Can I have all your best freezer filling recipes please!

[KingCanuteIAm]

With various children?s after school clubs I now find that we do not get home until after 7pm 3 nights a week. I work days so I don't get chance to prepare food earlier on and I find I am increasingly turning to the local chip shop in despair (and exhaustion ). However, I am not happy with the situation, the children are not getting good food and it is expensive!

So, my master plan is to have a cooking session once a week (or fortnight) and portion up food to put in the freezer to be reheated on those nights, rather than admit defeat!

Please could you give me any ideas for items that can be cooked and frozen into portions which can also be reheated quickly. Oh, ideally they need to include 3 portions of veg as the children only manage to get 2 fruit and 1 veg during the school day!

Thanks in advance for any ideas, I am really struggling to come up with anything beside Lasagne (with carrots, peppers and peas)

Stews and casseroles for example chicken chasseur or boeuf bourgignon, bolognaise sauce.

Rather than doing a massive cooking session, why don't you just make double the amount required when you're cooking and then batch up and freeze the surplus. That's what we do.

Thanks Pesto, I would double up but we are such a large family that I already use our largest pots and pans, I don't think I could cook more!

How long could things like this be forzen for? I would like to keep the cooking sessions to once a fortnight as I am going to have to take this time out of my "child-centric" time as it is!

Meatballs in sauce is a winner in our house.

And lasange.

And I blend a bag of spinach into the meatball/lasange sauce for extra veggies.

I leave stuff in the freezer for ages, with no ill effects

Probably 3 months is best though.

Spag bol, chilli, sausage casserole

OOh, good tip with the spinach! Thanks!

Hoochie, no, I did and it was great but I found that I was doing all the same stuff again and again (and then the dog decided to attempt to eat the contents and broke it )

Perhaps I should buy another and a good recipe book for it.

How good/bad is that frozen rice stuff you can boil or microwave? I know it only takes a couple of minutes but I was always taught not to freeze cooked rice....

Also, what do you all use to freeze in? I have used bags in the past but found that things got freezer burn really quickly, do you all use masses of tupperware?

Chilli con carne (beans, peppers, mushrooms)
Beef stew
Chicken casserole
Lasagne (I add lentils, carrot, peppers, mushrooms and courgette to mine)
Shepherds pie (with carrots and peas, could serve with green beans)
Soup of any variety
Chicken curry (with mushrooms, spinach, peppers, peas)
Cottage pie (with peas, carrot, and potato)
Tuna pasta bake (made with tomatos, peppers, mushrooms)

These are all currently in my freezer

Rather than do a massive cooking session at the weekend, I find it easier to cook double when I'm cooking dinner normally, and freezing half IYSWIM.

aargh- x-posts!
wot pesto said!

Spaghetti sauce - can be used for lasagne or spaghetti or can add some chilli and beans to make chilli. or indeed make those seperately. Lasagne can be cut into portions and frozen.
Beef/meat stew
cheese sauce - does not look like it freezes but works fine, has to be used within a month though afaik - can then be used with pasta
individual pies - freeze in individual pots, covered with cling film, defrost and then into oven, either chicken or meat, or vegetable, whatever your preference (just make the filling, pour into ceramic pie pots, top with whatever pastry you like
Fish pies - made with either mash or with pastry, again individual dishes.
Curry, any kind
Soup, all kinds, you can add mini pasta and pulses to make it more substantial

I bought a load of cheap plastic tubs and pyrex dishes with plastic lids from Woolies, just before they went bust!

(am 40 weeks pg, so I had planned to fill freezer to bursting so we don't have to cook when DS arrives!)
However- I saw in sainsburys this week- they do bargainous 'tupperware' containers too- in the homeware section. I'm sure pundland or poundstretcher have those type of things.
FOr things that need to go in the oven to cook (shepherds pie etc) might be better with the 'bacofoil' foil tubs that come in packs of 10 with cardboard lids.

Also- if your chinese takeaway does the plastic tubs- they are great to re-use- good for stacking in the freezer too.

I sometimes use foil dishes to freeze food (liek the ones you get from a takeaway)

I also make a tomato and basil sauce which can be used on its own with pasta or for pizza (obviously you could sneak some extra veg in there if you wanted)

Mercy - you freeze tomatoe sauces? That's a good idea. Would it work with roasted tomatoe sauces? I keep promising myself to make lots and then keep in the fridge with oil but... my new fridge is too small!

Oh, and OP - I agree with the soup option. The backward version of that is master a few soups that use frozen vegetables - peas, spinach, that kind of thing. That way you can keep big bags of frozen vegetables in the freezer and make soups in minutes without too much hassle.

Hoochie - I do both - my slow cooker fully loaded feeds my family twice, so one day coming home to a hot meal, and another the same meal just needing reheating having been taken out of the freezer!

agree with lots of the other suggestions for freezer meals, I do a lot of

curry/chilli/lasagne/shepherds pie

soups

pasta sauce

casseroles of various types

job lot of fishcakes - you do need to cook theses after defrosting though

I am so glad I have a full freezer - have a stinking cold and earache and am having a couple of duvet days to recover, but having got something out of the freezer we are not going to have to resort to a takeout!

shepherds pie with vegetables like...cauli, brocoli, carrots, peas, sprouts....

Ohbling, I can't see why a roasted tomato sauce wouldn't work.

Do a huge pot of tinned tomatoes with peppers, courgette, aubergine, garlic, herbs, mushrooms and onions and then split is - add Ras al Hanout to half (instant ratatouille to have with bangers or chops or chicken) then use the other half as veggie pasta sauce or add chicken or chorizo to it before you mix in the pasta - or mix with cheese and top with mozarella and then bake - obviously with pasta added.

These are fantastic Thank You!

I will have to go and look up the best recipes for all these stews etc.

I love the idea of doing pies etc but I don't have time to let them cook properly - I have young children as well as older children so I need to serve tea minutes after getting in or the little ones are in bed too late!

it is all such a juggling act - on a high wire - over a bear pit....