Freezer Sessions 2019...

[AuntJamelle]

Hello, hello, hello!

Never too early to start thinking about what we want to stock our freezers with this year! Are you going to try for some full meals? Parts of meals made ahead? Desserts? Appetizers?

So many options!

Let's plan and share!

 

[Minta]

I would love to get a few freezer meals done but I got make room in the freezer first. I do have 2 containers of turkey stock and premade hamburger patties made up and flash frozen in the freezer. This weekend I will make a batch of meatballs to put into the freezer.

 

[sweetpumkinpye]

So glad that this is back for 2019. I came upon the freezer sessions thread late last year and missed a lot. The bits I achieved certainly helped get through the busy period.
I have started this year planning a few freezer sessions with my mum. The first one was last week when we made 6 meals of Satay chicken and vegetables and 14 potato and vegetable bakes divided between mum and I. I also stewed a big pot of plums and and have 3 containers in the freezer to be used in the Winter to make deserts. Our next freezer session will be in a few weeks when we will make enough soups, quiches and beef and mushrooms to help get us through the Winter.

 

[Holiday_Mom]

We are still eating out of our freezer from the late fall cooking sessions. I did just pick up a bag of 10 lemons for $1 today. I plan on zesting and juicing them this week and then freezing the juice and zest.

 

[sweetpumkinpye]

Mary, my mind instantly went to lemonade....yum. Good deal on the lemons.

 

[missjane]

When we were grocery shopping Saturday morning, DH asked me when I was going to make some more meals for the freezer. Guess they were a hit! Now that DD21 is coming home, we won't be driving to California on spring break. That will be a good time to work on that. I suppose I need to do some recipe searches and make a list....of meals...and of groceries.

 

[MinnieCo]

Mary, I laugh at your post because 2 years ago I bought a case of limes from my food co-op. I juiced ALOT of limes, froze them in ice cube trays and then bagged them. I feel like I was using lime for 2 years. Kinda stressed me out to be honest...BUT I always had lime juice!!! It's very smart and something I'd do again, just not a CASE at a time.

 

[luludou]

Katrina, how do you make your potato, veggie bake?

 

[sweetpumkinpye]

Lucie.
Peel and thinly slice as many potatoes as you want to make.
I boil the potatoes and also boil mixed vegetables, diced carrots, peas, corn etc. what ever you want to have in the potato bake.
When cooked I drain and put the potatoes and veggies back into the pot.
In the meantime make a large quantity of basic white sauce., I add some curry powder to give the sauce a kick but that is optional. I mix the sauce through the potato until covered.
I place the potato bake into foil baking trays (use what ever you want to bake it in but I am dividing mine) and cover well with shredded cheese. Bake until the cheese is melted and golden.
When cool divide into portions and place into freezer proof containers and freeze. To reheat I take it out of the container and reheat gently in the oven or reheat in the microwave.

 

[luludou]

Thanks Katrina, will try that out! Always good to have a side of veggies/potatoes on hand.

 

[sweetpumkinpye]

Lucie, yes. I find this one quite versatile and how I can instantly make a meal out of some meat and a portion of potato bake.

 

[AuntJamelle]

So I found something new to do with one of my favorite freezer meal components! For our recent superbowl party I decided to thaw out bag of Cheesy Beef Taquito filling from the freezer and use it to fill muffin cups lined with a square of puff pastry. (I used silicone muffin pans and spritzed well with cooking spray but I'm sure regular pans would work too)

I topped with more shredded cheese, brushed tips of pastry still exposed with an egg wash and baked at 400 for 20 minutes or so - until I could tip up one of the the bundles and see the bottom was nicely browned.

They. Were. Awesome. Every single one got eaten, tons of compliments. I served with sour cream on the side but most folks just ate them as is.

In case you want to try here is the original recipe info:

Creamy Chicken Taquitos

http://fabulesslyfrugal.com/freezer-meal-creamy-chicken-taquitos/

The freezer friendly part of this is that the meat mixture is made ahead of time and frozen. I freeze flat in a small ziplock bag. Then just thaw overnight in fridge (or last minute in microwave - I just peel the bag off and put frozen slab on plate to defrost) and use to fill your shells.

We prefer to fill less shells with more mixture - making each one a more hearty serving. And it uses less shells/carbs

Instead of cooking spray we brush with oil and use our NuWave oven to air "fry" them. Very, very good and such a quick easy meal for me to pull together on week nights!

