My First Day of Making Freezer Meals

Most people know that I am super in love with Pinterest right now (if you haven't checked it out, you should!). There were a few links on there with once-a-month-cooking and it inspired me. I wasn't up for an entire month's worth of cooking, but I thought I'd pick a few complimentary recipes and try it out. I'm not completely foreign to the make-ahead-meals concept as I participated in "Your Supper Solutions" in Red Deer a few times, but I've never done it from home and with all my own research, shopping, etc.

 

Researching for meal ideas and shopping was a bit time consuming, but I was kind of in slow mo mode too. After about 4 hours of prepping and cooking the above depicts my results:

-3 containers of Rachel's Casserole,*

-3 containers of Alphine Meatballs with Rice,*

-2 containers of Pizza Spaghetti Casserole,*

-1 large ziplock container of Sausage Pasta Sauce,

-1 large ziplock container of Sausage Stirfry Mix,

-1 meal sized container of Taco Beef mixing,

as well as 1 meals worth of Taco Beef mixing which I made into Taco Salad that night.

*Recipes were found on other websites, links at end of blog entry.

I'll list the recipes I used first with basic directions, and then I'll list my methods of madness from that day (tips, etc).

A) Taco Beef Mixing (I made 2 batches):

• 1 package of Extra Lean Ground Beef
• 1 package of Taco Seasoning
• 3/4 cup of water
• 1 small container of tomato paste
• 1 cup of salsa (I used Tostitos Mild)

Directions:

• Brown hamburger.
• Pour seasoning package over mixture and add water.
• Continue cooking until water evaporates.
• Add tomato paste & salsa.
• Store in freezable ziplock bag. Probably only need a medium size for one batch.

Future uses:

• add to lettuce, shredded cheese, fresh veggies (cucumber, green & red peppers, red onion) and cheesy doritos for a taco salad.
• use with taco shells & fixings for tacos.
• make the 'dorito bake casserole': which uses pillsbury cresent dough for the base, Beef Taco Mix, sour cream layer and then cheese and crushed cheesy doritos on top. Bake at 350F until browned.
• make 'tortilla bake casserole': alternate tortillas (I prefer cheese ones) and Beef Taco Mix. Have one sour cream layer in the middle and cheese on top. Could also have refried bean layer if desired. Bake at 350F until browned.

 B) Alphine Meatballs (Equalled three lasagna sized containers plus left over rice):

• 1 Box Premade frozen meatballs (I bought the blue menu italian meatballs from No Frills/Superstore)
• 4 Cups Rice
• 1/2 Cup of Parmesan
• 1 small pkg of Swiss Cheese (270g), grated
• 1 1/2 Cups Milk
• 2 cans Condensed Mushroom Soup
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp all spice
• 3 tsp chopped garlic or 3 cloves

Directions:

• Cook rice.
• Put a layer of meatballs on the bottom of your dish.
• In a seperate bowl, mix rice with all ingredients except meatballs.
• Pour rice mixture over meatball layer.
• Future Use: Bake at 350F for 30-45 minutes when thawed.

C) Turkey Sausage Pasta Sauce (made one large ziplock bag):

• 1 pkg of Turkey Sausage (bought mine at walmart)
• Fresh Veggies (Green Peppers, Red Peppers, Yellow Onions, Broccol, Carrots Medallions, Fresh Mushrooms)
• 1 Large Can of Spaghetti Sauce or Tomato Sauce

Directions:

• Bake turkey sausages at 350F for 30-45 minutes. Make sure they are no longer pink inside. Slice into bite sized pieces. Let cool to room temperature.
• Chop fresh veggies as needed into large pieces. I ended up with about 4 cups of fresh veggies.
• Put all ingredients into large freezable ziplock container.
• Future Use: Cook in slow cooker until desired tenderness. Serve over freshly cooked pasta. For leftovers, keep pasta seperate from pasta sauce.

 D) Turkey Sausage Stirfry (made one batch):

• 1 package of Turkey Sausages (I bought mine at walmart)
• Fresh Broccoli
• Carrot Medallions
• Yellow Onions, sliced
• Green & Red Peppers, sliced
• Fresh Mushrooms, sliced
• Sauce: ketchup, brown sugar, vinegar, soya sauce. Mix together to taste. Use only about a tsp of soya sauce and a lot of ketchup to start.

Directions:

• Bake sausages in oven at 350F for 30-45 minutes. Make sure they are no longer pink inside. Slice into bite sized pieces. Let cool to room temperature.
• You can either keep veggies raw to fry later or fry them now depending how ready you want this meal to be.
• If veggies are cooked, you can store with the sauce. I chose to wait until I use this mix to freshly make sauce and rice.
• Future Use: serve warmed on rice with sauce.

