freezing.

Also Jamie Oliver’s Chilli con Veggie.

Ottolenghis Aubergine and Lentil Stew always a big hit and sooo good to get out when you want something a little bit lighter with rice.

umm have you got a patio ? No ? you may want to save a bit of space in your freezer for the day that you DH been 'a bit annoying' LOL😂

Make some soup to freeze in tubs for work. I made a huge BNS and Veg soup yesterday with bags of reduced and ready chopped veg from Waitrose and have easy meals for work sorted.

Also a ratatouille and a simple tomato and basil sauce is always useful.

Vegetable chilli to have with rice or enchiladas.

Don't underestimate a trip to Iceland to get fish, treats etc!

I would stack an entire end of it with cheapish meal extenders like hash browns and potato waffles (especially the latter, since they can go in the toaster), otherwise the hungry active teenage boys are liable to think that defrosting just one portion of your lovingly-made fish pie/lasagne can't possibly be enough.

When I have my supermarket delivery I peel & chop most of my veg then bag up in the freezer so if I say want to make a chilli I can just grab a bag of chopped onions & dump it all in the slow cooker. I normally do onions, carrots, celery, all separate so I can choose what I want. The fine chopped stuff I use my food processor, onions I do some fine chopped & slice some by hand for making currys. You can do the same with herbs & garlic, much cheaper than buying the ready done stuff. Have you got a slow cooker or multi cooker? Batch cook stews, currys, chilli, bolognaise & freeze in microwaveable containers so you can just grab one, dump it in the microwave & add carbs to make a meal.

When I have my supermarket delivery I peel & chop most of my veg then bag up in the freezer so if I say want to make a chilli I can just grab a bag of chopped onions & dump it all in the slow cooker. I normally do onions, carrots, celery, all separate so I can choose what I want. The fine chopped stuff I use my food processor, onions I do some fine chopped & slice some by hand for making currys. You can do the same with herbs & garlic, much cheaper than buying the ready done stuff. Have you got a slow cooker or multi cooker? Batch cook stews, currys, chilli, bolognaise & freeze in microwaveable containers so you can just grab one, dump it in the microwave & add carbs to make a meal.

Risottos and soups generally freeze quite well.

Pulled chicken or pulled pork is awesome as well - cook in the slow cooker then freeze in portions. Use to make tacos, quesadillas, etc.

In winter I batch cook soups using my multicooker (similar to an Instant pot) then freeze in individual portions to take to work for lunches during the week. Healthy and saves money!

For summer I will often do homemade burger patties or marinated chicken thighs (freeze in the bag with marinade). Then just defrost and throw on the bbq and have them with corn on the cob and salad.

Living my dream! After a trip to Costco the other day I am dreaming of a time when we have space for a chest freezer. 😄

Following this with interest, we're about to move house which obviously will involve defrosting the freezers - we have two, one under the fridge and a stand alone under counter one. It's exciting to be able to start again!

I do regular batch cooking for my dad (who lives alone) and I do:

Meatballs in tomato/basil sauce
Chicken in white wine sauce (serve with rice)
Salmon and crab fishcakes (great with salad for the summer)
Chicken or meat pie

I also make up individual portions of crumble.

This is probably obvious to most people but I didn't know and learned the hard way - check your storage containers are freezer/microwave proof!

I bought a bulk order of takeaway boxes and assumed they'd do the job but I spoiled a whole batch of food because when I reheated the meals, they had shards of plastic in. Stupid mistake but I didn't know. I do now and only use good Tupperware/freezer safe boxes.

Bags of frozen fruit
Crumble mix - just need to thaw and add water for pastry
Pastry - you can cut it into chunks when frozen and feed them into a food processor with the blade running. Soft enough to roll out, but still cool.
Cake mix freezes
Biscuit doughs that are in a sausage that you can cut into slices and put straight in the oven.

Tomato sauce, so versatile.
Add chilli seasoning, beans and mince.
Red wine, mince for a ragout
Cheese for a basic pasta sauce.
Add herbs and milk for tomato soup.

Bags of soffritto- onion, celery carrot finely chopped ready as a base for anything else.

I tend to freeze leftovers and ingredients rather than whole meals.

Soup.
Red Thai curry
Leftover cooked chicken or salmon
Leftover wine for casseroles-defrost in seconds in microwave.
Pastry cases
Odd leftover portions for one
Most useful-jars or tubs of homemade tomato sauce
Individual slices of cake or leftover birthday cake
A whole salmon, half price from Tesco's often, pre cut into sides. I half one side to make portions for 4-6 then cut the other into individual portions.
Seville oranges, for marmalade any time!
A packet of butter and one of cheese. Also grated cheese, in small portions, especially Parmesan.
Spare loaf of nice bread
Pitta bread

Also, work out now how you want to organise it