Making meals to freeze??

[DiznNut]

I know many of you on here talk about making meals ahead to freeze for convenience.We were talking at work that this is a great idea and we would like to do this to save time and money for our families but we hadn't ever done this before and we were full of questions. I told them I could find out how to do this from my friends on the Dis Budget Board, so please help me. Our questions are, for example, casseroles, do you bake them any at all before you freeze them or do you just put them together, wrap them tightly and freeze? Also, do you just wrap them with aluminum foil? How long will they typically keep in the freezer? Also they would like to know any of your favorite make ahead dish recipes if you are willing to share. Thanks for all your help.

P.S. I told them you all wouldn't let us down

 

[Mary•Poppins]

When I make casseroles, I will usually make 2 of them and then freeze one. I do not cook the second one. I cover it with aluminum foil the wrap it well with plastic wrap. I can usually keep it for about a month and a 1/2. I have a great chicken recipe ... but I am about to go to bed. I will put it on the thread tomorrow.

I would also love some other recipes.

 

[tasha99]

I put most things into a gallon freezer ziplock bag. Some things are precooked, like large pots of spagetti sauce (noodles made up fresh the day we eat). Others are half cooked, such as casseroles that have boiled noodles. They're not baked until the day we eat them. Sometimes I have little ziplocks on the bigger ziplock if there is something that should be sprinkled on top or added at the last minute.

I make a lot of other types of foods too. Premarinated meat (korean bbq etc) is pretty popular at my house. Those are frozen raw.

 

[averill94]

WHen my supermarket is having a sale I buy ground beef, ground turkey, chicken cutlets and get them freezer ready--->

In the winter I always have a meatloaf ready to go in the freezer. When I buy the meat I put one or two together in loaf dishes wrap in plastic and freeze. I try and move it to the fridge the night before I cook it.

I also will put meatballs together and freeze. Form meatballs, layout on a cookie sheet that has been covered in wax papaer and then freeze them for an hour or two. WHen they are pretty frozen I put them all in a ziploc. Then I can take out however many I need and they are all ready to go!

I do the same with cutlets on sale too! Burgers too!

 

[Jill in Chicago]

A great thing to put in the freezer is cooked leftover meat. For instance if you grill chicken breasts and have some leftover wrap them tightly in plastic wrap, and then put in a zip lock bag. Be sure to label "cooked chicken." Then you can add this chicken to a packaged or homemade soup, add it to stir fry, make chicken enchiladas....

Most Sundays my husband makes a beef roast, pork roast, ham..... We then split it up for different meals and freeze it. The ham is great later to mix into salads, or macaroni and cheese, or black bean soup....

Chili freezes really well. Make a big batch and then dump a dinner's worth into a ziplock bag.

I am not big on freezing casseroles to eat later, but I freeze just about everything else from leftover stuffing to red sauce to bread, biscuits, and cookies. We'll leave things in for 3 months and they still taste great.

 

[Soarin_04]

I do a lot of this kind of thing, thanks to this board, actually.

Someone posted a link years ago to Once A Month Mom, which gives a listing each month of freezer meals. Great ideas, great recipes, and things you can start with and branch off from. You can find a lot of great ideas for casseroles and such on there.

If you wrap things in plastic and then foil and also keep them in a separate freezer, they'll last a little longer. We found that keeping things in the top freezer portion of our refrigerator makes them more prone to freezer burn than keeping them in the huge freezer we have in the basement.

I know you asked re. casseroles, but other things I do...

1. Boil up a batch of ground beef when it's on sale. Drain it. Separate it into smaller bags and then at the last minute, we can just toss it into whatever we're having that night for dinner.

2. Instead of buying chicken salads at work, I'll do what another posted suggested and boil up breasts in advance, but I cut them into salad-sized portions, put them on a cookie sheet lined with foil that's been sprayed with cooking spray and flash freeze them. Once they're frozen, pop them into a storage bag and you can take out as much as you need.

