Freezing Meals - San Jose,CA

I like disposable aluminum pans. You can get them in various sizes. Cover them with aluminum foil and mark the contents on top in permanent marker. The pans can be popped into the oven for heating, and eliminate a lot of clean-up afterward.

I go to the Dollar Tree and get cheap alluminum foil containers. They have some nice ones in packs of 3 that are perfect for 2 servings of lasagna/casseroles, with lid things for them. They are wonderful as you just pop them in the oven for about an hour at 350, and your frozen food is hot and ready! I love them!!!

I would put them in an aluminum 8x8 or loaf pan. That's what I used for my Mom when she had surgery. I put a layer of plastic wrap on top, then foil. I labeled with permanent black marker. FYI: only cook noodles and veggies about 2/3 of the way before freezing.

I use ziplocs for everything, even sauces. fold the zipper part over or even onto something like a yogurt container for sauce, fill and the flip back & zip.

I used rubbermaids and then the tin foil pans you can buy cheap. The pans were great for casseroles, etc since I could use smaller ones and split a full casserole into two or three frozen meals. When we were done there was no clean up and if I needed my casserole dishes they were in my cabinet, not waiting to be used in the freezer or in your case for them to be returned to you. Some also had lids, but for the most part I just wrapped well with foil, some got wax paper over and then foil around. For liquids like spaghetti sauce I used the screw top ziploc containers, mainly because I found them on sale cheap and they were the perfect size for sauce for two.

I did that for myself. I stored it all in the deep freezer. I had a Stouffer's lasagna, and then I made several things. The king ranch casserole did not freeze well, the tostada chips were weird. I can't remember why....it was edible, but I wasn't happy with it and a little embarassed b/c my mom and dad were eating with us. I've heard potatoes don't freeze well, so I didn't try those. I made a chicken sausage gumbo (do the rice the day you're going to eat), a chicken tortilla soup (awesome, but I didn't put the tortillas or chips, whatever you eat with yours in until time to serve it), homemade chili, chicken noodle soup, I marinated steaks and froze those, and I cooked the filling for chicken enchiladas (then just put into the tortillas with sauce, cheese, and black olives and bake until the cheese melts), bbq pulled pork from the crockpot, taco meat to make burritos or tacos with, etc. I used ziploc freezer gallon sized bags. Label the bag with what it is and the date before putting food in, let the food cool down, then pour into the bags and lay FLAT until frozen. Then you can store them standing up like a file system and just pull one out as needed. That saves you from digging around, and saves space too. If doing veggies (I also did this for quick/easy meals), chop them first, otherwise they are weird).

lasagna - the Rubbermaid containers are great!

Spaghetti - yep - it can freeze!! put a few squares of butter in it - and freeze it.

Enchiladas - AWESOME!!!

The foil containers work well too!!

you could get one of those shrink wrap devices, not sure of the name, then you can freeze things flat, will help to give more room in the freezer, bad news is you get to cook more! LOL have fun!