CHamoru quick meals within the freezer saves money and time whereas decreasing stress. With meals costs on overdrive and the meals provide falling brief, sustaining a collection of cooked CHamoru meals within the freezer is a lifesaver.
There’s nothing like purchasing in my freezers for crimson rice, barbecue meat, gollai hågon, and åhu to thaw in a single day for lunch the subsequent day. No nada cooking — simply thaw, reheat and eat.
If energy outages are frequent and also you don’t have a generator to guard your meals, freeze a number of water bottles to maintain issues at temperature.
Additionally, there’s a product out there on Amazon known as KoolerGel. It is a powder that you simply combine with water to kind a gel. The gel retains frozen issues frozen for a protracted time frame. KoolerGel works wonders not solely within the freezer, however in your coolers too.
I used to be a softball mother for 11 years, and journey ball life challenged me to be extra environment friendly within the kitchen. It’s a kind of I-wish-I-did-this-when-my-kids-were-babies sort of issues.
I cook dinner CHamoru meals, most meals actually, as if to feed a military. Nonetheless, as a substitute of feeding a military, I feed my freezer with small parts of ready-made CHamoru goodies.
There aren’t any recipes at the moment, ga’chongs yan familia, only a checklist of CHamoru meals that freeze, thaw, and reheat favorably — dishes I’ve examined within the freezer utilizing my recipes.
Paula Lujan Quinene
Wanting a CHamoru occasion, restaurant or meals truck the second you’re able to eat, with the ability to thaw out CHamoru barbecue or estufao or kåddon månnok and boñelos for dessert, oh maintain me again!
Wait fan, let me examine if I’ve all that in my freezers for tomorrow. Candy, it’s gonna be an amazing lunch — crimson rice, barbecue hen, SPAM kelaguen, gollai hågon spinach, gollai åppan mendioka, and carrot cake.
The caveat to this checklist of freezables is that I used my recipes on Paulaq.com. Normally, recipes which might be comparable ought to work.
Should you adapt a CHamoru recipe to be low-fat, no-fat, vegan, or gluten-free, you’ll must freeze a small portion then see the way it thaws and reheats.
When you have questions on any dish, all of the recipes and footage are on my web site, PaulaQ.com, underneath the “Extra Recipes” tab.
Freezer Containers
To maintain issues organized and stackable in my freezers, I take advantage of largely 2-cup restaurant to-go containers. They’re out there on Amazon, and are the proper portion sizes for many dishes, for one particular person. I additionally freeze a wide range of cooked meats that don’t have a lot juice in vacuum freezer baggage.
- Restaurant to-go container: 1-, 2-, and 4-cup sizes.
- Ziploc freezer baggage: quart and gallon sizes.
- Disposable aluminum pans with covers: 8- by 6-inch dimension.
- Meals Saver vacuum baggage: quart and gallon sizes.
Boñelos
I like having ready-fried donuts in my freezer. They reheat within the microwave simply wonderful, however within the air fryer, it’s even higher as a result of the crust will get crispy. Some people do freeze their boñelos dågu batter, however I haven’t tried that with my recipe but.
Cookies
For a lot of cookie recipes, I make a giant batch of cookie dough and freeze. Divide the dough into about 2-cup parts, flatten right into a disc, wrap with plastic wrap then retailer in freezer baggage. Thaw within the fridge the evening earlier than you want it.
An hour or two earlier than you’re able to bake, set on the counter to come back to room temperature, about 70 levels. And sure, my guyuria dough freezes, thaws, rolls, and fries very effectively.
Estufao/Adobo
I be sure to cook dinner plenty of sauce because it helps the estufao hold higher within the freezer. I take advantage of the quart Ziploc baggage to freeze as a result of I can squeeze a whole lot of the air out. As soon as all the baggage are prepped, I organize them in a plastic shoebox so they’re straightforward to seek out within the freezer.
Gollai/Greens
Greens cooked in coconut milk freeze and thaw to perfection. It’s the fats within the coconut milk that does it.
Dinanche’ made with vegetables and coconut milk
‘, chotda’, mendioka, suni,
,
Hineksa/Rice
Dishes made with brief to medium-grain rice work greatest when freezing and reheating. It additionally helps when it’s made with a very good quantity of fats whether or not it’s from lard, oil, butter, or coconut milk.
- Quick and medium-grain steamed white rice – vacuum sealed and greatest for making soup or alåguan
Kådo/Soup
Whether or not the kådo has coconut milk or not, it’s nonetheless delish as a freezer meals. These might have further salt.
Kek/Cake
Many desserts freeze and thaw effectively – and fyi, they don’t want reheating until you want heat cake. Should you occur to purchase desserts or cupcakes on the retailer or deliver dwelling leftovers from a celebration, wrap in plastic or freezable containers and freeze. They hold properly – dessert in two months ombre.
KelaguenFor kelaguen, as soon as thawed, style once more. It might want just a little extra salt and lemon powder. Don’t retailer or combine in steel containers.
- Canned Salmon
- Canned Sardines
Tamåles
Tamåles is a good freezer meals as a result of you may put together the tamåles and retailer within the freezer with out cooking. Moreover, after cooking the tamåles, if in case you have leftovers, you may refreeze and save for later. I make tamåles in banana leaves, foil and corn husk – they usually all freeze and thaw effectively.
Titiyas/Tortillas
I separate every titiyas spherical with a chunk of wax paper then stack based on family-serving dimension, in our case, it’s 4 rounds. I wrap the stack in plastic wrap then freeze in Ziploc freezer baggage.
Miscellaneous
Meals that I don’t have a class for.
