Easy to freeze meals?

Question

Fall hours at work tend to be a bit hectic for me and my fiance. So, I usually cook big meals on Sundays and freeze portions for the coming weeks. Unfortunately, we've grown rather sick of spaghetti sauce and chili, so I need some ideas for other freezable dishes I can make in huge batches. Ideas and recipes are welcome.

Answer 1

lasagne

bierox (I add cheese when I make bierox, traditionally it doesn't have it, but I like cheese and it holds it all together a bit better.)

ADD:

Substitute ground ostrich for ground beef. It's very lean.

.

Answer 2

meatloaf!

1 lb sausage .5 lb ground beef

sleeve of well crushed crackers

an egg

a shaker of tiger sauce

1/4 cup of ketchup

load it with your choice of seasoning

ie pepper, cayan, salt, garlic etc

line tins with ketchup and cook at 375 for 1 hour covered.

Answer 3

Casseroles are easy to freeze up. You can find recipes for those just about anywhere depending on what you like.

I love Cooks.com, get most of my recipes from there. They have a lot under Make Ahead Meals

http://www.cooks.com/rec/search/0,1-0,ma...

Answer 4

Enchiladas.

Pot Roast.

Stew.

Beff and Veggie Soup.

Chicken and Dumplings.

Individual hamburgers.

BBQ chicken.

Shepherds Pie.

Lasagna.

Stuffed Shells or Manicotti.

Sweedish Meatballs or Regular meatballs for Sub sandwiches or spaghetti and meatballs.

~~EDIT - - Why don't you take something out of the freezer and dump it frozen in the crock pot. When you come home it will be done!!! SO simple!

Answer 5

BACON-WRAPPED CHICKEN

Ready in 1 hour or less

12 boneless skinless chicken breast halves

2 cartons (8 oz each) whipped cream cheese with onion and chives2 tablespoons butter

salt to taste

12 bacon strips

Flatten chicken to ½ inch thickness. Spread 3 tablespoons cream cheese over each. Dot with butter and sprinkle with salt; roll up. Wrap each with a bacon strip. Place, seam side down, in a greased pan. Bake, uncovered, at 400 for 35-40 minutes or until juices run clear. Broil 6 inches from the heat for 5 minutes or until bacon is crisp.

Freeze these uncooked

King Ranch Chicken Casserole

1 cup Onions -- diced

1 cup Green Bell Peppers -- diced

1/2 pound Mushrooms

1/4 cup Butter or Margarine

1 can Cream of Mushroom soup

1 can Cream of Chicken soup

1 pound Cheddar Cheese -- shredded

2 cups Chicken -- cooked and diced

1 can Tomatoes with Green Chilis

1 clove Garlic -- minced

2 tablespoon Chili Powder

1 tablespoon Chicken Broth

12 Corn Tortillas -- torn into quarters

In a large pan, sauté onion, bell pepper, and mushrooms in butter, Add soups, tomatoes & chilies, garlic, chili powder, and chicken broth. Line bottom of a 9x13 inch pan with pieces of tortillas. Spread half the chicken over the tortillas and top with half of the sauce, then half of the cheese. Cover with another layer of torn corn tortillas, and repeat the chicken, sauce and cheese layers. Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes or until bubbly.

Serves 6

(When freezing, put in freezer after assembling casserole, and bake when ready to eat.)

FREEZER STROGANOFF

2 lbs. beef sirloin steak, 1/2 inch thick

1/2 lb. fresh mushrooms, sliced

2 med. onions, sliced

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

1/4 c. butter

1 c. water

2 tsp. instant beef bouillon

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

1/2 c. water

1/4 c. all purpose flour

Cut beef steak across grain into strips 1/2 inch wide and 1 1/2 inches long. Cook and stir mushrooms, onions and garlic in butter in 10 inch skillet until onions are tender; remove vegetables. Brown beef in same skillet. Stir in 1 cup water, the instant bouillon, salt and Worcestershire sauce. Heat to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer 15 minutes. Stir 1/2 cup water into the flour; stir into beef mixture. Add vegetables. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil and stir 1 minute. Pour into two 1 quart freezer containers. Cool quickly. Cover and label; freeze up to 4 months.

