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No cream and no cheese. I emptied a jar of some kind of Classico tomato sauce for pasta...the jar is long gone and I'd never used one before...and a can of Rotel.

Yes, jarred sauces can be very good and as Smithy said, you can have them over rice, pasta, potatoes. You don't even need to freeze. You can buy par-cooked rice in microwave bags. Heat one up, put in a bowl, pour some sauce over it and gently nuke a little more until the sauce is hot. Sprinkle a little shredded cheese over and voila!

I got a gift certificate for Olive My Pickle for Christmas. My order just arrived. I got Dill Pickle Kraut, Smoked Black Pepper & Garlic Kraut, Classic Kosher Dill Pickles, Spicy Kosher Dill Pickles, Horseradish Pickles, Veggie Medley (giardiniera) and a free Kosher Dill Brine. I'll be a real sour puss now!!

Tomato - based (like spaghetti sauce, with or without meat and veg) Herb based - basil pesto, for instance Cheese sauce (might need to investigate how to do this without sauce breaking on reheat) Butter and garlic Soy sauce based...out of my wheelhouse but someone here can help Hollandaise (don't know if it would break) There's a peanut sauce, like you'd find in mafe, that I think would freeze well. Lemon and butter I'm freewheeling here, but I can imagine all those things over rice or noodles, with or without meat and veg, that would take the dish in very different but delicious directions.

seems they have been having some success - https://dm.cms.aldi.cx/is/content/prod1amer/ALDI_2026 Growth Press Release_FINAL 1.5.26pdf """. . . . In 2026, the company’s 50th anniversary in the U.S., ALDI will open more than 180 new stores across 31 states...""" we have a new one two stones throw from Giant and Weis - when they first opened it was glorious. later visits showed gaping holes in inventory. like, , , no onions . . . huh?

Another note from my desk: SAUCES What are good sauces for dishes that will be frozen? VARIETY Methinks that more variety could be introduced by using noticeably different sauces in the same batch. Use different brined foods (tangy and salty) Suggestions welcome.

Much followup to do but I'm wanting to get rid of stack of notes on my desk! PRE-COOK If I'm only doing the pre-cooking of food components (onion, garlic, bacon, chicken, etc.), can I used dried vegetables (onion, garlic, carrot, celery, bell pepper, mushrooms*, etc.) WITHOUT any soaking or cooking, as long as I ADD water or other fluid to the dish? HERBS & SPICES Considering that reheated frozen food doesn't taste as good as the first cook, what can be done to improve the flavour? Can I (and is it effective to) double the dried herbs double the spices in dry rubs reduce the offensive spices (e.g. allspice) use more volume of flavourings, e.g. mustard, worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, Maggi, More Than Gourmet demi glace I want to thank everyone for their support. I'm going to be convalescent for a couple months at least; my operation is very soon, so I don't have time to do m/any more trial runs. It will be disastrous if everything tastes awful; I don't want to rely on drab takeout pizza, or chicken pies from the grocery. 😒 Edited to add: * Notwithstanding that @weinoo says I have to soak the mushrooms so I can get the dirt out.

Another topic you may find useful is here:

That. Topic. Is. Brilliant! I'd forgotten all about it! Thanks for bringing it up!

Sauteed zucchini, chorizo, and roasted chile Poblano, topped with diced avocado. Sauce was onion, chiles, garlic, and cilantro with a little yogurt. Cilantro, thyme, and Mexican oregano for aroma.

i finally tried some of these last night. The texture was a bit firmer than I'd expected: more solid than a good meringue cookie, but certainly softer than a "firm" cookie like an Oreo. The flavor is good, at least for the vanilla and chocolate. I'm no more fond of the strawberry flavor than I am of frozen strawberry ice cream! But that's just me. 😀

@TdeVSeveral years ago I was looking for ideas for meals/foods that I could freeze in portions to take to my Grandpa. This thread may be helpful to you? Edited to say: A tip that @Jaymesgave on that same thread was really helpful. Freezing in containers is good BUT there is the added chore of washing and putting away said containers. If you can freeze meals in ziplocks you can just trash the bags when you're done. Granted, not everything can be frozen in those but it's an idea to think about. Here is the post where she discussed more in detail what she did for her father.

Arancini, a dot of tomato sauce, cubed mozzarella, spicy aioli. Butter lettuce, tomatoes, vinaigrette.

@TdeV Take a look at page 9 of @JAZ's book Super-Easy Instant Pot Cookbook.

