(I can hear you cheering out there; finally a post that is NOT about potty-training! I just have to tell you this though - Chloe went a record 3 times on the potty yesterday and had no accidents. Hopefully she's made a breakthrough.)We have two sets of family coming to visit us starting in a week and a half. I'm so overwhelmingly excited! But I also know how much planning and cleaning I have to do in preparation for said visits. Plus we have some reorganizing of rooms and winter house preparations to do before then. Needless to say, my mind is constantly racing and creating to-do lists.
To make the visits less hectic but still special meal-wise, I'd love to cook up loads of food and freeze it ahead of time. And next month I hope to freeze some additional meals for when the baby arrives. I've done a wee bit of freezing in the past (mostly veggies, fruits, and a lasagna or two) but I need your advice. Help me out you experienced chefs you by answering the following freezing questions:
- What's your most successful or stand-by frozen meal for company?
- Have any good cookie recipes that freeze well?
- Have you ever frozen any breakfast items? Or do you have a good breakfast recipe that you can prepare the night before?
8 comments:
I don't do much freezing of meals, but plan to make some things for the freezer this month for babytime. I hope to make a huge batch of spaghettis sauce (Chris' grandma's recipe) and make a lasagna and freeze the rest just for pasta. I also thought of mixing up some meatloaf and freezing that, and also browning some ground beef and freezing it for easy throw-together meals. I do have a great breakfast casserole recipet that I used to make a lot for overnight company, and it can be made the night before. I'll email it to you. I hope to make all of my Christmas cookies before baby too and freezing them (except for fudge - it's fairly easy, and I'm going to try to make that closer to Christmas.) My 3 staple Christmas cookies are Betty Crocker's sugar cookies (key ingredients: almond extract & cream of tartar) with vanilla buttercream frosting, Russian teacakes and Butterfinger Balls (kinda like Buckeyes, I think). All three of those freeze very well. They're sorta tedious though, so I definitely want to do them BEFORE little Harold arrives. :)
I like to freeze soups and chili in the fall/winter for unexpected company. I haven't had too much success with cream based soups though. In the summer we keep frozen buns and hamburger patties to grill. You make the patties and freeze on a cookie sheet overnight then put in a freezer bag. You can do the same thing with cookie dough, rolled into little balls. That way you can grab as many or as few as you need. Also, my daughter LOVES pancakes, which I cannot make everyday, so I make an enormous batch and freeze them the same way. They warm beautifully in the microwave or toaster. Happy freezing!
Not sure how experienced I am--I have a whopping 3-4 years under my belt! But I have learned that these ingredients don't freeze well: ricotta cheese, sour cream, & mayonnaise. I avoid freezing meals with those ingredients.
THE breakfast dish to make for your company is... decadent french toast. Seriously, the best breakfast dish I have ever tasted. Ever. I have the recipe on my blog here:
karens2cents.blogspot.com/2006/10/good-eatin
I use only 4 eggs, by the way.
Good luck! Let us know how it goes!
We're freezing some things for when the baby is here too. I got off easy though with the nice weather. Whenever Geoff grilled, we threw on 2 other types of meat as well, and then just froze those for meals. All I have to do is add a couple easy sides.
Seems like pasta dishes are pretty easy to freeze. Meatballs, hamburger patties, & ground meat seem to do well too.
If you do chili or soup, try to freeze it in smaller containers, so it doesn't take forever to heat up. Or make sure it will fit in your crockpot to warm up. My MIL froze meatballs in such large batches for Geoff's graduation party, they wouldn't fit in the crockpots. It got to be very interesting! :)
Hi Alicia -
1. Lasagna, Pizza Casserole, Shepherd's Pie (surprisingly), Homemade Pizza Dough. I ALWAYS make my homemade pizza when we have overnight guests. It has become one of my easiest meals to make. Like your other friends said - chili, soups etc. I would check Mrs. T's blog archives for more ideas. She's got lots of great recipes!
2. Ginger-Molasses cookies and Double Chocolate Chip cookies( both to die for) freeze really well. I would venture to say that most cookie recipes freeze well. My caterer friend told me that as long as your cookies are wrapped really well, they will freeze nicely. Mrs. T has a million cookie recipes that look scrumptious:).
3. I have frozen homemade pancakes, waffles, french toast, cinnamon buns, sticky buns (these are an old family favorite - incredibly yummy), muffins, quick breads, etc. Again, Mrs. T has a few casseroles that are assembled the night before and then popped in the oven in the morning. I plan to use two of them over the holidays. One is a savory egg, sausage, cheese casserole and the other is a blueberry french toast casserole.
If you would like, I can email some of the recipes that I mentioned. Otherwise, just see what Mrs. T. has in her archives. :) :)
first off...i LOVE the pink fridge. Nathan would NEVER go for it however!
My mother in law is the queen on the freezer. She puts everything in the freezer. (deep freezer) Do you have a chest freezer or just the freezer in your fridge? That makes a difference!! Things get freezer burnt and don't hold as well (more than 2 months i have found) in my regular freezer. (wow, i don't think i have ever typed or used the word freezer that much in my life! :)
Any kind of casserole, roast, homemade mac n chesse...my mom made stuff for us before she left after owen was born.
I have made whole wheat (fruit added) pancakes and froze them. then i can pop them in the toaster for jackson.
happy cooking. take it easy though! :)
After you posted this we had a whole section of do's and don'ts of freezing in our Sunday paper. I'll clip it and send to ya. Remind me if you don't see it this week :).
Alicia-I have a cookbook on freezer meals. I used it a ton before the twins came. This time I don't have the room. Would you like me to send you the cookbook? The nice thing is it tells you how long each of the dishes last in the freezer, how to thaw and then reheat. I really appreciated the book. Let me know. Facebook me a message if you want it with your addy. Selena
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