These freeze-ahead food ideas are my absolute go-tos when I want to stock up. Healthy and delicious, I feel like I’m doing myself and my family a great service when I have a freezer full of these ready meals.
After cooking, once completely cooled in the fridge, divide into portions in sealable containers and freeze for up to three months. To be honest, I’ve frozen for longer without degradation in taste or texture. Defrost in fridge overnight and then thoroughly reheat, stirring occasionally, to boiling either on stovetop or microwave. Boil gently for a couple of minutes.
My Mother-In-Law’s Foolproof Beef Casserole
This has to be one of the easiest, most trustworthy recipes I’ve ever encountered.
And unlike many such dishes, it doesn’t expect you to brown the meat first. Just chuck everything in a pan and roast.
Chicken Stoop
The chicken in this dish becomes extremely tender, and the meal itself feels satisfying, but light.
The beauty of this dish is you decide whether you want it more like a stew, or more like a soup, depending on the amount of liquid you use. Opt for more liquid if this is going into the freezer, as the the extra stock will help on reheating.
Slow Cooked Beef Ragu
This is a Donna Hay recipe, but I’ve added some tweaks of my own, including carrots, and a longer cooking time.
Serve with pasta, polenta or potatoes, or crusty bread. Or, add a few frozen peas while reheating and you have a meal on its own.
Red Wine Beef Onion Stew
Rich and hearty, this secret taste enhancer here is a soup mix, and also thyme. Sprinkle with fresh thyme on reheating.
Tomato (Napoli) Sauce
A basic tomato sauce for pasta.
Once defrosted, you could also cleverly add a couple of extra ingredients, and tweak it to use it as a base for Mediterranean Fish Stew.
Quick Bolognese Sauce
Not entirely “authentic” but quick and easy. Freezes fantastically.
Gnocchi
This isn’t about making gnocchi, but about finding a great place to buy hand-made gnocchi, because they freeze so well.
Before freezing, make sure you spread them out in a single layer, say in a snap-lock bag, to ensure even cook times. Cook from frozen, otherwise they will get mushy.
Team with something like this creamy lemon sauce. There are a few sauce variations on the page.
Muffins
Make, cool, freeze individually. Put them in the lunch box in the morning, and they’ll defrost nicely by snack time. The beauty of these is you can choose whatever you like for the filling.
Banana Bread
Same deal as the muffins above. Bake, cool, slice into individual portions, wrap in cling film and freeze. Put them frozen into the lunch box in the morning, and they’ll be beautifully ready to eat by snack time.
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