Freezer meals!

Kraft has a great web site with lots of Recipes
you are able to search for recipes..... add your own recipes to create a *recipe cards* a *shopping list* and to *print* it all out

you are able to make differnt groups to group your recipes together like lunch, dinner, sweets, crock pot/slow cooker and i even thought freezer meals....

thought it could come in handy......you dont even have to use their products...... it allows you to add other Ingredients if you want to....

i love the shopping list part of it.....it should make it so much easier to do freezer meals for me.....

http://www.kraftrecipes.com/home.aspx

it does require you to sign up for free to use the tools like shopping list and such.....

let me know what ya think and if it inspires any idea's for freezer meals

hugs
rose

Go to www.food.com and type oamc in the search box.. If someone has already posted that link I apologize, I just came across it today, it has tons of freezer friendly recipes as well as a menu planner and shopping list feature.

thanks sceleste54 i will check it out

hugs
rose

Thanks for the links Sceleste and Rose! Great ideas, I get so amazed sometimes when you look in the cabinets and think there is nothing to eat then you find a recipe and realize how many things you actually have, lol. I am doing a catering event this weekend but after that I need to make some more meals to put away. We ate the sausage, potato broccoli casserole and my hubby overcooked it in the crockpot while I was at work (our oven is broke ) But it was still really good, the broccoli got a little soft though.

Well I survived this weekend, whew that was a lot of work. Then on Sunday I cooked up 10 lbs of boneless skinless chicken breasts, shredded them and made a stuffing for cream cheese enchiladas and bbq chicken sandwiches for the freezer, honey seasame chicken for dinner that night, and chicken salad for sandwiches for the week. I got 40 lbs of boneless skinless chicken breasts for $1.69/lb through Zaycon foods. Anybody ever get food from them, it was my first time and I was very pleased!

Way to go! I am exhuasted reading all that.

Thanks Turan!

Last night I got a wild hair to do some cooking so I gathered a few ideas off of pinterest, went to the store and whipped up 24 wonton lasagna cupcakes, a gallon freezer bag of taco stuffed shells, a lasagna, and some individual bags of spaghetti and meatballs for the kiddos. I flash froze the lasagna cupcakes and stuffed shells so they wouldn't stick together then put them in a freezer bag so you can take out whatever you want at a time! Tonight I am going to do individual mac & cheeses, ham and cheese "hot pockets", and corn chowder!

Cheyannarach,
how do you flash freeze things? what we usually do is freeze things for a few hours individually, by laying on a sheet pan. Then, when frozen, we either put it in a zip lock bag or vacuum seal them, depending on how long we plan for them to stay frozen.

Laurie

The same way you do it Laurie! Next time I will have to put hubby to work with the vaccuum sealer so I can hold on to a few things a little longer!

So I just wanted to update that I did get the hot pockets and mac & cheese done a few days ago! The hot pockets turned out great and my little girl who was turning for in the next few days requested them for her birthday dinner (for 15 people) so I thought it would be fun to have a hot pocket bar and let everybody stuff their own and I would bake them fresh, I used puff pastry for this instead of homemade dough. It was not very fun at all, lol, live and learn. The mac & cheese turned out great though. I was worried about pasta getting mushy but so far the spaghetti and macaroni have been a hit!

Such great ideas from everyone!! Makes me want to cook more! Of course, I am retired and only cook for me and the hubby so will have to consider what freezer meals will work for us.

Also, another way to freeze potatoes (small to medium sized) is to blanch them, ice water cool off, then drain and put them in large freezer bags. They freeze very well. To cook them do not thaw them, put them in a pan of water and boil to tender. Season and enjoy! They can also be added to stews whole or with pot roasts. The biggest issue is do not thaw them before cooking them.

With Thanksgiving around the corner, we will be making turkey pot pies, ham and bean soup, and tamales for the freezer. It's just my DW and me so this works out great. Oh, lasagna is another real favorite for the freezer. We do try to use the foodsaver for the pot pies, lasagna and tamales. Have fun everyone!

Thanks for the tip Efirvin! I will remember that on my next cook fest!! And Meatburner one should not mention tamales and not include a recipe I am freezing right now and now I just really want some ham and bean soup!

Cheyanne, I will try to get that posted soon. My son and daughter want to learn how to make tamales over the holidays and we are going to make a day of it. Will try to post it then. I love them...and the kids too. Will be canning ham and beans Saturday since we froze some a couple of weeks ago. That is truely my comfort food during the cold winter months while dreaming of what I am going to do in the garden come spring time. Stay warm!

