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Freezer Cooking | Pad Patter 7.17

bestcee

bestcee

In love with places I've never been to
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Dec 18, 2013
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I decided to sign up for school this fall. Which means I know I'll be busy. So this week, I'm freezing some meals! I'm going to do burritos, taquitos, egg ham and cheese on a muffin, pockets (pizza and ham and cheese), and some biscuits.

Have you freezed meals? Or components? What's your favorite? Or, if you are like me, a disaster?

I once used tobasco instead of buffalo hot sauce. They are NOT the same thing!
 
I big batch and freeze:
  • rice
  • spaghetti sauce
  • cooked hamburger
  • cooked shredded chicken
  • homemade taco soup
  • chili
I make a frittata and keep it in the fridge in tupperware for breakfast/lunch throughout the week.

I shred coleslaw and store in tupperware in fridge for the week to use for coleslaw, casserole and mix with greens to serve over burgers (for this I use a mayo/mustard/celery seed dressing).
 
I tried to freeze meals but found I would forget and then they got freezer burned. I try to cook on sunday for the first 2-3 days of the week and then in summer we grill. I also use my pressure cooker for meats in the evening. I also will use my crock pot (roast or chicken) and just let it cook all day.

Best of luck with the schooling
 
@bestcee - what are you going to be studying?

I used to be a BIG time freezer meal mom. I'd get together with a friend and we'd spend the day making meals. Now, I mostly just freeze taco meat and grilled chicken.

Here's some of the other things we used to freeze.
Lasagna
Funeral potatoes
poppyseed chicken casserole
chicken enchiladas
 
I've frozen paella--a simple recipe from Rachael Ray. I've used both chorizo and just "regular" sausage, btw. Actually, Rachael Ray has a lot of great freeze ahead meals on her mag site.

I like to freeze chili and lasagna. DH has frozen mac and cheese, but the kids didn't care for it. I loved it! It was super cheesy and gooey and wonderful.

May I add that chicken Cesar salad wraps are a yummy and easy weekday dinner? (You can do ranch dressing, or another one that's more kid-friendly lol). DH will grill up a bunch of chicken for the week and I just use what I want for my wrap and for the kids'. He'll freeze half the chicken, if I want some for another week.
 
bcgal00 said:
I big batch and freeze:
  • rice
  • spaghetti sauce
  • cooked hamburger
  • cooked shredded chicken
  • homemade taco soup
  • chili
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Another thing to do is chop a bunch of onions and place them in individual baggies. Then all you need to do is grab a bag whenever you need an onion in something cooked. It's a great timesaver!

I'd add pulled pork to the list. Then you can add it to whatever recipe you want, or just dump a bunch of BBQ sauce on it for sandwiches!
 
Tree City said:
You can do ranch dressing, or another one that's more kid-friendly lol)
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Are you calling Ceasar or ranch not kid friendly? :giggle and regardless, don't tell my kid! He's weird. He loves Ceasar salads!

QuiltyMom said:
Another thing to do is chop a bunch of onions and place them in individual baggies.
Click to expand...
Oh! That's a good one! I never have onion when I need it. It goes bad too quickly.
 
@bestcee and @QuiltyMom - I'm lazy, so I just buy chopped onions in the freezer section at the store for a buck a bag. They also have ones with chopped peppers too. I add them to recipes that call for chopped onions. They're especially helpful for soups.
 
I've frozen meals that I can dump into my crockpot before I run out the door. We buy our meat in bulk and then put together a couple meals while working on the current dinner. So everything gets chopped at once and then separated into their bags.
I've also made a double batch of something just so I can freeze the second half for a later date. Then you're only doing the work one day and getting 2 meals out of it.
 
THIS!!

I'm terrible at meal planning and sticking with it...things sound good when I make the list, but then a couple days later nobody wants it or I don't feel like making it, so we've wasted too much food doing that.

rdjrneace said:
I tried to freeze meals but found I would forget and then they got freezer burned. I try to cook on sunday for the first 2-3 days of the week and then in summer we grill. I also use my pressure cooker for meats in the evening. I also will use my crock pot (roast or chicken) and just let it cook all day.

Best of luck with the schooling
Click to expand...
 
I dream of doing this. If only I had more then just my teeny freezer above the fridge. I plan on doing this when I move though. Buy a big standalone freezer and cook and freeze! :) However, right now it's not really an option.

I am single but it's very difficult to cook for one. So normally I cook on day 1, put halve in the fridge to eat on day 2 and when it's even more then that, put the rest in the freezer.

What I do:
  • I make and freeze spinach burgers. My specialty! :) This is the recipe I started out with.
  • I freeze shredded cheese. I buy cheese at the farmers market, shred and freeze. Cheese doesn't freeze well in blocks, but shredded is fine. Especially if you put it on top of oven dishes.
  • I buy granola bread buns (probably a horrible translation, see photo below), cut, butter up, and put sliced cheese in between. I freeze them individually to grab as lunch when I work. Yes, bread is the normal lunch in my country.

mueslibol-oude-kaas.jpg
 
i meal plan but don't freeze. i'm a disaster at that. things end up in there with good intentions only to get forgotten. recently i found a sauce in a small container in the back of the freezer that was so secret i couldn't even figure out what it was or what it should be used for.

my meal plan is usually to make 4 or 5 meals per week with 2-3 of them being bigger portions that will feed us multiple meals (either an extra dinner or some lunches). this cuts down on the amount of prep and cooking i do weekly and does not lead to wasted meals in the freezer that i always seem to forget about.
 
When the kids were younger, I did it all of the time. But mainly components. I would cook huge batches of ground beef to freeze. And I would also cook and freeze chicken breasts. I still had to make dinner, but at least I had a good start on it. Now the only thing I really freeze is casseroles. So many recipes feed a crowd, so I make it in two pans... cook one for dinner and freeze the other half for another night. That is actually a good way to tackle the prep... whenever you're cooking something - freeze half or double it to freeze the extras. Not much extra work that way.
 
I love this idea. I've never been able to meal plan because we tend to eat what sounds good that night, and of course it's never what I've "planned." But I love the thought of having stuff in the freezer ready to go for the super busy nights. And I've found a lot of great freezer stuff for the instant pot, so I definitely plan to do some sort of variation of freezer meals/meal planning.
 
QuiltyMom said:
Another thing to do is chop a bunch of onions and place them in individual baggies. Then all you need to do is grab a bag whenever you need an onion in something cooked. It's a great timesaver!
Click to expand...
this is me too - we have a drawer in the freezer that is just a bunch of bagged, chopped veggies (1 zip lock bag is 1 chopped onion or half a leek or whatever i write on it so if i have recipes i know what to grab) I used to specifically cook and freeze more whole meals but these days i just cook double batches occassionally and freeze leftovers of pasta sauce or taco mince etc as above, having some frozen leftover small portions of casseroles and slow cooker curries like apricot chicken or butter chicken that i can just reheat and add to rice used to make me less annoyed when i had to cook new bland dinner's for Miss Fussy DD that won't eat anything called leftovers!
 
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