Tips for Thawing your Frozen Meals

Stephanie Allen just posted a serious of tips for thawing meals on her blog. Here are a few of them. My personal experiences/comments are in blue:

Any meats in a zip lock bag, I soak in the sink in barely warm water for about 20 minutes. If they are pliable, they can be cooked. *WCDD Comment: This works best for individually wrapped pork chops or steaks, not so much for larger pieces of meat like flank steaks or pork roasts. Also, I use cold water, and frequently change it – warm/hot water will start cooking the food and allow potentially icky bacteria to grow.*

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…..

*I haven’t tried to microwave anything from frozen yet. Usually I just decrease the oven temperature and increase the cooking time. I’ve done that for Chicken with Dumplings, Apple Crisp, and Canadian Bacon Stuffed French Bread and it’s worked out fine.*