Thawing Tips

I hardly ever thaw my Dream Dinners, here are my thawing tips:

 

Any meats in a zip lock bag, I soak in the sink in warm water for about 20 minutes.  If they are pliable, they can be cooked.

 

For dinners frozen in foil pans, I take the dinner from the freezer, peel the foil off the frozen dinner and place the dinner in a sprayed 9 x 13 baking glass dish, then into the microwave on defrost for 5 – 10 min or until soft.  Then into the oven.  It might take a little longer to cook (160 degrees) but it is better than thawing…..

 

Several dinners I cook from frozen.  The ravioli dinners, I always boil the  ravioli frozen and heat the sauce from frozen in my sauté pan over low heat.  They usually are done at the same time and I can toss the pasta in the heated sauce.  If I need to hold the dinner because we are waiting on a family member….. I spray a baking dish, put the pasta and sauce in, cover with foil and place in a 325 degree oven until everyone is home to eat.

 

There is the frozen to crock pot method.  Take your Dream Dinner in the morning and cut the seams of the Ziploc bags, placing the meat and sauce your crock pot, add 1 cup of liquid, (chicken or beef stock,  wine, or water) cook on low for 8  hours.  

 

I have used the defrost level on my microwave for the Ziploc bag Dream Dinners, but I turn them over every 2 -3 min while defrosting.  This is not the best method of thawing but I a pinch it work if you are careful. 

 

I have my new defrost bin and I used it this week, it does take a few extra days to thaw Dream Dinner in the bin but it was nice on Sunday night to take 3 from the freezer that we can enjoy this week.

 

Please feel free to ask me any questions you might have about freezing and thawing