[jade5]

I'm returning to work soon and I need to be better organised with meal planning. On the days I work I'd love to have meals to grab out of freezer for a family of 4. I hate cooking at the end of the day as I find it's a busy time of the day, my toddler and baby are tired & grumpy and both need attention leaving little time to cook.

So the obvious solution for me is to cook meals earlier in the day, maybe invest in a slow cooker (never used one before!), and cook up a few meals to freeze.

So does anybody have any freezer friendly meals they can share? And if you do, do you normally just cook extra and freeze the rest or do you have a day when you cook lots of things to freeze?

And do things like muffins & biscuits freeze well? Thinking if I have a heap of these in the freezer, DH will have yummy (and cheap) things to take to work.

Hoping that being more organised with meals will not only make things less stressful when I return to work but also save us money as I tend to do multiple trips to the supermarket which is costing a fortune!

[jtsmith83]

I use a few of these recipes

http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/collections/freezer+friendly

[butterflydreamin...]

google once a month mom.

[Lucretia Borgia]

I just do up batches of the trusty ol spag bol......you were probably after something a bit more interesting! I shall be stalking this...I go back to work in two weeks

[FiveAus]

I freeze them for work lunches.

Most pasta dishes (in fact all the ones I cook) freeze well. Spag bol, Jamie Olivers suasage fusilli and Jools pasta. Lasagne, pasta bake.
Beef casserole, risotto, chicken pie and vegetables. They all freeze and re-heat in the microwave.

[Pearson]

yes - get yourself a slow cooker, or a pressure cooker (or a fast slow cooker combo). Slow cookers can be left on all day and pressure cookers do the same thing in a quick time.

Dont freeze anything that has cream or milk in it - can be a little dodgy when reheated (except lasagne type dishes)

Chilli con carne - can be used on its own, in a pie, with rice, with corn chips, nachos etc. The only thing you need then to make is guacamole if you eat it. Also, sour cream. I make my guac with finely sliced shallots, finely diced tomato and lemon juice with salt and pepper. (can also use tabasco) mixed in with the avo.

Also look at the organised housewife site, and frills in the hills - these girls both have freezer friendly treat recipes and meals too.

[gina70]

I am cooking and freezing this weekend ready for being back at work. I just bought 2 kgs of mince and I am going to cook spag bol, mexican mince and porcupines out of it. I usually do more, but feel lazy.

This post has been edited by gina70: 26/01/2013, 02:16 PM

[katiebear26]

i have an old womens weekly meals from the freezer recipe book, it's great. esp this chicken canneloni recipe. try to find it if you can, all recipes are large batches, some are heat and eat, others require a bit of work once defrosted.

[mumto3princesses]

*lasagne
*spaghetti bolognaise
*taco mince or chilli con carne or nachos mince
*curry/apricot chicken
*rissoles/hamburger patties
*cooked chicken snitzels to have just as snitzels or add pasta sauce and cheese for a parmigiana type meal or chicken burgers
*beef stroganoff
*quiche
*pasta sauce to use on ravioli etc

That's all I can think of at the moment. We usually cook extra or have a big batch in the slow cooker and freeze the rest as we have a couple of late nights a week (maybe even 3 this year) when after school activities start back.

Sometimes even when we just make one batch of the meal we will end up with enough for at least one person and we freeze that. If I just have one serve left I sometimes make up enough rice (if its a meal that goes with rice) for one person and add that with it in one of those take away type containers. Then every now and again we will have a night where we all just choose which meal we want and have a different meal each.

[elizabethany]

I freeze anything that has a sauce, such as spag bol, butter chicken, sweet and sour or stroganoff (though I freeze before I add sour cream, and add some after reheating).

I also keep a good stock of basic meat cuts (chops, steaks, pork fillets etc) that cook up really fast.

I cook, add lots of vegies to sauces, then freeze the excess in single serve portions. That way, we always have quick dinners if required. If it has rice or pasta, I mix that through before freezing, but it is not required, it can be on the side.