Recipe(tried): Recipes that freeze well - Tips

I belong to a cooking club with 5 other women so I always have frozen home made dinners in my freezer. We use gallon ziplock bags as often as possible to maximize freezer space. Here are some general items that have worked really well for us:

Chili
Spaghetti sauce
Any kind of soup
Casseroles (assembled, but uncooked - just thaw and stick in the oven)

Pasta dishes (tip: try using corkscrew or some other noodle besides the long spaghetti noodles, allow the pasta to cool completely and dry before freezing, freeze your sauce in ice trays then put the 'sauce cubes' in the bag with the frozen pasta - if you have meat, brocolli or something else in the dish just toss it in the bag when you freeze it). These pasta dishes reheat easily. They do not need to be thawed first. Just dump the contents of your bag into a large skillet and heat until it's ready.

Homemade frozen pizzas are super easy. I use my bread machine to make my own dough but you can also use the store bought dough (like Boboli). If you make your own, roll out the dough onto a cookie/pizza sheet and bake at 350 for about 10 minutes. It will finish cooking when you reheat. Choose your toppings (make sure any meat is cooked before you assemble the pizza) and 'dress' your pizza. I use the extra large (2.5 gallon) ziplock type bags to hold the pizza. No need to thaw. Just pop it in the freezer and bake it like you would a store bought frozen pizza.

Best of luck!

D