Often when we're going away for just a week or even a long weekend my partner and I will precook some meals and then freeze them into portions. For instance, just this past sunday we cooked up a few serves of spag-bol and tuna mornay. Then we cooled them down, put them into tupperware and froze them. We do this with curries and many other things.
We've found that it helps keep the eski cold and also just very simple heating up then for tea.
Does anyone else do this?
milo said
10:20 AM May 31, 2011
yeah some times we do,,also sometimes we buy those pre made dinners and pack those too, there ok i guess
wendyv said
11:43 AM May 31, 2011
When we are heading off on a trip, the day before I always roast up a couple of chicken marylands, pre-marinated in a mix of soy, sherry, garlic, ginger. lemon juice and rind. I make a batch of coleslaw. After getting to destination and setting up, we have an easy meal.
Onedodger said
01:50 PM May 31, 2011
We too often precook meals then cryovac same for later use on a trip be it short or long.
As we both love camp oven cooking we usually have some roasts to cook and use the leftovers for sangers during the day.
When fishing we cryovac our catch in meal lot fillets which then at a later date can be cooked by whatever means we desire.
And when travelling the treat is often a counter lunch at some country pub. This is also the place where valuable local info re camping and fishing can be gathered.
Yes I digress a bit but pre cooked meals are a blessing when tired from a day's driving.
Cheers Dodg.
Nicholstones said
02:58 PM May 31, 2011
I always aim to have a meal already cooked that can just be reheated when we have a long day's drive planned. We don't do this all that often, mostly try to get whereever we are going by lunchtime or at the latest early afternoon, but someitmes you just have to bite the bullet and get the miles over and done with. Most often its spag bol, I'll make the bol sauce the day before then it just has to be reheated and some pasta cooked.
Our caravan pots are fantastic, have detachable handles and each pot has a plastic sealing lid as well as the usual cooking lid, so I can cook the bol in the pot, then just remove the handle, pop on the sealing lid and put it in the fridge. Next day just put the proper lid and handle back and reheat on the stove top.
John has a wheat intolerance so our small van freezer is always filled with wheat- or gluten-free bread, as you never know when you're going to pick up more, so we don't actually have any other food in the freezer.
gordon_adl said
04:28 PM May 31, 2011
Good to know we're not alone in our thinking. We still have normal meals too but I just find some times a quick meal is nice.
KayJay said
05:02 PM May 31, 2011
I tend to have a 'cookfest' a few days before we leave on a trip, chilli con carne, lamb casserole, sweet & sour chicken etc. which I put into a 2-serve size plastic box so we can often get two meals each from every dish. I also cook a piece of silverside or a chicken the day before we go, for sandwiches. For meals en route, I simply remove something from the freeezer in the morning for that night's tea and it's a no fuss meal when we arrive at our destination. I should add we have a 184L fridge so I have good freezer space to utilise. I also take my breadmaker along to overcome the problem of not always being able to buy fresh bread. We figure if you've got bread you can make a meal of it one way or another. Kevin & Jan
gordon_adl said
05:17 PM May 31, 2011
KayJay wrote:
'I tend to have a 'cookfest' a few days before we leave on a trip, chilli con carne, lamb casserole, sweet & sour chicken etc. which I put into a 2-serve size plastic box so we can often get two meals each from every dish.'
Ditto.
'I also take my breadmaker along to overcome the problem of not always being able to buy fresh bread. We figure if you've got bread you can make a meal of it one way or another.'
What a great idea. Hadn't thought of that before.
