Making Convenience Foods

[Malawry]

I have agreed to spend several hours one day a week in the kitchen, preparing items that can be frozen for later enjoyment when my partner, my housemate and I are too busy to cook. We maintain a mostly-vegetarian household (we eat fish). We are going on a fairly strict budget for the foreseeable future. Any suggestions for inexpensive freezables given these needs? I'm looking for soups, stews and items like baked pasta dishes that hold up well and won't cost a lot of money. I'm a reasonably capable cook and I have a chest freezer to hold everything. Thoughts?

[Suzanne F]

Whatever you make, just be sure to:

• undercook the pasta, so it doesn't get all mushy in the reheating
  
• wrap everything really tightly, or use good airtight containers, to avoid freezer burn
  
• label everything clearly, so you have no surprises and can rotate your stock
  
• package everything in meal-size portions, so that you don't have to re-re-reheat anything
  

I'd stick mostly to soups (split pea ??) and such. There are so many dishes that you can make in minutes anyway (e.g., sauté broccoli and garlic while the pasta water is heating) that it seems unnecessary to make mains to heat up again. That said, though, I am partial to making a big pan of eggplant parmigian, or a slow-simmered ratatouille that can then be used to fill crèpes, or as a pasta sauce, or as a side with a quick slab of protein.

[Stephanie]

I've personally had good luck making, freezing, and reheating baked ziti and lasagna. Hearty soups and sturdy vegetable stews would hold up well too. I have a winter beef stew that I like that could easily be modified to be meatless.

[Rachel Perlow]

I immediately thought of the eggplant cutlets I recommended in the favorite frozen ingredients thread.

[Jaymes]

I've personally had good luck making, freezing, and reheating baked ziti and lasagna.

The first thing I thought of was vegetarian lasagne.

And also, in my freezer I keep bags of individually-frozen fish filets, chicken breasts, small steaks, etc.

And I prepare sauces that I freeze in small ziplock bags.

So, like last night, I took out one orange roughy fillet and small ziplock bag (sandwich size) of salsa. Then I cut the frozen salsa into a few pieces and arranged them on top of the fish filet and popped it into the toaster oven for about ten minutes. Wonderful. I do the same thing with marinara sauce and chicken breasts, and dust with P.Reg.

There are a great many frozen items that just require a quick cooking, and are delicious with homemade sauces and salsas over.

Also, don't know about your particular vegetarian reasons/preferences, but I have a "limited amounts of fish and fowl are okay" veggie friend, and she makes and freezes turkey chili.

Edited December 18, 2002 by Jaymes (log)

[Malawry]

Just to update, I've done fairly well with adding something to the freezer every week. I've made butternut squash soup, a vegetable curry with quorn, vegetarian dirty rice, baked penne and cheese, refritos, and vegetarian chili. My esteemed housemate Abi contributed a big batch of pasta e fagioli. I've also put several kinds of beans in the freezer and some prepared grains for combining into easy meals. All of this was super-cheap and quite tasty. I'm planning to soak and boil some cannellini this weekend and make a white bean stew plus a white bean-rosemary dip with it. I also have plenty of dried chickpeas and am thinking of putting by some hummus and perhaps some channa masala for eating over jasmine rice on cold February nights.