Freezer Meals

[ChristmasPir8]

When I can I like to make meals that I can double/triple to put into the freezer for later meals. I thought I would make a thread where we can share recipes of meal/food that you like to freeze for later. This can be an actual maeal or items like hamburger you cook up in big batches, sauces...

I will post one later tonight when I get a minute and find the recipe.

 

[ChristmasPir8]

Chicken Manicotti

Chicken Manicotti
this makes 2 but would be easy to make more in batches of 2

1T garlic powder
1 1/2 lb boneless skinless chicken brease, uncooked, cut into strips
1 box manicotti shells, uncooked
1 1b sasauge cooked and crumbled
4C shredded mozzerella cheese (or a mixed blend of your choice)
2/3 C water divided

rub garlic inot chicken and put the chicken into the shells. Put 1 C sauce into bottom of 9X13 pan. Put the shells into the 2 pan evenly. top with sasauge and remaining sauce. pour 1/3 C water around edge of each pan.

Bake 375 for 65-70 min. Top w/ cheese the last 10 min or so.

The original recipe calls for it to be baked w/ the cheese on top however when I did it, the cheese burned so I put it on at the end. Pre-shredded can be divided into ziplock baggies and frozen w/ the casserole. For ease of us and space I line a 9X13 pan first w/ foil then plastic wrap. assemble on the plastic wrap and lightly wrap. When frozen, wrap more tightly. When you are ready to eat remove from freezer, unwrap and place in a 9X13 alowing it to thaw before baking.

 

[CanadianJingles]

Can I share a freezer meal tip? If you are making lasagna for a smaller family, use loaf pans. My DH and I have two kids under 7. I make my lasagna in loaf pans; I can make three or four at a time and one is enough for a meal without eating leftovers for days afterwards. I've got pyrex loaf pans with snap on plastic lids that are great!

 

[ChristmasPir8]

That's a great tip! Thanks for sharing. No way it would feed all of us but it's good for smaller families.

 

[luludou]

I buy big packages of italian sausages. Then I boil them, cut them in slices and brown them. I put them in the freezer in small tupperwares to add to pasta recipes or on nachos.

 

[MinnieCo]

Meg, that's a great idea. I usually do the whole pan then seperate it and wrap it. I like the loaf pan idea!

 

[Ahorsesoul]

I love to make this type of meals. I've always frozen chopped onions, peppers (all colors) and celery. I keep them in separate bags in the freezer. I also do the Italian Sausage but I usually remove the casings and brown it into little bits. I make a ton of meatballs when ground beef is on sale. I bake them in the oven, faster than in a skillet and pop them into the freezer. I usually have chicken meat from when I buy a roasted chicken for a fast meal.

Then when I'm in a hurry I do not need to spend time chopping veggies. The Italian Sausage I use for pizza, my version of a stromboli, spaghetti and lasagna. The meatballs go for spaghetti, sub sandwiches, Sweet-Sour meatballs over rice, Swedish meatballs(cream sauce) and sometimes in a brown gravy over noodles.

When I make lasagna, I make a big one. After dinner I put what we do not eat into the refrig overnight. The next day I cut it into individual piece. I place them on a cookie sheet and drop in the freezer for a few hours. Then I wrap each piece and place in a freezer bag. All I have to do is defrost and microwave it hot, serve it with sliced french bread and a salad for a 15 minute meal.

Lasagna
I received this recipe from Karen Lemke when we were stationed at Minot AFB in ND in the 70s.

Brown 1 lb. of ground beef with 2 cloves of chopped garlic
Add:
6 oz can of tomato paste
1 large can diced tomatoes (about 2 1/2 cups), drained if not in a tomato sauce
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon of pepper
1/2 teaspoon oregano

Cover and simmer 20 minutes.

Cook an 8 oz package of lasagna noodles according to directions.

In an 11x7 baking dish Alternate layers of:
cooked noodles
8 oz of Swiss cheese (about 1 to 1 1/2 cups)
12 oz carton cottage cheese (may add an egg and a cup of parmesan cheese if desired)
meat sauce

End with meat sauce over the top and sprinkle with cheese.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes or until bubbly and hot.

Diedra's Stromboli
When I lived in Boonville, IN (a long long time ago) a restaurant there used to serve these.

Cut a loaf of french bread lengthwise.

Fry some onions, peppers and garlic until tender. Place on bread. Top with browned Italian Sausage. Heat some jarred spaghetti sauce and pour over the sausage. Top with Mozzarella Cheese. Bake at 350 degrees until cheese melts, 5 to 10 minutes. Cut and serve.

If you are a garlic nut as I am, you could add whole roasted cloves of garlic to this sandwich. Pepperoni can be added also.

 

[Kim Loves Snow]

I like this thread. I just learned this week that you can freeze chopped onion. I would love to learn what other people freeze for pieces and parts of future meals and how long things last in the freezer. Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

We got a food saver shrink wrap thing as a wedding gift and I LOVE it. I use it a lot to break apart big trays of meat and spaghetti sauce, etc.

 

[girlsinmo]

I like all the ideas, tips & recipes in this thread...

 

[ChristmasPir8]

beatballs is a good idea. I need to think about that next time. I do buy a big batch of it at the wholesale club and freeze in pound size segments.
I have one of those freezer things and really need to go back to using it.

