Storing cooked rice and pasta

[Sharla]

Hi, I am a beginner cook/serious athlete and PhD student.

So I have absolutely no cooking talent and very limited money and time.

I like to take microwavable pre-cooked rice and pasta meals to work with me for easy meals during the week but this can be expensive.

I am looking for a way to pre-cook pasta and rice meals on weekends - preferably every 2nd weekend so that I can just add a tasty sauce, microwave it and stir at work.

Unfortunately rice or pasta I cook at home has a limited lifespan kept in the fridge.

Is there anyway I can increase it's lifespan like the precooked meals purchased in supermarkets?

Also any ideas fot the best sauces to go with them that can be pre-cooked and stored?

Thanks for your help

 

[Haggis]

I think the best solution to your problem would be to prepare the sauce at the weekend, divide it up into suitable sized portions and freeze it.

Then on the morning, cook your pasta or rice. Cooking pasta and rice takes next to no time and can easily be done while your eating/showering/etc (or cook 2 days worth one morning and refrigerate what you don't take on the day). I would not suggest cooking the rice or pasta then freezing it, this will only result in poor texture.

Tomato sauces (and all it's variations) are simple to cook and freeze well.

 

[Barbara L]

One thing you might want to do is check out the frozen section of your grocery store to see what types of pasta and rice dishes are there. If they are freezing them, so can you. I know I have had some decent Fetticine Alfredo frozen entrees. Things with tomato based sauces seem to work well for freezing.

Barbara

 

[Gretchen]

You can freeze cooked rice and pasta. Toss it with just a little bit of olive oil and freeze with or without your sauce. Reheating rice in the microwave works best at lower levels.

 

[Alix]

To add to what you have already been told, if you are going to be reheating the pasta or the rice you can avoid the "squishy" texture by slightly undercooking them both before freezing them. Try making up several smaller meals on the weekend and freezing them in individual containers. This works really well. The added bonus is that when you put the frozen lunch in your bag it keeps your drink and fruit nice and chilly too!

Oops, forgot to comment on the sauces.
A nice tomato/meat sauce works well with pasta. As does a well done alfredo (there are some lovely recipes here for those), or a cheese sauce for the pasta.

For the rice I think I would go with stirfrying a few veggies and some meat and freezing that over the rice, or perhaps doing some pork chunks in BBQ sauce and putting those on the rice.

There are lots of options. Let us know what you tried. If you would like recipes for anything I mentioned, let me know and I will provide a link or a recipe for you.

 

[vyapti]

I make my lunches in bulk and freeze them in plastic containers. I make pasta and rice all the time. The freezer will make them a little soggy (especially the rice), but still good enough--and I've got no problems with pasta.

 

[Gretchen]

Use Uncle Ben's rice and it won't get soggy at all.

 

[Sharla]

Thanks

Thanks to everyone for all your suggestions!

I didn't expect so many fast, helpful replies!

I will give all your suggestions a try -

Which means I am bound to have more questions later as I really am a very bad cook!

I am very appreciative!

 

[jennyema]

Improper storage of cooked rice can give you a particularly nasty type of food poisioning. from the bacillus bacteria.

I've been there.

So make sure you keep your cooked rice refrigerated until you eat it.