Perhaps if you could share the dishes you make, we could offer suggestions for repurposing.

Well it would be mostly roasts, chicken, beef. It is very easy to toss a fresh salad or steam diff veggies but the sameness of let's say grilled chicken breasts for 3 days in a row is a challenge to me. I don't have a freezer and the space in my sxs fridge freezer is very limited

packaging into meals and then freezing. I do it all the time.

Whenever I cook something that freezes well, I just make extra and freeze. You already have everything out and are cooking it anyway so it's pretty easy that way!

Sous vide cooking method can be applied.

All meats can be seasoned cooked to exact degree of doneness, especially meats then into the freezer.

When its time to eat, just reheat and do the finishing touch.

For instance:

Steak -

Season and sous vide steak to 131 F (if you like medium rare) for a few hours. Then Freeze in the sous vide bag.

When you are ready to eat, reheat steak in sous vide cooker to 131 F, then sear and serve.

Restaurants do that a lot.

dcarch

Yes the freezer is our friend here as well. We love chicken spiced up and always make extra of that. Then when the next craving for chicken comes up for one or all of us we just grab the number of portions we need. We wish there were a way to make lasagna last long enough to warrant freezing but that is one thing that doesn't ever make it even when I make low cal no noodle lasagna. :)

Like the others, freeze the extra portions and run through the foodsaver if you have one. Label with contents, number of servings, date and even re-heating instructions. Just pull it our in the morning or heat while frozen if possible.

Yeonassky, what is low cal no noodle lasagna?

It's lasagna with zucchini cut into long wide strips for the noodles, topped with the usual lasagna sauces. I use low cal ricotta or blended up low cal cottage cheese, and skim milk evaporated milk for my white lasagna, and low cal cheddar for my red tomato lasagna. As long as it's saucy, creamy or tomato, my family inhales for 3 pans full for as long as it lasts. :)

I also freeze dishes, as I don't want to eat the same thing over and over again. I'll eat leftovers once, maybe twice, but then I'm tired of whatever it is, and want something different.

As has been mentioned, freezing components works well for me. We had a pork roast last week, quite a large one. So we had pork roast, a couple of nights later we had pulled pork sandwiches. The next day I made pork enchiladas and the rest of the meat was portioned into freezer bags and frozen. That way I can take out a portion and make carnitas, chili, Cuban sandwiches or whatever suits me.

We do that with other meats too. Elery smoked 10 pounds of chicken thighs, and we had some for dinner, then the rest went into freezer bags. I pull one out for chicken chili, for enchiladas or just for a smoked chicken salad. It's very convenient.

Annie

Or just make half as much. If an entire dish can feed you for more than 3-4 meals, going "halves" still feeds you 2-3 meals and no one gets too tired of it.

It's just the two of us (adults) and 2-3 meals is all we typically want of a meal in a week. Halving the recipe does take a little thinking (to not forget to halve pretty much everything) and you still put in pretty much all the labor. But it lets us use more expensive ingredients for half-meals, which is nice. And we don't get tired of the recipes that don't freeze well, which is even nicer.

I may have to do smaller batches as I'm not big on freezing prepared meals, just meats fish when we get a good sale, that's almost exclusively what my freezer is used for. Oh and a pint of ice cream every now and then

Due to limited freezer space (I only have the refrigerator freezer, not a stand-alone freezer) I freeze components of make-ahead meals in user-friendly size portions, not the whole meal. I store them in plastic portion bags using 1-cup portions, or in plastic storage containers. I also vacuum-seal a number of meal components.

I have cooked ground beef, pork sausage, and ground turkey; seasoned cooked steak strips and chicken strips; shredded pork/chicken/beef; cooked beans, cooked rice, cooked quinoa; cubes and slices of baked ham; sliced sandwich meat; pork tenderloin in slices, cubes, and shredded.

I'll fill the slow-cooker with boneless beef ribs (aka country ribs) and portion the cooked meat and remaining juice using the meat like I would use roast beef and the remaining juices for making beef gravy or soup base. I bought a 5# box of pork riblets for 99-cents a pound. Seasoned and cooked them in the slow-cooker, removed the bones and packaged the shredded meat in 1-cup portions.

Everything has more than one use for things like Mexican entrées, pepper steak, stroganoff, pizza toppings, steak or chicken and pea pods, sloppy joes, stir-fry, soup - and a plethora of other things.

When I purchase a large family pack of raw boneless or bone-in chicken breasts, tenderloins, or bone-in or boneless chicken thighs, I place it (raw) in portions enough for 2 people in quart bags seasoning them for Lemon-Pepper Chicken, Teriyaki Chicken, and Italian Dressing for Chicken Italian-o, or any way you season chicken. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight before cooking as usual.

-Grainlady

We don't like leftovers but i will cook for 2-6 at least once a week even though it is just the two of us. I'll make extra grain or like Annie, roast, smoke or grill extra meat, (while we are at it), and food saver freeze portions. I make lots of stocks and broth. Most of the week i can pull out some choices in the morning and into the fridge to thaw and have a big head start for a meal.

I've never frozen tv-dinner type meals. A hearty soup, chili, stew, i take out about half of it well ahead of being done, 1/2 hour-45min, and get that chilled for the freezer and into pint containers. Well ahead of the sit-down meal. It will finish cooking during the re-heat later.

Last night we had leeks, asparagus, new potatoes over a mixed grain to have with steak. While i was prepping i started a veg stock on the back burner with all those leek tops and some other goodies in the crisper drawer...celery tops, green onion, carrot, etc. Just as easy to put it in the pot as the garbage or compost...The 'leftover' steamed asparagus, leek, potato and grain went into 3 pint containers and topped with the chilled broth. Will be three quick soup meals to have with a salad. Re-heated then stick blend. Even a nice sauce base for a piece of salmon.

I never hesitate freezing chicken or pulled pork. Taco night has enough prep without cooking the meat part.

Seafood is different. I only prepare the amount for that meal. Unless i want chilled salmon for brunch or shrimp cocktail.

One thing you can do is plan vastly different meals for the extra foods. Grilled chicken the first night, and then maybe pulled chicken sandwiches the next. Take a break with a different meal in between, and then do sliced chicken on salad. It's easy to make most things look and taste quite different from night to night.

Still, grilled chicken, to some extent, is grilled chicken. So if you can freeze even one night's worth for a future date and do that with all your batch cooking, you will eventually be able to keep a good bit of variety without having to cook every night.