Easy to freeze dinners

Posted: Mon, Sep 08 2008, 4:30 am Post subject: easy to freeze dinners

Being that I work most afternoons, Im looking for easy dinner options that I can freeze. I want to try to cook at the beginning of the week, or when I have time. And put like 5 meals at a time in the freezer. Any good ideas?

Diamond Member Joined: Dec 07 2006 Posts: 3623

Meatballs
Meatsauce (sweet meatball recipe, but instead of making balls, just stir the meat mixture in with the sauce)
Meatloaf
Pretty much any chopped meat recipe
Most basic baked chicken recipes
Lasagna
Ziti
And similar pasta recipes
Blintz loaf (see LUb. cookbook)
Pizza - half-baked homemade whole wheat dough - defrost & top with sauce & cheese
Cereal & Milk
(Ok, just kidding about the last one - but a good standby for when you go to take something out of your freezer and it's - *gasp* - empty!
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Posted: Mon, Sep 08 2008, 5:43 am Post subject: re: easy to freeze dinners

thanks so much! I actually always have homemade pizza dough in my freezer.
pasta dishes freeze well?

Posted: Mon, Sep 08 2008, 9:43 am Post subject: re: easy to freeze dinners

I like to freeze pasta dishes unbaked. They taste much better if they're fresh out of the oven. You can take one out of the freezer before you go to work in the morning and pop it in the oven when you come home. Make sure to uncover it.

My mother cleans batches of chicken and freezes them with wax paper separating the pieces. That way she can easily take out the number of pieces she wants. You can throw on a store-bought or simple sauce and have fresh chicken without much work.

Posted: Mon, Sep 08 2008, 9:54 am Post subject: re: easy to freeze dinners

You can make shnitzel ready fried and when you take it out bake it with a easy sauce (if you need recipe lemme know) so it tastes fresh.

Meatloaf can be frzen raw ready to bake or baked.

Diamond Member Joined: Apr 27 2006 Age: 30 Posts: 2537

you can also freeze chicken legs raw with a sauce over it and then take it out of the freezer to defrost in fridge and bake in the morning.

did you think about using a crockpot? you can put it up in the morning and its freshly cooked by evening. there are posts here on crockpot recipes.

Diamond Member Joined: Nov 14 2007 Posts: 2569

Lasagna freezes nicely. Here's an idea that helps me. I make marinades in batches and freeze individually in ziploc bags. I also clean chicken and freeze in individual dinner sizes. I defrost a bag of sauce and a bag of chicken in the morning, and just put in a pan and bake that night when I get home.

Posted: Mon, Sep 08 2008, 3:30 pm Post subject: re: easy to freeze dinners

Here's a good thread about this, too.

Posted: Mon, Sep 08 2008, 3:44 pm Post subject: Re: re: easy to freeze dinners

Posted: Mon, Sep 08 2008, 4:13 pm Post subject: re: easy to freeze dinners

When I had to go the US last winter I left behind a frezer filled with meals so DH wouldn't worry. I made things like tuna casserole and baked chicken and put each meal separately in its own container. I just made huge batches all at once. For example, for the chickens I baked 4 whole chickens in my oven and then packaged them with a starch (either rice or noodles) a vegetable (either frozen green beans or shreadded carrots, squah and onions that would cook when reheated) and to many I added sauce (I used tomato and peanut but you can try anything you like).

You can also search on www.jewishfood-list.com/ for dump chicken recipes. These are ones where people would prep chickens to be cooked by freezing them in sauce. You could probably add veggies as well.

Posted: Mon, Sep 08 2008, 8:57 pm Post subject:

Meatballs & spaghetti

Cook a double portion one day, freeze half in a aluminum pan. Then, when you go to work in the morning, set your oven to go in the afternoon for 250. It will keep it warm but not dry it out and you’ll have a piping hot dinner for when you step in.
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Posted: Tue, Sep 09 2008, 2:40 am Post subject: re: easy to freeze dinners

Thanks for the great ideas!