Herbs, Spice, & Season of Life

Freezer Cooking 101

I have always loved working with food.  When I think about cooking, fond memories come to mind of baking with my mom and learning my way around a kitchen.  I enjoy shopping for fresh ingredients....perusing local farmer's markets and grocery stores.  For these reasons and a few others, whenever, I would see a post about freezer cooking, I would kind of just skip over it, not giving it a second thought.  However, as my days have gotten busier with a preschooler and and toddler, the thought of having dinner planned out and prepped has become more and more tempting.  About a month and a half ago, I decided to "try out" freezer cooking.  I have adapted some of my own recipes as well as tried lots of new ones.  In all, I've been really happy with the results.  Below are some of the recipes that my family has enjoyed.  I'll try to come back to this post at some point and add pictures.  I grocery shop every 2 weeks and try not to step foot in a grocery store in between.  On average, I've been spending about 2 hours every two weeks freezer prepping/cooking, but the payoff is huge!  No food prep or worry about what's for dinner for the next two weeks.  Happy freezer cooking!


Breakfasts:

Freezer Breakfast Burritos

1 roll breakfast sausage
1/2 of a large onion, diced
1/2 of a green pepper, diced
8 eggs, lightly beaten
2 cups shredded cheddar
1 package 10 inch flour tortillas

In a large skillet, over medium heat, brown sausage together with peppers and onions.  drain grease from sausage.  Add eggs together and scramble with sausage, onions, and peppers, until eggs are cooked.  Top the sausage and egg mixture with cheese.  On a griddle, heat the flour tortillas(I heat them one at a time, filling them as I go).  Fill tortilla with egg and sausage mixture(I use one ice cream scoop per tortilla), then roll up tortilla.  Keep working until all 10 tortillas are filled and rolled up(I put the burritos in a 9x13 pan, just to keep them rolled up tightly).  Wrap each tortilla in plastic wrap, then place in a freezer bag.  To reheat:  Heat frozen burrito in microwave for 2 minutes, turning over halfway through.  This is my husbands favorite freezer breakfast!

Freezer Sausage Egg "McMuffins"

While I'm making my breakfast burritos, I cook 6 sausage patties or 12 slices of bacon, whichever I have on hand, and fry 6 eggs.  I use wheat English muffins to build breakfast sandwiches with egg, breakfast meat, and a slice of cheese.  Then, package each sandwich in plastic wrap and place them all in a freezer bag.  To reheat from frozen:  Cook in microwave on high for 1 minute 30 seconds, turning halfway through.

Freezer Oatmeal

I used this freezer oatmeal idea to inspire my freezer oatmeal cups.  However, instead of using chex oatmeal, I used my very favorite Butterscotch Oatmeal Recipe , topping some with raspberries and almonds, some with pecans, chocolate chips, and coconut, some with blueberries, and come with raisins and cinnamon.

Breads

I make some kind of muffins or quick bread every two weeks and freeze half so that they are ready to go.  Here is the bread I made this week, Pumpkin Swirl Bread from Taste of Home.  When making waffles or pancakes, I usually double my recipe, then freeze the leftovers for later.

One of my favorite freezer sweet breads has been Blueberry Lemon Sweet Rolls .


Lunches:

I don't do a whole lot of freezer cooking for lunches, except for these delicious chicken nuggets and  these calzones from The Pioneer Woman.. :-)  As a sidenote, The Pioneer Woman is my hero...


Dinners

A few Pioneer Woman Favorites... here is a link to Pioneer Woman's post about freezer cooking.

Chicken Spaghetti  I use cream of chicken instead of cream of mushroom
Sloppy Joes
Sour Cream Noodle Bake
Chicken Pot Pie

Below are more freezer dinners we have enjoyed.  I'm sure I have forgotten some, but this is the bulk of the ones I have tried so far.

I prepare taco meat and freeze, brown my ground beef for things like chili or spaghetti, just to cut prep time.  Some of the meals below, I have found on Pinterest and some of them are meals that were already our favorites that I adapted for freezer cooking.

Hawaiian Chicken Kabobs  I cut up the chicken and placed the chicken in a freezer bag with the marinade, I then cut up fresh pineapple, placed it in a freezer bag, then placed the bag with the chicken inside the pineapple bag.  To cook:  1.  Thaw overnight in the fridge.  2.  Grill

Greek Chicken Kabobs  We love this marinade/dressing.  Look in the comments on the recipe for a scaled down version/measurements.  1.  Cut chicken into kabob size pieces, cut up 1 onion and 1 green or red bell pepper.  2.  In a freezer bag, mix chicken, onions, pepper, and marinade.  Freeze until ready for use.  When ready to use, thaw and grill.

Meatloaf:  I use my mom's recipe and freeze it.

Hamburgers:  I just  make up nice patties and freeze

Spaghizza...the kids like this one a lot

Poppyseed Chicken Casserole

Crockpot Cheese Tortellini...one of my favorites

Honey Lime Chicken Skewers...My husband's favorite  Freeze chicken pieces in marinade.  Thaw.  Grill.

Slow Cooker Cranberry Chicken

Slow cooker Hawaiian Chicken:  1 bottle of Archer Farms Hawaiian Style BBQ Sauce, 1 can crushed pineapple in juice, 4 chicken breasts.  Mix together in freezer bag.  Thaw.  Cook on low in slow cooker for 6 hours.

Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole from Six Sisters  Six sisters have a good post here about freezer cooking.

Chicken, Sweet Potatoes, and Butternut Squash  Jury is still out on this one.  It is sitting in my freezer for next week.  I thought it sounded fallish.  :-)

The Taco Soup and The Cilantro Lime Chicken with Corn and Black Beans from this Six Sisters Post

Chicken Stuffed Shells

Spinach Lasagna Rollups  I added homemade meatsauce on top.

Crockpot Chicken Fajitas

Apple Pie Pork Chops

Slow Cooker Mongolian Beef

Brown Sugar and Maple Pork Roast

Martha Stewart's Baked Penne with Chicken and Sundried Tomatoes