Hellobee Boards

Following! I'm in a routine groove of preparing 6-8 "batches" (each batch makes about 2 meals, we usually eat half for dinner and the other half for either lunch or dinner the next day) of the following:

Meatloaf
Fully Cooked Meatballs (use with spaghetti sauce or a stroganoff/mushroom sauce)
Chicken Pot Pie
Stuffed Shells (I should be doing lasagna too)
Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole
Sloppy Joes
Beef (or Venison) Taco Meat

Basically, I never just prepare ONE of the above, I always produce them in mass quantity. I love allrecipes.com for batch cooking, you can easily multiply the recipes using their website.

Also, I freeze tons of bags of chicken breast strips in marinade. We thaw in the fridge starting the night before, then stirfry the next night. I keep coordinating bags of rice on hand and add a veggie for a complete meal. For example, marinate chicken in lemon or lime juice and cilantro, use cilantro lime rice. The rice is stupid expensive in those little bags, but its worth the convenience to me. I've heard people have good luck with batch cooking brown rice and freezing too!

Thanks for starting this thread, I need more recipes to add to my freezer collection.

@looch: Good ideas! We end up just buying pre-marinated frozen fish from Costco, but I might try your ideas too!

We end up with mostly heartier meals frozen because those seem to freeze the best. Right now we have:

-chicken pot pies
-lasagna
-spaghetti sauce
-black bean burgers
-ground beef for tacos or enchiladas
-chicken noodle soup
-pulled pork crock pot meal
-frozen fish and shrimp

Of all of those, we go through the black bean burgers and fish the fastest.

http://kitchen-parade-veggieventure.blogspot.com/2009/02/homemade-black-bean-burgers.html?m=1

I can also give you the pot pie recipe if you'd like it. It uses rotisserie chicken and some evaporated milk.

@LemonJack: I do; but I don't add cream to it before I freeze (tho I don't know whether that really makes a big difference??). I make big batches, blend and freeze into individual servings and then when I reheat it I'll add in a bit of cream to make it creamier.

@LadyDi:
Pot pie:

-3 tablespoons butter
-minced onions & celery if desired
-1/4 - 1/3 c flour
-1 1/4c chicken broth/stock
-1/2 - 1/3 c evaporated milk
-1 package frozen veggies (I use soup mix)
-rotisserie chicken
-salt, pepper, garlic, parsley, thyme, poultry seasoning, Italian herb mix, oregano (I use a combo of these...whatever I feel like)
-pie crust

-melt butter over low heat, add onions and celery and cook until onions are translucent
-add flour and stir
-pour in chicken broth and stir, allowing to thicken
-add salt, pepper, and other seasonings to taste
-add in evaporated milk and stir
-mix in veggies and chicken, and allow to cook a few minutes
-pour into pie pan and cover with crust
-bake for 30-35 mins at 400 F

I don't have exact amounts for a lot of the stuff because I wing it. I usually use one small/medium sized onion. I add a few stalks of celery if I have it. I usually use a Costco rotisserie chicken, and don't use all of it (maybe 3 c worth?). When I use a smaller rotisserie chicken from a regular grocery store I use it all.

I will usually make a few at a time and just freeze them uncooked. If you do that, usually two Costco rotisserie chickens are enough for three pot pies.

When cooking, really it's just reheating them then, because the rotisserie chicken is pre-cooked. Just keep in mind it takes a few days for them to defrost. You can cook them from frozen too, but it takes a lot longer, and I turn the oven down to 325. I've also made individual pot pies before, which is nice since they cook much faster from frozen.

I actually don't like freezer meals where you have to thaw and then cook the meal later. For some reason, it never seems to actually save time for me. So I like to either completely freeze pre-cooked meals (sorta like a homemade TV dinner) or I batch-cook components of meals and freeze them in portioned bags.

I freeze spaghetti meat sauce and chili flat in gallon sized bags - they take up less space that way and they thaw in a snap.

I will freeze portions of cooked, crumbled ground beef or turkey (plain or taco), cook shredded chicken (usually with some salsa and chicken taco seasoning in the crock pot or IP, drained of excess liquid), plain pulled pork (to add BBQ sauce to later or use as carnitas), and shredded beef (I use the Mississippi Roast recipe all over Pinterest). I usually fill quart size freezer bags with about 1.5-2 cups of meat and that is enough for a meal and they also thaw fast or can go directly into the pot frozen.

Before each of my kids were born, I bought black plastic take-out containers on Amazon and just froze individual portions of whatever we ate for dinner in the third trimester. I made meals that freeze well, like rice based dishes. Jambalaya, red beans and rice, any kind of curry over rice (Thai and Indian curries with chicken or chickpeas) - all of those would have veggies thrown into the mix, like peas, onions, bell peppers, zuchinni, and green beans, which also freeze and reheat well.

I also made lots of meat entrees that freeze and reheat well. Meatballs, meatloaf, smothered pork chops, cooked slice sausages, all would get portioned and then I'd add a scoop of still-frozen veggies and a starch (literally like rice or a scoop of mashed potatoes or sweet potatoes from the tub that you buy at the store, or stuffing). Trader Joes also sells frozen pucks of mashed sweet potatoes and regular mashed potatoes that I've also used.

If we ate turkey or ham, I'd make a few dinners that were more "feasty" like, ham/turkey, some Stove Top stuffing, some frozen corn and green beans. Then I just keep a packet of gravy mix and a small can of cranberry sauce in the pantry just for this purpose!

Rice freezes and reheats well. I have a rice cooker with a warm setting for my Asian short grained rice that I always have on hand, but whenever I cook basmati, jasmine, or Spanish style rice, I almost always double or triple it and freeze them in quart size freezer bags. They nuke up in a few seconds.

Brothy soups freeze the best for me. I usually make a big crock of vegetable beef soup or chicken and veggie soup and just add potatoes, noodles, or rice later on. The New York Times also has a recipe for a red lentil soup with lemon that is fantastic and freezes well too.

I'd just double whatever our dinners were and then pack up half of it in portions and freeze. (Yes, we have a chest freezer).

After my kids were born, my meals were totally random and snacky for months, but my husband needed real meals, so having these meals portioned and frozen were a godsend for us. He could dig into the freezer and pull out 4-5 different meals and put them in the fridge where they would thaw and then he would have lunches and dinners sorted out without me having to think about it.