Top 5: Meals to stash in the freezer

Hi, I am Tatum Woodroffe, I blog at Eat.Move.Explore and share plenty of extras daily in my little facebook community.  I wear many different hats in my daily life, from mum to mining engineer to wife to health coach to marathon runner to writer, the list goes on.  Eat.Move.Explore is really me bringing aspects from all areas of my life together to present something that combines food, fitness, family and generally helping others to kick goals for themselves. From a very early age food has always been one of my favourite things.  I’ve always enjoyed a variety of fresh foods and  cooking from scratch.  When I was a full time working mum of two I would unwind at the end of the day cooking our dinner with my two little girls perched on stools at the bench chatting about their day. These days, with 4 kiddos (the youngest is 4 and the eldest 11) we have homework to manage along with the general after school chaos of play dates, sport and having fun.  Feeding my family good food is more important to me than ever and given that I still work outside our home 3 days a week being organised and knowing that I can always have dinner on the table in less time than it takes to order takeaway is a priority for me. Each week I achieve this through a combination of meal planning, preparing ahead and big batch cooking.  The big batch meals that I cook and freeze are my saviour.  Knowing that I have a stash of these to fall back on when a day hasn’t gone quite according to plan is always a relief when I need them.  I can walk through the door, pull one out of the freezer and pop it in the oven then get on with whatever my children need from me. With a new baby in the house having some pre prepared meals in the freezer is absolute gold.  Just cooking up enough for two family meals when you do have space and time to do it and freezing one has maximum impact for minimum effort.  Home cooked meals for the freezer are also a fantastic gift for new mums; they will be thanking you long after the baby bouquets have wilted.

Savoury Slice

  I make one of these or a zucchini slice each week.  Both are easy to freeze, defrost and reheat in individual portions and both are packed full of protein & veggies. I pack savoury slices in lunchboxes to be eaten cold or I serve them hot with a simple salad. You can use fresh or frozen spinach for spinach pie but when it’s in season it takes nothing to chop up and wilt a couple of big bunches and I feel a whole lot better knowing where it came from.  I use olive oil instead of butter between the filo sheets because it’s easier than mucking about melting butter.

Soup

Soup is such an obvious thing to make in a big batch and freeze.  There are a myriad soups you can make but it’s good to know that you have something hearty on hand that won’t leave you looking in the fridge for something else to eat later.  You can pack this Moroccan Harira full of veggies and it has a delicious flavour that won’t leave you hungry.

Here is Chantelle’s recipe for Potato & Leek soup, another perfect one for the freezer.

Meatballs

Meatballs are a total favourite in our house.  I make them in big batches that last us at least two meals.  I mix good quality sausages with beef, chicken, veal, pork or lamb mince depending on the flavour I am going for.  This recipe is for Mexican meatballs, I usually add an extra tin of tomatoes when I reheat them from frozen and Mexican ones get a cheese topping before they are served up with a big chopped salad. You can visit EatMoveExplore here to see more flavour combinations, ways to serve them and a how to video. Lasagne and meatballs come from the same family I think, here is a great turkey & pumpkin number.

Curry

Curry is another perfect meal for the freezer.  Making a paste from scratch is easy, using a mortar and pestle to do it is great stress relief and making enough paste for three curries is no more difficult than making it for one!  I’ve chosen to share a green curry here but once you have a stash of spices all you need are easy to find fresh ingredients like chillies, limes, ginger, garlic and coriander and you are away with a variety of different curries.  I rarely mess about with fresh galangal, turmeric or lemongrass.  I use ginger in place of galangal and ground turmeric in place of fresh.  If I bother using lemongrass it comes out of a jar. This curry doesn’t need a long cooking time so you can either freeze it after cooking or put the chicken with the paste and other ingredients into a ziplock bag and pull it out to cook fresh on the day.  You can store it in the fridge if you are going to use it a few days later or in the freezer if you will be storing it for longer. Want something mild and a bit more retro, then curried sausages are hard to beat and are just the kind of comfort food you are in need of when you are reaching for something from the freezer.

Braise

Any braised or slow cooked meat dish is ideal for both cooking in batches and making ahead and freezing.  This chicken dish is an all in one with the inclusion of Israeli cous cous or mograbieh.  Mograbieh can be tricky took properly but adding it in to a slow braise means that it ends up perfectly cooked and packed full of flavour. Like the curry you can pop all of the ingredients into a ziplock bag and store in the freezer.  I cut up a whole chicken for these sorts of dishes and that gives me enough to feed my family of 6, substitute in 4 chicken marylands or 600g chicken thighs if you don’t enjoy jointing a chicken quite as much as I do.  Pork shoulder, lamb leg or gravy, shin or beef cheek are all perfect cuts for long slow cooking to achieve that cut it with a spoon tenderness.  Cook the meat separately and serve it with salad if you want something a bit lighter come spring. I just have to sneak in a little bonus here.  Chantelle’s favourite banana bread recipe is the same as mine, you can find it here.  One of the best things is that it makes two loaves, one for now and one for the freezer.  I just double wrap the loaf, first with cling film then foil and pop it in the freezer for a rainy day. Thankyou so much for having me to visit Chantelle, and hugest congratulations on the birth of Luella Tatum xx