Freezing Meals: In Search of Ideas and Tips

[Satan'sFortress]

My elderly MIL is going to be coming home from a long stay at a physical rehab facility and I was planning to make some meals to freeze so that she can have them on hand.  I got some individual aluminum trays with lids, because I thought those would stack nicely in her freezer and also make it easy to reheat in the oven.

I am probably overthinking all of this (as I tend to do), but I'm wondering:

• Should I freeze whole meals--like baked ziti with broccoli on the side, meat loaf with mashed potatoes and green beans . . . or just freeze the main meal portion of it?
• Any experience with things that freeze or do not freeze well? 
• And what about reheating instructions? I'd like to write that right on the lid, but how do I know how long to reheat and at what temperature?

It is bizarre---I am a good cook, and an experienced cook, but I guess I am not a "freezer" although i would really like to learn!

[Cartmann99]

Have you ever heard of freezer cooking or once a month cooking? It's targeted towards people who are doing it to save money, but the basic concept is cooking a bunch of food at one time with the plan of freezing and eating it over time. Unfortunately, a lot of the people doing it these days want you to buy their book or system, but there should still be some free resources out there.

Check YouTube too, as there's got to be some videos on it.

I've always frozen things with the intent of either defrosting them in the refrigerator before cooking or reheating, or using the defrost setting on the microwave and going from there, but that's no help for your project.

Good luck!

 

[Kailash]

There are many freezer meal ideas on Pinterest. I’ve even googled freezer meals and found good info. (Such as cooking times, temperature, etc.)  I wouldn’t worry too much about the whole meal- my goal would be the main entree. Lasagna is easy to freeze and reheats well. Potatoes, ime, do not freeze well. I’ll try to find a direct link to give you. 

It’s sweet of you to do this for your MIL.

eta:  pinchofyum.com has 12 healthy freezer meals on their website, posted this month. 

[Cartmann99]

3 hours ago, Kailash said:

There are many freezer meal ideas on Pinterest. I’ve even googled freezer meals and found good info. (Such as cooking times, temperature, etc.)  I wouldn’t worry too much about the whole meal- my goal would be the main entree. Lasagna is easy to freeze and reheats well. Potatoes, ime, do not freeze well. I’ll try to find a direct link to give you. 

It’s sweet of you to do this for your MIL.

eta:  pinchofyum.com has 12 healthy freezer meals on their website, posted this month. 

Thank you for the pinch of yum link! I bought an Instant Pot back in July of 2017, and I love the darn thing, but I've fallen into a rut lately of making the same few things over and over. She's got some recipes I'd like to try.

[Satan'sFortress]

The pinch of yum recipes look great!  I want to make them for myself, too! 

 

ETA:  She has a ton of tips and advice at the end--after the recipes.  Really helpful.