Cruising Granny said
05:37 PM May 31, 2011
I feel like my pre-cooking practice has finally caught on. I've been doing this for years. Mainly because I hate cooking for ONE, everyday. The peel a spud, cook a spud, eat a spud, wash up after a spud has knobs on it. I have a 'cook up" every couple of weeks. Last week it was a mix of beef and pork mince transformed into a bolognaise sauce I can use on pasta, a baked spud, with rice, or on it's own. It's got onion, garlic, capsicum, grated zucchini and carrot as well as the tinned tomato and a few other "secret" ingredients slowly cooked together to produce a very tasty dish. Then I pack and cool in 350g containers and freeze in my Waeco for future use. In my Waeca I currently can put my hands on pumpkin/veg soup, fried rice, a vege mix I cook with couscous. There's usually a chicken something as well, but I've run out and there's no room for more. At home I zap the meal in the micky wave. On the job I thaw first and reheat on my little gas cooker. I freeze a loaf of bread, because it would go mouldy before I got to eat it. A loaf lasts me about a fortnight. I also use the new chunky soups, and a few other pre-packed meals for standby. It's not hard to cater for oneself. It's just a pity we have to cater for ONE sometimes. Cryovaccing is a great way to keep meat and meals fresh for longer than normal. I take the Waeco freezer with me wherever I go. I don't need much room to chill copious cans of beer so I utilise this space for other items which need refrigeration. While I'd rather cook for 20 than for me, I refuse to spend all my time cooking, especially when I'm on the job, and I can't do bbq every meal. It's not the cooking. It's the preparation which takes time I don't have on the road, and the space uncooked food takes. I do poach an egg in baked beans occasionally, also with a few secret ingredients.
petengail said
05:38 PM May 31, 2011
Certainly we do, also what we do is when we freeze them, we freeze them in a zip lock bag, and freeze them flat on a tray, that way they stack up nicely in the van freezer, which after all isnt really big
jimricho said
05:56 PM May 31, 2011
Another trick is to save those jars with the metal "pop up when opened" lids. Pre heat the jar (and lid) with hot water and fill with food such as soup, curry, stews etc, almost right to the top. Make sure the food is very hot. Put the lid on tightly (those non-slip jar opener thingies are ideal for this) and allow to cool. As it cools the lid pops back down. I store them in the fridge (not the freezer) but even that may not be necessary. The food remains safe to eat while ever the lid remains "popped" down.
Saves times on those one-night camps when one can use one's time much more productively doing some serious happyhouring (I just invented that word!)
BobnBev said
05:57 PM May 31, 2011
All sounds good , We go to our PIZZA place and buy 3 large with the lot..and do the frezze thing and its nice to just reheat and eat.. Not the franshise" spelling" mobs.. our local bloke makes the best mouth watering pizzas in the north of vict. Its our first place of call on return home... that will give us 3-4 nights tea... plus our son inlaw is a chef, so we get a lot of left overs to freeze and go.. Bloody hell life is good just now...
Firefly said
07:10 PM May 31, 2011
We do the cook up and cryovac as well but last trip we discovered a cryo secret.
We let it defrost through the day, but it doesn't really matter if it is frozen, then when we want to eat, we throw the bag into a pot of water and slowly bring to a simmer and heat till its nice and hot and ta dah, no real washing up and you lose no juices from the meal you have cooked.
You can do pasta and everything this way, its fantastic.
Smokeydk said
09:18 AM Jun 1, 2011
What a great lot of tips........we freeze leftover stews and stirfrys....before leaving home....especially for the long trip days... I like the pizza idea.......especially now we can get gluten free pizzas from Eagle boys.....
keep them coming
Smokeydk said
09:21 AM Jun 1, 2011
FF.....question.......how do you know when meal is hot enough.....I thought you had to pearce the bag to vent it???
Firefly said
09:40 AM Jun 1, 2011
Hi Smokey, we put it into cold water and let it heat from there. because there is no air in it, it seems not to pop. Our Sunbeam machine suggests doing it this way as well.
The bags are a lot thicker than normal plastic, as you know and we double seal ours in case the seal degrades as well.
I pull the bag out of the water and feel it mate, if its nice and hot its ready.
If I opened one and it wasn't, I would just throw in a saucepan and finish it off.
We would leave in in there for a half hour I guess Smokey.
Or you could bring to the boil and just sit it aside off the heat till needed and it would heat that way too. Maybe not such a good idea if the meal is totally frozen though.
We never let it get to a rolling full on boil, just a gentle simmer at most and it works a treat.
Hylda&Jon said
09:56 AM Jun 1, 2011
When I lived alone for years I always cooked for 4 or 5 then seperated it into meal size portions, I even used to cook up a large saucepans of pumpkin or chicken soups then filled up & froze paper/polysterene cups full of it which I bought in bulk from restaurant & cafe bulk suppliers. On the road I still freeze the seperate portions but I also vacuum seal them to give them more leeway if the fridge fails etc.
Often when we're going away for just a week or even a long weekend my partner and I will precook some meals and then freeze them into portions. For instance, just this past sunday we cooked up a few serves of spag-bol and tuna mornay. Then we cooled them down, put them into tupperware and froze them. We do this with curries and many other things.
