Frozen assemble, cook, and serve stir-fry dishes. Whatcha think?

[Denninmi]

I admit, I'm actually a relatively abject failure in the getting meals ready dept. most of the time. Not enough hours in the day, and too many demands on my time. At least I still try.

Anyway, I had this little brainstorm just now:

Why couldn't I do my own frozen semi-prepared stir-fry dishes? What if I prepared meat, spices, and sauce in one packet, cut up and blanched vegetables in another, and froze them, so that all I had to do at meal time would be defrost and cook. Heck, I could even do the rice this way.

Good idea, bad idea?

[hlthe2b]

1. If you use vacuum bags, I don't see why not. The only way I can stay on a diet...

is to pre-cook lots of meals and freeze them. I have quite the collection of individual thermo-glass dishes, just for that purpose.

But, I've also found that if I spend Sunday cleaning, cutting, dicing bunches of veggies for various purposes, putting them in ziplock bags in the crisper section of the refrigerator, they seem to stay just fine throughout the week. That might be an alternative. I've done this with bell pepper, zucchini, yellow squash, onions, cabbage, carrots, celery... That might be a better course for veggies you will stir fry... The meat could certainly be frozen and thawed a bit in the microwave before tossing in the wok.

Somehow, if I do all this at once, it seems less onerous. But, then, if it can't be cooked via "crock pot," microwave, wok, or automatic rice cooker or bread baker, it really doesn't get cooked in my house. LOL.....

[elleng]

2. Frozen 'mise en place' sounds like a fine idea to me!

http://www.google.com/imgres?q=mise+en+place&start=125&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=1064&bih=517&tbm=isch&tbnid=EQ-SZZfe7gT7sM:&imgrefurl=http://whatscookingamerica.net/LeaSchneider/Mise_En_Place.htm&docid=hlOxshQn4vXAMM&imgurl=&w=381&h=286&ei=evkzT53ZMeLf0QHl_ciyAg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=762&vpy=139&dur=7222&hovh=194&hovw=259&tx=136&ty=220&sig=104031544521055891055&page=11&tbnh=149&tbnw=210&ndsp=12&ved=1t:429,r:11,s:125


Bonne chance!!!

[flamin lib]

3. You might have to adjust cooking time or cooking order.

Frozen veggies are notably more limp than fresh, either because they are blanched or because freezing breaks cell walls. Onions and peppers don't need to be blanched but will "wilt" without losing flavor.

Heck, it might just speed up the last minute cooking. I'd just give the meat a head start unless it's seafood.

[grasswire]

4. why would you take up all the time to do that....

...when there are frozen bags of mixed stir fry vegetables ready made at the supermarket? No preservatives in them, and we know that frozen vegetables are processed at the height of freshness -- usually fresher than what comes to the produce section. They often go on sale. If you are willing to make your stir fry with frozen vegetables to save prep time at dinner, might as well let someone else chop and freeze them. No? And if you buy frozen veg for stir fry, remember to get a package of shelled edamame beans -- lots of nutrition there!

Keeping a bag of cooked rice in the freezer is a good thing, IMO. Fried rice is much better made with cold rice.

[Denninmi]

5. Well, because they're not MY vegetables.

Yes, I do buy raw produce in the winter. But I mostly freeze my own from the garden.

[grasswire]

7. oh, of course...

...you are talking about putting up this coming summer's produce in this manner. I stupidly thought you were going to process stuff from the grocer in the winter.

How's your stash? My freezer still has many bags of berries and I need to do something with them soon. I still have some green tomatoes and some cherry toms and stewed toms frozen....oh, and applesauce. Need to start eating up the frozen applesauce.

I hope this is a good blueberry year ahead.

[Warpy]

6. Whatever you have to do to put nutritious food on the table

instead of wimping out and calling delivery is the right thing to do.

I often make vats of soup or stew and freeze them, eating them weeks later on those "I don't wanna cook" days. I could boast that the only time I ever ate takeout was at work when someone else called it in, but that would be tacky. But true.

Shortcuts like prepped veggies or even frozen ones are fine. Your idea to use all home grown stuff for meals is even better. Still, I think the suggestion to use a Food Saver vacuum setup (or competitor) is a great one.

[grasswire]

8. I want to add that you excel at "provisioning"....

...and that is a most useful skill and contribution to a home. The harvesting of the black walnuts alone is admirable! Applause!