Being a single bachelor working full time and living in a tiny apartment, I really don’t have my time to cook when I get home, nor do I really want to. I’ve tried making big batches of something on the weekend and then having leftovers of the rest of the week, but I’m usually sick of it by Tuesday (except for taco. Can never have too many leftover tacos.) So since I’ve got plenty of room in my freezer, I’ve started making big batches of whatever, and then freezing the leftovers. Right now I’ve got spaghetti sauce and chili mac in there, but I can’t think of what else I could make. I’m talking fully cooked, stick in the microwave or throw on the stove for a few minutes kind of meals.
You don’t have to freeze leftovers to throw them in the microwave and eat them again. I’ll make a big roast something (chicken, pernil, pot roast) with rice or mashed potatoes on Sunday and the family can eat the leftovers during the week whenever.
This works well since everybody’s on a different schedule and come in at all hours. They make a plate, stick it in the microwave and eat. It helps that our microwave has a ‘reheat dinner plate’ option.
If you have a crockpot, I’ve found that any sort of shredded meat works well. Make a big batch, separate it into bags and toss it in the freezer. When you’re ready to eat it, run the bag under warm water for a few minutes then put the meat (without the bag) in a bowl and microwave it. It’ll keep for at least a year if you have a food saver, but I’m imagine you’d get a good couple of months out of a regular ziplock or even an old sour cream type container.
Soups also freeze and thaw/reheat well.
The problem is I get sick of eating those leftovers after a few days, then it just ends up going bad in the fridge.
Ah! I’m so used to my vacuum-like family.
I’ll second shredded meat. Not only does it freeze well, it’s infinitely adaptable.
On a day you have some time, go buy a boneless pork shoulder roast. Cut it into cubes, throw it in a big pot. Cover with water. Then add a jar/can of your favorite salsa (something not too chunky works the best with this.) You can also add all or some of the following:
- a beer
- some red wine
- any herbs/spices you have lying around
- garlic
- leftover gravy or marinara sauce
- hot sauce
- barbecue sauce
- mustard
Heck, almost anything will work. Just think of things you like, and if they work together, throw 'em in.
Cook at a simmer until the meat is falling apart. Remove the meat from the liquid and put it on a big cookie sheet or baking dish (You want something with sides.)
Turn up the heat on the liquid, and boil it down until it’s pretty thick. Think thick like marinara sauce. Taste the liquid, add salt or pepper or more hot sauce or whatever you like to make it taste good. Pour liquid over the meat, mash it up some, and stick it under the broiler for 10-20 minutes until it gets crispy on top. If you’re especially motivated, stir it up some, and crisp it up again.
Now you have a form of carnitas, it freezes forever, and you can use it for:
- tacos
- burritos
- pizza topping
- meat on top of beans & rice
- meat eaten cold out of the fridge at midnight
- enchilada meat
- throw it on top of spaghetti with a bit of jarred marinara
- throw it in bean soup
- throw it in veggy soup
- throw it in instant ramen
- put it on a bun for pulled pork sammies
The list goes on. There is no end of use for this stuff, and you can make a huge amount in an afternoon with very little work.
Meatloaf freezes really well in slices.
Pepper Mill always makes big batches of spaghetti sauce and freezes it into portions. She also does this when she makes chicken or turkey soup (from the remains of a large chicken or turkey that we;d already spent several days eating)
My mom has cooked and frozen using the 30 Day Gourmet since I was a teen. Really great resource for cooking and freezing if you’re not sure what will freeze well.
While they do give you help with adjusting the portions, I’m not sure if there is much that is single serving (for example, there might be a lot of casseroles).
Ah, welcome to the Mahaloth household. We have a huge freezer downstairs and we have learned what freezes well:
Freezes Well:
Mashed Potatoes - Microwave the crap out of them and they reform.
Chicken Fried Rice
Bulgogi
Split Pea Soup
Spaghetti Sauce
Kim Chi Fried Rice
Pot Roast
Chili
Chicken Enchiladas
Does Not Freeze Well:
Any noodle dish - Always make noodles fresh and mix in the sauce stuff.
Rather than making big batches … why not just make enough for 2 or 4 serves when you cook, and place the remaining ones in the freezer? … then you’ll have more variety (I overdosed on soup the first winter I moved out of home, I still struggle to eat soup more than once every couple of weeks … so can’t do really big batches).
Everytime I make pasta, any meat + 3 veg, soup, rice + curry, roast vegetables … I just make up enough for more than one meal, serve out into containers … put them in the freezer. I like chicken strongonoff with veggies; lasagnes are great but usually too big for me to bother with; stirfry only works if you don’t use deliciate veg but serves of rice are easy to freeze when I make up a big batch
Alternatively I buy meat (when I’m eating it), portion it down for a single meal … then just cook with a single serve packet of frozen vegetables/rice.
