Saturday, December 10, 2016

Reheating Frozen Meals Using the Instant Pot

At the start of my journey of prepping frozen meals for my dad, I thought that I could prepare his meals in oven safe glass, and he could just pop them in the oven and it would be very easy to have a hot meal.  While it is still very possible, it seems that the density of the meals I prepare lend themselves to not heating very evenly in the oven, and taking up to two hours to be fully cooked.  My dad, clearly frustrated, resorted to microwaving the frozen meals, which resulted in separation, drying, and curdling. yuck.  So, with a little trial and error, we have come up with a way of reheating the meals from frozen!  

Steps to reheating the frozen meals:

1.  You must use Oven Safe, Microwave Safe, Freezer Safe Glass!  Not every pyrex, or glass bowl is specifically made for this purpose, and could result in the glassware breaking!  This is the set I use:  Glasslock 18 Piece (oven, micro, freezer safe) I purchased 3 sets, which stocks us about a month or so of freezer meals for my dad.  

2.  When taking the meals from the freezer, I first have him submerge the closed containers in cold or room temperature water for about 20 to 30 minutes.  Dad also will sometimes put the meal he wants in the fridge the night before, or in the morning before leaving for work.  This helps to bring the glassware to room temperature to prevent the possibility of breaking during the cooking process.  

3.  Once at room temperature, remove the snapped on lids, and cover tightly with a layer of foil.  I plan on playing around with a layer or two of parchment paper held by rubber bands, but have yet to try.  

4.  Place the trivet in the steel IP liner.  Add one cup of water.  Place meal on trivet.  Set to manual high pressure for 15 minutes (if mostly thawed or small container), to 35 minutes (mostly frozen large container, or soup/stew).  I find that soups or full liquids take the longest to heat through as they have no air pockets to aid in speedy cooking.  If not fully cooked, stir and add a few more minutes.  Quick release is fine.

Stay tuned for recipes!!

3 comments:

  1. This is so helpful Nicole! Thank you so much for sharing with me! God bless you and your family.

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  2. Thank you for all your information and the time you take to share it !

    ReplyDelete