Freezer Meals Day 2: Oven-Ready Dishes

   Day 2 of my operation was a LOT more cooking. I had a few muscle spasms resulting in a few melt downs. This was a lot of food preparation for anyone to take on, especially someone who is 37 weeks pregnant. My loving husband helped as much as I'd let him, but I had a system and it got really crowded in the kitchen even with the 2 (and a 1/2) of us. So he spent most of the day working on the yard. Another way to do this is to make one of these recipes for dinner, but double it and place the second pan in the freezer. That way you slowly stock up your freezer instead of making 30 meals in a weekend. This will save us money in the long run -  not ordering take out when we don't feel like cooking, dining out too often, etc. Plus, each of these meals will involve leftovers for lunch and possibly even a second dinner! It took me about 6-8 hours to make these 10 dishes.

 Layered Enchilada Casserole:

2 cups cooked shredded chicken

1 can diced tomatoes

1 can black beans

1 block cream cheese

2 cups shredded cheddar

3 flour tortillas

Mix the chicken, tomatoes, beans and cream cheese well. Layer on bottom of foil pan and top w/ flour tortilla. Top tortilla with chicken mixture then sprinkle cheese. Repeat. Cover in heavy duty tin foil, label, double wrap in plastic wrap to prevent freezer burn. Thaw and bake uncovered at 350 for 30 minutes or until heated through.

Quesadilla Casserole:

1 lb ground beef

1/2 cup chopped onion

2 tbs taco seasoning (mine is homemade)

16 oz tomato sauce

1 can (15 oz) black beans, drained and rinsed

1 can whole kernel corn

1 can (4.5 oz) green chilies, undrained

6 flour tortillas

2 cups shredded cheddar

Brown beef and onion in a large skillet on medium heat. Add tomato sauce, beans, corn and chilies. Mix well and stir in the spices. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to low for 5 minutes. Spread mixture to coat bottom of foil pan. Top with tortillas, overlapping as needed. Layer 1/2 the remaining beef micture and top with cheese. Repeat. Cover in heavy duty tin foil, label, double wrap in plastic wrap to prevent freezer burn. Thaw and bake uncovered at 350 for 20-30 minutes or until heated through. Top with sour cream and guac for added deliciousness.

Chicken and Wild Rice:

1 box/bag of wild rice w/ seasoning

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 can water

2 cups sliced mushrooms

6 boneless, skinnless chicken breasts, uncooked

Mix rice packet, both cans of soup, water and mushrooms. Pour half mixture into foil baking dish. Lay chicken cutlets evely across the pan. Cover with remaining rice mixture. Cover in heavy duty tin foil, label, double wrap in plastic wrap to prevent freezer burn. Thaw and bake uncovered at 350 for 1 hour.

Goulash:

1 lb ground beef

2 cans tomato sauce/soup

2 cups uncooked elbow macaroni

2 tbs Italian seasoning

1 can whole corn, drained

1 tsp each garlic and onion powder

2 cups shredded cheese

Brown beef with onion and garlic powder. Drain. Cook noodles and drain. Combine all ingredients, except cheese, in a large bowl. Pour into foil pan. Top with cheese. Cover in heavy duty tin foil, label, double wrap in plastic wrap to prevent freezer burn. Thaw and bake uncovered at 350 for 30-40 minutes or until heated through.

Potato Soup:

30 oz. bag of shredded hashbrowns

32 oz. chicken stock

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 can cream of potato

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/2 tsp pepper

1/4 tsp garlic powder

8 oz. cream cheese

Combine all ingredients except the cream cheese in a freezer bag. (I dumped mine back in the spaghetti sauce jugs I emptied and cleaned while making lasagna. But gallon ziplocks are just as good). Label and date them. Thaw soup and reheat in crock pot or large sauce pan. 1 hour before serving, add the block of cream cheese. Stir thoroughly and serve.