I am the cook in this house so- if I'm going to be down for any amount of time, I pre-make options (when its a planned outage). Example-I have dental surgery tomorrow. So there are leftovers for Partner that will cover him for days. (he is happy to eat the same thing every day and he loves a leftover. Thank God!) For myself I bought some protein shakes and yogurt and there are soft leftovers when I decide I want real food (pasta, mashed potatoes, stuffing with gravy). We wont starve this week. When Partner is down (surgical) I also pre-plan and have appropriate foods ready. (usually a soup with homemade stock and a ton of veg) Our last bout of covid, he got sick first. I knew I had 24 hours, 48 max, before I was down for the duration. I mad-dash made pick up orders and got to making 2 different soups. (Pick up was for things like cough drops, gatorade, restock veg etc.) Generally there is some sort of pre-made (by me) stuff in my freezers and enough fill-ins from the pantry that even if I was catastrophically ill, Partner would still eat. He may not know whats available but there's food if he looks. Off the top of my head- enchiladas, cooked chicken, gumbo, pulled pork in the freezer, along with various veg. Tuna, beans, salsa, vension and taco meat that I've canned. Pantry has microwave rice along with pasta, veg, snack stuff etc. One of us could easily eat from what we have being tossed in the microwave (or oven) just to reheat for weeks before real cooking had to occur.

My favorite product at Trader Joe's was back in stock this morning: Less expensive than anywhere else I can buy it!

A food item that has been freeze-dried has indeed survived the freezing process. Importantly, it has never been subjected to the thawing process. Instead, the ice crystals are removed via sublimation. Pretty much anything containing moisture can be successfully frozen. Thawing? That’s a different story! If you are keen to dive into making freeze-dried meals, like backpacking or emergency rations in multiple servings, that’s going to require a significant investment in equipment but rereading that thread would be an excellent primer.

Freeze drying is akin to dehydrating as it removes the moisture from food. The difference between the two is that freeze drying removes all the moisture. It can easily be crumbled into a powder. You need specialized equipment for this which I suspect few people on this site have.

Elsie, I don't know much about baking directly with a frozen dish, so maybe. It's possible my sister does this with her frozen meals, i.e. directly into the oven. Right now I'm pre-cooking items, as I do when making a casserole, e.g. onions, garlic, celery, bacon, potato cubes, cabbage, etc. But not all the items are fully cooked. The items are dolloped into multiple small containers which are wrapped with tin foil, labelled and frozen. Then vacuum-sealed. This process is kinda entertaining which I will document later. My plan was to put the frozen item in the steam oven at a low temp so it defrosts, then heats to eating temperature. I planned to keep the dish at that low temp for long enough to thoroughly cook the dish, but I don't think I left anything dangerous in any of the dishes I've made thus far. Anova Culinary has only one recipe for defrosting frozen proteins in APO with Sous Vide Mode but that recipe is for uncooked meat or fish, so not quite the right recipe. It defrosts up to ONE pound of frozen protein in about an hour. So, Elsie, I think you and I are on the same track! I will try to document what I have done so far so you can pinch any ideas you like. 😂

FREEZE-DRIED If a food item has been freeze-dried, does that indicate it has survived the freezing process? Does the length of time it has been frozen make any difference to the food product, rather than the year or two in regular freezer? Quite a while ago I read about @Kerry Beal's adventures in Freeze Dryers and Freeze Dried Food but don't know if rereading the thread would help me now. Kerry?

Pasta with bear sausage And since I have dental work again this week, I made one of partners favorites that I don't like- turkey. With mashed potatoes and stuffing (both should be soft enough for me post dental work)

I confess, I didn't read far enough to see that she's putting together "meal kits" rather than reheatable dinners. Thanks for pointing that out. I think her Cheat Sheet gives the kind of information @TdeV is looking for to predict behavior of specific ingredients when frozen.

Shiitake and scallion pancake. A tad disappointing compared to what we get at Asian restaurants. But my dipping sauce perked it up.

A quick search for freezing cookbooks on Eat Your Books and my local public library shows two main types of cookbooks: Preserving cookbooks, either dedicated to freezing or covering freezing among other preservation methods. Cookbooks with recipes intended to be frozen My library had quite a few available for to borrow online via Libby so you might check yours. Another place to find recipes for freezer meals is the Souper Cube site. You don’t need to use their product but they have ideas that might be useful like freezing single servings or freezing meal components separately in “meal kits”

I can clarify a couple of points, from personal or work experience. As far as potatoes are concerned, there are a couple of ways to go. "Waxy" potatoes tend to freeze and thaw better than "starchy" potatoes, so if you want something like a soup with potatoes (or just cooked potatoes you can reheat), they're the better option. Starchy potatoes can be used in situations where you're adding a lot of fat or rich ingredients, hence Smithy's twice-baked potatoes. The "freezable, holdable mashed potatoes" at Ellen's Kitchen work on the same basis. The recipe as given (https://www.ellenskitchen.com/bigpots/oamc/mashpota.html) is meant to serve 25, but it's not hard to scale. As for starches, I find that potato starch and arrowroot (both available online, or in the gluten-free section) freeze and thaw well. Roux-thickened sauces and gravies will have an uneven consistency when thawed, unfortunately. If you have someone helping with your post-surgery scenario, whisking them back together will often do the trick, and when they're stubborn a cornstarch slurry will help smooth things out and re-thicken them.