We've found that it helps keep the eski cold and also just very simple heating up then for tea.
Does anyone else do this?
We too often precook meals then cryovac same for later use on a trip be it short or long.
As we both love camp oven cooking we usually have some roasts to cook and use the leftovers for sangers during the day.
When fishing we cryovac our catch in meal lot fillets which then at a later date can be cooked by whatever means we desire.
And when travelling the treat is often a counter lunch at some country pub. This is also the place where valuable local info re camping and fishing can be gathered.
Yes I digress a bit but pre cooked meals are a blessing when tired from a day's driving.
Cheers Dodg.
Our caravan pots are fantastic, have detachable handles and each pot has a plastic sealing lid as well as the usual cooking lid, so I can cook the bol in the pot, then just remove the handle, pop on the sealing lid and put it in the fridge. Next day just put the proper lid and handle back and reheat on the stove top.
John has a wheat intolerance so our small van freezer is always filled with wheat- or gluten-free bread, as you never know when you're going to pick up more, so we don't actually have any other food in the freezer.
I've been doing this for years. Mainly because I hate cooking for ONE, everyday. The peel a spud, cook a spud, eat a spud, wash up after a spud has knobs on it.
I have a 'cook up" every couple of weeks. Last week it was a mix of beef and pork mince transformed into a bolognaise sauce I can use on pasta, a baked spud, with rice, or on it's own. It's got onion, garlic, capsicum, grated zucchini and carrot as well as the tinned tomato and a few other "secret" ingredients slowly cooked together to produce a very tasty dish.
Then I pack and cool in 350g containers and freeze in my Waeco for future use.
In my Waeca I currently can put my hands on pumpkin/veg soup, fried rice, a vege mix I cook with couscous.
There's usually a chicken something as well, but I've run out and there's no room for more.
At home I zap the meal in the micky wave. On the job I thaw first and reheat on my little gas cooker.
I freeze a loaf of bread, because it would go mouldy before I got to eat it. A loaf lasts me about a fortnight.
I also use the new chunky soups, and a few other pre-packed meals for standby.
It's not hard to cater for oneself. It's just a pity we have to cater for ONE sometimes.
Cryovaccing is a great way to keep meat and meals fresh for longer than normal.
I take the Waeco freezer with me wherever I go. I don't need much room to chill copious cans of beer so I utilise this space for other items which need refrigeration.
While I'd rather cook for 20 than for me, I refuse to spend all my time cooking, especially when I'm on the job, and I can't do bbq every meal.
It's not the cooking. It's the preparation which takes time I don't have on the road, and the space uncooked food takes.
I do poach an egg in baked beans occasionally, also with a few secret ingredients.
Saves times on those one-night camps when one can use one's time much more productively doing some serious happyhouring (I just invented that word!)
We do the cook up and cryovac as well but last trip we discovered a cryo secret.
We let it defrost through the day, but it doesn't really matter if it is frozen, then when we want to eat, we throw the bag into a pot of water and slowly bring to a simmer and heat till its nice and hot and ta dah, no real washing up and you lose no juices from the meal you have cooked.
You can do pasta and everything this way, its fantastic.
I like the pizza idea.......especially now we can get gluten free pizzas from Eagle boys.....
keep them coming
Hi Smokey, we put it into cold water and let it heat from there. because there is no air in it, it seems not to pop. Our Sunbeam machine suggests doing it this way as well.
The bags are a lot thicker than normal plastic, as you know and we double seal ours in case the seal degrades as well.
I pull the bag out of the water and feel it mate, if its nice and hot its ready.
If I opened one and it wasn't, I would just throw in a saucepan and finish it off.
We would leave in in there for a half hour I guess Smokey.
Or you could bring to the boil and just sit it aside off the heat till needed and it would heat that way too. Maybe not such a good idea if the meal is totally frozen though.
We never let it get to a rolling full on boil, just a gentle simmer at most and it works a treat.
When I lived alone for years I always cooked for 4 or 5 then seperated it into meal size portions, I even used to cook up a large saucepans of pumpkin or chicken soups then filled up & froze paper/polysterene cups full of it which I bought in bulk from restaurant & cafe bulk suppliers. On the road I still freeze the seperate portions but I also vacuum seal them to give them more leeway if the fridge fails etc.
Cheers
Jon