10 great freezer-friendly meals

Your freezer can be your best friend, especially when you have hungry mouths to feed and you’re pressed for time and short on money. Do all your cooking on weekends and put the week’s meals in your freezer. Here are a few great recipe ideas that are perfect for the freezer – and great for kids!

Cottage pie

Who doesn’t love a hearty cottage pie like the one your grandma made? Ingredients

• 1 tbsp sunflower oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 250ml mixed veggies, thawed
• 500g lean mince
• 1 small tin tomato paste
• Dash of Worcestershire sauce
• 500ml beef stock
• 900g potatoes, cut into chunks
• 85g butter
• 30ml milk

Method

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan and soften the onion and mixed vegetables for a few minutes.
2. Turn up the heat, crumble in the mince, and brown, tipping off any excess fat.
3. Add tomato paste and Worcestershire sauce: fry for a few minutes.
4. Pour over the stock and bring to a simmer. Cover and cook for 15 minutes, uncovering halfway.
5. Heat the oven to 180°C. Meanwhile, make the mash. Boil the potatoes in salted water for 10 to 15 minutes until tender. Drain, then mash with the butter and milk.
6. Place the mince in an ovenproof dish, top with the mash, and ruffle with a fork.
7. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until the top starts to colour and the mince is bubbling through at the edges.

Top Tip: The pie can be chilled and frozen for up to a month before baking.  

Tomato, feta, butternut, and chicken pot pie

This quick and easy chicken pot pie recipe will allow you to spend less time in the kitchen and more time with your kids. You will need

For the pastry

• 1 roll of puff pastry, thawed
• Sesame or poppy seeds
• 1 egg, beaten

For the filling

• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• ½ cup onion, finely chopped
• 2 tsp garlic, crushed
• 400g chicken breast, cubed
• 1 tsp chicken spice
• 2 cups All Gold Tomato and Herb Pasta Sauce
• Salt and pepper
• 1 cup roasted butternut, diced into small cubes
• ½ cup black pepper-flavoured feta cheese, cubed

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 190°C.
2. In a pan, on medium heat, add the oil and fry the onion and garlic until softened. Then add the chicken breast.
3. Season the chicken with spice and cook until it is browned.
4. Add the pasta sauce and bring to the boil.
5. Season if necessary.
6. Take off the heat and fold in the roasted butternut and feta. Mix to combine.
7. Grease large ramekins and add the filling until two-thirds full.
8. Roll out the puff pastry. Cut out rounds to cover the filled ramekins, but allow enough pastry to fold over the edge.
9. Make a small slit in the top and brush the pastry with egg wash.
10. Sprinkle over the sesame or poppy seeds
11. Bake for 20-30 minutes until the pastry is puffed up and golden brown.

Easy mushroom and bacon crustless quiche

Whether you want to serve this as a light lunch or breakfast, simply take it out of the freezer a couple of hours before you want to serve it for a healthy, delicious meal. Ingredients

• 5ml olive oil
• 200g portabella mushrooms, sliced
• 2 cloves garlic cloves, crushed
• ½ red pepper, sliced
• ½ onion, finely chopped
• 80g feta cheese, crumbled
• 60g bacon, chopped
• 8 eggs
• 1/4 cup milk
• 2ml pepper
• ½ punnet baby button mushrooms, sautéed
• Fresh summer salad to serve.

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease a 3cm by 22cm ceramic quiche dish.
2. Heat oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Add the mushroom, bacon and garlic. Add the red pepper and onion. Sauté, stirring, for 5 minutes or until softened. Remove from heat. Spoon the mixture over the base of the prepared dish. Top with feta.
3. Whisk the eggs and milk in a jug. Season with pepper. Pour the egg mixture over the feta in the quiche dish. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until browned and just set. Let it stand for 10 minutes. Cut into wedges.
4. Serve with the baby button mushrooms as well as a fresh summer salad and olive oil and balsamic vinegar dressing.

Cooks tip: To reduce the sodium content replace the feta cheese with ricotta cheese.  

Blueberry and coconut breakfast muffins

Think of muffins as a little work going a long way. They’re a bit of a mission to make, but you can make a load in one go and they freeze like a dream – heat a couple quickly and you’ve got a great instant breakfast.   *Makes 10 *Prep time: 15 mins *Cooking time: 30 mins Ingredients

• 3 apples, peeled, cored and grated
• 4 eggs, at room temperature
• ¼ cup (60ml) melted butter
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 1 cup desiccated coconut
• ½ cup coconut flour, sieved
• ¼ cup flax seeds, ground in a coffee grinder
• ½ teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ cups fresh blueberries

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
2. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with muffin cups. Whisk together the wet ingredients in a bowl. Combine the dry ingredients in a separate bowl.
3. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix until just combined.
4. Immediately fold through the blueberries. The batter will thicken as it sits, so do this right away.
5. Use an ice-cream-sized scoop with a lever (a ¼ cup scoop) to fill 12 muffin cups. (If you don’t use a scoop the tops won’t be quite as round.)
6. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until cooked through.
7. To heat from the freezer, just pop the muffins in a moderate oven to defrost and warm up. Breakfast is served!

  Follow these tips for freezing cooked meals:

• Let the food cool down before putting it in the freezer. Hot or warm food can defrost other items next to it.
• Never re-freeze food unless it’s going to be cooked in-between. In other words, if there is mince in the freezer, don’t re-freeze it once thawed unless its first turned into bolognaise or one of your other favourite mince dishes. The cooking process will kill off any bacteria and the cooked meat can be frozen.
• Make sure food is wrapped properly. Use freezer bags and try to get as much air out of the bag as possible before placing in the freezer. Air around the food, especially if it’s moisture-rich, can form ice, which can affect the consistency of the food.
• Create a labelling system. Once food is frozen, it’s not always that easy to identify. Use a blue pen for raw food and a green one for cooked.
• Make sure frozen food is dated. Although guidelines vary, don’t keep it in the freezer for longer than three months.