Another we do is baked Ziti. I boil the ziti noodles and mix w/ spaghetti sause. You can do it w/ or w/o hamburger meat then when it's cool I put it into zip lock baggies, gallon size, and freeze. I thaw in the fridge and pour into a pan and bake, topping w/ cheese at the end. If I rememeber I staple a baggie of cheese to the bag of pasta.

 

[AnnieClaus]

Kim-
Along with any left over chopped onion or green pepper, I also freeze a head of garlic. Often a recipe will only call for a clove or two- so I have a container in the freezer where I keep the the rest of the head of garlic.

When I have a recipe, I pull off the clove in the morning and let it thaw out. I probably wouldn't do this for a recipe where garlic is a main componenet- like shrimp scampii, but for soups, stews, general flavoring- this works perfect for me.

I freeze soups a lot. You can make such a huge batch of soup, that I enjoy it for a couple of days and then freeze the rest. I will freeze in individual size tupperware- for lunches and then in bigger to last for a couple days of dinners.

I have also done this with stew.

I also freeze bones for soup. For ex: Christmas ham. Throw the bone in the freezer- pop it out (up to a year later) for use in beans or soup. DELISH!

Annie

 

[sweetpumkinpye]

We freeze a lot here too. I try to make 2 meals at one time. Serve 1 and freeze one for later. I freeze meatballs, spaghetti, any crockpot meal, stew, soup all of the usual things. I like to double up when I cook so I know that one day if I am not in the mood or I am too tired I can grab a meal out of the freezer.

 

[ChristmasPir8]

I am bad about throwing out left over veggies so when I remember I keep a big ziplock bag in the freezer and toss them and left over meat (like beef or pork) into that then I can make a veggie soup w/ the bag.

 

[MrsSoup]

I have used the gallon size ziploc bags to store soup, stew, anything liquid in. That way you can lay it flat or stand it up and it doesn't take much room at all, unlike the tupperware. If you have an extra freezer tupperware is great but for me, we don't have that much space or tupperware. LOL When you want it just thaw it in some hot water and then dump in a dish and heat up.

Muffins are great to freeze for breakfasts. You can also freeze pancake and waffles, leftover gravy and biscuits.

 

[Winged One]

I freeze a good bit too - I generally make a double batch of a freezable meal on a Sunday afternoon while making Sunday's roast dinner, and have half on Monday and freeze the other half for mid-week the following week.

Things that are good are:
Spaghetti bolognaise sauce
Chilli con carne
Lamb Rogan josh (and other curries)
Lasagne
Shepherd;s pie
Smoked fish and brocollie pie

I have 2 nice one-family-meal sized pyrex dishes with plastic lids (as well as a few bigger dishes) for pie-type meals. Sometimes, I will make up one or two of those for the freezer, freeze the dish with the lid on, and then take it from the dish and store in a plastic bag in the freezer - putting it back into the dish to thaw and cook when I need it. That way I don't miss the use of the dish for however long before I fancy a lasange night again (or whatever).

Another thing I like to do is to get raw chicken or pork, in particular. I usually buy these as chicken breasts or pork chops. But I will chop them into pieces at home and bag up into small bags to freeze. So when I go to defrost and use, they are already to cook in a hurry after work (especially to toss with a jar of sauce instead of ringing for a takeaway). I'd usually have bought enough for at least 2 dinners, so it's easy enough to chop 2 lots together and freeze one (and means I only have to wash up once). If I have a bit more energy, I can chop fresh veg and make a sauce quickly, but there is still less mess and I might be more inclined to do it properly if I don't have to start by dicing meat!!

 

[Winged One]

Oh, and I usually use chicken carcasses to make stock, which I usually freeze for later. But occasionally I won't have the energy to do it that night, so I have frozen one carcass and made stock with it the NEXT time I have one (2 in the pot), so it works out a lot more economical, better flavour and less work. And you can still freeze that stock!

 

[AnnieClaus]

Someone last year- Kim- was it you??
That described how to freeze a casserole in foil- you lay the foil in the baking dish and then you make handles with strips of foil- so once it freezes you pull the whole casserole out of the dish and then you put the whole foiled up casserole back in the freezer and you have your dish back!

I thought that was such a great tip, idea.

Annie

 

[luludou]

I freeze leftover wine in ice cube trays... great for adding to recipes!

 

[Nutcracker]

This one makes a lot! I love to cook and freeze ahead. I can usually have 2 9"X13" casseroles from it! I buy the smaller pans at The Dollar Tree to freeze this casserole into smaller portions. Freeze before you cook! I have no idea how its name came into being!

Huntington Chicken
• 3 ½ or 4 lb chicken or 8 chicken breasts
• 1 package of egg noodles
• 1 can cream of celery soup
• 1 Cup chopped onion
• 1 can chopped pimento (Optional)
• 1 tsp celery seed or 1 Cup chopped celery
• 2 cans cream of mushroom soup
• 1 lb grated cheddar cheese
• 1 cup drained English Peas
• Salt and pepper to taste

1. Cook, cool and dice chicken.
2. Cook noodles 5 minutes and drain.
3. Cook onion, pepper, and celery in some of the chicken broth.
4. Mix noodles, chicken and grated cheese with other ingredients
5. Add enough broth to keep from being dry.
6. Place in 3 quart baking dish
7. Bake at 375 degrees for 30 to 45 minutes.
8. Some of the grated cheese may be saved for topping casserole
9. May be divided into small portions and frozen before cooking.

 

[AnnieClaus]

Nutcracker-
That meal sounds good. I'm going to try it out!

Do you make it with the pimentos or without?

TFS!

Annie