How to freeze meals containing meat...

[Paranoid1stTimer]

I know this will have been asked before but I am sooooo worried about food poisoning that I have always just frozen the veg part of dinner and then cooked the meat part on the day it will be eaten.

Anyway, LO is now a toddler and I am making him meals with chicken/fish/mince/beef integrated into the sauce so will have to freeze it all together.

I guess my question is when do I freeze it? AND how do I defrost it? Can I then reheat it without any probs?

I know this is prob all really stupid sounding but I am such a novice and any sites I have looked at or people in RL are a bit vague about it cos I am too embarrassed to keep asking questions when I don't really understand what they are on about.

I am a complete novice so thought it best to ask on here where you can give me advice cos I bet you all bulk freeze cos it takes soooo long to cook from scratch every day on top of looking after LO's

Soz for long post. I can never just ask my question without waffling on...

I wait for it to cool down and then bag it up and freeze it, if I remember I will take a bag out and defrost over night before heating it up but most of the time I bung it in a microwave and cook until it is hot all the way through.

Everyone has to ask something at some point and if no one has told you, how do you know?

Cook the meal, cool it as quick as possible then freeze.

I would get the meal out the night before and freeze over night in the fridge or get it out first thing and leave it on the side to defrost.

Make sure you heat it through very hot - checking it has fully defrosted - then let it cool down to child friendly heat.

hth.

Cool the food as quickly as possible before freezing. EG Put the cooking dish in a bowl of cold tap water - rapid cooling improves the taste.

Reheat from frozen or defrosted.

Ahhh brilliant! Thanks for the fast replies! Thanks also for not shooting me down for my silly questions. True - no one has told me so how do I know.

Thanks a million