3. Freeze home made french fries. Peel potatoes and cut into french fries. Shake the raw french fries in a little olive oil and salt (or any other seasoning you like; I sometimes use Old Bay). Bake at 425 until just done (maybe 8-10 minutes; depends on how thick you cut them). Cool them on the cookie sheet on which you baked them and then set the cookie sheet in the freezer until they are frozen solid. Scoop them off with a spatula and store them in a zip lock bags. To heat them up just throw them back in the oven on a cookie sheet at 425°F for about 15 minutes.

Check out Once A Month Mom. There are tons of great recipes on there.

 

[cydswipe]

I purchased Taste of Home Freezer Pleasers at my daughter's book fair in October. LOVE IT!

Basically it has a recipe (doubled) to cook for now and then later. I spent a late afternoon prepping and had meals for 2 weeks. My only problem is I don't have an extra freezer...

Wild rice w/ chicken green bean bake

Kielbasa casserole

Quiche

Spaghetti Pie


I've loaned out the cookbook, so I don't have the recipes handy... HIGHLY RECOMMEND it though!!!!!!!

 

[Wilsonfamily4]

I love to put things away in my freezer. Yesterday we had twice baked potatoes as a side dish. I made extra because these freeze well. I froze them before the second baking. Wrapped them in foil, put them all in a ziplock container and added a bag of bacon inside the container to add to the potatoes before I stick them in the oven.

Lasanga, quiche, enchiladas, soup, these seem to freeze well.

I always double wrap whatever goes in the freezer. Sometimes foil and a big ziplock bag, sometimes foil and then plastic wrap.

 

[DuckMom]

I freeze a lot of casseroles, soups, sauces, etc. When I am making soups and sauces, I put them in freezer bags and lay them flat on a cookie sheet in the freezer (one on top of the other). They freeze that way and then I can take out the cookie sheet and just stack the soups on top of eachother. It is a huge space saver for me (I do have a second freezer, but for some reason, I am still short on space). The friend that I stole that tip from actually keeps each different soup, sauce, etc in manilla file folders that are labeled with the type of thing. I am not that organized, but it works for her.

 

[My3kiddos]

I have frozen cabbage rolls (already cooked) and my favorite is chicken or turkey pot pie. I'll have to get the recipe when I get home and post it. It's super easy and tastes great.

 

[sydneysmom]

We make alot of soups in the winter, and I kind of wind up making A TON. (in another lifetime I must have been an Army cook !) So we usually freeze about 1/2 after it's all made. If I'm making chicken noodle, I usually pull out 1/2 the soup (for the freezer) before I add the noodles. Then when I'm ready to make the soup again, add the noodles.

I also make baked ziti and freeze it in the little aluminum brownie pans. (the throwaway ones) they're invaluable....they're also great for portion control.

One thing I love to do is when boneless skinless chicken is on sale, I'll "oven fry" one big pack of cutlets. I'll usually get 2 family size packs, break the first pack out to portions for dinner in ziplock bags then the other pack I'll bread and "oven bake". then I package those in 2-3 cutlets per pack. They're AWESOME for nights when you don't know what to make.. you can heat them / cut up over salad, or add mozzarella and sauce for chicken parm....it's endless. (and you'll be a hero at dinner!!)

We've found that it's saved us alot by doing this. I usually take a Saturday morning or Sunday morning and make that "cooking time" and do everything at once. Then it's one cleanup and I'm all through.

 

[lukenick1]

Soups are a huge go to freezer meal for us!

 

[Rantybaby]

I'm a single person, so I go to websites like: Campbell's Kitchen, Kraft Foods, Minute Rice and Starkist they have great recipes. I'll cook 4 or 5 recipes; Beef-Chicken-Pork & Seafood (usually shrimp or tuna). Freeze in Ziploc small square or small round containtainers. Will make up to 16 meals. I could grab one take to work for lunch or dinner depending on my start time.

When I'm down to 8 meals, I will cook a new set of recipes. This worked best for me when I had consecutive days off.

