[nellagirl]

Can anyone suggest some recipes that might freeze well?

I also wanted to know, can you grill chicken or beef and then refreeze it? I was thinking of making up some marinated grilled chicken and freezing it for whenever I wanted.

[Schmoodle]

I do a lot of cooking in bulk and freezing, it sure saves time on busy nights and helps keep us out of restaurants. You can cook and refreeze any meat. But if you thaw it out after it's cooked and refrozen, and don't use it all, you can't freeze it again. If we're going to grill chicken, I marinate about triple of what we need, grill it, and freeze it in individual portions. Sometimes I freeze the chicken right in the marinade. Then I can pull it out if I need something to put on a salad, or pull out a couple to make a quick dinner. Pretty much any soup or casserole will freeze well, so I almost always make double. But potatoes will get a wierd mushy texture. When I used to freeze soups I would leave out the potatoes and add them in when I thawed it. Of course, now I would just skip the potatoes! I freeze tomatoes (we grow our own) and strawberries (we go picking every year) on cookie sheets and put them in big baggies then pull out what I need. They're not great to eat raw, but in smoothies, and cooked dishes they're great. the taco bake would freeze, I think, eggplant lasagna, vegetable soup. I'm baking stuffed eggplant right now, and that would freeze, but I don't think I'll have any left!

[nellagirl]

Thanks alot schmoodle!

[Schatzi]

Nella, yes you can! and its worth the upfront time and effort! I do do exactly what Schmoodle does!
I Will buy bulk meats (on sale, at BJs/Sams) section them into dinners and add marinades, and freeze them -- I will keep some whole and others I would cube for easy stir fries or as protein adds to soup... (chick, pork,ham, beef) by adding a marinade up front, the meat takes the flavoring up as it freezes and unfreezes. And once you cook the whole batch you can refreeze the meat if you wish (I do find that the longer it stays in the freezer the less taste there is though...just from my experience )

I will buy a batch of beans, steam them/season and freeze... String beans,snap peas , brocoli, soy beans --they all freeze nicely....but personally I buy alot of frozen veggies,that yes I cook then refreeze... I do Cauliflower in cheese sauce (see Weezles cheese recipe), --seems whenever you freeze stuff with a cheese base, I need to add more milk when I thaw and reheat it

I agree with Shmoodle, Potatoes get a bit wonky ... --- and dont even attempt rice...lest you want muck and a tile grouting substitute.

I like to make alot of Asian type of dishes, with frozen veggies, and supplement with the frozen chunked meat.

Schmoodle is definitely the "freezerQueen" in my book! I buy strawberries and blueberries already frozen.. She's right - Frozen berries are ESSENTIAL to a good smoothie!

Sometimes its trial and error with your own freezer too... believe it or not! Its definitely worth the upfront work though! Good luck!

[ladybugnessa]

chili freezes well
cooked chicken freezes well
i buy flash frozen raw breasts and take one out as i need it takes about 10 minutes to cook from frozen... in fact fish is the same way

soups freeze well too