Freezer Friendly Meal Ideas

With our pizza bases we don't cook them, we just put a layer of baking paper inbetween them and pop them in the freezer.

Hi Bek,
When I had my bub my freezer was fully stocked with all types of goodies. But it turned out that for the first few weeks, my bub didn't want to be put down and I ended up having to eat when I could with one hand. Mainly fruit etc. So my tip is to stock up the house with healthy one handed snacks too.

Thanks for you imput.

Pizza bases: I cook them at 180 for around 10mins and then freeze. I don't over cook them.

Bakz don't forget to make ahead meals for Sara - I am making a nice selection of meals for Flynn JIC. I know Sara being older than Flynn will probably be eating more adult food but I figure mine and DH's diet can go by the wayside easily but at least he will have a nice assortment of meals.

what we have in our freezer is containers of cooked meat (sometimes mince, but usually diced steak with tomatoes, herbs etc), when I need them they're taken out and put in the bottom of the fridge to defrost. I don't like defrosting (or cooking) in the microwave - it changes the integrity and taste of the food.

With a little work they can be turned into sketti-bog (throw in an extra tin of crushed tomatoes when you reheat), lasagne (make up some white/cheese sauce & throw between pasta sheets), shepherds pie (make up some mash), individual meat pies (in a soufflé dish, scoop in the meat mix, top with frozen puff pastry, throw in oven).

Or a macaroni cheese, cooked & then frozen - defrost in fridge overnight and then throw in oven to heat up.

What else is brilliant are frenched lamb shanks (the small ones), put them and potatoes in the oven at the same time and in 30 mins you have a quick & easy roast lamb dinner.

Cook up a container of rice at the start of the week, use it for rice salads (can of corn, some celery); fried rice (corn, celery, diced meat, egg & some soy sauce) - heck I even love rice on its own with just some butter.

For salads - what about having a head of lettuce in the fridge, boil some eggs, have grape or cherry tomatoes (so you don't have to cut them up), cucumber, mushrooms and other salad stuff - just throw it together into a container and serve with a bit of steak.

When my SIL had her last, there were 5 of us at home (other than her & the baby) and there had to be easy to get together food for me to feed the family with (I was 14), so things that only needed basic cooking skills were great - hence the above stuff.

Sharon, we often do the same with a good stew/casserole with a little fresh baby spinach you give it new life, can be added to pasta or even a risotto base for a quick yummy meal :D Or just served over rice.

Hi ladies,

I know this has probably been asked and posted loads of times, but I am after some ideas on meals etc to freeze for when bub comes to save on cooking times. So far on my list I have:

Pasta Sauce
Pumpkin Soup
Curried Sausages
Patties
Meatloaf Mix

Any different ideas would be much appreciated. I get stuck and everything I think of is to do with mince as it is so easy.

Thanks so much in advance,
xxx Nita

A great idea is to marinate cuts of meat in plastic ziplock bags - just throw in the raw meat and marinade and freeze. Then you just need to defrost, throw them in the oven or frypan, throw on some oven fries and some veges in the microwave and you have a pretty good dinner.

We marinate chicken breasts or pieces in a mixture of olive oil, crushed garlic and oregano, lemon juice and salt and pepper. We just guess the amounts it always tastes good LOL. Then you can just fry up or chuck on the barbie.

Another good marinade is honey, wholegrain mustard, oil and a bit of curry powder.

Steaks marinated in garlic, red wine, olive oil and herbs

Other stuff we cook and freeze:

Beef stroganoff
Apricot chicken
Pasta bakes (cooked pasta and all - it freezes fine)
Sausage/beef/chicken casseroles
Meatball spaghetti sauce
Lasagne (chicken and beef)
Enchiladas
Curried Chicken
Indian curries

You should find all of that stuff freezes well...good idea to do all your cooking now, you will be so glad you did :)

If you get the foil containers you can put it in serves for 2 ... just wack in the oven to heat up.

Hint: brush the top of frozen lasagnes / shepards pie with butter before reheating in the oven, it stops it drying out.

I also did shepards pie, cottage pie, pies in general...

If you know anyone with a mini pie-maker borrow it for a week or so and when you make up shepards pie / cottage pie / casseroles / curries just make individual pies with the mixture as well - or use your oven ...

Frozen shortcrust on the bottom, puff on the top. You can also use the mega-muffin tins to make the pies in.

What else ...

Muffins (sweet & savory)
Fruit cake (lasts forever without freezing)

Learn how to use your microwave for cooking rice, and serve with the meals.
Mashed potato, pumpkin etc.

Has anyone seen these? They look awesome I think I'm going to have to get them both, there is 2 I think (could be more) one is her first book entitled "Frost Bite" the second is "Frost Bite - From Toddlers to Teenagers" She teaches how to cook yummy gourmet meals and how to freeze in advance so that it can be pulled out for those on the go! How cool is that! And so helpful for busy mums!

Ooh cool, I'll definitely need to have a look at those :)

that sounds really good. I'll check them out.

I actually laybyed the second book (tots to teens one) recently, without having really looked through it. I initially put it in the trolley at Big W, along with the AWW "Cook" book (the big red book) during their recent toy sale, so I would be able to go through them both and see if they were any good whilst waiting in the SUPER LONG queue at lay by. I was in the queue for 1 hour, but didn't get the chance to go through either book, as only a few minutes in, Steph wanted out of the trolley, so I had to keep my eye on her as she terrorised all the other children in the line!

So, has anyone bought the book, and can tell me if I should still get it? I have lots of good intentions to do lots of cooking and freezing before bub2 is born, but I'm not sure if it will eventuate!

*bump*

chicken bol - can be reheated as is, or top with cheese/cheese sauce for a pasta bake (we make in bulk in the slow cooker). spag bol the same.

vegie bake in cheese sauce (basically stirfry finely diced vegies with a bit of garlic butter, make up a cheesy sauce, mix all the veg through - we put cauli and broccolli too) - freezes beautifully, can be something on it's own with crusty bread, or with a steak or chicken. we've also made it go further by mixing through pasta. made it more of a stand alone meal by adding some chicken breast...

any casseroles that you can make in the slow cooker

ummm, maybe egg and bacon pie pre cooked (just) and ready to go in the oven

meatloaf ready to go (not pre cooked, just ready to pop in the oven)

ummmm, we freeze a lot of stuff for DH to take to work, and i love the slow cooker cos we can make in bulk with minimal effort....

Oooh, we're just about to pick up a deep freeze so i'll be watching this with interest!

Whatever you do, don't freeze raw potatoes, cook them first, I learned the hard way :lol:

When I was near Noahs birth I prepared heaps of potato bake which is where I learned not to freeze raw potato and homemade mac and cheese which was cooked prior which turned out fabo. I just cooked the mac and then drained, put the mac back in the pot and added heaps of tasty cheese with some milk and capsicum. I then put them in oven safe dishes and added some ripped up bread to the top and froze. To eat I let defrost overnight and then cooked in the oven.

I will definitly keep my eyes on this thread for some new ideas too.

hey,

i have the book for toddlers to teenagers and its fantastic! awesome recipes - all quick and easy and usually with stuff you'd normally keep in the kitchen.
it gives some awesome tips on how to freeze different foods and meals.

highly reccommended!