Not a new idea to those who make freezer meals, but I've been freezing my rice, beans, and chicken(and other meats) for convenience. Staple ingredients are simple to make and freeze with very little effort. I tend to make stock from leftover vegetable water, and bits and pieces of leftover vegetables. Celery tops are excellent for stock. I freeze it in large plastic containers until I get about twelve cups. Then next time I make rice for a meal, I make a huge pot, cooking six cups of dry rice in a stock pot with the vegetable water. This makes 18 cups of cooked rice, about eleven packets of rice to freeze. I cook beans in mass too, cooking an entire bag instead of just what I need for the meal, then the individual packs get popped in the freezer. If a chicken meal is planned, I cooked the entire ten pound bag of leg quarters in the stock pot. The meat comes off the bone easily, and gets packaged and frozen along with the chicken stock.
To keep things inexpensive, I use plastic wrap rather than freezer bags. Inexpensive small reusable plastic containers might be good as well; I need to switch to this in the near future. I use recycled plastic food containers for liquids; however, they tend to crack after the third freeze.
All this cooking and freezing saves me about two to three weeks of cooking. All I have to do is re-heat when I plan meals with these staples.
Tonight I made a super quick meal with my frozen ingredients. Heat together two packets of black beans(about 2 cups), a packet of shredded chicken(about 1 cup), 1/3 a can of cream of mushroom soup, and a pre-seasoned(spicy) can of Margaret Holmes Triple Succotash(.79 cents). Serve over a packet of rice(about 1.5 cups). Inexpensively feeds three people. Big taste!
