Freezerable Recipes

Wow SB, you rock!

I have been reading every posting I see on here about food and recipes, especially make ahead stuff, and bookmarking it because I have been so stuck in a rut lately. SB's posting was great for ideas. The only things I have to add that she didn't mention are layered chicken enchiladas or chicken enchilada casserole, white chili, and shepherds pie.

For enchiladas- I just layer the tortillas instead of rolling, they are pretty hard to keep separated after freezing, so why bother? Just layer corn tortillas, sauce, chicken and cheese. I love this one. White Chili has shredded chicken, green chilis, and white beans. Defrost, heat and add cheese and fritos or crunched up tortilla chips. And Shepherds Pie is just ground beef, peas, carrots, corn in a gravy, topped with mashed potatoes.

I have to defrost some things I make for 2 days, so just keep that in mind. I dont defrost everything, but if an ingredient will get mushy with overcooking, I defrost first. Go to Super Suppers website and take a look at their menu, it will give you a better idea of what can be frozen well. I use allrecipes.com as well for all the recipes on here, I like their site a lot.

I do this all the time! Before our daughter was born I made a bunch of extra stuff up ahead of time and put it in our deep freeze. It was a sanity and life saver! I didn't have to really cook for abojut two months after my daughter was born. And now I always have a few things in the freezer for those nights I just don't want to cook!

For me I planned menus about a month or so before I was due that could be frozen. Then I doubled or even tripled the recipes. I had one for dinner that night and put the rest away. This way I didn't have to stay holed up in the kitchen forever.

Getting things packaged right is key to freezing things for longer periods of time. I have a vacuum sealer, but for many of the items I freeze, the sealer won't work. It's not good for larger items or liquids. And you can freeze something like a soup and then vacuum seal it, I don't recommend it...I have had bad outcomes. Before freezing anything, make sure it it is completely cool, this helps prevent ice crystals from forming.

Many soups freeze well. I made up a chicken cheese corn chowder (which is REALLY easy to make), chicken noodle and spinach sausage. Chili also does well in the freezer. I put them in ziplock bags. I placed the bags in 2 qt juice pitchers and fill them with the soup. I put the pitchers in the freezer and when they were frozen solid, I removed the bags from the pitchers and stored them in the freezer. Putting them in the pitcher helped me with portions and they stored well in my deep freeze.

Baked ziti and lasagna, both do well in the freezer. The recipes I have make large batches, so I split them and got two meals out of each one.(http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Baked-Ziti-I/Detail.aspx) (http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Worlds-Best-Lasagna/Detail.a... I store these in disposable pans.I wrap in saran wrap (really wrap...all the way around) and then put tin foil over the top. The night I cook it, I reuse the tinfoil...putting tinfoil over the top will help it heat through without browning the cheese. And often I do wash the toss away pan to reuse for another time (but not when things are insane and definitely not with a new baby in the house!)

Pot pies freeze well. I find these are easy to make in large batches. I make these a dozen or so at a time. They are my "go to" food when I don't feel like cooking.

I bought a variety of frozen veggies at Sam's to have on hand as side dishes. I also bought some frozen blackened Salmon from Sam's as well. It is surprisingly good for a packaged food.

I have my husband grill up a variety of meats when he has time. Then I vacuum sealed them and froze them, but a ziplock bag will have worked. They are definitely better fresh, but with this much chaos, who notices the difference really? These are easy to microwave or reheat on the stove top or oven. I have noticed that pouring a little broth over the meat helps them reheat better, they don't get overly dried out.

Lumpia and egg rolls can also be made ahead of time and frozen. It helps to wrap them in wax paper before putting them in baggies. Fried rice, which can be served as a side or main dish, does well too - although if I am going to add shrimp or chicken I do that the night we are going to eat it, I don't freeze it with meat. Red beans and rice does well, but make sure to add a little water when you go to reheat it. I store all of these in ziplock bags (vacuum bag have a tendency to rip the egg rolls and lumpia apart a little bit)

Meatballs for spaghetti and sandwiches can be frozen too. This is fun because my son likes to help make the meatballs. We make our own spaghetti sauce and I have that in our freezer as well. But canned sauce will definitely work!

I tried to freeze a spinach quiche, but it didn't do well in the freezer, it got a bit grainy.

