venturing into freezer cooking... questions

**AmyMCGS** · 07-11-2003, 01:28 AM

Ok, tonight was my first attempt at freezer cooking.... although it was really more like freezer-dividing.

We've just joined Sam's Club, so buying in bulk is a new thing at our house. My parents always did it, but I've just now convinced DH that we'll really save money that way. Anyways, I'm not ready to tackle OAMC yet, so this is my first step:

We went to Sam's and bought chicken, roundsteaks, hamburger, and cheese in bulk. After we got everything home, I cooked the hamburger (boiled all 7 lbs of it in my soup pot) and divided it into freezer bags, and sealed them with my Food Saver. Two of those bags contained the ingredients for beef stroganoff (a OAMC recipe I got online) so I'll just have to heat, stir in sour cream, and boil noodles. (Would the noodles freeze ok if I precooked them?) Another bag had spaghetti sauce mixed in with the beef. The rest were plain cooked hamburger.

The chicken breasts and roundsteaks got frozen in meal-sized portions, some with marinades. I've read that if I do it this way, when the meat is defrosting it's marinading, so I'll just have to grill it and serve. Could I have put fresh veggies (potatoes and carrots) in there, too? Or would they have to be precooked? I was afraid they'd be mushy if I precooked them.

Tommorow I'm planning to cook the rest of the chicken and freeze it. I'll freeze the broth, too.

What else can I prep ahead and freeze.? I'm not looking to do casseroles or anything else time consuming. I'm planning to start doubling recipes and freezing half, but I don't want to spend all day or all weekend cooking ahead.

Any tips would be appreciated! I read through an old thread here on OAMC, and I like a lot of the ideas. I have been surfing on some OAMC sites, too... it seems like it would make life much easier. Maybe I'll work my way up to that!

**mrscornbread** · 07-11-2003, 02:59 AM

Oh Elisse...where are you. The magical kitchen helper elf knows lots about this!

**Ellise** · 07-11-2003, 09:24 AM

The Pasta will be VERY squishy once you reheat it, since it only takes a few minutes, I would just cook them when ready to serve.
Pasta loses it's firmness once cooked and frozen and ends up mushy when reheated

As far as the chicken goes, I do not recommend putting anything in with it. Fear of food poisoning.

Your beef is fine to put potatoes, carrots etc in with before freezing, but PLEASE remember to PAR BOIL them, you don't want your meats done 45 minutes before your veggies.

If you need anything else let me know