Need premade meals ideas

[Mosca]

Most proteins freeze well, either cooked or uncooked. I have sliced cooked turkey in gravy in the freezer right now, along with brisket, pulled pork, and ham.

Soups freeze well. I have several soups in the freezer right now. I’m not sure about a broccoli cheese soup, but only because of texture. It would taste fine, and probably stir up okay.

Stews freeze well. Chili freezes well. Pot roast freezes well.

Vegetables flash freeze well, but most people don’t have the capacity for that, so use canned, or buy frozen, which have been flash frozen.

Meatballs in sauce is an excellent idea. I do that frequently. I actually freeze half of them with sauce, and half of them bare.

Pizza freezes well! Reheat it like you would reheat… a frozen pizza.

Most anything frozen reheats well any number of ways. I would defy anyone to be able to tell the difference between brisket thawed in a microwave vs sous vide, as long as each method was done properly. It all depends on what you have available, and how you use it and what you are most comfortable with. For example, I’d probably reheat the turkey in gravy by putting it in the refrigerator the day before, and when it’s time to eat, heating it in a skillet over low heat. I mean, it would microwave, or sous vide, too. But I’d be most comfortable doing it in the skillet, even with both other ways available.

[TripleB]

First thing I would do is check with them on how much freezer space they currently have. I found once that after providing meals to a family from church, they had to throw out a lot of food people gave them because they just did not have the freezer space to store much.

Have you considered gift cards to their favorite restaurants? A bit expensive, but they get want they want.

To your request: we make a casserole Chicken Florentine that is a big hit. You can make individual plates with rice that freezes well. Also, stews and soups.

[Carolyn]

There was a small Italian place near our office in Baton Rouge that made Chicken Florentine pizza. It was really good.

[jfmorris]

This is a very good point. I have several fridges with built in freezer, and a deep freeze, and recently went on a purge as I could not fit anything else in the freezers!

[Finster]

Thank You all for your great suggestions. I knew the pit crew would come through.
This week's delivery was pulled pork, meatballs and sauce, chicken & sausage Gumbo, ground beef Taco meat with fixins, and yesterday afternoon we shared dinner of Ribs and mac & cheese. Also took a batch of homemade chocolate chip cookies that may, or may not, last the week.... their choice lol
Will probably be doing this for the next few weekends, so will take some of your ideas to change things up...

[Carolyn]

That is a very nice thing to do. You can't go wrong with tacos, and it is easy, but I am really impressed you did gumbo which isn't all that difficult but can be kind of time consuming.
I have a pot of gumbo simmering on the stove right now.

[Mister C]

Sorry to arrive late to this conversation, you are doing a great thing. I find pizza and lasagna both freeze and reheat well, just pre-cut the lasagna and store 2-3 pieces per bag to make it easy. Shepherds pie worked the same, as long as the top was crusty before freezing you can blast it in the microwave and the potatoes come out fine.

Another suggestion, we bought a cheap set of ramekins that we used to freeze all sorts of things. Broth, chili, risotto, pasta sauce etc. Freeze them overnight then set them into room temp water and in about 30 seconds you can pop them out and bag them and voilà, easy to reheat hockey pucks of different foods.

Good luck!

[JCBBQ]

Chicken enchiladas

[JCBBQ]

Don’t know if these have been mentioned but baked ziti and lasagna are great and easy to portion and freeze.