Prior to vacation I knew when I got home I was going to prep a few freezer meals to make life easy for my husband while I work late hours. Typically I take a meal out in the morning, and he pops it in the oven - or if I'm really nice, I set the crock pot and dinner is ready for when he gets home! Since I knew I was going to prep a few meals, one of the places we stopped on vacation is the Christmas Tree Shop. I was able to get foil pans for CHEAP! I got 8 round ones, 8 square and 4 lasagna pans for $1.79 (for the entire pack!!!) When you are freezer cooking, you want to find great deals like that. Usually I will go to the dollar store and pick them up, but this was a jackpot find! You also want to be on the lookout for Gallon Freezer Bags. I have used all brands and they all seem to work - so if you want inexpensive, go for the non-name brand! You can find those at the Dollar Store, etc. as well!
I tend to "pin" a lot of freezer meals onto Pinterest! I've found quite a few that I like - but I'm always willing to try new ones as well. This time it was a mix of both. You will find if you look through recipes, you will have most of the ingredients (herbs, spices, mustard, etc.) so it doesn't cost that much more to cook this way. Where you will be spending the bulk of the money is on the meat products. If you are a crazy shopper (I am not) you can look at all of the store fliers to see what meat is on sale when, where, etc! Sometimes - I will go to our local meat market and get a meat package and cook based on what I have ordered! I'm all about easy - and time consuming...As a mom of twins with a full time job and 2 "part time jobs" (I own my own cupcake business and I occasionally work at my brothers Boston Restaurant as a host) I don't have time to run to 50 different stores to find where the cheapest package of chicken may be!
So - this weekend, the recipes I made are: Tuscan Minestrone Soup, Pork Tenderloin with Apple Cranberry Sauce, Pioneer Woman's Perfect Pot Roast, Spaghetti Sauce, Cilantro Lime Chicken Tacos, Chicken Enchiladas, Chicken Pot Pie and Apple, pear and Pork Deliciousness!
First - I went through my cabinets to see what ingredients I already had (which I did already have a lot of them) - so I headed to the grocery store to pick up meat, veggies and a few canned goods that I needed. I do try to buy everything low in sugar and sodium! My son can't have a lot of sugar, so even when things call for a certain amount, I do cut the sugar in the recipes.
When I got home - I took out my 2 large packages of chicken breast (there were 8 in each package) and I put 1 full package and 1/2 of the 2nd package in the crock pot. I knew this needed to be done first so I could shred my chicken. You can also boil it for 20 min - but I had time. I put the chicken in with a little salt and pepper and about a 1/4 cup of water. I set it on low from 6pm - 12am and then shut it off. If you want it done sooner, it would take about 2-3 hours in the crock pot on high. While this was cooking, I took the last 4 chicken breasts and cut them in thin strips. I sauteed them on the stove until they were cooked through and then set aside to cool.
Once the chicken in the crock pot was done - I cooled it overnight (you don't have to do this - but I wasn't going to shred chicken at midnight!) When I woke up this a.m. - I shred the chicken and put it in a big bowl - as I knew I was going to use it for 2 different recipes.
When I cook - I start with a basic recipe, but then I change things around to make it my own - so to post the site where I found them, I honestly can't remember without going through every one of my pinterest boards! I have to be better at documenting where I got them from! Please note all of these recipes are for the size of my family - which is 2 adults and 2 kids - I do make a few bigger meals for when my step-son is here, but most of these I do during the week, so it feeds my family of 4. If you have more - or less, you may end up having more containers of food - or less, just depends on how you package them. One hint when you do use gallon bags, make sure you get all of the air out of it - you don't want freezer burn!
**If you are using gallon zip lock bags - write the name of the recipe and how to cook it BEFORE you put the food in the bags!**
Here are the recipes in order of how I did them:
Cilantro Chicken Tacos - FREEZER recipe
**Made 2 bags for freezer**
Thin sliced strips of chicken
Salt & Pepper for seasoning
1 bunch of cilantro
1 lime
2 tbs olive oil
Season chicken w/salt and pepper, saute until cooked through and no longer pink. Make pesto sauce - I used my small "Magic Bullet" blender and put the cilantro, olive oil, salt, pepper and lime juice and blended it down to make a liquid paste. I then divided the chicken between 2 Gallon Zip Bags and then divided the pesto as well. I mixed it all together. With this one, you will heat it up on the stove and serve it in tortillas with whatever taco toppings you want!
