Lately, I've been cooking double the amount of food that we need for a meal for the purpose of freezing enough for a second meal. It's been great because I have a running list of all of the frozen meals that are in the freezer, and if I don't have time to cook one night, I can just throw one in the oven! I recently discovered a way to freeze casseroles, pastas, and soups without the need for a pan. It saves your pans and space in your freezer.
Here are the directions for casseroles or pastas:
-Line baking dish (any size or shape) with aluminum foil
-Make recipe, and bake completely in the foil-lined dish
-Refrigerate until cool
-Place in freezer for a few hours
-Remove foil and casserole from pan and wrap completely with foil, then label and date
-Freeze
-When you want to re-heat, just unwrap and add to original-sized pan and bake at original temperature and time (no need to thaw)
For soups:
-Put Zip-lock freezer bag in pan so it is standing up-right, add soup
-Freeze for a few hours
-Remove bag from pan; soup should remove easily and stay in the shape of the pan
-Label and freeze
-When you want to re-heat, remove from plastic and add to pan until thaw, then heat.
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6 comments:
Great idea...thanks for the tip!
i agree, great idea! especially since you won't want to cook when baby arrives! and congrats...you were one of the very first to notice the new "addition" to our blog. :) coming june 5th.
I love doing this. You can also put soup in the ziploc bag, lay flat so it spreads out, and close tightly. Then you can stack bags on each other. I know (from personal experience unfortunately) and from reading online that tomato based dishes react poorly with aluminum foil and you can end up with foil in your food. I know there is a way to do this with tomato based dishes, but I can't remember what it is. When it happens though, it is really nasty and you have to just throw the whole thing out.
That's great information Nealy, thanks! The casseroles with foil is perfect.
thanks for the idea! I have wanted to try freezing meals and you may have just motivated me to start this weekend! hehe, thanks!
Nice post Nealy...I've been freezing a lot too and like the idea. I'll have to try it out!
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