Category Archives: freezer cooking friday

Freezer Cooking Friday: Getting Started

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I’ve been posting Freezer Cooking Friday for a few weeks now, and I just realized that I kind of jumped in and never really posted a “Getting Started” guide. That’s typical of me, actually; I have a tendency to jump into things in the middle, not the beginning. But that’s a story for another time.

Freezer Cooking is also known as “Once a Month Cooking” or, “Make Ahead Meal Planning”. I like to call it Freezer Cooking because it’s quick and easy to say, for one, and I don’t like to commit to making so many meals (ie: for a month at a time). Most of the time my prep/cooking sessions provide enough meals for about two weeks, and that is what’s been working for me. Sometimes I’ll even divide it up and have two sessions: one for chicken and/or pork, and one for beef.

To get started, you need some recipes that sound good to you and your family, the groceries (obviously), the supplies, and of course, freezer space. I’ll tackle supplies, first.

 Supplies

  • Foil – make sure you get a roll of the heavy-duty aluminum foil to help prevent freezer burn and to keep your foods fresh
  • Gallon-Size Freezer Bags – I went to Sam’s and got the giant mega-pack of a certain name-brand Freezer Bag. I should be stocked for a while (and they have so many uses!)
  • Plastic Wrap – sometimes it helps to cover your dish in plastic wrap then again with foil – again, preserving freshness
  • Disposable/Foil pans – this really depends on what you’re making. I like to use the foil baking pans for enchiladas and pasta dishes, that way my regular pans aren’t all in the freezer at the same time. Plus I don’t have that many baking dishes, and would like to keep it that way. It’s not exactly “green”, but I like to be able to throw the pan away instead of cleaning it up (I’m lazy that way).

Once you have all of the supplies lined up, you’re ready to get going and plan your session. There are some nice printable lists out there to help you plan, but I just use a notebook to list out the recipes I’ll be using, where those recipes are (Pinterest, cookbook, printed sheet of paper), and what groceries I need. Here’s an example of my plan for one session:

Nothing fancy about this!

I stuck to that plan for the most part, but for some reason I still haven’t made Cheddar & Cracker chicken (but its still on my list!).

I’ve recommended it before, but the book Don’t Panic, Dinner’s in the Freezer is an excellent resource. It not only has great recipes that I use over and over again, it also has a great guide on the best ways to pack your prepped meals for the freezer. It tells you when to use freezer bags, and when the foil/plastic wrap method is best. In the recipes I post, I try to mention which method to use as well, but if you want a comprehensive guide on freezing just about everything, check out the book.

The most important thing, in my opinion, is to have a plan. You want to make sure you have all of the ingredients you need, and the right way to wrap your foods for the freezer. Once your freezer is stocked, you won’t look back!

Next week I’ll talk a little more about the actual cooking/prep session. Happy cooking until then!

Freezer Cooking Friday: Menu Plan 10/29

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I know I skipped Freezer Cooking Friday for the last two weeks, but it’s back! It’s time for another round of cooking ahead and getting my freezer stocked up again. I’ll be heading to Sam’s Club on Saturday morning bright and early (if 10am qualifies as bright and early) to pick up some staples and meat. I’ll be buying one 5 pound pack of ground beef, and one large tray of chicken breasts. Then Saturday or Sunday afternoon – most likely during naptime – I’ll be whipping up some dinners to have later in the week.

Here’s the plan:

Ground beef:

Chicken Breasts:

So, that’s the plan. Be sure to check back next week to see what I actually finished and have in the freezer! I’ll also include reviews of any new recipes that we tried. Be sure to check out the rest of the posts in my Freezer Cooking Friday series!

Recipe: Easy Beef Enchiladas

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I don’t even know how I started making this recipe, but I whipped it up one time for my parents back in my single days, and it’s been a hit in my family ever since. My kids even love these enchiladas, and that’s saying a lot right there. The recipe has been adapted a little bit over the years here and there - sometimes rice and/or refried beans will be added – but for the most part it stays pretty basic. I hope you love it as much as we do.

