Do you have any favorite dishes that can be put in the freezer?

[Vinca]

I'm going in for a hip replacement and want to make a few things in advance to put in the freezer to just thaw and cook. So far I've got chili in mind, spaghetti and meatballs and an Italian sausage and spinach bean soup. Do you make anything that freezes well?

[Chipper Chat]

1. Skillet-fried hamburgers.

[Vinca]

3. That's one to keep in mind. I always have veggie burgers in the freezer.

[no_hypocrisy]

2. Prepared chicken breasts. And stackable.

[Vinca]

4. I've been buying 4 oz. chicken breasts that are already individually packaged and they

thaw out if you leave them in cold water in the sink for an hour. Maybe I should try marinating some fresh chicken breast in something and packaging those for the freezer. 7 1/2 minutes in the Foreman grill, some rice pilaf from a mix, a bag of peas and it's a meal!

[no_hypocrisy]

7. Now you're talkin' . . . .

[2naSalit]

5. Those are all things I would suggest...

I'm thinking about it.

Maybe some kind of stew?

Pot pies or pasties.

Roasted/baked meat and potato something separated into servings where maybe s&p is all you need to add?

I used to make meals on wheels trays when I was cooking for a senior center in a rural town. I'm thinking some of the entrees I made held up well in the freezer.

Meatloaf, mashed potatoes hold up better than baked. Stews hold up well.

I will probably come up with other ideas later. Good luck. I'll check back to see what other suggestions are here, I might like some of them for my own use!

[Vinca]

13. Meatloaf . . . that would work perfectly. Thanks!

[2naSalit]

17. And it can go for several meals...

With one loaf.

[Alpeduez21]

6. Lasagna

homemade chicken soup
meatloaf, fries and frozen vegetables
The chinese delivery menu

Good luck with your procedure and recovery

[Vinca]

14. LOL - Chinese takeout occurred to me, too. It's an option. A mere 5 mi. away.

[2naSalit]

18. LOL!

I like the Chinese take-out!

[lamp_shade]

8. Zatarain (dirty rice), black beans, ground beef, raisins.

I cook up a batch every few weeks and put in 1-2 serving size containers.

[Sanity Claws]

9. Slow cooker chicken marbella

I often use my slow cooker to make bone-in chicken. I think cooking meat with the bone adds flavor and nutrition. With your need for increased nutrition to heal from surgery, you might want to consider that.
Here is a favorite, https://www.karenskitchenstories.com/2020/04/slow-cooker-chicken-marbella.html

Please let me know if you try it.

[Vinca]

15. That sounds good. We have a diabetic in the family so I'd have to dream up a

substitution for the prunes. I can swap Splenda for the sugar. Not a perfect solution, but olives and capers are worth making it for.

[Old Crank]

10. Red beans w/o the rice

The rice can be cooked easily. I have a plastic microwave rice cooker that
will cook white rice up to 1.5 quarts at a time in about 8-10 minutes.
I think you need to cook at least 2 portions at the low end.

BTW: I have heard, that if you put the plastic cooker on a hot metal element it will melt...

[The Polack MSgt]

11. Fried Rice freezes well

Potato & Leek soup is a winner as well. A bowl with a piece of toast is a solid lunch, add a salad and it's a great supper too

[Lars39]

12. I once froze 6 weeks of meals

Last edited Wed Mar 30, 2022, 12:47 PM - Edit history (1)

when I knew I was going to have surgery. Breakfast sandwiches, breakfast burritos. Roasts, sloppy joes, soups, noodles(undercooked), taco meats, casseroles, rice…just anything I knew would be easy up to warm up, and that kids would eat, too.

[Vinca]

16. I was thinking about making the sauce part of a noodle dish and freezing that to add pasta to

at the time we're having the meal. Like the fixings for chicken tetrazzini or shrimp alfredo. Sloppy Joes is a good idea. I can't imagine freezing 6 months worth. Wow! I'll be lucky if I manage a couple of weeks. Fortunately, the surgery I'm having is the less invasive procedure so I could be back at it in a matter of days. I'm in "just in case" mode now.

