Food - Milford,MI

Very nice of you to do this for your friend! I too froze meals before my second son was born and it has really helped. What I did was make dinner and double the recipe, so that I could freeze half of it. That way you could make one a day until you are ready to visit her. There's a great blog onceamonthmom.com. She cooks all her meals for the month in one weekend. She includes recipes, freezing and cooking instructions. I found this helpful since I was a first time freezer. My mother-in-law also browned and froze ground beef in 1lb. bags. Easy to whip something up like chili, tacos, spaghetti or sloopy joes.

My concern with that is cooking in a 'bag'...frozen or not. I would try to avoid plastic as much as possible, but especially in cooking. What you are doing for your girlfriend is so wonderful, but perhaps you could choose meals that (although they take the one extra step of putting them in another container to cook), can be cooked in oven/stove in pyrex, stainless steel, etc.
Foods that I have sent to sick friends have been unfrozen, but packaged/labeled so they can toss in freezer themselves if they don't want to eat in next couple days. I usually send homemade soups, homemade pasta sauces with the dry pasta (or you can precook al dente, top with oil so it won't stick and refrigerate so it is easier for them), baked pasta dishes right in pyrex that indeed can go right to the oven, frozen vegetables in their original bags (peas and baby green B. are pretty universally liked), a fresh fruit salad, cut up veggies, or a prewashed salad (washed and dried by me with veggies cut up and all put in a ziploc) along with some salad dressing....and always a fresh loaf of Italian or a baguette to go with whatever I send. The friend can choose if she has the appetitie that day, or put everything in the freezer (except salads of course).And you could always put fresh meat in a labeled/dated bag and marinate with olive oil, lemon/acid, salt pepper spice and fresh garlic...press the air out and freeze. She may need to put it in something else to cook (broiler pan), but at least it will taste delicious and she won't have to do anything to it...just be sure to have her toss in freezer if she is not using it in the first 24 hours.
I just strongly feel that you should never ever cook food in plastic. And if you can find plastic bags that are pvc free, etc. (Whole foods sells them), I would always try to use those for any food/freezer storage when you can't use glass.

I do this all the time! Before our daughter was born I made a bunch of extra stuff up ahead of time and put it in our deep freeze..it has been a sanity and life saver! I always have a few things in the freezer for those nights I just don't want to cook!

Getting things packaged right is key to freezing things for longer periods of time. I have a vacuum sealer, but for many of the items I freeze, the sealer won't work. It's not good for larger items or liquids. And you can freeze something like a soup and then vacuum seal it, I don't recommend it...I have had bad outcomes. Before freezing anything, make sure it it is completely cool, this helps prevent ice crystals from forming.

Many soups freeze well. I made up a chicken cheese corn chowder, chicken noodle and spinach sausage. Chili also does well in the freezer. I put them in ziplock bags. I placed the bags in 2 qt juice pitchers and fill them with the soup. I put the pitchers in the freezer and when they were frozen solid, I removed the bags from the pitchers and stored them in the freezer. Putting them in the pitcher helped me with portions and they stored well in my deep freeze.

Baked ziti and lasagna, both do well in the freezer. The recipes I have make large batches, so I split them and got two meals out of each one.(http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Baked-Ziti-I/Detail.aspx) (http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Worlds-Best-Lasagna/Detail.a... I store these in disposable pans.I wrap in saran wrap (really wrap...all the way around) and then put tin foil over the top. The night I cook it, I reuse the tinfoil...putting tinfoil over the top will help it heat through without browning the cheese. And often I do wash the toss away pan to reuse for another time (but not when things are insane)

Pot pies freeze well. I find these are easy to make in large batches. I make these a dozen or so at a time. They are my go to food when I don't feel like cooking.

I bought a variety of frozen veggies at Sam's to have on hand as side dishes. I also bought some frozen blackened Salmon from Sam's as well. It is surprisingly good for a packaged food.

I have my husband grill up a variety of meats when he has time. Then I vacuum sealed them and froze them, but a ziplock bag will have worked. They are definitely better fresh, but with this much chaos, who notices the difference really? These are easy to microwave or reheat on the stove top. I have noticed that pouring a little broth over the meat helps them reheat better, they don't get overly dried out.

Lumpia and egg rolls can also be made ahead of time and frozen. It helps to wrap them in wax paper before putting them in baggies. Fried rice, which can be served as a side or main dish, does well too - although if I am going to add shrimp I do that the night we are going to eat it, I don't freeze it with shrimp. Red B. and rice does well, but make sure to add a little water when you go to reheat it. I store all of these in ziplock bags (vacuum bag have a tendency to rip the egg rolls apart a little bit)

Meatballs for spaghetti and sandwiches can be frozen too. We make our own spaghetti sauce and I have that in our freezer as well.

I tried to freeze a spinach quiche, but it didn't do well in the freezer, it got a bit grainy.

I also make up dinner rolls, garlic bread and bread bowls and froze them. You just want to bake them for about half the time, let them cool completely and then freeze. They store well in ziplock bags. When it comes time to heat them up, you can throw them in the oven frozen and cook for the remaining time.

Hope this helps!

Let me know if you want specific recipes...I can email them to you.

how about using 'gladware' containers or something similar? I use these when pre-prepping veggies after I get them home from the store. This way, it's easy for me to snack on them (and I don't have to waste time preparing, washing, etc.) or to put them into a meal.

If you are visiting next week... are you staying for any number of days to help out/ watch her or is it for a few hours? If you are staying for some time, why not just cook a few of the meals with meat and store them in her containers?

I would imagine you could use the cooking bags - I have not done this personally, as I cook fresh (w/ veggies, freezing does take out the nutrients, tho not as much as canned does.).

I think the best meal to freeze is soup or sauce (as another posted). After making a batch of soup, you just store it in 'single serve' size ziplocs. My mom did this for us growing up. Hubby's mom froze burritos.

However, I would make sure you are cooking what she can handle eating right now.

by fresh, I am assuming you mean RAW, uncooked meat with raw uncooked veggies.

I would REALLY REALLY discourage this. Although you could COOK the meal then freeze it and all she'd have to do is pop it in the oven after its thawed... But the thawing process would either lead to bacteria seeping into the veggies from the raw meat that takes longer to thaw, or under cooked meat/ over cooked veggies... Neither would be good for someone who is trying to heal.

I would cook the meals then put them in Ziplock bags for her to dump into a crock pot. Maybe even get her a crock pot if she doesn't have one...