Shannon’s Easy Beef Enchiladas
Photos Coming Soon!
Ingredients:
  • 1 pound ground beef
  • 1 packet Taco Seasoning
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 pack flour tortillas, small or medium, whichever you prefer – base it on your pan size
  • 2 cups chredded cheddar cheese (I prefer Sharp)
  • 2-3 small cans or 1 large can Old El Paso Red Enchilada Sauce (my fave) – amount depends on how saucy you like your enchiladas
Brown ground beef with onion until cooked through. Mix in taco seasoning according to instructions on packet. Remove from heat.
Pour about 1/4 cup enchilada sauce in bottom of greased baking dish and spread around. I usually use a 9×13 glass dish.
Place one tortilla on a plate, and spread about a teaspoon of sauce around entire tortilla. Scoop meat and onion mixture on tortilla, then sprinkle with cheese. Roll, and place seam down in pan.
Continue with the rest of tortillas until you either run out of meat or space in the pan.

Pour remaining sauce over enchiladas, making sure all of them are covered. I also like to make sure the sauce gets down in between the enchiladas – if they’re packed tightly in the pan, I just scooch (technical term) them aside a bit as I pour the sauce.

If you’re freezing the enchiladas to cook later, STOP HERE. Cover the pan in foil, then wrap in foil again. If you’re using a smaller pan, like an 8×8 foil pan, cover in foil, then slip into a freezer bag. Make sure you mark the package somehow that’s Enchiladas. No one likes a mystery pack in the freezer! When you’re ready to bake the enchiladas, thaw, remove foil, then continue the steps below.

Top entire dish with shredded cheese according to your taste. We love cheese in this house, so I usually use a full 2 cups on the top.

Bake at 375 for about 25 minutes or until it’s nice and bubbly and the cheese on top is melted. Tip: If you like crispy, or slightly burnt cheese, leave them in a bit longer. We happily discovered this one time when using an unfamiliar oven timer.

Dig in and enjoy!

The great thing about this recipe is that it’s easy to adapt to your tastes. The measurements aren’t exact; use as much or as little sauce and cheese as you like. Add more vegetables, use chicken or turkey instead of ground beef if you like.



Recipe: Crockpot Salsa Chicken

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If you’re a crockpot nut like me, you’re going to love this. The only thing better than throwing something in the crockpot in the morning to be ready that evening is just dumping the premixed ingredients out of a freezer bag into the crockpot. No fuss, no gathering of ingredients, just dump it, turn on the crockpot (a very important step), then go!

If you’ve been paying attention, I’ve started a series called Freezer Cooking Fridays right here on this blog. This series stemmed from my newfound love of Freezer Cooking, so I’ve been trying to combine Freezer Cooking and Crockpot Cooking. The results have been great so far! It’s simple: take your favorite Crockpot recipe, gather ingredients, do any prep work needed, put everything in a freezer bag, and pop it into the freezer. Then when that busy morning comes along, toss everything from the freezer bag into the crockpot, set it, and you’re done! You don’t even have to thaw it out, which works out great for me.

So, are you ready to try it for yourself? Here’s a perfect recipe to get you started with Crockpot Freezer Cooking…

Crockpot Salsa Chicken – Freezer Style
photos coming soon!

Ingredients:

  • 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
  • 1 jar of salsa or picante sauce (regular size jar)
  • 1 can black beans, drained
  • 1 can of corn, drained, or about 2 cups of frozen corn

Combine ingredients in freezer bag, place in freezer. Done!

Night before Cooking Day: take bag out of freezer and leave in fridge overnight. If it doesn’t thaw a little bit, you might have a hard time fitting the frozen chunk into the crockpot.

On Cooking Day: Dump contents of freezer bag into crockpot, and cover. Cook on low 8 hours or until it looks good. If ingredients aren’t frozen, cook on low 4 hours or until chicken is no longer pink.

Enjoy!

