To all the Cooks . . . I have a friend who is having a c-section Thurs and wanted to make her at least 3 meals that could just be popped into the oven and served. They are a family of four, now five, so the recipe would need to feed them plus the grandma. I have a couple of casseroles but I have never frozen them and not sure how to go about reheating them. Do you just reheat at the regular baking temp until warmed? Any recipes and instructions are appreciated.
If you google 'freeze meals' you'll see some different websites that have recipe suggestions.
allrecipes.com looked like they had some good ones.
That's really sweet of you to make meals for this family.
A.
Hi V.,
This is so sweet of you to help this family out like that. I have 2 recipes that are easy to make, freeze & then reheat.
Sausage Balls in Blankets
Ingredients:
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour 2 tsp. curry powder
1 tsp. paprika ¼ tsp. salt
8 oz. shredded cheddar cheese 1 lb. pork sausage
½ cup butter
Instructions:
Mix in a large bowl the flour, curry, paprika, salt and cheese. With pastry blender or 2 knives used scissors fashion, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. With hands, shape into a ball. Cover and refrigerate. Meanwhile, shape heaping tsp. of sausage meat into small balls. In a large skillet, over med. heat, fry until well browned. Drain thoroughly on paper towels. Divide dough into as many pieces as sausage balls. Then shape dough evenly around balls. Wrap and freeze. Place frozen sausage balls on a cookie sheet and bake 15-20 minutes until golden at 400 degrees. Serve with toothpicks.
AND
Black Olive Casserole
Ingredients:
1 lb. ground beef ½ pound sausage
1 chopped onion 1 chopped green pepper
1 can drained mushrooms 2 cans tomato sauce
2 Tsp. chili powder 1 Tbs. Worcestershire sauce
1 10 oz. can sliced or halved black olives 10 oz. pkg. noodles
Grated cheese for top salt & pepper to taste
Instructions:
Brown meats, cook noodles in boiling salted water. Combine all ingredients (except cheese), pour in casserole, top with cheese. Bake at 350 degrees until bubbly. Freezes well.
Potatoes don't freeze well, so try using hashbrowns in the casseroles instead if that is what you are using.
Also, if you have rice or pasta in the recipes, cook them until slightly done, otherwise when they are cooked, they will be overdone and mushy.
You also need to increase the baking time and/or temperature just a bit when reheating. B/c even after the meal is thawed in the fridge, it still needs longer to cook.
Also, before freezing the meals, cool them off in the fridge for at least 30 minutes first, otherwise, they can cause items in the freezer to start to melt.
Also, to maintain the flavor of the food, seal it in large ziplock bags and get as much air out as possible. The book recommends to get a straw and suck out all the air whike you zip the bag shut.
I got all of these tips from The "Too Busy to Cook" book by Lori Rogers that gets you started on freezer meals, complete with shopping lists for specific recipes and instructions.
I have tons of recipes in here that is quite easy, if you would like me to email them to you, I can.
But here are some great tips and online recipes you might enjoy:
Any of the Italian things are great. Lasagna, Spaghetti, Chicken Fettucini. I have also done the Chicken Enchiladas and some casseroles with cooked hamburger meat, cubed potatoes, egg noodles, cream of mushroom soup, and veggies that were great. I have done this for friends and did this last year for my family before my son was born. It was so nice to not worry about dinner or cleanup. I bought the disposable aluminum pans and cooked all mine in those and then after they cooled wrapped them in clear wrap first and then foil. This way I could easily store the leftovers in the refrigerator without dirting up another dish and then toss the pan when we finised it off. I heated all of mine on 350 degrees until warmed through.
My mom made me some enchiladas and they froze great! A friend brought a lasagna, another brought a meatloaf and I made a pot roast that froze quite well too.
C.
The magazine, Taste of Home - Simple & Delicious always has casserole meal recipes that you can freeze. I'm sure you can find the magazine at Barnes & Noble.
I freeze lasagna all the time. It is great.
Brown Hamburger Meat (1 1/2 pounds)
Add 1/2 can Italian Sesoning, 2 Can tomatoe sauce
Simmer.
Cook Noodles.
Combine - 1 Large cottage Cheese, Other 1/2 can italian seasoning, 1/2 can parmasena cheese, 2 eggs
Put a small amount of sauce in bottom of dish so noodles will not stick.
Layer the following 2 or 3 times:
Noodles
Meat Sauce
Cottage Cheese Mix
Motzerella (sp?) Cheese
Freeze!
I have always frozen them and then instructed them to thaw completely in the refrigerator the day before then cook as instructed...
tatertot casserole is a good one
spaghetti pie
cheesy chicken and rice with broccoli freezes well
the obvious... lasagna freezes well
homemade pot pies freeze well too. :)
Hello V.,
I just sent an email to another mom about the dinner station. They have dinner meals that serve 6 that you can put together or they can put together for you that you freeze and just thaw the night before or the day of. You can look them up online and see your menu options for the month. There are a ton of choices and the meals are easy to prepare. I usually buy 8 dinner meals that serve 3 people each and the cost is $85.00. I would assume 4 dinners that serve 6 would be the same. I hope this helps.B.
We've frozen just about everything before. It's much quicker to freeze meals in microwaveable containers. Just pull the container out of the freezer and set it on the counter top around lunch time the day she wants to eat it, then zap it for dinner time. The oven is fine too, of course, it just takes longer. And yes, heat it at whatever temp it was baked.
Lasagna is a great one to freeze, of course.
Casseroles, as you said you have already
Meatloaf is good. You can also freeze mashed potatoes.
We make and freeze a chicken enchilada casserole all the time.
Spaghetti is also good for freezing. Freeze the sauce separately from the pasta. There are a couple of tricks for reheating pasta 1) pull the frozen pasta out of the freezer bag/container, then run it under luke warm tap water in a colander until it separates, then microwave it, or 2) toss it in a pot of boiling water for 2 or 3 minutes. You'll never know it had been frozen! Of course, you can also buy pre-cooked pasta. I usually find it along side things like rocotta cheese at the grocery store. There are all sorts of fun flavors like spinash and sun-dried tomato, tortellini, ravioli, etc.