Chicken Pot Pie
**Made 2 foil pie pans**
Shredded chicken
peas / carrot frozen veggies
1 package of Pillsbury Pie Crust (You can make your own if you want)
Gravy - I made my own ... recipe to follow
I set up the 2 foil pans and put shredded chicken on the bottom of both(I took it from the large bowl that I shred earlier) You want to make sure you have enough chicken in there - so I covered the bottom! Then I sprinkled 1/2 a bag of peas/Carrot mixture over the chicken. So 1 bag covered both dishes. My daughter wanted broccoli in the pot pie - so I put some chopped broccoli in it as well. Then I made my own gravy: 1/2 stick of butter, melt in the pan. Sprinkle 1/2 cup of flour in melted butter and make a roux. I then used Low Sodium chicken broth after I made the roux and brought it to a boil. Seasoned w/Salt, Pepper and Thyme. One the consistency was thick like gravy, I poured 1/2 over each dish. I mixed it up a bit - but knowing when you cook it again, the gravy will mix up as well. I then rolled out a pie crust over the top, cut 3 slits and then covered with foil. You want to write on the foil: Chicken Pot Pie - Brush top with Milk - Bake 350 for 35-45 minutes.
Chicken Enchiladas
**Made 4 foil square cake pans**
Shredded Chicken
1 32oz can Enchilada Sauce
Cheddar Cheese (I buy the Mexican flavor)
Package of Tortillas - Usually I buy the 8 large, this time I bought a package 20 smaller ones
At this point, I didn't need the shredded chicken for any other recipes, so I poured 1/2 the container of enchilada sauce into the chicken and sprinkled about a cup of cheese. I mixed it all around so everything was covered. Next time I would buy 1 32 oz can of sauce and 1 15 oz can - so I can use more.
I took the sauce and drizzled it over the bottom of the cake pan. Take 1 tortilla and lay it in the pan, put chicken and cheese in the center and roll it up - make sure the seam side is down. I put 5 enchiladas per pan. As I mentioned before, you can make a bigger pan of them - I usually do larger ones, but this time I wanted to try smaller.
Once they are set in the pan, drizzle a bit more sauce over the top and sprinkle cheese. Cover with foil and write: Enchiladas Bake 350 for 25 min
Apple, Pear & Pork Deliciousness
**Made 1 gallon Bag**
3 Granny Smith Apples sliced
2 Pears (I bought the brown ones) - Sliced
1 Onion sliced
1 3-5 Pork Roast (cut into cubes) (Mine was 2.75)
SAUCE
1 1/2 c brown sugar
1 1/2 c apple juice
1/2 c vinegar
3 Tbsp mustard
Put the above (not the sauce) into a freezer bag (If you buy a bigger pork roast - or have a smaller family, you can get 2 meals out of this). In a separate bowl, mix up the sauce. Pour over ingredients in bag. Write on bag: Apple, Pear & Pork - **Add 2 1/2 C water to crock pot Cook low 6-8 Hours
Pork Tenderloin with Apple Cranberry Sauce
2 lb pork tenderloin
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1/2 c brown sugar
2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 c dried cranberries
3 peeled and chopped granny smith apples
Season pork w/salt/pepper and all all ingredients to bag. Write on bag: Apple Cranberry Pork - Cook low 6-8 Hours
I do have to say...this one smells AMAZING and I can't wait to try it!!
Pioneer Woman's Perfect Pot Roast
**1 gallon bag**
1 3-5 lb Chuck Roast
3 tbsp Olive Oil
2 whole onions peeled and halved
6-8 carrots unpeeled cut in 2 in pieces
2-3 sprigs fresh rosemary
2-3 sprigs fresh thyme
1 cup red wine
3 cups beef broth
Place all ingredients EXCEPT beef broth and wine in bag. Write on bag: Low 6-8 hrs Add 1 cup wine 3 cup beef broth. On day of cooking, add wine and broth to crock pot - cook low 6-8 hrs
Tuscan Minestrone Soup
I doubled this recipe!
I will put this in containers for the freezer, but you can also put it in gallon freezer bags and freeze flat.
2 tbsp olive oil
1 small zucchini
1 summer squash
1 carrot diced
1 onion diced
2 cloves garlic - minced
4 cans low sodium ckn broth
1 15 oz can of diced tomatoes - I like it w/a kick so I bought the ones with Green Chiles
1 15 oz can Cannellini Beans
1/2 cup pasta - elbow or small shell
fresh thyme sprigs - if available
1 tsp dried italian herbs
salt/pepper to taste
1/4 cup basil
heat oil over medium heat. Add veggies and saute for about 10 min. Add garlic and cook until fragrant - about 30 seconds. Pour chicken broth and tomatoes into the pan and bring to a boil. ** Add beans, pasta, thyme and simmer until pasta is done
**I will freeze this without the beans and pasta. I find that when I make soup, the pasta and the beans expand and get mushy. So if you know you will be heating this up, keep a can of beans on hand as well as the pasta. When you put it in the pan to reheat, you can boil the pasta at that time!
Mamamanz Spaghett Sauce
If I tell you...I'd have to kill you!
This is it in a nutshell - as I mentioned, you can alter the recipes and add ingredients, seasonings that you and your family like. Please let me know if you try any of these and if you added something to make it better! Many of these recipes I am trying myself for the first time, so sometimes it's hit or miss! It may sound amazing - but it may need a lot of doctoring for it to taste good!
Bon Appetit!