45 minutes before serving dip containers into hot water to loosen. Place frozen stroganoff and 1/2 cup water in 10 inch skillet. Cover and heat over medium heat, turning occasionally, until meat is hot, about 30 minutes. Stir 1 1/2 cups dairy sour cream into hot stroganoff and heat (DO NOT BOIL). Garnish with parsley. 8 servings

Shepherd's pie:

1 lb ground beef (browned - if desired add garlic, onions, seasoning, etc.)

Veggies such as diced carrots, peas, corn, green beans, all or even just one

Gravy or 1 can mushroom soup + half can milk

Mashed potatoes enough to cover the casserole

Put ground beef & veggies into dish, add just enough gravy or soup mixture to come to just about level with top of beef/veggie mix, top with mashed potatoes (seasoned to taste, can add garlic, seasoning salt, etc.). For this one it's better to use 2 dishes rather than overfill one and have it go over when reheating.

When reheating I like to add dollops of butter to the top of the potatoes.

Bake at 350 until hot. ;-) Can thaw first or cook from frozen. If cooking from frozen, you may want to tent it with foil so the potatoes don't burn or just keep an eye on it.

*******ALWAYS PUT A COOKIE SHEET UNDER THIS WHEN REHEATING IN CASE

Answer 6

Any relatively wet casserole or stew should work. Pineapple meat balls and rice would be an option. Or beef stew. Meat loaf and scalloped potatoes.

I'd suggest you pick up a casserole cook book for idea.

Answer 7

Soups!  I love split pea soup, it can be made in huge batches and then easily frozen, and it's really pretty healthy (I do put ham in mine, but it's pretty easy to find lean ham).  Minestrone soup can also be frozen, though I think if you use pasta in it that the pasta will suffer.  Roasted meat can be frozen and saved for emergency meals as well.  My favorite thing to freeze for meals, though, is pesto.  You can make large batches (and now is the perfect time of year to do so), and then freeze them in ice cube trays.  The cubes are perfect for adding to freshly-cooked pasta (or put on top of pizza dough or roast chicken or added into other sauces), and will last all winter (and provide you with fresh summer flavor all winter).

Answer 8

Anything that's "Saucy" does really well in the freezer.  I've tried freezing things like Taco Meat for my hubby for when I travel, but it doesn't do so well.

I always make sure there is a stock of meatballs with a little sauce around them.

Turkey Tetrazzini is also a great one (Especially with Thanksgiving on the horizon), but my recipe is at home so I'll have to get back to you with it...

Answer 9

Once a month i make batches of meatballs, meatloaf etc.  Then when cooled plce in freezer bags, then i make sauces etc

Answer 10

baked pasta like baked ziti and lasagna freeze up well

Answer 11

Hey Rach, here's what we do and it makes it a bit easier:

Buy larger packs of meats -- pork chops, chicken b*****s, steaks etc.  When we get home, we season the whole package and then put them in bags of 2, toss them in the freezer.

We then take all the veggies (including potatoes) and clean them up, put them in their own bags so they're ready to go.  

As for freezing meals, when I make pork chops inside, we usually have mashed potatoes or brown rice with gravy and I make enough gravy to freeze so Mason can eat later on.  

Other things we do are crock pot things.  I often do pot roasts, bbq beef and soups and just throwing it in the crock pot before I leave.

Think easy meat dishes -- tacos, chili, spaghetti, stir fry, enchilladas.

I've also found that when frozen veggies go on sale, it's so easy to buy a few of each one and use them to add a bit more to a meal.

Sorry, I think I'm rambling :)

Anyway, my suggestion would be instead of cooking a bunch so you get sick of it, why not make a grocery list and a dinner list for the week and come up for 7 meals.  Buy the ingredients for the 7 meals and then put them together and freeze or toss in the fridge.

Heres a site you might want to look at, I just browsed through it for you and haven't actually used it.  Seems to have lots of options though.

http://www.kitchenlink.com/rcpmenus.html