Freezer Cooking Friday: Recipes to Try

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Today’s Freezer Cooking Friday consists of a list of recipes that I want to try, and those that we’ve enjoyed over the past week. I didn’t do any freezer cooking this week, but we have been enjoying the fruits of my previous labors! I love having a stocked freezer.
Here’s what we had in the last week:
  • Monday: Enchiladas (recipe coming soon!) – this was the first time I tried my regular enchilada recipe for the freezer. It was a hit! They weren’t soggy, or too dry, so I’ll be making this one ahead again soon. Really soon. I love enchiladas.
  • Tuesday: Hawaiian Chicken in the Crockpot, from Don’t Panic, Dinner’s in the Freezer. Another yummy one that’s always a family favorite. It’s so easy to throw everything in a ziploc bag to freeze, then on cooking day, just dump it into the crockpot. Dinner is done!
  • Wednesday: Tacos – pre-cooked and seasoned ground beef, thawed, reheated in microwave. Such a timesaver.
  • Thursday: Leftovers for me and the hubs, chicken nuggets for the kids. Also known as “cop-out” night.
  • Friday: Typically our day to eat out, or dine with parents, which is the case tonight (spaghetti!).
The freezer stock is getting low, but we’re on vacation next week, so I won’t do another session of cooking/prepping for probably another two weeks. But I can still hunt down recipes in the meantime, and get a headstart on planning. Or at least, planning the way I plan – lists in notebooks.
Recipes I want to try in my next cooking session:
  • Cheesy Rigatoni Bake, Daily Dish Recipes – Looks so cheesy! I love cheese, so I know this would be a winner
  • Cheddar & Cracker Chicken, What’s Cooking Chicago – This was on my list to try last time, but I ran out of chicken. Definitely doing next time. Again, cheese.
  • Pepperoni Roll-Ups, Dinner with the Donnells – I love pizza, the kids love pizza, and who doesn’t like crescent rolls?
  • Taco Meat – a staple in our house
  • Enchiladas – see above
  • Crockpot Orange Chicken, The Pursuit of Happiness - this one looks really good, so I think I’ll make it this go ’round.

Well, that’s a start. Have you tried Freezer Cooking yet? Try it! You won’t go back to those harried weeknight dinner times, I swear. Enjoy!

Freezer Cooking Fridays

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I decided to start a new little feature here on the ol’ blog: Freezer Cooking Fridays. I’ve talked about Freezer Cooking, or Cooking Ahead, before, and I’ve become a huge fan of it. It’s so easy to get a bunch of meals planned and prepped and stashed in the freezer, then have them ready to go on a busy weeknight. And let’s face it, is there ever a weeknight that’s not busy? Not in our house. Both my husband and I work full time, and we have two small children who are in school all day. By the time we’re all home, we barely have enough time to get dinner on the table and the kids bathed before it’s time for bed. Who wants to cook? Not me.

Enter freezer cooking. Some people do a month’s worth of meals ahead of time, but I’m not that organized. Plus I don’t have enough space in my freezer for all of that, plus the giant bags of chicken nuggets and fishsticks that are staples. I generally prepare enough meals for about 2 weeks…or whatever I have time to whip up after the kids are in bed.

Here’s the plan: every week I’ll feature what I have prepared in the previous week and have in the freezer. Not necessarily a menu (again, not that organized), but just a list, and maybe it’ll inspire some of you out there to try it. I know you all are busy too, and I can’t thank you enough for stopping in and reading!

This week, I started with 5 pounds of ground beef, and 6 pounds of giant boneless, skinless chicken breasts. I love Sam’s Club. On Tuesday night I started with the ground beef. Here was my plan:

I knew I wouldn’t have time to do the chicken and ground beef in one night, so I’m planning on doing the chicken this weekend.
From the ground beef, I made:
  • 1 batch of enchiladas (recipe coming!)
  • 2 batches (entrees) of No Boil Baked Penne - the recipe calls for a 9×13 pan, but I split it into 2-8×8 pans.
  • 2 pounds of taco meat – ground beef seasoned with Old El Paso taco seasoning. We eat tacos A LOT
  • 1 pound uncooked meat that was supposed to be Cheeseburger Meatloaf, but it was 10:30pm and I still had cleaning up to do, so I skipped it and froze the uncooked meat.
This weekend I’ll be working on the chicken side of things. The plan, as shown above, is:
I”ll post the missing recipes soon, and will continue to feature different recipes each week to help you on your way to a stocked freezer. Be sure to stop in next week for more freezer cooking fun!