[Lars39]

19. I was having abdominal surgery

and knew I would be feeling crappy and would be unable to lift a pot to drain. The noodles turned out great, though. Heck, even the cornbread did, too. I haven’t attempted any other huge freezing endeavors since, though.
Hope your surgery goes well with a full and speedy recovery

On edit…6 *weeks*, not months.

[Vinca]

20. Phew . . . about the 6 weeks vs. months. I was feeling like a slacker. LOL.

[Lars39]

21. Lol...sorry'bout that!

[Retrograde]

22. Chilis, curries, most stews

For me, the worst thing about frozen foods when they're thawed and reheated can be the textures, so I avoid foods with a lot of milk or cheese in them.

I'm in the process of cleaning out the freezer by using the various leftovers I froze during the past several months: chili, squash soup, various dals (Indian lentil or chickpea stews), beef bourguinon, Italian bean soup.

During the pandemic we would order food from some favorite Chinese restaurants, which usually came in plastic containers with lids. I saved them, as the larger ones hold about 2 servings of chili or stew, enough for dinner for 2.

[Vinca]

24. I was thinking beef stew and I've got the Italian bean soup lined up to make.

Today I made a batch of chili we'll get a couple of meals out of. I forget the last time I made bourguinon. I'll have to check that out, too.

[Retrograde]

23. Baked goods usually freeze well

You'll need to include the occasional dessert as well to keep your spirits up!

Since there are only two of us, when I bake a standard-sized loaf cake I cut off about a third of it to eat in the next day or so then slice and freeze the rest in 2 person portions so they can be thawed when we're in the mood for a dessert.

[Kali]

25. pie,

lasagna, stuffed peppers, slow cooked and shredded meat (chicken beef pork) for tacos bbq sandwiches etc, pizzas, cakes, beans, waffles

[Vinca]

26. Stuffed peppers - excellent idea. In fact, that sounds so good maybe I'll make a

big batch and have some for dinner next week before I go into the hospital. I could probably freeze 2 more meals of them.

[spinbaby]

27. I keep pizza in the freezer

Not the entire pizza, I freeze the parts. My freezer contains lumps of frozen dough (95 cents at Aldi), tiny containers of pizza sauce that each top one pizza, a big bag of shredded mozzarella, and sliced pepperoni. I also keep small cans of mushrooms in the pantry. You do need to remember to move it to the fridge a day ahead of time, but the pizza takes only a couple of minutes to assemble and is much better than your average frozen pizza.

[sir pball]

28. Anything stewed or braised

Pot roast/short ribs beef stew, stewed chicken thighs, slow-cooked pork shoulder...anything where the meat has been cooked down enough to be full of juicy, moisturizing gelatin will be indistinguishable from fresh. I always have a few quarts of something or other on ice.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

29. Chicken of Muchness.

Here's the recipe.

3 large chicken leg quarters
Lots of carrots. Lots. It’s cheaper if you buy the loose ones, rather than the already packaged ones. But I’d say you need a pound or so.
2 cans of diced or crushed tomatoes. Maybe one of each. I had a large can of crushed tomatoes, and a small one of diced.
1 medium onion, maybe two.
Several chicken bouillon cubes. I used three.
3 bay leaves
4 cinnamon sticks
At least ¾ tsp each of celery salt, marjoram, thyme, basil, and tarragon, ground black pepper
olive oil
3 Tablespoons butter
3 Tablespoons flour

Start by putting the leg quarters in your largest pot, cover with water, then dump in about a half cup of salt. Give it a half hour or so, then drain and rinse. This is a version of brining, and I’ve been doing it for decades. It’s one of the very few things my mother-in-law passed on to me.

Now bring the chicken to a boil with just enough water to cover. Turn heat down to simmer and skim off scum and fat that comes to the surface. This will take ten to fifteen minutes. Maybe longer, if the chicken is like that. I do think the earlier brining helps reduce this part.

Once skimming is done, put the bay leaves, peeled carrots, and cinnamon sticks in pot with chicken, cover and let simmer for an hour.

Remove carrots and chicken. Let them cool while you sauté the sliced onion in a little olive oil. You want them to get a little brown. Put in soup pot. Add the tomatoes.

Make a roux with the butter and flour in that same pan, then add a cup or two of broth. Stir and let it thicken over the heat until it seems thick enough. Pour into pot.

