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Cooks: Freezer-friendly dinner ideas?
Now that B is working full time and gets home late, he's not around to do the dinner preparation, which I have to admit was a pretty nice thing. So we're trying to do some extra cooking/meal prep on Sundays so we can pull something out of the freezer and have an easy dinner after work. For our first foray this past sunday, we made a roasted chicken, guinness stew and spicy-lemon chicken soup. But frankly, it was a lot of work (or maybe more than I'm used to!) and I want something easier.
Anyone have any easy--and beef-less, B doesn't like to eat red meat--ideas? The problem is, we're trying to eat healthier too and lose some weight and all the freezer-friendly meals I know (besides soups) are pasta-heavy or highly caloric. I have a recipe for chicken enchiladas that is good, but not exactly low-cal.
Neuner, I checked PLFF in your freezer section and most of the stuff has meat in it. Any suggestions or blogs that you may know of that specialize in this? After having stew and soup this week, I can see myself getting sick of it quickly.
Re: Cooks: Freezer-friendly dinner ideas?
I sub ground turkey for a lot of ground beef and other things in recipes. We buy the 97% fat free and drain the meat before using it- so it is actually a great lean protein.
My suggestions are lasagna, and to do crock pot cooking a night or two a week as well. That way you have something fresh without a lot of prep. It doesn't have to be complicated to be good- I have 4 or 5 recipes that are 2-3 ingredients, and we're set for not only that night but lunches the next day too.
Stand up for something you believe in.
I've actually been really bad about forgetting to tag things as freezer friendly. Ditto what Mary said about ground turkey. My favorite freezer friendly is the infamous tetrazzini recipe. Soups, stews and chili, big pot of spaghetti sauce is great to make on the weekends and freeze half.
And ditto the crock pot thing - salsa chicken, buffalo chicken, pulled pork would all be awesome and easy. I have a couple other crock pot recipes too.
Another idea, and tdmd can back me up (I know she's been making them!) - I often will make a big batch of corn and black bean quesadilla filling, it's easy to keep in the fridge and throw together dinner or lunch really quickly. Add some Mexican rice if you want to make it a more substantial meal.
Check out the quick and easy tag too - lot of stuff that comes together in 30 minutes or less, which is pretty much all I'll do cooking during the week.
Thanks girls!
We do use ground turkey a lot (I make a mean sage turkey burger) so I can sub that for the beef. Should make some turkey meatballs and keep them in the freezer and have B make some of his pizza dough. That would be an easy meal.
I'll check the quick and easy tags too. I printed out the Pasta Con Broccoli recipe and will aim to make this next week, tho the stick of butter and quart of half-and-half scares me. And I will have to sub fresh broc for frozen, B won't eat frozen veggies. Hopefully that won't screw it up too much. I figure we've never eaten at the St Louis joint so we have nothing to compare it to!
good call with the pizza dough, that's super easy to freeze!
As for the Pasta con Broccoli, yes, it's not exactly the most figure friendly. I usually use FF half and half to help make up for the stick of butter. But, in the recipes defense, it makes a TON. Feel free to cut it in half for just the two of you. but it is good leftover, which is why I usually make it all. And it's incredibly filling. We usually have a salad with it and I'm pretty content with a small portion.
This is how I justify the stick of butter
Same with the carbonara recipe that's in there. carbonara isn't exactly healthy, but it's so rich and filling that if I have a salad with it, then I'm content with a pretty small portion of it.
The half recipe will make at least 4 hefty servings of pasta. ETA: We eat it for dinner (2 larger servings) and do 4 lunches out of it.
I do a variation on the PCB recipe and do cajun chicken pasta- broil chicken with cajun spices on it (I like Emeril's creole blend), then add 2 T of the spice to the cream sauce recipe. Sub mixed veggies for broccoli (I use the Birds Eye Steamer with the carrots, corn and green beans). Serve.
Stand up for something you believe in.
Dude, her quesadillas are like crack. I keep the Rotel + corn + black beans in a tupperware in the fridge, and just make them whenever. I've eaten them at work about twice a week for a few weeks now, and they're awesome. Not to mention they only take 5-10 minutes to make. And they're meat-free!
Congrats to both my TTC buddies, Amberley18 and sb2006 on their beautiful babies!
I don't have too much to add, but will say that Nooners tettrazini is the bomb, even with ground turkey. Good to know it freezes well. I've also had her quesadillas, and they are equally as good, and super easy.
If/when I'm motivated and have the time, I'll make a big batch of meatballs (both swedish and italian) and freeze those. Meatball subs are always good, or the pasta route. And, not gonna lie, we have pizza at least once a week, either a frozen store-bought, a homemade with dough bought at the store (numerous varieties, fresh, Pillsbury frozen, or the boboli kind), or even using the large tortilla's and making a quick "thin crust" pizza. Yum.
Now I'm hungry for meatballs....as if the restaurant PIP and what's for lunch post didn't already throw me into a snacking binge.