Any strong likes/dislikes that you're looking to cater to?
- Most soups and sauces definitely do well. It's amazing how many different directions you can take a base of [meat] (optional) and [grain] with [veg] (mixed in or separate) just by switching up the sauce. Liquids (or semi-liquids) are convenient, because you can freeze them in precise serving sizes.
- Dumplings, sausage, pastas, and burritos also tend to work well. For a time, I used to freeze cornbread, deep-fried mac-&-cheese balls, and/or egg muffins that I could take with me when I left the house, because of how easy they were to reheat and eat later (best with a little hot sauce!).
- If I'm going to freeze cooked meats, I usually prefer using shredded or ground meat to whole or sliced.
- Fruits and veggies generally suffer (water expands when it freezes and can burst the cell walls, making the plant limp and overall texture less pleasant). In a few cases, though, you can leverage this to your advantage, such as with freezer jam or the scraps bound for stock, as flavor is more readily extracted after freezing/thawing. Commercially-frozen greens avoid this problem by being flash-frozen very quickly, at very low temperatures, which limits the size of the ice crystals. The oils/fats in mashed potatoes or hash browns help them retain moisture better than, say, baked potatoes.
- Cheese (except in sauce form) and eggs (except in scrambled form) generally do not freeze well.
A vacuum sealer is definitely your friend, as it helps save space and also prevents freezer burn (without one, try to freeze food with a minimum of air). Larger items can be tricky to reheat evenly. Water is generally the quickest and easiest way to defrost but another trick to defrosting is to just put it on an aluminum tray. The metal speeds along the heat transfer much faster than most countertop or cutting board surfaces; I use this approach for items that don't fit in my pots.
