August 2006 Weddings
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Foodies: Freezable meals?
There are a lot of days when neither DH or I get home until 7, and by that point neither of us feel like cooking. ?Service is really slow here, so if we meet up somewhere for dinner we might not make it home until midnight. ?I've taken to making a ton of food on nights that I am home and freezing the leftovers for another meal or two later on.
The problem is there are only three things that I have been doing this with: soup, pizza, and jambalaya. ?What else works well for freezing?
ETA: I also freeze chili.?
Re: Foodies: Freezable meals?
I don't know if this is of any help, but I do Dream Dinners, which is advance dinner prep that gets frozen until consumption. They do a lot of chicken dishes, pasta dishes, and egg casseroles. Basically if there is a liquid component, such as a sauce, it gets frozen separately in a Ziplock. When it's time to cook, I defrost all for a day, add the sauce, and cook.
I've been amazed at the huge variety of foods that apparently keep just fine with freezing.
Stuffed peppers are great for freezing. I freeze the mixture, then when I take it out at night, put it in the pepper and warm it up in the oven (or microwave at work!)
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Beef and Quinoa Stuffed Peppers
(Modifed from a June 2004 Cooking Light recipe, Beef and Barley
Stuffed Peppers. Quinoa is a smaller grain, and we liked it better
with quinoa.)
1 cup low-salt beef broth
1/2 cup uncooked quinoa
2 large red or yellow bell peppers
1 lb lean ground beef
1 cup celery
1 cup onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 tablespoons chopped green onions, divided
1/4 cup tomato puree
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
Preheat oven to 350?.
Bring beef broth and quinoa to a boil in a small saucepan. Cover,
reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes or until the liquid is absorbed.
Cut each bell pepper in half lengthwise, and discard seeds and
membranes. Arrange bell pepper halves in a 9-inch pie plate. Cover
with heavy-duty plastic wrap. Microwave at HIGH 3 minutes or until
crisp-tender; drain.
Cook beef, celery, onion, and garlic in a nonstick skillet over
medium-high heat 4 minutes or until browned, stirring to crumble. Add
quinoa 2 tablespoons green onions, tomato puree, and next 5
ingredients (tomato puree through black pepper), and cook 2 minutes or
until thoroughly heated. Divide beef mixture evenly among pepper
halves. Top each pepper half with 2 tablespoons cheese and 3/4
teaspoon onions. Bake at 350? for 10 minutes or until cheese melts.
Yield: 2 servings (serving size: 2 stuffed pepper halves)
Note: I usually serve one stuffed pepper half with a side of asparagus
or a salad. It's pretty hardy! Also, I don't pre-bake the peppers, as I prefer them more crispy.
1 lb boneless/skinless chicken breasts
1 onion
1 tbsp cumin
1 1/2 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp olive oil
2 c. chicken broth
2 cloves garlic
1 c. uncooked polenta
salsa verde
FF cheese
salt
pepper
* Boil water with salt, pepper, minced garlic. I add old celery stalks and a couple slices of onion for flavor, but it's not necessary. Add chicken and continue boiling on the stove for 20 minutes or until thoroughly cooked.
* Shred chicken breasts into bite-size pieces
* Add broth, chili powder, cumin to shallow pan. Bring to a boil.
* Add shredded chicken and diced onion; turn stove down to a low/medium boil.
* Cook until all broth has boiled off, onions are tender, and chicken is moist and tasty!
* Prepare polenta as per package directions. Can also substitute precooked polenta; just use enough to line the bottom of the pan with about 3/4 inch think (or to your liking!)
* Cover bottom of pan (casserole dish, etc) with polenta. Add chicken and onion mixture (if there is any leftover broth, do not add, so tamale pie isn't runny). Add salsa to your liking (I put on a lot!). Top with cheese.
* Bake at 350 for 35 minutes or until bubbling and hot throughout.
2 lbs ground beef or turkey
1 large onion
4 oz can of chopped green chiles
1 pkg of taco seasoning
1 pkg dry Ranch dressing mix
2-4 14 oz cans of diced tomatoes
2 15 oz can of black beans (undrained)
1 can of water, if needed
-- Brown meat, onion, and chiles together in a large pan
-- Add all other ingredients, bring to a boil
-- Turn heat down to med-low, simmer for half an hour
I let it cook for an hour or more -- it just tastes better, the
longer you let it cook. For a more "soupy" version, add more water.
For more chili-like version, cook longer without adding much water.
I serve it in a bowl with cheddar cheese on top and blue corn chips on
the side. You can also layer it over chips with cheese on top and
bake it, for more of a "chili pie" thing.
Moroccan Chicken and Lentils
This dish freezes well, so you can double the recipe and save half for later.
Yield
2 servings (serving size: 1 1/4 cups)
Ingredients
Preparation
Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken; saut? 5 minutes or until browned. Remove chicken from pan. Add onion and next 6 ingredients (onion through garlic) to pan; saut? 3 minutes. Add tomato paste, and cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Stir in chicken, lentils, broth, water, and raisins. Reduce heat, and cook 5 minutes or until chicken is done, stirring occasionally. Add rice; cook 1 minute or until thoroughly heated, stirring frequently. Sprinkle with parsley and almonds.
