My strategy is a follows: Cook a big batch of food with spreadable consistency (e.g. bolognese sauce, hummus, lentil daal, mixed vegetable puree) in an electri

My strategy is a follows: Cook a big batch of food with spreadable consistency (e.g. bolognese sauce, hummus, lentil daal, mixed vegetable puree) in an electric pressure cooker. Ideally this should all be done in one pot. Pour the food into an aluminum roasting pan, greatly increasing its surface area to volume ratio. Take a plastic storage box of similar shape to the roasting pan but slightly larger, put lots of ice in it, and add just enough water to cover the ice. Float the roasting pan full of food in the ice bath. Let the food cool to below room temperature, stirring occasionally to speed this up. Keep the storage box lid on while not stirring. This shouldn't take more than about half an hour. Spoon the food into silicone muffin trays, and put it into the freezer. Wait for the food to freeze, take it out, transfer it to plastic bags, and return it to the freezer. This makes convenient blocks of food that can be defrosted by microwaving. I make batches of 24 at a time. One is enough for a snack/side dish, two a small main, three a regular main, and four a large main. They can be mixed for variety. The easiest complete meal is a bowl of rolled oats, water, and frozen blocks of food. The whole thing can be reheated by microwaving (rolled oats are sold already cooked), and because the frozen food was cooled so quickly I'm not worried about food safety if it's not thoroughly reheated. Yogurt/pickles/etc. can be added for more variety. I think the ice bath and aluminum roasting pan are necessary, because it's otherwise difficult to cool large batches of food. The silicone muffin trays double as giant ice cube trays when they're not being used to freeze the food. You could probably use metal muffin trays instead, but silicone makes it easy to remove the frozen stuff.