making meals ahead

[Sheryl]

okay, I have mastered the crockpot, but I want to do the thing where you make double of a dish and then freeze 1/2 to use the next week. I want to do several meals worth of food prep/cooking on the weekend and have meals ready to eat for the following week! It seems like once you build up a few days supply of meals, you would just have to continuously do this and then only prepare meals a few times a week and still have a decent selection.

Here is the first part I just don't get... at what step in the preparation do you stick the second half in the freezer??

The second part I don't get is can you then stick them in the oven still frozen? When you buy frozen entrees from the store, you don't have to thaw them first, but it seems that for home cooks they always tell you to never start with frozen food (I do it all the time with pieces of meat anyway or else we would never eat home prepared meals).


Examples

Meatloaf muffins - Do I put them in the freezer AFTER I have mixed it up and before cooking? What if the meat was originally frozen and then thawed to prepare the meal.... can it be frozen again raw but mixed up and ready to cook?

Some kind of casserole - can I mix together the meat, cooked pasta and whatever else and freeze, right before the step of cooking in the oven? Does pasta freeze okay like that? What if the carb like ingredient is cooked potatoes or chunks of corn tortillas?

Anything that doesn't freeze ahead well?

[MJ]

I have cooked lasagna, froze it, then reheated it frozen, it takes a long time to reheat though. I think, with meatloaf, I would cook it before freezing because of the meat being frozen first. You could defrost it in the microwave and then heat it in the microwave or oven.

Good luck and keep us posted on how it works out for you.

MJ

[Mary Ann]

Depends on what it is, but here's the easy way.

Line your big freaking pan with the stick free Reynold's Wrap, slick side up. Have LOTS of extra foil slopping out. Cook your casserole, eat your portions, and then cover tightly with excess foil. Label and freeze. Then lift out the mass of frozen casserole and use your dish for something else.

The morning of when you want to eat it, put it back in the pan you baked it in, still covered, and turn on your oven at 200. Leave it there all day. When you're ready to eat, open that thing up and chow down. Tres easy. If you need a crunchy or browned top, then peel off the top layer of foil and turn on the broiler right before you're ready to serve. Watch closely; and when it's browned and bubbly, you're done.

We freeze all sorts of soups and casseroles because otherwise I'd get so stinking sick of them I'd never finish them! I often freeze them in those Gladware containers, and then run the frozen things in hot water to loosen them from the container. Then I shake them into some Corningware dish and nuke 'em. I won't nuke foods in plastic; it's been found that traces of plastic molecules are driven into the food, and they don't quite know what happens when we try to digest them. So I just use glass, ironstone, stainless, etc for cooking.

There are all sorts of things you can put up like that and serve over some noodles or brown rice. Beef Burgundy, Chicken a la King, anything in a sauce is easy.

I like to cook, but the days get harried sometimes so I still want something that I can grab quickly. This is a great way to go for both quality and price.

[ride4fun]

I've only done large batches and then when freeze or refrigerate once cooked --no family meals so just heat a serving in the microwave when hungry. Another thing I've heard but never did for normal cooking was to do the prep for tomorrows meal while tonights is cooking; then you stick the prepped food in the fridge and are ready to repeat the next day. I think the grocery entrees are pre-cooked and you are heating them thru. I don't know if I'd trust frozen ingredients to cook evenly enough, maybe ok for all-day in the crockpot but I don't think I'd do it for an oven casserole.

[Mary Ann]

Actually, there's no difference between a crockpot and an oven. The low temp in the crockpot is 200 degrees, and the high is 300. I wouldn't advise putting a piece of raw frozen meat in either at that temperature because it might not get cooked through; but since you're reheating something that's already cooked, it shouldn't be a problem.

You can phone your county extension agent if it worries you, though.