Creamy Beef Taquitos

Same recipe as above but instead of shredded chicken I use shredded beef made by cooking the roast part of this recipe here:

http://www.heatherlikesfood.com/beef-and-blue-sliders/

From a 2 lb roast I have enough for a double batch of taquito filling plus another 3 cups or so that I just freeze plain. Can use for many different things including as a jumpstart to the beef and blue slides recipe itself!

 

[Holiday_Mom]

Mary, I laugh at your post because 2 years ago I bought a case of limes from my food co-op. I juiced ALOT of limes, froze them in ice cube trays and then bagged them. I feel like I was using lime for 2 years. Kinda stressed me out to be honest...BUT I always had lime juice!!! It's very smart and something I'd do again, just not a CASE at a time.

Holy cow! A case of limes must of have made your skin wrinkled and green. LOL! When the family entered the house, they thought I was cleaning because of the strong lemon scent in the house. I ended up with 1 cup of juice and a half a cup of zest.

 

[Holiday_Mom]

Katrina and AJ, both of your recipes sound so good! Thanks for sharing!

 

[sweetpumkinpye]

AJ, that chicken sounds amazing. this year I am definitely going to use my freezer more, for the Winter for those hearty and warming meals and for the Summer when it is just too hot to cook from scratch. I think I need to start a "folder" to add all of these freezer meal ideas to so I don't forget them.
I so need to go back over last years posts and find the ones I like

First one in is this chicken.

 

[Myron's Mom]

I'm always looking for veggie recipes for the freezer so I'll have to try that. The chicken and puff pastry sounds wonderful.
This is the time of year I use up everything I have in the freezer and pantry. I try not to buy too much at the store until I use up all that I have unless I find some amazing deals. I'm looking ahead to what I want to make, how much to buy and new recipes
My husband and I have been discussing my cookie plans and it looks like I won't be doing much baking unless I'm doing gifts. I'll do 2 half recipes of the 2 family favorites and some chcolate chip cookie dough balls and that's it. It will give us a few treats and something for company. Neither one of us needs the extra sweets.

 

[AuntJamelle]

I baked two Reese's Peanut Butter Cheesecakes yesterday and I'll get them wrapped and in the freezer tonight. Over the next 2 months I'll continue to bake and freeze cheesecakes - all for donation to DS's school fundraiser the first Saturday in May.

I pre-slice the cheesecakes and load into 9x11 foil pans - which means - I realized - that I can sneak a small slice of new recipes I've tried to 1) make sure they are ok and 2) vet new recipes to add to my roster

Used up what I think is the last of this past fall's freezer meals last night - Oven Chicken Fajitas. It was so good!!!!

 

[Holiday_Mom]

Last week, I just finished up the last of the pork from the fall freezer sessions. My freezer was looking soooo empty that I ran out to the store and stocked up on frozen vegetables, perogies and ravioli. That should get me through some of the busy spring evenings that will be approaching soon with sports and concerts.

I received an Instant Pot for Christmas. It's an electric pressure cooker. I made a normal batch of rice for dinner last night (which is three cups of dried rice.) It took 4 minutes of cooking and then 10 minutes of steam venting. This got me thinking about making a big batch of rice and freezing it. I'm thinking of doing the same with beans. In the past, I'd soak the beans over night. Then I'd fill up the crock pot with the beans and water and simmer on low for 8 hours. I think I could do 1 lb of beans in 30 minutes using the pressure cooker. So now I've got all of these bulk cooking ideas for the freezer running through my head.

Has anyone used an Instant Pot for bulk cooking and freezing?

 

[sweetpumkinpye]

Mary, I keep seeing these new pressure cookers here and wonder what they would be like. I think that if it replaces the crockpot but can also cook rice etc it would be a handy kitchen item. I think if you could do bulk cooking fairly quickly it would certainly be helpful.
I honestly don't know too much about them but would be interested to hear what you think.

 

[Ahorsesoul]

I love my Instant Pot but I've found somethings do better in the Crockpot. Like Mississippi Pot roast does better in the crockpot. Only thing I didn't like done in the Instant pot was an Asparagus Soup I make. I tossed it. Made the asparagus taste icky. I do a lot of BBQ Ribs in the Instant Pot. So fast and tender.