Freezing meals

Who's freezing meals? I know my mom will cook but I don't want to depend on that. What are you freezing? I was thinking baked ziti. If I do that should I freeze it with Ricotta in it or add that when I heat it up to eat?

I freeze meats but not meals really. What else are good frozen meals? Thanks!

Re: Freezing meals

if you make the baked ziti, freeze it right at the point before you would put it into the oven.

i also plan on making lasagna, and i know my mom is making some stuff, but i am not sure what.

Re: Freezing meals

Last time I froze chicken parmigana, baked ziti, lasagna, chicken soup (without the veggies, just broth and chicken), tons of tomato sauce with meatballs, sausage, pork, etc., stuffed peppers...

Re: Freezing meals

My MIL froze individually meals for us - meatballs, chicken cutlets (some with sauce, some without) and lasagna - def. helpful!

My friend is being induced today and I'm making her a baked ziti tray.

Re: Freezing meals

chili
biscuits (you can make them and freeze them either cooked or right before they need to be cooked and take as many as you need).
pancakes/waffles
bagels
chicken marsala
plain breaded chicken cutlets
grilled chicken cutlets
meatloaf/meatballs in sauce or without
sauce

basically anything with a liquid will freeze nicely when cooked.

I have a GREAT book, called Super Suppers by Judie Byrd which has recipes that you can make and freeze. It even has desserts so that when you have company, all you do is pop it in the oven.

Re: Freezing meals

Last time I made TONS of sauce, lasagna, ziti, etc. Sadly, DD had terrible reactions to the tomato sauce (I was BFing).

This time around, I'll still make tomato based dishes, but I'll also be making NON-tomato based cassaroles as well in case DD#2 has the same reaction.

Re: Freezing meals

personally, I hate frozen meals... no reason for it... purely psychological....

that being said, today I am making the worlds LARGEST pot (about 7 liters worth) of my patented tomato sauce (probably over 40 ingredients ). we'll be using about 2 liters today, but the rest will be put in the freezer so something really quick and like chicken cutlets can turn FABULOUS with some of my slow-perked sauce

in the end, I bet I will freeze down some other meals in the coming weeks (persian stews or maybe a jamaican curry or indian food?) becuase I bet I won't care about food being frozen when my exhaustion level peaks in about mid october.......

Re: Freezing meals

I have a question. If you make the baked ziti, and freeze it, how long do you stick it in the oven for and at what temp??

Re: Freezing meals

Re: Freezing meals

I would definitley suggest making stuff and freezing it. I did this is it was great. A few things I made were:
Chili
Lasagna
Sauce
Chicken Cutlets
Ropa Vieja

Things I have frozen in the past that were good re-heated:
Chicken soup (Without the veggies. For a quick meal I would just add some frozen carrots)
Beef Stew

Re: Freezing meals

Re: Freezing meals

Hmmmmm..........not sure what we are going to do, as we don't have a seperate freezer to store a bunch of things. Maybe I will just use up everything before hand and then store a bunch of meals to reheat later.

I'm sure those last few weeks before I go into labor the last thing I am going to feel like doing is cooking, as well!

Re: Freezing meals

Re: Freezing meals

Re: Freezing meals

Posted by wannabemom

Posted by Karebaby

I have a question. If you make the baked ziti, and freeze it, how long do you stick it in the oven for and at what temp??

I've never frozen down pasta (I think eggplant parm might come out better), but I suspect that ziti would come out better if you froze it down in tupperware and thawed it in the microwave, portioned it out onto plates, and heated it in the microwave...

My gut instinct is that re-introducing it to the oven may create a super dry top