Ideas for "freezable" meals?!
Answers: I'm filling my freezer with reheatable dinners to use when our new baby comes. I've racked my brain and can only come up with lasagne and stuffed peppers. We eat pretty much everything... ideas?
Foods that I find freeze particularly well are chili, spaghetti sauce, beef or chicken tortilla casserole, oven-barbecued chicken and sausage, homemade meatballs and hamburger patties, enchiladas and burritos, Mexican lasagna, most soups (except those with chunks of potatoes...they get mushy upon reheating), stuffed manicotti, meatloaf, homemade mac and cheese and pot pies...just to name a few.
Congrats on the new addition to your family! : )
Here is a link to over 100 freezable meals.
Hope you find something you like =)
you should try the marie callenders frozen dinners they're awesome
cordonbleu
stew
chcknoodle soup
any soup
jam (with toast or something ofcourse)
Other things that freeze well are soups, chili, stews; you can also make your own TV dinners using left overs that you can either microwave or bake in the oven. You can find divided plates by Ziploc, Glad, Rubbermaid and Tupperware. I don't know if they still make the tin foil ones.
Chili freezes beautifully. Here's a favorite recipe - a little different from the norm, but delicious!
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/...
Also, pasta sauce, soups (without pasta or noodles), meatballs,chicken parm.....
I also googled freezable food and came up with these links:
http://busycooks.about.com/od/freezingfo...
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/357170
http://www.dvo.com/newsletter/monthly/20...
Have fun and good luck with the baby!
mac and cheese, soups (my gram makes big batche of veggie beef soup and freezes in quart containters), fry up a batch of ground beef so you have it on hand for tacos, chilli, etc. Cook hamburgers in advance and freeze them. Do you make sausage gravy? We freeze it as well as premade waffles and just reheat both. Sliced meatloaf. Cook up a chicken or turkey and shred and freeze the leftovers. I used to make a big turkey on the weekend and use it all week, the same with a large beef roast. I think its Ladies Home Jounal or Good HOusekeeping that has the monthly menu inside? They do alot of stuff like this.
When you do cook, make double to freeze.
Any kind of soups, chili, cassaroles like tuna and noodles or even mac and cheese.
I have frozen almost any type of cooked meat with excellent results. One idea (I love grilled food) is to grill hamburger patties and freeze them individually in Ziploc bags. You can take out one or more, thaw and heat them in a microwave, and have almost instant grilled burgers! Good luck!
spaghetti is always good,
chili
a bean soup dish, one can of pork in beans, qt, size.
one can of darn kidney beans, pint size
one can of light kidney beans, pint size
one lb. of meat, any type but fish is good, even hams or turkey will work just fine.
2 can of crushed tomato's, qt size,
sweet Basil one teaspoonful, garlic to taste, one whole onion diced up and white, or black or Chile (pepper), but just one.
cook for three hours and then add one half cup of sweet and low or any sugar substitute or use real sugar.
cook one more hour, now, no heart burn!
it is great and will fill you up and not out!
you could do a good soup and save off in bowls. You can marinate a bunch of meat, and freeze in the marinade. Ham hocks and black eyed peas freeze great and taste good and are good for you.
You can also freeze stewed apples. I'll define incase you dont know: Cooking or eating apples cooked down in the microwave until they are mushy, they take minutes. If you use cooking apple you will have to put sugar in but eating apple has it own sweetness so no sugar is needed. You can freeze them when they have cooled. When you get them out of the freezer just warm them through and have with custard. Lovely!! Stewed apples are also good to eat when you have had an upset stomach. And dont forget when baby gets a little older stewed apple is easy for them to eat, but not to much or you will changing a lot of nappies!!
I freeze just about everything.... Hot dogs, Polish sausage, Hamburgers, chicken casseroles, Shepherd's pie (don't bake before freezing). Pot pies home made or store bought ("doctor" them up when cooking with minced onions and cheese....makes a big difference).
Tator Tot Casserole
Cook a pound of hamburger. Layer tator tots in the bottom of a casserole dish. Mix 1 can of cream of mushroom and 1 can of cream of chicken and pour over tator tots. Add hamburger meat on top of that. Then top with sharp cheddar cheese. Freeze. Bake at 350 degrees for an hour. Do not thaw before cooking. I hope this helps, and if I think of anything else, I will edit my answer. Good luck with the new baby. ;)
Just thought of another one. Take a jar of heated ragu, and mix an 8 oz box of cream cheese with it. Cut up some cooked italian sausages, add into sauce. Buy fresh or frozen stuffed noodles. Top with sauce. Don't cook the noodles and refreeze. Won't be so good. ;)
You can freeze just about anything you want.
Avoid things with chunks of potato (gets mealy), creams will seperate, but will be fine when heated and stirred well. No cream cheese unless mixed in wellwith something. Corn starch based instead of flour based sauces work better. Can't freeze anything w/ a lot of mayo.
I freeze a lot of items in canning jars. You can reuse lids and rings for freezing. ALWAYS leave at LEAST an inch of head room for food to expand or your jars will explode. Not a fun clean up.
I think it was easier to tell you what to avoid, vs what you can freeze.
PS. I have learned that if you freeze stuffed green peppers raw, then put into the crock-pot STILL FROZEN and pour your tomato soup/sauce over top, they retain their shapes wonderfully. So make a huge batch and portion out.