The Lemon Fool

Hi all,

My sister has just had a baby and I want to try and be as helpful as I can. I've heard that one thing that new mums often find useful is to have help with having a load of food in the freezer, so that they don't have to worry about cooking, and they can just heat up individual portions of food as and when they need. I'm happy to go and cook stuff, but somehow I cannot think of a single thing that you could make in bulk and freeze, apart from chilli. Would people have any ideas to help me out please?

Thanks!

Shepherds (cottage) pie
Lasagna
Indian dishes where the rice can be done when serving
Spag Bog - pasta added later is usually best

Not sure if fish pie would work as never tried it, but why not?


HTH
Slarti

bitstrange wrote:Would people have any ideas to help me out please?

Thanks!

I'm not going to suggest recipies (I like chilli too much), instead I suggest a search on the following phrase "once a month cooking".
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=once& ... th+cooking

I lookied into it as a new dad (I'm the one that cooks) years ago. The idea had merit and there were lots of recipies, however they tended towards less spicy options. I'm fortunate that my eldest has now take over 50% of the cooking duties.

Soups.

I always brew them up in a big cauldron, which then goes three ways:

1. For immediate consumption
2. Into the fridge, for another meal (or two) a few days later
3. Into the freezer, for consumption as-and-when they're wanted

For a new mum, cooking spicy food may not be a good idea since there can be some transference via breast milk. It may be OK but worth looking out for. As for what to cook, any type of stew, heatry soups etc

John

redsturgeon wrote:For a new mum, cooking spicy food may not be a good idea since there can be some transference via breast milk.

John

Why would that be a problem? It struck me as unlikely, given the number of people who live off spicy food, and a quick Google suggests consumption of spicy food by the mother is not a problem for the infant.

I have had experience in the family where having spicy...particularly garlicky food has led to upset baby tummy. When I looked into it at the time I found that it was something that could happen.

John

I find that most cooked foods can be frozen and then thawed & reheated within a few weeks with little or no loss of quality. The problem with freezing most foods is “freezer burn” caused by drying and oxidation of the surface layers of the food. It is most noticeable on raw meat and raw seafood (never liked the taste/texture of cooked & frozen shrimp, me). A couple of years ago, I bought one of them vacuum sealer things and I found that it eliminates the “freezer burn” almost completely even after frozen storage of foods for a year or more. I recently marinated and smoke cooked 4 boneless-skinless chicken breasts. We ate one for supper and I vacuum sealed and froze the other three individually for three more meals in the future.

For frozen storage of cooked foods for only a few weeks without vacuum sealing, most wet foods such as soups, stews, spaghetti sauce with meat balls, sausage, etc. freeze well. Cooked starches like pasta, rice and/or potatoes may also be fine if used in a couple of weeks but don’t freeze raw potatoes because there is an enzyme in them that converts starch into sugar around freezing temperatures and, when thawed & cooked, they will have a sweet taste.

Chicken and leek caserole
Pork caserole with chorizo and chickpeas
Beef stewed in wine or beer
Chile
Bolognese
Meat balls, Faggots
Ratatouille
Liver and bacon
Any sort of curry
Soups
Green pies (uncooked pastry)
Sauces for flavouring meats

As we are just two and buy 500g packs of meat half usually gets frozen in some form or other.

bitstrange wrote: I cannot think of a single thing that you could make in bulk and freeze, apart from chilli. Would people have any ideas to help me out please?

If you look round the ready meal shelves of supermarkets, almost every dish can be frozen. Equally many of them are available pre-frozen. That should give a few ideas for home made equivalents.

If you make curries, make some rice too (preferably basmati), portion and freeze. Then they can defrost the whole meal.