Lemon Dill Chicken:

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 cup white cooking wine

1/4 cup chopped onion

3 cloves garlic minced

1 egg

1/2 cup flour

3 tbs fresh chopped dill

salt and pepper to taste

3 fresh lemons

Sautee onion and garlic in white wine on medium heat. Meanwhile, eggwash and flour chicken breasts. I salt and pepper my flour mixture, as well as added 1 tbs dill. This gives the chicken a nice tasty coat. Cut one lemon in half and squeeze juice into white wine sautee. Add dill to the sauce and simmer until it thickens and bubbles. Slice the other two lemons and layer on the bottom of foil pan. Place floured chicken cutlets in pan and pour sauce on top. Cover in heavy duty tin foil, label, double wrap in plastic wrap to prevent freezer burn. Thaw and bake at 350 for 1 hour. Serve over pasta of your choice. (We do angel hair)

Mushroom Parmesean Alfredo:

3 cups mushroom, sliced

1/2 cup diced onion

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 cups heavy whipping cream

1.5 cups grated parm cheese

1/2 white cooking wine

4 boneless chicken breasts

Sautee onion, garlic and mushroom in white wine. Turn to low and add cream and grated parmesean. Simmer and allow to thicken. Pour some mixture in foil pan to coat bottom. Layer chicken breasts in pan. Cover with remaining parmasean alfredo sauce. Cover in heavy duty tin foil, label, double wrap in plastic wrap to prevent freezer burn. Thaw and bake at 350 for 1 hour. Serve over pasta of your choice. (We do angel hair). **This will remain a soupy mixture so be careful not to spill it when you wrap it and put it in the freezer.

White Cheese and Chicken Lasagna:

9 lasagna noodles

1/2 butter

1 onion chopped

2 cloves garlic minced

1/2 cup flour (all purpose)

1 tsp salt2 cups chicken broth
1 1/2 cups milk

4 cups shredded mozarella

1 cup grated parm cheese

1 tsp basil and oregano

1/2 tsp pepper

2 cups ricotta cheese

2 cups cooked, shredded chicken

1 package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained

Cook lasagna noodles for 8-10 minutes. Meanwhile, melt butter in large sauce pan over medium heat. Cook onion and garlic in butter until tender. Stir in flour and salt, simmer and stir continuously. Mix in broth and milk and bring to a boil stirring constantly for 1 min. Stir in 2 cups mozarella and 1/2 cup parm cheese. Season with basil, oregano and pepper. Remove from heat and set aside.

Combine ricotta, spinach and chicken. Pour 1/3 cheese mixture on bottom of foil pan. Layer noddles, then spinach chicken mixture. Repeat twice. Top with shredded mozarella. Cover in heavy duty tin foil, label, double wrap in plastic wrap to prevent freezer burn. Thaw and bake at 350 for 1 hour.

Broccoli Cheddar Chicken Casserole:

3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

2 cans broccoli cheese soup

2 eggs

1 head broccoli florets

3 cups shredded cheddar

salt and pepper to taste

Dice chicken (raw). Dump chicken, soup, eggs, broccoli and 2 cups cheese in large bowl. Mix well and season with salt and pepper. Pour into foil baking pan. Top with remaining shredded cheese.

Lasagna:

9 lasagna noodles

6 cups spaghetti meat sauce

32 oz ricotta

4 cups shredded mozarella

1 tbs garlic powder

Combine ricotta, 3 cups mozarella and garlic powder. Cover bottom of foil pan with red meat sauce. Layer noddles. Layer cheese mixture. Repeat twice. Cover in heavy duty tin foil, label, double wrap in plastic wrap to prevent freezer burn. Thaw and bake at 350 for 1 hour.

Freezer Meals Day 1: Dump Bags

   To prepare for baby and the early weeks of up all night, can't seem to get out of my pajamas all day, baby laundry explosion, constant cycle of eat, poop, sleep, repeat, we thought it would be a good idea to make a month's worth of food for the freezer to make dinner easier on us and our budget. When you don't have time to cook and have nothing prepared, it's easy to just order in our go out for dinner. This new habit could become very expensive and damaging to our budget. So, Operation Freezer Meals was put into action this weekend.

