Freeze!

That title looks like a command, but really it's just an excited statement (hence the name, exclamation). Anywho...

I need to take a meal to a friend who is having surgery next week, but I wanted to make something that would freeze well so I could just send it frozen and let her decide when she wants to eat it. Thus the web search ensued for freezer-friendly meals. I have a deep freeze and we get a lot of use out of it, but I don't typically freeze entire meals. I didn't find anything that looked satisfactory (I'm not a huge casserole fan, especially these (dairy-free) days) but settled (happily) on meatball subs with fresh mozzarella, which I've been craving for about a week now. I love homemade french bread, and my sister in law just passed on her baked meatball recipe, which is easy and delicious. We had it last night and now I can enjoy the leftovers for several days to come (or freeze them).

I ran across this article by Mark Bittman in the NY Times. (Yes, I squeeze in light reading of various papers around the country in my free time. Okay, the link was on another blog I read from time to time.)

Here are a few of the highlights:

• Freeze things as soon as you realize you won't be eating them soon. Very few things get better after time spent in your refrigerator. The goal is to prolong the life of the food, not just throw it out later, so only save what you will really use.
• Wrap things well- he suggests even triple wrapping food. I've been wrapping my quick breads and french bread in saran wrap and then foil, and it really does help. (Just don't stick it in the oven without taking off the inner layer of saran wrap. Do as I say, not as I do.)
• Label things. Ahh, who hasn't suffered from ignoring this advice? Dad, you were right all along.
  
• Make extras (especially time consuming foods like cooked beans, breads, etc.) just to freeze. It's really not any more trouble to make a huge pot of black beans vs. half.
• Save chicken bones, extra bits of meat, vegetable peelings, and other stock-making material. Homemade soup stock is not expensive or all that time consuming if you are just emptying your bag of leftover materials into the water to boil. (Although I like what he says, "Remember, though, that stock is not garbage soup..." and he goes on to say what you should use in moderation or avoid all together.)
  

Those are obviously basics, but he lists items that freeze well, and gives ideas you may have never even thought to freeze. Things like biscuit dough, cookie dough, fresh herbs, extra wine (for soups and sauces, or I guess if you are really not picky, to drink), egg whites, and other useful things. He argues that the freezer is the most under-used appliance in the kitchen, and I would agree.

So next time I need to freeze a whole meal for myself or someone else, what would you suggest? (Besides lasagna...)