I also make up dinner rolls, garlic bread and bread bowls and froze them. You just want to bake them for about half the time, let them cool completely and then freeze. They store well in ziplock bags. When it comes time to heat them up, you can throw them in the oven frozen and cook for the remaining time.

Hope this helps!

Let me know if you want specific recipes...I can email them to you.

My moms' group does make-ahead meal play dates about twice a month, and the mom who hosts the play date posts the recipes on this blog: http://momtestedkidapproved.blogspot.com/. There are a lot of great recipes on there, both for freezer meals and meals to make that day. I hope that helps! Good luck with your surgery!

Make a bunch of plain ole chicken and freeze separately by putting a certain amount in foil. This can be thawed and used in tons of different recipes......like chicken tacos, chicken salad, chicken nachos.

Have you ever cooked a flat cut brisket? After cooking the layer of fat on top slides off and you have a very lean meat to slice and freeze.

Spagetti sauce is a good one, and you could do soup or stews as well. I will let them cool, then refrigerate until cold and then store in the freezer. If you go to allrecipes.com you can find some great things to make large batches of and then freeze. There is even a homemade french bread recipe on there.

this isn't a recipe but really helps me since I work full time and have little time to make dinner when i'm home. i cook 6 pounds of hamburger with chopped onions at a time. then i put it in 6 quart size baggies and freeze them. then when i want a pasta dish, taco's, etc, i just grab a bag and throw it in! i also like to keep frozen pizza's when they are on sale for a quick easy dinner and i get frozen fish sticks to eat with mac n chz and also with tortillas and cabbage for fish tacos. also hubby should be able to make the tuna helpers and hamburger helpers, they are easy and everyone generally likes them. i also chop up a head of lettus, cabbage and carrots and keep in a big container in the fridge and the kids are great salad eaters so we have it almost every night. i hope this helps, good luck!

CHICKEN POT PIE

Ingredients
2 - 9” pie crusts
1 can veg-all, drained
2 cans cream of potato soup (or other cream soup of your choice)
½ cup milk
¼ tsp. Pepper
¼ tsp. Thyme
½ - 1 cup cooked, diced chicken

Directions
Line pie plate with 1st pie crust. Mix all ingredients together and pour into pie plate. Cover with 2nd pie crust. This can also be made with only one pie crust to cover the mixture.

Bake at 350 degrees until cooked/heated through – about 30 minutes.

To freeze, do everything but cook it!

Soups are also good and can be put in gallon freezer bags or smaller bags for individual servings. This takes up a lot less space.

CHICKEN AND MUSHROOM SOUP
Ingredients:
• 1/2 pound fresh mushrooms, chopped
• 1/4 cup each chopped onion, celery and carrot
• 1/4 cup butter, cubed
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 5-1/2 cups chicken broth
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon white pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
• Pinch dried tarragon
• 1/2 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
• 3 cups half-and-half cream
• 2-1/2 cups cubed cooked chicken
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley
• 1-1/2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
Directions:
In a Dutch oven, saute the mushrooms, onion, celery and carrot in butter until tender. Stir in flour until blended. Gradually add the broth and seasonings. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes.
Stir in the cream, chicken, parsley, lemon juice and salt; heat through (do not boil).

Yield: 11 servings (2-3/4 quarts).

I belong to a recipe website called www.allrecipies.com. They have thousands of recipes on a star rating system. You can also search recipes by topic like slow cooker etc. or by ingredients. There is also a recipe requests forum where you can ask questions and get answers from other cooks. I love this site hope you will to.

Anything you can throw in a crockpot can be frozen for at least a month, if not more depending on the meat that's in it. So, something with pork & beans with carrots & potatos or maybe some beef stew, chicken soup... It is easy to make, it makes a large amount so you can have it more than once and it's really tastey! Good luck on your upcoming surgery! :)

Soups are GREAT for freezing.

Soups, stews, chili, sloppy joe meat. Fruit pies for dessert. Or if your fruit is close to going bad (think really ripe bananas here), freeze it and make a smoothie at some future date.

I like the idea of cooking up a bunch of ground beef and splitting it into meal-size portions--then you just defrost one pouch and use it for a casserole, tacos, soup, whatever.

If meatballs freeze, then I bet meatloaf would too.

Bagged salad--not a frozen item, but worth it when you can't do all the slicing/dicing yourself, and an easy fresh veggie choice.

K. Z.