Cheeseburger Meatloaf – The Recipe

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– Photo Courtesy of MoneySavingMom –
Cheeseburger Meatloaf

1 lb. ground beef
1 cup (4 oz.) shredded sharp cheddar cheese
3/4 cup uncooked regular oats (I had to substitute crushed Ritz crackers – still yummy!)
1/2 cup milk
2 Tbsp. minced onion (I used chopped raw onion)
1 large egg
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 dry mustard
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 cup chili sauce (I substituted barbecue sauce instead)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine first 11 ingredients in a large bowl; stir just until blended. Shape mixture into a loaf, and place in an ungreased 8×4-inch loafpan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Pour chili sauce over meat loaf, and bake 40 more minutes or until meat is no longer pink in center. Let stand for 10 minutes. Drain and cut into 8 slices.

To freeze: If you used meat that had not yet been frozen, you can freeze this uncooked. When you’re ready to eat, thaw, and follow the instructions above for cooking.

If your meat had already been frozen, bake without chili sauce on top. Freeze. When you’re ready to eat, thaw meatloaf. Pour chili sauce (or BBQ sauce) on top and heat in oven until hot.

—> Shannon’s Note -> Freezer Packaging: Form into loaf, then wrap in plastic wrap. Wrap again in foil, label, and toss in the freezer.

– Recipe and photo courtesy of Money Saving Mom


My First Attempt at Freezer Cooking – And Not the Last!

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–Photo Courtesy of DailyDishRecipes 
Freezer cooking. Have you tried it? A few months ago I decided I would give it a go and see what it’s all about. I had read about it on sites such as Money Saving Mom and Once a Month Mom, and was intrigued. You mean I can prepare and/or cook a bunch of meals in one day and then throw them in the freezer for later? Then on a busy weeknight just throw something in the oven and be done? I’m in.
I actually didn’t even go overboard on this project – shocker I know. I decided that I would buy a cookbook and look online, pick out a few recipes, then prepare enough meals for a week’s worth of dinners. I did a bit of research and found Don’t Panic, Dinner’s in the Freezer on Amazon, used some Amazon gift cards I got from Swagbucks, and poof! it was at my door in a couple of days. Have I mentioned lately that I love Amazon? Anyway…As soon as I received the book I was going through and making lists; tons of great recipes that even my kids would eat. Cheesy Chicken Bundles? Done. Hawaiian Chicken in the Crockpot? You betcha. There’s even a recipe for Teriyaki Sauce that looks good, but I still need to make.
So I did my shopping, hit Sam’s Club for the huge trays of ground beef and chicken breasts, the regular grocery store for the fill-in ingredients and I was ready. I temporarily misplaced my camera, so I didn’t get any pictures, but here’s a list of what I prepared:
  • 2 pounds of taco meat (browned ground beef with taco seasoning)
  • 2 loaves of Cheeseburger Meatloaf (check “Recipes” page for details)
  • 1 Hawaiian Chicken Crockpot dish – just need to thaw it and throw it in the crockpot – done!
  • 8 or 10 (I forget) Cheesy Chicken Bundles – probably enough for 2 meals, the way the kids eat
  • About 2 dozen meatballs – and I LOVE meatballs, so this will just be enough for one meal
All in all, I have about 8 meals ready and waiting in my freezer, and I did this all on a Sunday afternoon. There was very little cooking involved, thankfully – really the only cooking I did was the ground beef for tacos. Everything else I just prepared, packaged, and tossed in the freezer. Love it! Now all I have to do is figure out what we’re having when, take it out of the freezer to thaw, then pop it in the oven. Dinner’s ready! I love making taco filling ahead of time; all I have to do is warm up the meat, set up the taco toppings, and dinner’s ready in about 5 minutes. Perfect.
If you’re new to Freezer Cooking, or Once a Month or Week Cooking, I highly recommend Don’t Panic, Dinner’s in the Freezer. There are lots of other books out there on the subject, and excellent blogs and ideas online, but this is the book I used. They explain in great detail the best way to package the meals for the freezer, and all of the recipes sound yummy.
I’ll post the recipe for the Cheeseburger Meatloaf right after this one. Its SO yum. You’ll love it.
In my research for this post, I also found Daily Dish Recipes, and am totally in love. I’ll be doing lots of recipe-printing in a few minutes!