Help me with batch cooking ideas (no mince), please

[SadieContrary]

My good friend has just had a baby and rarely accepts help. She knows I love cooking so asked if I could make some dinners for her freezer - now I have gone blank for ideas.
Nothing with mince (even Quorn) as it's a texture thing she took aversion to in pregnancy (I was the same and couldn't look at anything minced for ages!)
I don't need full recipes, I can do all that - just ideas of things that freeze/ heat up well. TIA.

Spanish chickpeas, lots of spinach for iron.

Vegetable lasagne

Sausage casserole

Spinach and ricotta pasta bake

Soup portioned for lunches.

Thank you, @AlwaysFreezing, this is exactly the suggestions I was needing :)

Chana masala, dhal, basically any curry freezes well. Also, cookie dough freezes really well and then you can pop individual cookies in the oven from frozen for a treat.

Slow-cooked chilli is nice with beef brisket or similar rather than mince.

Lentil “cottage pie”

Appreciate your suggestions, @Archymum & @BassesAreBest.
I am not sweet toothed so wouldn't have thought of the cookie idea either.

Haddock chowder
Chicken casserole
Any curry
Chicken fajitas without the wraps & salad part
Teriyaki Beef for a noodle stir-fry, think the recipe was from the Batch Lady actually, which would be worth a look for more ideas

@NewBuildNewGarden, super idea, I will check out her posts. Cheers for the ideas too.

Also things like barbecue shredded chicken. I roast a chicken, then cook down some red onion, peppers, with paprika and other spices, add the shredded chicken. It’s then freezable in small portions and we use for easy quesadillas ( she just need to buy tortillas and cheese and assemble then).

Red pepper and lentil soup

Blueberry muffins

chicken and veg broth type soups . They can cook udon noodles and add on day

Korma curry

@Caspianberg thank you! :)

I make macaroni cheese, whole meal banana bread and fruit salad for new moms. Easy to eat with one hand while nursing.

You could still make things like shepherd's pie, bolognese or beef chilli but used diced beef instead of mince .

I made a lovely butternut squash stew at the weekend.

It was 2 sautéed onions and lots of garlic
A butternut squash, cut into chunks
2 tins tomatoes
A squeeze of tomato puree
1 tin kidney beans
A pile of rainbow chard from the garden, chopped (spinach would also be nice)
2 tsp paprika
2 cardamom pods
Salt and pepper

We ate some with sausages and I frozen the rest. It was delicious!

Lamb tagine?

We love a bean chilli to freeze, every type of bean you can think of!
Chicken curry
Sausage casserole / any casserole
Soups
Beef stew
Any type of pasta and sauce mix, we like spicy chicken and peppers, then just make the pasta fresh the day of.

My pumpkin lasagne is

Parboil chunks of pumpkin. Drain.
Make your favourite Italian tomato sauce. Add chips of bacon or Greek feta for a salt hit, or salami.

Slice the pumpkin and layer with the sauce like lasagne. Top with cheese and breadcrumbs. Bake at 180 C until golden.

Allow to cool. Serve into small containers and freeze.

Butternut doesn't freeze well - tends to come out mushy in the unfreeze. Still perfectly edible and delicious, but mushy not chunky!

I made chicken stews for myself and froze those - was the same as your friend as just couldn't face all the mince. I used chicken thighs and slow cooked it all then shreded the chicken back into the sauce.

Lamb and aubergine curry freezes well albeit slightly mushy aubergines on coming out! I also used to freeze lamb and chickpea stew to which I would add carrot chunks as they freeze better than butternut.

Does it have to be frozen? Something I did for SIL was to roast a chicken, make a salad and cook some new potatoes and then drop off for her - they could have it cold or warm that night, and leftovers for sandwiches etc.

I don't find that at all.

But thank you for insulting a stranger's cooking.

@WomenInSTEM I didn't insult you and if you took it as an insult, then you are very sensitive. Your post suggested you have just made this meal and frozen it. I was warning you that butternut tends to go mushy after freezing. If that's not your experience, fine, I'm very pleased for you (and do tell me your secret because I use butternut a lot and it endlessly frustrates me that if i freeze it, it just comes out as mush - my favourite lamb stew with butternut on defrosting has a thicker, more orange sauce and no butternut chunks!)).

Lamb stew

A quiche cut into slices and frozen

Chicken and chorizo stew

My in laws brought a whole roast chicken, already carved and ready to eat with a crusty baguette to make chicken sandwiches out of. Absolutely delicious 😋

Chicken supreme, also works fine with quorn. I add tumeric to mine. It's lovely and rich and I regularly batch cook it. I'm sure you could do it without mushrooms if your friend doesn't like them. Mushrooms are one of my favourite foods in the world so I pile them on, but I know not everyone shares my enthusiasm!

Ratatouille.