batch cooking for freezing

[charlie151277]

i want to start cooking larger amounts of fresh foods so that i can freeze it but im a rubbish cook and i dont know where to start.im up to the challenge of learning how to cook from scratch but ive no clue as to how long i can keep foods frozen for before they have to be used.can anyone please help me any advice or tips would be great thanks

[duonyte]

What do you like to eat? That will help us suggest recipes to you - not all recipes freeze well.

Do you have a stand-alone freezer? If you are relying on your refrigerator freezer, that really is good only for fairly short term storage (and of course it does not hold all that much). Just something to think about.

The most important thing to remember is that you need to wrap foods very very carefully - try to exclude as much air as possible from the wrappings. Air is the enemy of freezing - it will permit freezer burn.

[charlie151277]

i have a fridge freezer but its quite large so will fit a months worth of food in.i eat most fruit veg and meat some fish but not alot.im allergic to cheese. dont like rice unless its in pudding form hot n spicy or sweet n sour. my mum tends to make alot of stews and chunky soups which i love.i have a problems with my stomache and the medication i have to take for that prevents me from fully digesting what i do eat correctly and this has left me lacking in alot of vitimins and minerals.because of this i need to make sure that whatever i do eat is going to be of high nutrition.my vitamin b levels are the lowest of them all so im taking twice the rda in suppliments but this hasnt made much differance to my levels overall

[duonyte]

I have a soup cookbook of soup recipes that I have really liked - most soups freeze quite well. Soup of the Day!

Have you ever tried kefir? Kefir is a cultured milk product. You can buy it at grocery stores by the yogurt, but it's cheaper to make at home, if you get the kefir grains. Kefir cultures in about 24 hours, but if you strain out the grains and leave the strained kefir out for another 24 hours, it really boosts the vitamin B content. I use kefir to make smoothies, strain further to make yogurt and cheese, make dips, use anywhere buttermilk is called for, and I also drink it plain. I like the tart flavor. It has a huge number of probiotic strains, many more than yogurt does.

Check out the thread at the top of this forum for dishes that people have frozen successfully. I don't freeze that many finished dishes I tend to freeze components - but some things that I do routinely make enough of to freeze are salilsbury steaks, meatloaf (I freeze in one or two slice packages), i freeze leftovers of this Pulled Pork (Crock Pot) as sandwiches - make the sandwich using a nice roll, freeze. To warm heat in the microwave for one minute straight from frozen. Also freeze scoops of this to add to baked potatoes, beans, etc. Pretty much all enchiladas freeze well. Many chicken dishes freeze well.

Sour cream, custards (meaning quiches as well as sweet custards) potatoes do not freeze well. When I make a soup or stew that I intend to freeze, I do not put the potatoes in it.

[charlie151277]

ive never heard of kefir but im up for trying anything at least once.i will have to check out the super markets here in england to see if its sold here my mum cooks alot of meat and veg soups which do contain potatoes and freezes them for me.she lives 30 miles away from me and brings them with her when she visits.ive never had any problems with the taste of the soups or the overall condition of the dishes.i will have to get some of her recipes and add them to the site.evaporated milk is a big part of my diet as i always put it in my tea and i drink alot of tea.its been great for helping me to put on weight as i was very underweight for a long time and struggled to put it on but im not sure its all that good from a nutritional point of view.thanks for the advice as has been really helpfull