I have never made anything ahead of time with the purpose of freezing it to have a quick meal later.. So I have some questions.. My second child is due in 8 weeks and I would like to make up a whole lot of dinners and other meals ahead of time... Questions:
1) Can anyone give me some ideas of WHAT freezes best?
2) Are there breakfast and lunch foods that can freeze too?
3) Would it work fine to leave meats raw and just season/marinate them and then freeze them, since seasoning/marinating is the most time consuming (and I can always get hubby to just throw it on the grill-quick and easy)
4) What do I use to freeze the meals in? I don't have a foodsaver or anything like that, do I need to get one or will zip lock bags and plastic containers be fine??
5) Will freezing about 1 months worth of dinners be feasible? I have a deep freeze.
6) Is it ok to just "assemble" the ingredients and then freeze them without cooking first? For example- A chicken pot pie (of course the chicken would be cooked because I always cook it before putting it in the pie).. I use frozen mixed veggies and cream of mushroom soup and a home made pie crust- would it be ok just to put it all together and freeze it without cooking it first. Then all I would have to do is put it in the oven. It would take longer because it would have to FULLY cook instead of just re-heat, but who says you can't do that?? Wouldn't it turn out fine? (similar to my question about seasoning meat and freezing raw)
Any good websites would be nice too. I know its good to learn things by trial&error, but I dont really have time for that as I am due in 8 weeks. So getting it mostly right the first time would be nice. So if anyone has experience with this, please help!! THANKS!!!
1) Can anyone give me some ideas of WHAT freezes best?
2) Are there breakfast and lunch foods that can freeze too?
3) Would it work fine to leave meats raw and just season/marinate them and then freeze them, since seasoning/marinating is the most time consuming (and I can always get hubby to just throw it on the grill-quick and easy)
4) What do I use to freeze the meals in? I don't have a foodsaver or anything like that, do I need to get one or will zip lock bags and plastic containers be fine??
5) Will freezing about 1 months worth of dinners be feasible? I have a deep freeze.
6) Is it ok to just "assemble" the ingredients and then freeze them without cooking first? For example- A chicken pot pie (of course the chicken would be cooked because I always cook it before putting it in the pie).. I use frozen mixed veggies and cream of mushroom soup and a home made pie crust- would it be ok just to put it all together and freeze it without cooking it first. Then all I would have to do is put it in the oven. It would take longer because it would have to FULLY cook instead of just re-heat, but who says you can't do that?? Wouldn't it turn out fine? (similar to my question about seasoning meat and freezing raw)
Any good websites would be nice too. I know its good to learn things by trial&error, but I dont really have time for that as I am due in 8 weeks. So getting it mostly right the first time would be nice. So if anyone has experience with this, please help!! THANKS!!!