Category Archives: Freezer Friendly

Turkey Talk

I’ve already told you about how I love to freeze cooked meat for quick meals. Here is another way I like to get some meat in the freezer. If I can find a turkey on sale (I found this one before Thanksgiving for like .20 cents a pound!) I will bake it on a Sunday. We enjoy a delicious Sunday dinner…

…and then I get every last piece of meat I can off the turkey, chop it up, and freeze it

Now we are ready for turkey pot pie, turkey soup or hot turkey sandwiches without too much work! And don’t forget to save the juices to freeze for soup broth or gravy!

Homemade Biscuits With A Bonus Recipe!

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Homemade Biscuits:
2 1/4 cups Homemade Biscuit Mix
2/3 cup milk

Mix well (If the batter is not doughy enough, add a bit more milk until it reaches the right consistency) and drop by spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet.

Bake at 325 degrees for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown.

If you want to freeze them:
Place on cookie sheet and freeze. Once frozen store in airtight, freezer safe container. Thaw and enjoy!

You could also freeze them uncooked (place on wax paper on a cookie sheet until hard, then transfer to container) and then pop in the oven the morning you need them!

NOW for the Bonus Recipe!

Homemade Biscuits and Gravy

Once in awhile it’s nice to enjoy some comfort food and this is one of our favorites! It’s a bit of a southern style recipe and it is oh so good!

Gravy Recipe:
1 pound breakfast sausage
1/4 cup flour
2-3 cups milk
2-4 tbs butter
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/8 tsp garlic powder

Cook sausage until brown. The grease can make your gravy very flavorful but it is not healthy at all. So it’s up to you if you want to include it. If you drain off the grease, save at least a few of the little cooked up bits at the bottom of the pan. Remove sausage from the pan. Melt butter (the amount of butter you use depends on how much grease you left in the pan). Mix in the flour and whisk together until brown and smooth. Add more butter as needed to get a smooth consistency.

Whisk in milk a cup at a time. Mix until smooth and thick and it begins to bubble. Add more milk as needed to maintain a thick and smooth consistency. Return sausage to pan. Season with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Simmer for about 10 minutes.

Serve over the biscuits above and enjoy!

OK, this just looks like a big blob of brownish stuff but I promise, it’s good!

Dinner Time? Put Your Freezer To Work!

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One of my favorite ways to stay on top of things in the kitchen is by getting meals in the freezer. I won’t call it once a month cooking because food doesn’t last in our house for more than a couple of weeks. (I don’t know what I’ll do when our three boys are teenagers!) I get as many meals in the freezer as I can and here’s how I do it!

Crazy meat cooking: I will cook up large amounts of hamburger and chicken and then separate into meal size portions and then freeze them. When I want to make tacos, just thaw the meat and add seasonings. When I want to make homemade chicken pot pie, just thaw the meat and add veggies, etc! Easy!

If I’m feeling really ambitious, I’ll add all of the seasonings and sauces and such and put the whole meal in the freezer. So I’ll add the veggies and creamy soup with the chicken for the pot pie and put in the freezer. When pot pie night comes around, all I have to do it thaw and bake! When taco night comes, thaw and heat! Even easier!

It takes just a bit of work but so worth the time and effort! This is a must do for working Moms and Moms who spend every other night at the soccer field. HUGE time saver, Mommas!

Hamburger: Buy the highest quality hamburger you can. Organic meat is always best, but do the best you can! I know that’s not always an option for everyone. (You can also use ground turkey and I often do!) I like to put the hamburger in the oven in a nice big roasting pan with a chopped up onion and some fresh pressed garlic. Chop it up a couple of times while it’s baking and Voila! Way easier than standing over a skillet!

Here, I baked five pounds of hamburger. Then let cool a bit and separate into meal sized portions. Freeze in freezer safe containers or add ingredients for a full freezer meal!

Chicken: Be very careful when you buy chicken. Read the labels carefully and buy only chicken not treated with steroids or antibiotics and injected with solutions. On the same day that I cook the hamburger meat and puree my veggies I also put several chicken breasts in the crock pot to cook. I will usually use frozen ones so I stick them right in, turn it on, let it cook for several hours until it’s cooked through and easily shredded. (If you use fresh chicken breasts, add water or broth so it doesn’t burn and stick!) Separate into meal sized portions and/or add to meal ingredients to get a full dinner in the freezer. I love having chicken readily available to throw in a salad or add to some stir fry. It really cuts down on dinner prep time!

Here I have four containers of chicken ready to freeze. I also strained the liquid and saved the yummy slow cooked broth to add to soup! One thing I love about cooking chicken this way, you won’t believe how much further it goes! The chicken below was from FIVE chicken breasts. Yes, I got four meals out of five chicken breasts!

