A few readers asked me to tackle freezer meals in a blog post, so here I am talking about all things frozen. I don’t consider myself an expert (this isn’t something I’ve spent a lot of time researching and tend to go with trial and error) but I have found ways to freeze meals and foods so that I’m happy with the result after it has been thawed and cooked.
So as a general rule I have two methods of freezing, one for soups/stews/sauce and another for casserole type items. Anytime I’m making a soup or chili that I want to freeze, I often double the recipe so I know I’ll have lots of leftovers. After B and I eat dinner, I let the food cool until you can stick a finger in it without burning yourself, and then I divide it into gallon sized ziplock bags. I carefully squeeze the air out of the bag and lay them flat, on top of each other, on a cookie sheet or flat baking pan. I also use a Sharpie to write the date/food on it….chili and beef stew can look awfully similar after they are frozen…. I freeze the bags on the baking sheet nice and flat, after they are solid I can remove the baking sheet and reorganize my freezer accordingly. Freezing them flat makes them super easy to store and also helps them thaw evenly. Favorite things to freeze? Baked potato soup and chili.
As far as casserole dishes go, my biggest “trick” is to freeze them raw. I make the recipe right up until the “bake” point, where I stoop to freeze the dish. Generally this means when I set out to make lasagna to freeze I either make two lasagnas (one to eat now, one to freeze) or I cut the noodles in half and make two smaller pans (8×8 pans rather than 9×11) so I can freeze one and cook the other. As a general rule, I make the entire dish right up until the cooking point, then I wrap the baking dish in saran wrap (two layers), followed by foil. I try to use these dishes within 3 months of freezing since I don’t have a deep chest freezer. As far as thawing goes, I take it out of the freezer and put it in the fridge the night before I want to serve it, so it can thaw slowly in the fridge all night/day. An hour before I’m going to cook it, I take it out and set it on the counter, then I bake normally. My favorite things to freeze? Pioneer Woman’s cinnamon rolls, lasagna, chicken spaghetti, sweet potato chile mac and poppyseed chicken.
I know those are not groundbreaking tips, but it is what works for me!
