I am super picky about freezer meals and their texture and taste when they are reheated. I have tried a number of recipes from freezer cookbooks and online sites with varying degrees of success. I seem to come back to the same kinds of dishes that work versus those that don't. The ones that reheat/cook well are things like lasagna, homemade macaroni and cheese, and baked ziti...casseroles in general, I guess. I generally under-cook the pasta by about half the time when I know I will be freezing a dish. I also make barbecue beef or pulled pork where I shred the meat, stir it back into the sauce, and then portion it out into freezer bags. The meat is easy to reheat and only requires buns and a salad to finish off the meal. This recipe for
Beef Burgundy Simplified is awesome and freezes well.
Rather than making a lot of bulky meals ahead, I find that I can shave tons of time off of my meal prep by preparing portions of the meals ahead and then assembling them prior to cooking or baking. For example, I grill chicken ahead, which is then easy to toss into fettuccine broccoli Alfredo. I poach chicken breasts in bulk, shred the meat, and then freeze it for use in meals like
Baked Spicy Chicken Tacos (delicious and super quick to make with the chicken pre-cooked and the rest of the items are all shelf stable. You can grate and freeze the cheese ahead as well, if you like). The same can also be done with hamburger or hamburger/onions, depending on how you use them most or even meatballs. For an easy meal, I like to use my pre-cooked hamburger in this
Unprocessed Hamburger Helper meal. It is a one-pot deal, so very little clean-up afterwards.
I got the following recipe a friend of mine and it doubles and freezes easily. The best thing about it is that it doesn't contain any canned soups, which so many of these kinds of recipes use.
Wild Rice Chicken Supreme
1 6-oz pkg. Uncle Ben’s Long Grain and Wild Rice (Note: In place of the rice mix, you can use 1 cup of Trader Joe's Basmati Rice Medley prepared with a chicken bouillon cube or chicken broth)
¼ cup butter or margarine (I use butter)
1/3 cup chopped onion
1/3 cup chopped celery
1/3 cup flour
1 tsp. salt
Dash black pepper
1 cup half & half
1 cup chicken broth
2 cups cubed cooked chicken
1/3 cup chopped parsley (I used 1 Tbsp. dried parsley)
¼ cup slivered almonds
Prepare contents of rice and seasoning packets according to package directions. Meanwhile, melt butter in large saucepan. Add onion and celery and cook over low heat until tender. Stir in flour, salt and pepper. Gradually stir in half & half and chicken broth. Cook, stirring constantly, until thickened. Stir in chicken, parsley, almonds and cooked rice. Place in 2-quart casserole. Bake, uncovered, in 425 degree oven for 30 minutes. Makes 6-8 servings.
The one freezer cooking challenge that I have always wanted to try was to make my own All-in-One pasta entrees like
Bertoli does, where you freeze the slightly under-cooked pasta, blobs of sauce, and other ingredients individually and then bag them when they are frozen. When you are ready to cook, you just toss everything into a pan and then heat through. Anyone out there have any great recipes for doing this? It seems like it should be so simple, but something tells me there have got to be "tricks" to making it work well, like blanching vegetables, etc.