 

[ilovepete]

We do a lot of freezer cooking as well. A lot of my tips have been mentioned but there is one I didn't see.

For things like lasagna, casseroles, etc. you can double the recipe and make two. When you're baking the second one, line the inside of the dish with foil that is large enough to cover that dish and then actually wrap the casserole when it's done. Then you can take it out, wrap it in that foil, and then double wrap it for the freezer. Then when it's time to take it out, you just put it back in the dish you originally used, take off the 2nd layer, and it's ready to thaw & cook. Plus you won't mess up the dish, either.

 

[SarahandPaul]

Freezer meals are a lifesaver for me and I don't even have kids! I am in a group with 5 other girls. We meet about once a quarter and spend the entire day prepping/cooking. I work 4 days a week, so I am in charge of the giant shopping trip which they pay me for on the event day. Each person chooses one recipe, then multiplies it so that each person takes home 4 4-serving dinners. We split all costs 6 ways (including a take and bake pizza for the event day).
I have a separate freezer and do the ziploc flat stack method. Last time someone chose cookie dough as their recipe and we rolled the dough into balls, froze on the cookie sheets, then packaged by the dozen. My husband loved them and it was so easy to just pop in one cookie tray without all the work! Premarinated chicken ready for veggies and rice is a favorite of mine as is macaroni and cheese. I really enjoy the 30 day gourmet website...they do have a lot of helpful hints for getting started.
Happy to answer any questions!

 

[browneyes106]

I do this often when friends and relatives are going through some hard times with health issues etc. My aunt and uncle are both ill due to diabetes and heart trouble so I sometime back I helped them make several casseroles to keep in their freezer for times they don't feel like spending a lot of time cooking.

 

[TiffanyK]

Here's the link to my "Frozen Food" category. I've got quite a few recipes that freeze well and also lots of tips too.

Putting the freezer to work for you is a great way to get dinner on the table!

 

[MickeyMomOfThree]

My freezer is always filled, and at any given time you will find...

Lasagnas or stuffed shells. Whenver I make them I make several, 3 or 4 and freeze the extras. Here is how I do it. I make them in silicone trays and freeze hem. When they are frozen they seperate very easily from the tray and I freeze just them and they stack well. Then when I go to back I throw them in the pan. That way you don't need tons of trays, the ones you use are only in the freezer for a few hours and you get them back. And I don't bake them first.

Stuffed cabbage, frozen same as above. These are one of the rew things I bake first.

Meatloaf. When I make it I make for 4. Bake one for dinner and freeze 3 or make less and also make meatballs if we need them (made like PP, freeze till hard then throw in a ziplock.) I freeze them flat and they take up almost no room.

Sloppy joe mix. This is a big one for me. When I make it I usually freeze 10 bags worth. We have it a lot. We eat it as is as sloppy joes. We use it as a base to casseroles with a can of chopped tomatoes. We use it as the base for my homemade sauce. We use it for the base of my chili. When I make sauce and hili I also freeze those in flat ziplocks. This is my go to food.


Then there is cooked and shreaded chicken ready for quick enchiladas, quesidellas, casseroles, pasta, whatever.

Ground beef browned and ready to go, also some seasoned with taco seasonings cause we all like mexican.

Just about anything I make I make at least double for and freeze it. Great for those crazy busy evenings. PLUS, I buy everything in bulk at Sam's, the canned tomatoes, the cheeses, the meats and save a fortune by doing it that way.

My best tip, buy a few of those silicone trays if you don't have them and freeze them that way and then wrap them frozen.

 

[pampam]

Am I correct in thinking you freeze in the silicone tray, remove from tray when frozen, and then when you need it, bake in the silicone tray ?

 

[MickeyMomOfThree]

Am I correct in thinking you freeze in the silicone tray, remove from tray when frozen, and then when you need it, bake in the silicone tray ?

Oh yes, sorry. That or I have a glass tray that is the exact same size I can use too, but yes, bake in a pan for sure. The reason I don't freeze in it isn't cause you can't but so I don't have to have so many of them and they stack really well this way.