[wanye]

also, meat for a sunday dinner... cook a big roast, then slice it and bag up the leftovers for the freezer. then when you want some, just defrost/reheat it in some gravy that youve made.

i freeze almost everything. there are tubs of curry (at least three types), chilli/bolognese, stew/goulash/bourguignon. i also make tubs of "curry base sauce" where you add meat and a few final bits... also par-cooked curries... before you bulk it out with tomatoes/chickpeas/etc, take out a tub or two for the freezer, then just chuck in a tin of chopped tomatoes and fresh veg

make a big pan of lasagne. slice into portion sized pieces and freeze. i always let these defrost fully before reheating rather than microwaving from frozen.

soups... i have tubs of french onion and cauliflower soup in the freezer, plus a couple of tubs of caramelised onions to quickly make more. its good for starting curries too. oh, and chicken/pork/beef stock and also leftover gravy! - if i put some particular effort into making a gravy, i may as well make a bit too much and stick a portion in a ziploc bag for the freezer.

bread stuff too... pizza dough balls, onion bagels and knedliky (czech dumplings) all get frozen dough balls frozen, then you just need to defrost manually and cook

to decide most days, i just get up in the morning and get a tub of something out the freezer to defrost so its ready to use when i'm finished work. some things (curry/soup doesnt need this doing, just shove in a microwave on full for 8 mins or so, then decant into a pan to finish warming through

oh yeah... chipshop chips and kebab meat! we get a large portion of chips between us, and the leftovers get bagged and frozen - just chuck them on a baking tray with some cooking oil in a hot oven for ~10 mins to reheat good as new! also, leftover chicken kebab meat gets bagged up to throw on as pizza toppings! i have a whole drawer full of frozen pizza toppings and bits... posh olives, meatballs, sliced salami, etc... a £1 pack of sliced pepperoni from asda is far too much for one or two pizzas, so just take whats left and stick them in a ziploc bag. when you need more, they only need a few minutes out the freezer to defrost and pull them apart

takeaway food tubs and good quality ziploc bags are essentials. also a pack of sharpies so you can label stuff - write what it is and the date you made it so you know its not been sat in there for 5 years or something.

hth