Janet Zimmerman: ground rules for selecting from your recipes for freezing meals

[TdeV]

Hello @JAZ, I have many of your cookbooks which I dip into regularly.

 

Shortly I'll be having major surgery, so I'm wanting to pre-cook meals and freeze them. Could you please suggest what to consider when choosing between your recipes for which dishes will freeze best?

 

Right now I'm intrigued by @Smithy's post for Instant Pot: Spicy Chickpeas with Sundried Tomatoes and Olives. How well does that freeze?

 

(I'm not a very knowledgeable freezer)

 

TIA

[JAZ]

I've never frozen that particular dish, but in general, cooked beans freeze pretty well -- they sometimes break up a little, but that's not usually a problem. Other dishes that freeze well are stews and soups. If they include pasta, you might want to leave it out and add to cook when you reheat the dish. I've found that pasta tends to get pretty mushy when frozen. 

 

I'd say that from the Super Easy Instant Pot book (which is where the Spicy Chickpea recipe can be found), the Chorizo Chile and Sloppy Joe filling would both be good candidates for freezing. You could also make the Creamy Turkey and Wild Rice soup -- just leave out the frozen vegetables and cream and add when reheating.

 

Which other books do you have? I'll take a look and see what other candidates I can recommend.