What you see below is eleven prepared meals and meats, one container of pancakes, two mini loaves of banana bread, beet puree, homemade pasta and homemade whip cream. How’s THAT for a stocked freezer! (We also have a freezer in the garage full of frozen veggies and meat, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to fit this much in there!)

Freezer recipes will follow soon!!

Puree Love

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I am a big fan of the recipes in the Deceptively Delicious recipe book. If I can get more veggies into my kids’ food, I’m all for it. I’m not necessarily a fan of “hiding” the veggies from the kids though. I puree veggies and fruits and mix them into our foods very frequently. And I do tell my boys about it…after they’ve tried it! You know kids, if I say “Here try this, it has spinach in it!” They are going to instantly hate it. But if they try it and like it, then I happily announce what it’s laced with. If I ask the boys if they like their dinner, Chandler never fails to ask, “Why what did you put in it?”

If you start early enough your kids should have no problem with being veggie eaters, but not everyone does. It’s so easy to fall into the habit of making a box of mac and cheese for lunch instead of serving raw veggies and real cheese. I didn’t start early enough myself, so my kids are set in some of their ways. But it’s never too late! Start slowly introducing healthier options to your kids and teaching them about how important healthy eating habits are. We’ve made huge progress over the past few years as we assume a healthier eating lifestyle. And here is one big way we do it!

PUREE BABY!

Mostly, I puree butternut squash, spinach, carrots and sweet potatoes. It seems like a lot of work, but really, a couple of hours of kitchen work is so minimal when compared to the health benefits! So here’s how I do it:

Squash: Cut in half, scrape out the seeds. Place flesh down on a baking sheet and bake at 375 degrees until mushy. (These are technical cooking terms, people, stick with me.) Let cool and then scrape the skin off. Puree in food processor until nice and smooth.

Here’s what it will look like when roasted with the skin on and off.

Carrots: Cut up into quarters, steam. Let cool just a bit so you don’t burn your hands! Puree!

Spinach can be steamed until just wilted, then pureed.

Sweet potatoes can be roasted in the oven whole, cool, then scrape out of skin. Puree!

See? Simple! I like to do it all in one day. That way I only have to dirty up the food processor once! I will then place the purees in one cup portions into the freezer, ready to be added to whatever I wish! I also will leave out some of the purees to add to some of my freezer meals, like chicken pot pie, chili, etc. Which I will show you all about soon!

Try it once, just once! If it’s not for you, find another creative way to get those veggies into those kids!

*If you have babies in the house, save the purees for them too! SO much cheaper and healthier than buying the jarred kind!

Quick and Healthy Pancakes

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I am not a fan of prepared foods. I try very, very hard not to buy prepackaged foods. I mean, have you read what the ingredients are in a box of frozen waffles? I try to follow my golden rule of food as often as possible.

So in an effort to provide healthy choices to the boys for breakfast without spending an hour making them something from scratch while scrambling to get everyone on the bus on time, I make up plenty of breakfast items ahead of time and freeze them. Just as easy as the boxed frozen foods, but way better for us!

These items include homemade, from scratch: Pancakes,Waffles, Bagels and Biscuits. So on a busy morning, it’s very easy to warm up one of these items, pair them up with some eggs or fresh fruit, and you have a healthy and quick breakfast.

Here is my pancake recipe, I’ll be posting the waffles, bagels and biscuits soon as well! I usually double the recipes on a weekend morning and then freeze whatever is left for the week.

Pancakes:
2 cups Homemade Biscuit Mix
1 1/2 cups milk
2 tbs Milled Flaxseed
1/2 cup Water
1 egg
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
(I do not sweeten my pancakes, but if you prefer to, I suggest using a bit of agave nectar in place of white sugar)

Mix ingredients together until well blended. There are a couple of secrets to perfect pancakes and this is one of them: Mixture should not be too thick…if it is lumpy and comes off your spoon in clumps, add more milk or water until just a tad runny, but not so runny that it will puddle all over the place. Am I making sense? How about a picture: Make sure it looks like this:

Got it? Ok, cook on a hot griddle. I keep mine at about medium heat.

*Pancake Perfection Hint #2: Cook on the first side until bubbly. Your pancake won’t be overcooked this way!

Then flip, cook the other side until it steams, then they are perfect!

Enjoy with some warm maple syrup!

Or just eat it like a big cookie. You choose.

Make sure you make enough for left overs. Then place on a cookie sheet or baking rack and freeze.

Once frozen, store in airtight, freezer safe container.

Stick in the toaster or microwave to warm up just like you would the boxed kind!

These pancakes are super good for you, easy and way cheaper than anything packaged!

Check out some more recipes by fellow Mom bloggers at Beauty and Bedlam’s Tasty Tuesday post!