Cut up the carrots, strip the chicken from the bones and return to soup pot. Now add the other seasonings. You will probably need to add more chicken broth to have the right amount of liquid.

Cover and simmer for an hour or so.

If you want, separately make rice towards the end of the cooking time, put some in a bowl, then add the soup.

This will make at least ten individual servings.

This is adapted from a middle eastern chicken recipe. I no longer have the original. The cinnamon is the important flavoring. Do NOT put garlic into this recipe. If you want garlic in your chicken soup, fine, but in that case leave out the cinnamon.

This is among my favorite meals.

[Vinca]

31. That sounds good and I like the spices. Thanks!

[spinbaby]

34. That sounds really good

Chicken leg quarters just went on the grocery list

[spinbaby]

35. I finally got around to making this

Overall, thumbs up. It’s a rather mild, faintly exotic, Middle Eastern dish and it makes a LOT. I like it on it’s own, but didn’t think it had enough seasoning to stand up to rice. But I’m a fan of spicy cuisine, so your mileage may vary.

Here’s a photo—I used multi-colored carrots, so those aren’t potatoes in there.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

36. I am really glad you like it.

I was sort of winging it on the spices, so I may have given smaller quantities than I actually use. In any case, now that you've made it once, just ratchet up the spiciness to your taste and it should become a favorite. I hope. I know that were I to find the original recipe this is derived from, I'd barely recognize it, I've made so many changes over the years.

And three leg quarters do make a LOT. If you cut down to two, you can similarly reduce everything else, and depending on how many people you are feeding, or how large your freezer is, it may be more manageable. I made it yesterday and wound up with something like fifteen portions frozen. I think it works out to perhaps a dollar a serving, especially as the chicken was on sale and cost less than $5.00 for the three leg quarters.

For me, one positive aspect of the pandemic has been not only cooking more at home, but eating far more cheaply than I used to.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

30. As for freezing most stews, it's my observation that potatoes simply don't

freeze well. So think about that before you freeze a standard stew.

However, pasta dishes freeze very well. So here's my spicy Italian sausage bake:

Spicy Italian Sausage Pasta Bake

1 pound bulk Italian sausage. Sweet, spicy, any combination therof. I most recently made it half sweet and half spicy.
1 onion sliced
1 green pepper sliced
1 pound rigatoni noodles
2 jars of a nice vodka sauce. Buy a good one.

Fix the rigatoni per package directions. When cooked, rinse well, then sprinkle with kosher salt and a few twists of the pepper grinder.

Meanwhile, cook the sausage and drain.

Cook the onion and green pepper in some olive oil until they look right.

Combine all the cooked ingredients in a large enough casserole. A lasagna pan is a good size.

Now dump the vodka sauce and mix well. Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes. If you want you can top with some Parmesan cheese – buy the good stuff, the kind you have to grate yourself – on each serving.

Serve with some Italian bread or, better yet, make garlic bread, and a nice green salad.

If wine seems like a good idea, get a nice chianti. Unfortunately, a good chianti isn’t cheap, and you really don’t want to be drinking a cheap one. If you haven’t already made friends with some staff at a good liquor store, now is the time to be thinking about that.

[Vinca]

32. That sounds similar to a dish I make with penne instead of rigatoni.

The sauce I make is more tomato based with chopped eggplant and there's a layer in the middle of ricotta and the second layer is topped with mozzarella. Tomorrow is going to be vat of spaghetti and meatballs (and sausage) day to be portioned into a few meals. There's no such thing as too much pasta.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

37. That also sounds good.

I love all kinds of pasta as it can also be endlessly adapted however you want.

[dem in texas]

38. try using day old or older baked potatoes in your stews.

I have a quart of baked potato chowder in my freezer now. Cold baked potatoes work especially well for slow cooker soups and stews.
the cold baked potatoes have a better taste and texture.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

39. Are you talking about potatoes that have been frozen?

I'm shuddering, because my experience with potatoes is that if frozen and then thawed they are essentially inedible. Clearly, you might well prefer the texture of them after freezing and re-thawing.

And honestly, I'm not ever going to have baked potatoes to use in a stew. Part of it is that I live alone, and I'm cooking for one. As it happens, I never make baked potatoes at home.

[Emile]

33. Lasagna in food saver bags!