   I spent Friday afternoon at Sam's Club and Publix managing multiple grocery lists for this operation. I bought:

• Meats: 2 beef roasts; 2 whole chickens, 4 large packages of boneless chicken breasts (7-8 in each pack); 2 cooked rotiserie chickens, a 2.5-foot long pork roast (which I cut into 3 separate pieces); 5# of burger meat
• Produce: Large bag carrots; 1 stalk celery; 5# gold Yukon potatoes; 5 packs of mushrooms; a 3# bag of Vidalia onions; 5 heads of garlic; 2 heads of broc; 2 bell peppers; 3 cooking apples
• Dairy: 4# bag shredded mozarella cheese, 4# bag shredded cheddar cheese, quart of heavy whipping (cooking) cream, 64 oz. Ricotta cheese; 32 oz. grated parm cheese; 16 oz. cream cheese; gallon of milk (I already had butter and eggs at home)
• Dry pantry supplies: 4 packs yellow rice, 2 packs wild rice; 8 bottles Lawry's marinade in a variety of flavors (they were b1g1); 2 boxes lasagna noodles, a 3 large bottles red spaghetti sauce, 2 cans each of cream of potato, crm. broc, crm. celery, and 4 cans crm. of chicken; 3 cartons chicken stock and 2 beef stock; a bottle of burgundy; white cooking wine

I split my preparation up into 2 days. Day 1, I did all the prep work for my produce - washing, cutting, chopping, measuring. Then, I made all the "dump bags". A dump bag is the meat, produce and marinade or seasonings dumped in a gallon freezer bag. You can later thaw and dump into the crock pot or baking dish with no mess, no fuss. I made 12 meals and 6 side dishes in dump bags.

• Whole chicken in garlic & herb marinade. Side dish bag included whole mushrooms, carrots and diced potatoes with seasonings. (2 of these)
• Burgundy mushroom and beef roast - a 3# beef roast, 750ml of burgundy wine, 12-15 whole mushrooms, 1 onion quartered. I also cut holes in the meat and pushed in whole cloves or garlic.
• Mojo beef roast - a 3# beef roast with 3 cups mojo marinade, 1 cup beef stock, 1 onion quartered. I also cut holes in the meat and pushed in whole cloves or garlic.
• Santa Fe Chili Lime Chicken - Lawrys marinade, diced 4 boneless chicken breasts, broccoli florets, bell pepper, onion, mushrooms.
• Hawaiian Chicken - Lawrys marinade, 4 boneless chicken breasts, 1 cup orange juice, 1 apple cored and sliced, 1 can pineapple chunks w/ juice.
• Caribbean Jerk pork roast - Lawrys marinade, 2.5# pork loin roast, 1 can pineapple w/ juice.
• Mojo pork roast - 2.5# pork loin roast, 2 cups mojo, 4 cloves garlic and 1/2 onion quartered.
• Baja Chipotle pork roast - Lawrys marinade, 2.5# pork loin roast, bell peppers, 4 cloves garlic.
• Szechuan Sweet and Sour Chicken - Lawrys marinade, 4 boneless chicken breasts (put these in quart freezer bags and made 2 sets) Can be served over rice or cut up for stir fry.
• Honey Garlic Apple Chicken - 4 boneless chicken breasts, 2 whole apples cored and sliced, 3 cloves garlic minced, 1/2 cup honey, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup apple butter, 16 oz chicken stock.
• Cheesy Al Grautin potatoes - made this in a giant batch and divided into 4 quart bags. 12 gold potatoes diced (or sliced), 5 cups milk, 2 cups flour, 3 cups shredded cheddar, 1 cup grated parm cheese and 1 tbs each salt and pepper

Thrift Store Find: Vintage Brass Lamps

   While working on getting the nursery ready, the massive amount of crap in our garage is also on my agenda to tackle. It either needs to be put to use, go in the attic, or go to the dump. Among the items that could be put to use were a pair of vintage stiffel style brass lamps I found at a thrift store over a year ago. There's a small, church-operated thrift about 1/2 mile from my house and the stuff is never marked up. One time, I found a Christian Dior cashmere sweater in there for a $1. One. Dollar. When I found those brass lamps, they were $5 for the set. That's $2.50 per lamp! I didn't know what a steal that was at the time. I just wanted some nice lamps for our room that added character.

   

Total cost for these items: $33

      I have been meaning to find shades for them and put them on our bedroom nightstands. Finally last week, I got around to finding lamp shades - something simple but elegant - from TJ Maxx for $5.99 each. Done. Another bargain, I thought. Then, I sent Ian to Lowe's to pick up the hardware that attaches the shades to the lamp base. He did a great job picking out something simple and they were only $8 each.

  

Finished Project! 

    They looked so swanky, I decided to do a little search on eBay to price compare. Similar sets of stiffel style vintage solid brass lamps were going for $150+!!