My mother makes big batches of unsalted broth (either chicken or fish), freezes them and thaws as needed for soup or noodles.
The reason they’re unsalted is that sometimes she doesn’t thaw a whole block: the first melt is more concentrated than the last (for similar reasons as salt being used to de-ice, the physics involved are the same), so if she’d salted it it could be too salty, happened to her a couple times.
Lasagne. Or almost any kind of stew. I might make enough chicken stew for 10 meals, and that lasts me a month.
One trick I use is to take a few frozen items out and place them in the fridge so I can heat them up on the stove. Typically takes about 2 days to defrost in the fridge, and good all week.
Another good one is to buy a bid tri-tip, cook it on the grill or in the oven, then cut it into meal sized portions and freeze. You can make some rice pilaf to go with it and freeze that, two.
Don’t forget you can freeze pasta and then re-heat it in the microwave.
I prefer to stir fry any vegetables I have fresh. Only takes a few minutes. Chop into small pieces, add to a pan with olive oil (and garlic, if you want), put a few tablespoons of water in, cover and cook for just a minute. Then cook uncovered for another minute while the water evaporates. Works great with scallions, asparagus, and italian broccoli (sometimes called broccolini).
Don’t forget burgers!
When you BBQ, consider making the whole box of burgers at once. You can freeze the cooked patties, then microwave and add cheese whenever you want one.
Another thing that microwaves, from frozen, remarkably well is actually ribs. I know you’re a bachelor, and perhaps not up for making up a mess of ribs, but if you ever take a mind to, the left overs freeze well and reheat like a charm. Just add potato salad and garlic bread and it’s a meal!
(Here’s a really easy leftovers recipe for you:
Boil some pasta, when it’s almost ready add some frozen veg, (my fav is the carrots and yellow and green beans, I chop them into pasta size pieces before adding to the boiling pasta!), strain, slather with garlic butter, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese, top with left over meat of any type, (chopped/sliced to pasta size), top with ground pepper and salt to taste and enjoy. It’s a snap, and works with any leftover, or just vegetarian, in a pinch.)
About once a month I make a bunch of them using a variety of ingredients. You can use leftovers, precooked grocery chicken, etc. They freeze well, heat in the microwave & if you vary them enough don’t get too boring. Adding a good amount of vegetable makes it a whole meal.
The most important thing is to make sure you seal them well enough so they last a long time in the freezer. I really depend on my vacuum sealer to extend the life of my pre-made meals.
I have a vacuum sealer, and I’ve used that to package up tons of leftovers in lunch size portions. I can take them out of the freezer in the morning and let them thaw in my lunch bag so that it’s just a quick microwave for a hot lunch.
One of my favorite things is soup. Make a big batch, then freeze it in bowls. Once frozen, you can pop them out of the bowl and into to a freezer bag for long term storage. Noodle soups don’t work as well as soups with rice, potatoes, or barley - I love beef and barley or Scotch broth soup.
Pasta dishes seem to work pretty well for me, as long as there’s not too much moisture in them. Lasagna works well, and I’ve done lots of chicken tetrazzini and baked ziti, too. Stews work well, as do burritos, as ballardfam pointed out. Whenever we have taco meat left over I mix it with some refried beans and wrap the mixture and some cheese in tortillas. I end up with a bunch of individually packaged burritos to heat and serve.
I’ve never had much luck freezing pasta, it always comes out mushy when defrosted. If I was cooking specifically to bag n’ freeze pasta, I would make darn sure to undercook it. … If you aren’t too fussy about what you eat (like some people around here) you can cook a lot of hamburger, crumbled and well drained, and freeze in baggies. Then you can just dump it in a pot, add gravy, tomato sauce, or barbeque sauce, heat and serve on buns. Or use the hamburg to make chili, burritos, or goulash. Ground turkey/pork/chicken as well. … I sometimes make english muffin pizzas or pigs in a blanket (li’l hot dogs wrapped in slices of crescent roll dough and baked) for weekend snacks, any left over get wrapped in saran wrap and come in mighty handy some late night, warmed up in the oven.
I make extra salmon patties and freeze them. Recently we began eating salmon patties and eggs for breakfast, and it’s my new favorite meal, I think.
Today I’m making a huge batch of black bean soup and I’ll probably freeze some of that–at the least, I’ll freeze the non-brothy part for burrito-making later.
Taco meat (I add beans and salsa to that, too) reheats well.
If you’re into pizza, I’ve had good luck making flatbread pizzas. It happened that the local food bank had a ton of flatbread, so I made thin, simple pizzas–just a little sauce, cheese, whatever meat/veggies I had around. Made dozens of them and froze them, then pupped them straight into the oven. They were great!
These are the things I’ve had good luck with so far–I’m kind of weird about frozen meals so it’s nice to find things that work for me.