Pans for Freezer Meals: Alternatives to Aluminum?

[nestakorine]

I am making about 15 freezer meals for after the birth of my baby.  While I'd love to make these in glass pyrex, I fear for the people who'd have to clean all these up.  At the same time of course, I am not happy with the idea of eating food cooked in aluminum, for a month.  Any ideas for pans that can be tossed but are made of something more healthy than aluminum? 

Thanks!

[Youngfrankenstein]

I was going to suggest the Pyrex with the rubber lids.  Are you saying you don't want people to have the burden of washing more dishes?  If so, I wouldn't worry about that.  You can soak a really dirty pyrex and then put it in the dishwasher or wash it up with not too much trouble.  What if you lined the aluminum with something: parchment paper or wax paper???

[swd12422]

Let them clean up! The people who are there to help are THERE TO HELP. Don't compromise your standards if you feel strongly about aluminum or disposables. (I don't have any non-aluminum recs for you, sorry... Maybe try at Whole Foods or a market that sells lots of earth-friendly/organic products. If there's something else out there, those are the stores that will have it.) And like YF said, so you run some water in the pyrex, let it sit, and then put it in the dishwasher. Anyone who's there to help shouldn't balk at that. It's not like you're asking to use your fine china and then demanding it be washed and dried by hand.

[lunarlady]

I would go for the glass. Of course, you might not have that many glass dishes. So you might need to make the meal, pop it out of the pan once frozen, then wrap and freeze. To serve, you unwrap, place back in the pan, and heat.

Otherwise, would suggest making meals that don't actually cook in the pan, like marinated meat to put on the grill, chili/soup in single servings to microwave and serve, or thaw and eat foods like quiche, hummus, or pesto cubes for pasta.

I also support the idea of prepping in a way that makes it easy to serve the food. Don't stress too much about cleanup. Let the people who want to help you worry about the dishes. Heck, if money isn't the issue glass dishes can be recycled the same as aluminum. Or so can steel pans. Good luck with the baby and all your preparations.

[Katico]

This is what I would suggest!  Line you dish with parchment or foil, freeze the food in it then remove and wrap the meal.  Then you can cook it in the same pan later on!

I've done this with all sorts of things - enchiladas, baked pasta, chicken pot pie etc!
 

Originally Posted by lunarlady 

I would go for the glass. Of course, you might not have that many glass dishes. So you might need to make the meal, pop it out of the pan once frozen, then wrap and freeze. To serve, you unwrap, place back in the pan, and heat.