I freeze my sauces. ?Even pasta freezes although I usually make that fresh.
Casseroles freeze really well, too, like lasagna or moussaka.
Another quick I-don't-want-to-cook dish is shrimp scampi. ?I always have frozen shrimp, and I can toss together a meal in about 15 minutes with it. ?I also have artichoke hearts and sundried tomatoes plus a can of tomatoes on hand to add interest to the pasta.?
I frequently freeze manicotti or stuffed shells because my recipe is HUGE - wrap the shells in aluminum foil and then put in a freezer bag and freeze (no sauce). I usually put them in the fridge the morning I want to make them to let them thaw, but if you don't want to thaw first, you need to add like 10-20 minutes to the baking time.
Also - sauce for chicken cacciatore, stew, spaghetti sauce. I've heard that you can freeze most baked pastas by assembling and then freezing, but I haven't tried that.
I just remembered a couple things my mom used to do for me when I was in college.
Turkey in gravy freezes really well - and you can microwave it if you really don't feel like cooking. Just carve the turkey, put a few slices in a freezer bag and pour in some gravy. When it comes time to eat it, pop it in the microwave.
Another thing that freezes really well is Swedish meatballs in gravy (not cream-based). Cream-based gravies don't freeze very well.
She also used to make a batch of cookie dough, put it into little balls, and send them home with me frozen so I could take them out and make a cookie or two at a time.
DH likes to make and freeze taco meat or sloppy joe meat for later use. I've also frozen meatballs to throw in spaghetti sauces or to make meatball subs with later.
Taco or fajita meat would freeze well. Just reheat and serve with fixings.
As pps have said, baked pasta freezes well.
If you make chicken pot pie filling,* you can mix it with some egg noodles and freeze that. I don't really know what to call it, other than chicken and noodles. I had it this weekend, and it was very yummy.
I've also made chicken with curry sauces (I just buy Patak's cooking sauces), scooped it over rice in individual containers and frozen that. It's delicious.
*For a delicious and easy chicken pot pie filling: saute 1 small onion (choped), 4 cloves of garlic (chopped), and 2 tablespoons fresh (or 3/4 tsp dried) time in 1 tablespoon of olive oil until the onion is soft, about 5-7 minutes. Add 1/2 cup white wine and cook until wine evaporates but onion is still moist. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon flour over the onion and cook 1 minute. Add 2/3 cup chicken stock/broth and stir until well incorporated and slightly thickened. Remove from heat and stir in 3 cups cooked shredded chicken (either from a roasted chicken, or just diced, sauteed chicken) and 10 ounces frozen mixed vegetables, thawed (or fresh, steamed veggies). Stir in 1 can cream of chicken soup and season with salt and pepper. You can then mix this filling with egg noodles, make mini pot pies with ramekins, or roll out pie crust, fill, and make pocket pies. The mini pot pies or pocket pies will also freeze well.
One other casserole that's good: Saute 8-16 ounces mushrooms (depending on your desired level of mushroominess) in olive oil. Add cooked chicken and 1 can cream of mushroom soup. Add milk as necessary to thin the sauce. Mix with cooked egg noodles. Put in baking dish, sprinkle shredded Swiss cheese on top, and place under the broiler for 5 minutes, until cheese is melted and browning. Approximate amounts: 2 cups egg noodles and 2 large chicken breasts, diced. This can be frozen as a whole or in individual containers.
I tried a sort-of freezer meal this weekend. We got a piece of london broil and sliced thin. I made a couple of marinades (one with soy sauce, ginger, garlic, sesame oil and one with garlic, oregano, dijon mustard and olive oil), poured into freezer bags with the sliced meat and left in the freezer.?
I'm thinking the meat will marinate as it defrosts. I can cook it and serve it with fresh produce for a salad or frozen veggies for stir fry.
We took a class on this. It was pretty fun. Things to remember - if you are pre-cooking and then will be cooking for service later, you don't cook the first time like you normally do. You don't cook all the way the first time. There are books on this. I've checked out a couple from the library to see what I like, but I have yet to read them.
My own version of this (before we took the class.) Buy chicken in bulk, throw dinner size portions in freezer bags with marinade, throw in the freezer. Once a week (usually the day I shop) I chop and mostly saute a bunch of onion & pepper. Freeze in dinner size portions. You can throw together those ingredients in a lot of ways - pasta, fajitas, stir-fry - depending on the marinade and spices you add.
If you want to pre-cook rice -this I learned in the class - fry the dry rice in oil first until you hear it 'snap, crackle, pop' and then add the water. I forget the explanation why, but it does something to the hull of the rice that keeps it from getting all dry and sticky if you want to reheat.
Another tip for broccoli or other vegetables - Blanch them (boil for a few minutes, not until done) in salty water. They don't taste salty, they just look incredibly green and the flavor is awesome. Blanch and them put them in an ice water bath quickly, to cool them and stop the cooking. freeze promptly.