Freezer Meals - Recommendations

[geordie_lass21]

Hello

I am due to have a baby in 7 weeks and have bought a second freezer (the one we have is pretty small) so that I can make some ready meals slimming world friendly between now and the birth.

My plan was to buy a load of takeaway style plastic containers so I can freeze stuff once cooked.

However I could do with some advice on what to make and freeze as I tend to do the same stuff each time. Our freezer is normally full of -

chilli con carne
curry - be it beef or chicken

What other things can I make. Do you think if I bought the foil takeaway contains I could freeze cottage pie. (I dont like fish pie although i do like fish and cheese sauce haha). Also do the slimming world cheese sauces tend to freeze well or do they go funny.

How do other people freeze stuff like mousakka or lasagne, you cant do that in a foil container surely so do people cook it and then freeze it in portions or do they freeze it uncooked in the container they want to cook it in. That will be no good for me as i havent got an unlimited supply of cooking containers.

I know I could freeze just meat portions as well so i can make stir fry meals. I tend to buy frozen prawns when on offer and packs of what my hubby calls beefy bacon for stir fries. The other thing i buy is frozen fish fillets and cook them with skinny wedges and veg.

I suppose I can do casseroles too, I quite like pork and apple with cream sauce (I know its not very slimming world friendly with cooked apple and cream sauce) as well as beef, ginger and guiness stew (good for keeping my iron up after the birth) and i do like a sausage and butter bean (tomato based stew). Do you think tinned butter beans will freeze?

Anyway other peoples suggestions would be great

 

[MrsCupcake]

Hiya, I'm not sure about the SW cheese sauces and how they would freeze.. But, about freezing in the cooking containers, I sometimes line the cooking container (like a lasagne dish) with tin foil, make the meal up in it, freeze it, then take the container off. Leave the dish frozen in the tin foil, wrapped in cling film to protect it. Then when you want to use it, leave it to defrost for half an hour or so, just so it's easy to peel the tin foil away, peel the foil and pop it back into the lasagne dish to full defrost and be cooked. Tadaaa! Not using loads of dishes! You do need to remember which frozen block goes in which dish though

I also froze loads of portions of stews etc in disposable plastic containers (loads on eBay) when I was pregnant. My advice is so make them a full meal, with veg and potatoes etc so you don't need to do anything apart from heat when you come to use them.

Good luck with the new baby! x

 

[abkb]

My freezer is always full of foil takeaway containers! Usually cottage pie (which is fine to freeze), lasagne, beef stew, chicken in red wine sauce, chicken curry, soup, etc etc!

I always cook everything and then once cooked and cooled I divide it into individual portions, then put each portion in a separate foil container, and then freeze. I get whatever I fancy for tea out of the freezer in the morning, then just take it out of the foil container and onto a plate and into the microwave! Simples!

Lots of luck with the baby!

 

[ermintrude]

I just cook plenty of whatever it is Im making and put half (or whatever is left over) in boxes and freeze them. Then I just microwave them when we want to eat them. No point using metal containers, that just makes it a pain to microwave, and I cant be faffing having to cook the same meal twice. I just buy a set of 25 or whatever plastic boxes off ebay like this. (Thats just a set of 6 but uually you can find sets of 25, 50, 100 etc. I think mine are the 500ml ones, which make one large serving each, but they come in all sorts of sizes).

You can also buy the better-quality Lakeland sealable versions but tbh I find they just take up too much space in storage when not used (and in the freezer as well tbh) and theyre a lot more expensive. The cheap ones just stack up inside each other and take up no space at all, theyre so cheap its no big deal if you have to throw the odd one away.

The cottage pie thing I dont think theres any reason you couldnt freeze it in the box and then just take it out and put it in an overnproof container to cook, but personally I would probably just freeze the base as normal and then when I want to eat it just defrost it, stick some mash on top and bake for 20 min.

 

[ermintrude]

PS I just stick them in the mic on defrost for 10 min and youre done

 

[geordie_lass21]

Thanks everyone, thats a good idea. Am not sure if i would find freezing lasagne in the container in foil a bit of a faff as i can just imagine i would struggle to get the tin foil off!! however everything else i am going to try.

i dont tend to freeze soups (am not a huge lover of soup to be honest as i try and avoid bread as my syns). i do occaisionally though (and i put them in freezer bags).

Right off to search ebay for the takeaway containers... Thanks everyone.

 

[slimmingsophie]

Hello, not sure if this has been put on here, but what i do is make the slimming world syn free chips and freeze them, half way through cookin in the oven, then there just like normal chips, you can take then out the freezer and cook for about 35/40 minutes or until they look done.
great food to freeze and can just pop them in the oven x