What meals do you make ahead and freeze?

FLA2005NH

Along the line of Heather's post, I am looking for meals I can make ahead and freeze. I am trying to prepare a bit for the winter, and our tight tight budget. I figure it can't hurt to have a stocked freezer for when that insane $400 electric bill comes in the dead of winter.

 Any ideas? TIA Ladies!

JustCallMeMrs.P

I don't do this, but I would think any type of casserole and pasta dish would be good frozen. Lasagna, pasta bake, homemade mac n' cheese, etc. Now that I've mentioned these things, I'm really hungry.

Mrs.Darah

woohoo!

Spaghetti Sauce (i will put meatballs, sausage, pork cutlet in it)

Jambalaya

Chicken soup/fricassee

Beef Stew

Lasagna (use spaghetti sauce above)

turkey chili

chorizo and chicken soup

lldags

Stuffed Shells

Meatballs - then you can just heat up some pasta, thaw these and throw it together

Meatloaf - cut up and freeze in single/double servings

Any kind of soup

lasagna

baked ziti - frozen in single servings

Moppett

I've just spent the last couple days cooking and freezing...here are some of the recipes I made. I made at least double batches of all of them, and in some cases, I wish I had made triple batches or more... 

Sloppy Joes: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Sloppy-Joes-II/Detail.aspx 

Split Pea Soup: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Split-Pea-Soup-With-Rosemary/Detail.aspx (this was crazy easy and turned out really, really good. If you have a Hannafords near you, they have this amazing smoked bacon in the butcher dept...use that.)

Santa Fe Chicken: http://busycooks.about.com/od/precookedpoultryrecipes/r/santafechicken.htm  (haven't tried this yet, but it looks good in the pans...I'm already figuring that next time I'll want to use some spices, though...i.e. cumin)

Turkey and Artichoke Stuffed Shells: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/turkey-and-artichoke-stuffed-shells-with-arrabbiata-sauce-recipe/index.html (again, haven't tried this one yet...but it looks good in the pans)

Hamburger Soup: http://www.recipezaar.com/56366 

 

Southwest Egg Rolls: http://www.recipezaar.com/147949 (once again, haven't tried these yet...but they look really yummy. DH prepped and made these (double batch), and they were kind of time-consuming due to prepping the fresh ingredients and rolling the rolls...he said that we should have just made 4 or 5 times the recipe, as what's the difference at that point.)

 

Pork and ale stew: http://www.cooksrecipes.com/soup/autumn_pork_vegetable_and_ale_stew_recipe.html (Great thing about pork shoulder is that it's inexpensive and it's great for stews, which are great for this time of year! We bought a 6 lb cut for less than $10, and after trimming a TON of the fat off, I was left with ~3-4 lbs which I used in a double batch of this recipe...you don't have to cut the fat off, since it cooks off in the slow stewing process...but I preferred to. One note on this recipe - the final 30 minutes of simmering time is not NEARLY enough. I tend to think this was a typo. We uncovered the stew at this point and let it simmer for at least another 1.5 hours, maybe 2...until it actually looked like stew and not like vegetable soup.)

 

We make a lot of soups using the leftover veg in our fridge - we tend to buy too much veg each week and never eat all of it, so DH will often make a gadge of soup at the end of the week using whatever is still lingering in the veg bin and freeze it into two-person portions. Soup + bread + cheese is a great weeknight meal...just take the soup out of the freezer, bung it in a pan on the stovetop to defrost, and there you have it.

 

If you do a Google search for OAMC recipes (once a month cooking), you'll turn up a ton of freezable recipes. I'm regrettably not yet structured enough to be cooking only once a month (gotta love anyone who is!), but there are a LOT of recipes out there...

 

Good luck!!

Kerri

Fiantas

Taco Soup

I did this for Mr. Feef a couple weeks ago and there wasn't any left to freeze.  Next time I'm probably going to add some chicken or groud beef/turkey to it to make it a little more hearty, but he really liked it.

1 large onion, diced
1 (14 1/2 ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 (14 1/2 ounce) can diced tomatoes & green chiles
1 (11 ounce) canned corn with red and green peppers
1 (15 1/2 ounce) can low-fat or fat-free canned refried black beans
2 cans water (3 1/2 cups)
1 package taco seasoning mix
1 package ranch salad dressing mix (dry)

Saute onion with vegetable oil cooking spray. When softened, combine all other ingredients and cook until heated through.

Makes 9-10 cups. Serving size is 1 cup.

Mindy-lou

I don't do it for our food yet, but do for Owen.

Sloppy joes

Sheppard's pie

Meatballs

Meatloaf