freezing meals

[Shellyamc]

What do you always have in the freezer for a quick meal? What do you have really good luck with? What do you always make extra of, so you can have it for another meal?

Dh and I have a freezer in the basement now and I would love to get some stuff tucked away for when the baby comes in April. I know I will be making good old chicken soup, but I really don't know what else freezes well. I have never had the room to do anything like this.

Anyone have some good ideas? Thanks

[Johnie]

WEll I don't do this at all. I can't seem to plan ahead like that.

However, my co-worker with the DH who has ALS had a bunch of us over and we made meals to put in the freezer. Casseroles freeze well. Also other soups, lasagna, spaghetti sauce is pretty versatile (you can cook the noodles or whatever pretty quickly).

[foreverducky]

To go with that freezer I can not tell you how much I love my Foodsaver. It works just great and does allow me to buy in bigger sizes to keep price down.

Let's see, what do I freeze?? Well, practicularly everything. I break down the meat packages and seal smaller individual servings. I also love to freeze lasagna (well when I ate it). You can also get big bags of tator tots from Sam's Club that I like. One can never had too many tator tots. I've also froze stew.

[Britchick]

lasagna, spaghetti bolognese, chilli, fish pie, curry, stuff like that really.

[Taja]

I like to cook boneless, skinless chicken breasts, then package them for individual servings or meals and freeze them. It's great to have on hand to add to salads, pasta, etc. All you have to do is thaw and heat--or just add to a salad.

I also freeze all kinds of leftovers. Some more successfully than others. It isn't that they don't freeze well, some things just don't reheat well!

Watch the sodium content of anything you freeze. I don't add sodium when cooking, so it isn't an issue, but the taste of the sodium is diminished when you freeze food. Then you add more, so you end up consuming double what you normally would.

[Shellyamc]

So far, so good! Thanks guys!

Good tip about the salt..I would have never known that.

I never thought to freeze things like chili, but I guess that would work. I have a recipe for mac-n-cheese that you put together and then just put it in the oven to melt the cheese..can I freeze that? Do I cook everything and then freeze it?

I really don't know anything about it..

[Johnie]

meatloaf is anothe big one to freeze

[foreverducky]

I usually have a mixture of frozen cooked and uncooked. I definitely think you could freeze the mac and cheese.

[uscwest]

I usually have a mixture of frozen cooked and uncooked. I definitely think you could freeze the mac and cheese.

While mac and cheese does freeze well, it doesn't really reheat well, at least the homemade one that I make. Stouffer's, on the other hand, does a great frozen mac and cheese. And you can heat it up in the microwave.

[Shellyamc]

While mac and cheese does freeze well, it doesn't really reheat well, at least the homemade one that I make. Stouffer's, on the other hand, does a great frozen mac and cheese. And you can heat it up in the microwave.

Good to know! Thanks. I was wondering if the cheese got nasty when you heated it up.