E) Pizza Spaghetti Bake (made 3 lasagna sized containers):

• 1 package of ground meat (I used chicken to have a variety of meats in my recipes)
• Veggies (I used red peppers, green peppers, yellow onions)
• 1 Can of Mushrooms
• 1/2 Package of Spaghettini (or pasta of your choice)
• 1 Large Can of Pasta Sauce, or Tomato Sauce (ALT: maybe even pizza sauce)
• 24 pizza pepperoni slices
• 1 Cup Cheddar Cheese, grated
• 1 Cup Mont Jack Cheese, grated

Directions:

• Brown ground meat.
• Dice veggies. Fry along with mushrooms.
• Boil spaghettinni to desired tenderness. Drain.
• Mix all three of above together along with pasta sauce and let cool to room temperature.[Next time I am going to try it with pizza sauce. When I do, I will refrain from mixing it in, but rather do it as a layer of my casserole]
• Once cool, layer in bottom of dish.
• Sprinkle grated cheese on top.
• Place pepperoni on top of cheese.
• Future Use: Bake at 350F for 30-40 minutes if thawed, 40 - 50 minutes if frozen.

F) Rachel's Casserole (made 3 lasagna cointainers):

• 1/2 Box of Pasta (I used Scooby Doo Spirals, she recommends egg noodles)
• 1 package of ground meat
• 2 tbsp flour
• Tomato Sauce or Pasta Sauce
• 1/2 Cup of Black Olives, Sliced
• 1/2 Cup of Green Peppers, Chopped
• 1/2 Cup of Green Onions, Chopped (I forgot to buy these)
• 1 Cup of Sour Cream
• 2 Cups of Cottage Cheese
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper

Directions:

• Cook pasta.
• Brown burger. Once cooked, add tomato sauce and flour and simmer for 10 minutes.
• In a seperate bowl, mix sour cream, cottage cheese, veggies and salt and pepper.
• Once pasta and burger is cool, put it in the bottom of the dish. Pour veggie mixture over pasta. Pour beef mixture over veggie mixture.
• Future Use: Bake at 350F for 30 minutes.

Methods of Madness/Tips
First Things...

• I wanted everything in disposable, freezable things. For things I was going to bake, I wanted freezable & bakeable so I bought tinfoil lasagna sized containers with lids (if they had larger ones with lids I likely would have bought those) as well as Large Ziplock Freezer bags. Both these things I got at No Frills for a decent price, but I noticed the dollar stores carry them too so you may want to shop around for the best price.
• I chose recipes with similar ingredients so that I could multi-task chopping of veggies, re-use pans, etc.
• I did one big shop of all the ingredients (well two because I went to No Frills & Walmart).
• I pre-planned my recipe attack.
• Have lots of bowls and counterspace so that you can keep things seperated but do multi-tasking work, and you'll have to allow everything to cool before completing your freezer process.
• I pulled everything out that I would need that day & set it in one area on my counter.
• I added lots of veggies to my meals to bulk up the recipe size and get my daily dose of veggies in.

Pre-plan (learned from my days in the kitchen of KFC):

• I set up my rice cooker with the rice for Alphine Meatballs, once cooked I put in a big bowl to cool &/or be ready for mixing whenever I had a break in the other meals' prep,
• I put all the turkey sausages in the oven to bake while I used the stove top for other things.
• I started with the Beef Taco mix so that I could fry it up while chopping my veggies for the other recipes.
• I chopped all my veggies at the same time and seperated them into bowls or ziplocks for each recipe, then fried or kept fresh as each recipe needed.
• When frying veggies such broccoli & carrots, I precook them in the microwave to get them tender, then fry them for crispiness.
• Once meat was ready for taco mix, I put it in a bowl to cool while I started browning meat for spaghetti bake. I also put pasta on to bowl and started frying veggies.
• Once spaghetti bake layer one was mixed & cooling, I started browning my meat for rachel's casserole and cooking the pasta. I also started frying the veggies for my stir fry.
• Then I mixed the cottage cheese stuff.
• When I had in between moments I cut up the turkey sausage, assembled the turkey pasta sauce, assembled anything that was cool enough and mixed up the rice mixture for the alphine meatballs.
• I saved all the cheese grating for last.
• We also had a taco salad for supper about 3 hours into my assembly so I had a bit of a break for everything to cool and before I grated cheese.

That's it I think! Everything went well and I'm anxious to try the new dishes. I'm also looking forward to doing a few more meals. Send me any ideas you have! On my list:
Ham & Asparagus Strata
Meatloaf (my recipe using Knorr Veggie Mix)
Premade Sloppy Joe Mixture
Premade Shepard's Pie Mixture
Perogy Lasagna
Lazy Potsticker Casserole (my new idea, using potsticker pork recipe and pasta)
Pigs in a Blanket
Bisquits

*Rachel's Casserole:
http://www.oneshetwoshe.com/2010/01/rachels-casserole.html
*Alphine Meatballs:
http://busycooks.about.com/od/precookedmeatballrecipes/r/alpinemeatballs.-8tU.htm
*Pizza Spaghetti Casserole
http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/pizza-spaghetti-casserole-10000001589396/