Freezer Meals

I've always wanted to try my hand at freezer meals. Every so often I see a new post about "such and such number of meals in one day" and think to myself "Self, you really need to do that - it would be awesome." However, it's kind of intimidating time-wise as well as intimidating budget wise. But with Baby #2's arrival just around the corner, I decided that I wanted to stock up at least a few meals that I thought our family would actually eat and enjoy for after baby gets here. Instead of making a huge day out of it, I've started building up my freezer meal supply over the course of several weeks. About twice a week I've tried to plan meals that would be good freezer meals, then as I'm making dinner I just make twice as much and freeze half of it. It's worked out pretty well so far! Some recipes I've already used, like our favorite chicken enchiladas, chimichangas, and southwest soup, others I've found online and then made them for dinner while making extra to freeze. Hopefully I'll have a good combination of meals to use over the following months. Usually I would do a separate post for each meal - but I'm falling a little behind on my blogging and I don't want to lose these recipes. I think that I'll try to take a picture of the finished meal on the night that I actually make it and then post the recipe and picture then. Until then, I'll just keep the recipes all together here in one big post to draw from.

Savory Pepper Steak
Source: Mommy's Fabulous Finds

Ingredients
1½ lbs round steak, cut into ½ in strips
¼ cup flour
½ tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
1 small onion, diced
4-5 garlic cloves
1 green pepper, diced
1 red pepper, diced
1 (16 oz) can Italian style tomatoes
1 tbsp beef bouillon
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp steak seasoning
1 tbsp steak sauce

Instructions
Toss steak in salt, pepper, & flour and add to gallon-sized freezer bag. In a med bowl mix together the rest of the ingredients, add to bag. Zip close and place in freezer. When ready to use thaw in fridge overnight. Empty contents into crock-pot and cook on low 8 hours.

Crock-Pot BBQ Spareribs
Source: Mommy's Fabulous Finds

Ingredients
2lbs of pork ribs
1½ cups ketchup
1½ Tbsp seasoned salt
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup white vinegar

Instructions
Place pork ribs in gallon sized ziplock. Mix remaining ingredients together in a separate bowl and pour over ribs. Seal bag and place in freezer. Thaw over night in fridge. Cook on high for 3-4 hours or low for 6-7 hours.


Chicken Fajitas
Source: What's for Dinner Facebook Group - Larissa Rees

Ingredients
2 peppers (one green and one red)
1 medium onion
1 ½ lbs chicken breast
½ cup chicken broth
Taco seasoning packet
1 tsp chili powder
½ tsp paprika
1 tsp salt


Directions:
Slice peppers and onion into strips. Place peppers, onion, and chicken breast into a gallon sized ziplock. Add the rest of the ingredients to the bag and seal. Lay bag flat and place in freezer. On day of cooking: place frozen in the crock pot and cook on high for 3-4 hours, or low for 5-6 hours. Once cooked, shred the chicken and serve on warm tortillas with your favorite toppings.



Freezer-Friendly Pizza Pockets

Source: Money Saving Mom

Ingredients: 

Pizza Dough

Pizza Fillings 

(ex: 1 pound ground beef
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 1/2 cup pasta sauce
2-3 cups shredded cheese)
Other optional filling ingredients: diced black olives, pepperoni, diced green pepper, and/or diced mushrooms

To make dough: Mix yeast into warm water until dissolved. Add sugar, salt, oil, and flour. Mix well and dump onto a floured surface and knead for 3-5 minutes.

To make filling (I browned this while mixing up the dough): Brown ground beef with onion (and green pepper, if desired). Drain. Add pasta sauce and mix together. Add other optional filling ingredients, if desired.

To make Pizza Pockets: Divide dough into 15-20 pieces. Roll pieces into balls. Flatten balls into circles with rolling pin. Dollop a few tablespoons of filling onto dough circle and sprinkle with cheese. Fold over and seal tightly.

Bake on a greased cookie sheet at 500 degrees for 10-15 minutes until browned.

To freeze: Cool completely and store in an airtight ziptop freezer bag for up to 2-3 months.

To serve: Remove desired number of pizza pockets from the freezer and warm them individually in the microwave for about two minutes or until heated throw. Or, warm on a cookie sheet in a 350-degrees oven for 20 minutes, or until heated through.

Southwest Chicken Soup

My little sister Melissa introduced us to this recipe and it was an instant hit. My favorite thing is that you can double the chicken/bean mixture and freeze it for an easy weekday meal! Just defrost and add some chicken broth. We had a bad experience with a few recipes calling for salsa verde, and so I was skeptical even though this recipe technically calls for "Green Salsa." (Is that the same thing? We don't know.) But I was pleasantly surprised at the nice flavor, definitely not too spicy. Yum! 

Southwest Chicken Soup
Source: Melissa Walker

Ingredients:
2 cups shredded chicken
1 TBS El Paso Taco Seasoning
1 can White Beans, mashed
1/2 cup Green Salsa
1 red pepper, diced
34 oz chicken broth

Directions:
Cook and shred chicken. Place shredded chicken in frying pan, add taco seasoning and brown. Drain and mash white beans. (When mashing the beans, mash them really well. The inside of the beans serves to thicken the soup so you want all of the skins broken and mashed together.) Combine beans, green salsa, diced red pepper, and chicken. Add chicken broth and bring to a boil. Simmer ten minutes. Serve with cheese and tortilla chips.

FREEZER MEAL
Before adding chicken broth, remove desired amount of chicken/bean mixture and place in a freezer bag. (You could also place in a tupperware container.) Freeze and store. When you are ready for a quick and delicious meal, defrost and add 2 cans of chicken broth. Simmer 10 minutes and serve!

Pork Chimichangas

I was visiting a friend the other day right before dinner and something smelled so good! I immediately knew that I needed the recipe for whatever was in the oven. Karli gave me this recipe and I love it. My favorite part is that with the one pork roast, we had enough meat for 3 meals worth of chimichangas and two meals of Shredded Pork Sandwiches (I just added barbecue sauce to the already shredded pork).  It was awesome! Obviously, when we have more kids - one roast won't go as far. But as for now, it's awesome to get 5 meals out of one roast. 

Pork Chimichangas

Source: Adapted from Karli Shields

Ingredients: 

5 lb Pork Rump Roast

1 medium onion

2 cups cooked rice

2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp garlic salt

1 tsp cumin

2 (4 oz) cans chopped green chilis

2 (7 oz) cans salsa (the original recipe calls for green salsa, but I used red)

4 Tbsp flour

Directions:
Place roast with 1/2 cup water in the crock pot. Cook on high 6-8 hours. After it is cooked, place it in large bowl of kitchen aid and use the paddle attachment on medium speed for 50-75 seconds. You want your meat to be shredded, but not mashed. If you leave the mixer running for too long, your pieces will be too small. It's better to have a few big pieces that you shred by hand rather than over-shred the rest. 

Slice onion and brown in a large skillet. Add shredded roast, seasonings/flour, chilis, and salsa to skillet. Add rice and enough juice from the Crockpot to make it moist, but not a runny consistency. Mix and heat through. 

Fill large flour tortillas with mixture and fry in hot oil until golden brown or bake at 425 for 15 minutes.

*Serve with assorted toppings.

My favorite part about this recipe is that it is so easy to freeze. Prior to baking, I wrapped the extra chimichangas in a small piece of paper towel and placed in bags to freeze. (I used two bags of tortillas, so I just used those empty bags, and then I placed them both in a gallon-sized freezer bag.) Four chimichangas per bag + two bags = two weeknight freezer dinner meals for us! Just defrost in microwave for a couple of minutes, then bake at 425 for 15 minutes.