Freezer recipe help

[MovingBird123]

I'm a fairly confident cook, I can rustle up an easy and nutritious meal in 30 min or so, but I don't love it at all. I'm tired of the whole relentless effort: the planning, shopping, chopping, cooking, cleaning all the utensils... During weekends or holidays I end up cooking three times a day. We end up spending more than we can afford on eating out because I'm so tired of it (not often at all, but we are on low salaries here).

I want to start batch cooking so the freezer is stocked with the same nutritious meals that I can just pop in the oven/pan, with minimal mess or thought. but I have absolutely no confidence using the freezer. Didn't grow up with a freezer at home, no "culture" of using it and never learnt.

Two main questions:

• What are your best freezer recipes?
• Food safety tips? How do you freeze it? Do you defrost before reheating? How long do you store it? What about meat? Fish? Is that OK in the freezer?

We eat everything apart from pork/shellfish/meat&dairy together.

Thanks in advance :)

I make all of these often- and you can easily either make them vegetarian or sub the milk/ cream for plant based alternatives to avoid mixing. They're intended for the slow cooker, but if you don't have one they also work just as well cooking on the hob (although if you can get a hold of a slow cooker they really are just dump in and go- they take two minutes!). Slow Cooker Dump Bags {Freeze and Go Meals}. They give instructions re what to freeze and how to defrost. I store the way she suggests, and write on each what date I made it, what it is, and how long to cook it for.

Most meals that have some kind of sauce frezze well, so curry's, stew , soup , pasta sauce type meals.
For most things I slightly under cook the veg like spuds, carrots , swede .
Things like mushrooms, peppers , brocoli don't get cooked at all that way when they are reheated they don't get over cooked.
Obviously make sure all meat and fish is cooked properly before freezing.

Freeze things in portion sizes, I use tesco zip lock bags , ( i wash and reuse the bags ) but take care to make sure they don't stick together by putting a layer of kitchen roll or baking paper between .

Use masking tape and a sharpi to lable your food .

Take a look at the Batch Lady - she has some great ideas to prep loads of meals in advance to then just chuck in the oven/slow cooker with all the info on how to store it etc.

Bean burgers https://realfood.tesco.com/recipes/bean-burgers-with-carrot-fries.html
Chilli pie https://realfood.tesco.com/recipes/lentil-chilli-pie-with-sweet-potato-topping.html
Cheesy greens pie https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/crusty-cheddar-pies

Quiche freezes really well, and can be eaten hot or cold. I advise using pastry made with butter, rather than, say, Tomor, as I think it tastes better cold. Making quiche from scratch is a little long-winded, but it's just as much trouble to make 4 as to make one. You can make them in disposable foil trays with lids. Bake without the lids, cook in the tray, label the lid, close, freeze, and then defrost (and reheat, if you want) alll on the same tray. If you're not keen on disposables, then invest in some loose-bottomed metal quiche pans and freeze in them. Once frozen, cover with foil and they can stack on each other. I have a batch of quiches in the freezer right now, fish pie mix with broccoli, leek and spring onion. 😋

Big tip for any freezer use: label everything. What is in the container (it all looks approximately the same once frozen) and the date you made and froze it. Because you will forget. If you do not freeze within 24h of cooking, note the difference in days on the label. The freezer temporarily stops the clock on keeping the food, so if you would only keep it, say, three days after cooking, and you freeze it on Day 2, that means you should eat it within 24h of defrosting.

I'd start by cooking double quantities of your existing meals, & follow freezing guidelines as above.
To keep it simple, I'd also stick to meat and/or veg dishes. It could get difficult trying to remember which containers have been used for meat or dairy.
I don't think cooked fish freezes & re-heats very well, best to stick to fresh or frozen fish for one meal at a time.

General tips on here for freezing are good so won't add.

Something I do quite a bit is to freeze somethign that I can use to make something else. eg, I'll cook a roast lamb/beef that's significantly bigger than I need then freeze a big chunk. that then turns into a really handy quick something or other - eg a quick stir fry or a quick curry at a later stage. And I'm increasingly using the freezer for other things like this - eg I'll buy burger patties then if I can't face cooking, me or DH can whip up burgers in 10 minutes as long as someone picks up some buns. Similarly, I buy packets of fresh stuffed pasta (ravioli etc) and have jars of pesto or a ready made sauce in the fridge a lot of the time as a quick easy option that doesn't really involve cooking.

Thank you thank you thank you, these are really useful tips!

Good shout on the quiches too, Dilbertian - I would love to gracefully swan into a festival, rather than stumble in with flour on my face knackered from the prep. Shavuot cooking here we go!

Baked cheesecake freezes brilliantly. If you want to freeze cheese borekas I suggest slightly undercooking them so that they turn golden when you reheat them in the oven.

Another tip. If you like serving or reheating foods in particular dishes, freeze them in those dishes. Once frozen, tip out the food, bag it (labelled 😉) and put it back in the freezer. Makes life so much easier when you come to defrost it.

Oh that's a great tip for bourekas. Do you defrost them before putting them back in the oven? Or do you just bung them back in like a frozen pizza?

I'm looking at some pyrex/not pyrex brand containers that can go from freezer to oven. What do other people use?

Weekends and holidays = cereal, toast, yoghurt, fruit, crumpets etc for breakfast / sarnies , toast, tinned soup etc for lunch. Nobody needs three cooked meals a day.

Dhal freezes well, especially if you add more fried onions etc when you heat it up.

Must admit I'm not good with freezing stuff, but `I find it useful to have things like oven chips, gyoza, fish fingers, veggie sausages in the freezer for when I really cba to think/cook (gyoza, edamame and a dipping sauce / egg, chips and peas / fish finger or veggie sausage sarnie etc).