Edit: From my post yesterday I meant to say foodsaver and not food processor in that post. BTW, an edit button would be nice for this forum. duh, lol Thanks all.

meatburner wrote:Edit: From my post yesterday I meant to say foodsaver and not food processor in that post. BTW, an edit button would be nice for this forum. duh, lol Thanks all.

I understand want of the edit button because I am a terrible typist and hit the send button quickly. When you send a post I believe your edit window is 30 minutes.

I will fix the post you mentioned and change food processor to food saver.

How did I miss this thread?

Last Saturday it was Turkey Pot Pie filling.
Turkey Pot Pie and How

Today Ray and I are fixen to pick up a mega package of boneless chicken for a whole lot of Buttermilk-herbed Chicken, Cheesy Chicken Bundles and Hawaiian Chicken (for the crock pot). Sure makes being a working girl a little less stressful. Now to read the rest of the thread for more ideas.

camprn, thanks for the help.

meatburner wrote:Edit: From my post yesterday I meant to say foodsaver and not food processor in that post. BTW, an edit button would be nice for this forum. duh, lol Thanks all.

You should be able to see an "edit" button coloured green in the top-right of each of your posts, next to the "quote" button. I use it a lot

We are really enjoying our freezer meals!

We have found that when you cook pork fresh and then freeze it....once you reheat it again to eat....it is really moist!...... Compared to freezing it raw and then cooking it.....

last month we cooked pork, onions and mushrooms together with some white wine sauce.....yummy!

chicken soup turned out great .....and the noodles were not soggy.....

We froze a couple gal size bags of skillet breakfast made up of potatoes, onions, peppers and sausage....flash froze it and it came out great .....

The hamburger taco meat was a big hit....flash froze it so we could use as much or little as needed

The biscuit dough we made up and flash froze, then thawed and baked turned out awesome!

this week we cooked up 5lbs of hamburger and flash froze it to use as needed.....

And another 5lbs of hamburger meat.... made .....3 dinners of beef stroganoff with mushrooms.... 3 meals of mac & cheese with hamburger and 1 dinner of taco meat........

hugs
rose

Lavender Debs wrote:How did I miss this thread?

Last Saturday it was Turkey Pot Pie filling.
Turkey Pot Pie and How

Today Ray and I are fixen to pick up a mega package of boneless chicken for a whole lot of Buttermilk-herbed Chicken, Cheesy Chicken Bundles and Hawaiian Chicken (for the crock pot). Sure makes being a working girl a little less stressful. Now to read the rest of the thread for more ideas.

such a great idea to freeze pot pie filling!l.....love reading it on your blog!....we too are trying to freeze our meals flat....

i hope you will share the cheesy bundles and hawaiian chicken

so good to hear from you Debs!
hugs
rose

Oh now I want to make that pot pie filling, thanks so much for sharing the link! We usually buy our pot pies from some local menonites, and they are fantastic but I have never tried making my own! We actually just ordered a smoked tukey and some bacon wrapped turkey from them, what would you all do with a smoked turkey! I am in need of more ideas!

That looks and sounds yummy! I like to season turkey (or chicken) pie with thyme and lemon zest, and fry some mushrooms in with the onion - though my kids always pick them out :-)
I seem to remember someone on here freezing the pie filling the right size and shape to slip into the pie dish, I still need to try that.

Yeah, I have been wanting to try that with casseroles too! You just line the pan with wax paper or foil, freeze them for a few hours, then pop them out and through it in a freezer bag so you don't have to leave your pan in the freezer.

Here is what we do with a whole turkey of around 15 pounds un cooked weight

The turkey .......roast it slice off a shed load cube some , pick off a generous anount for Fatjidas ( sp ) for the next day then make soup out the rest of the carcass.
Make a massive pot of light turkey gravy with the juices and some of the stock .. let it go cold and refridgerate over night then skim off the solidified fat. then put in 1/2 pint bags freeze then vac seal and label . Sometimes we also freeze 1/4 pints of stock for individual stock use at some other meal if we have a lot of frozen soups in the chest freezer .

We usaully eat one meal of the fresh cooked sliced meat , then bag , vac seal before it goes cold and freeze the rest in family sized proportions .

We only use the frozen sliced after naturaly defrosting using defrost tends to make it dryer than usual ....serve with gravy to be the meat part of a meal or shreddded and chopped up in a nasi goerig ( sp ) as bacon and shredded turkey


We use the cubed meat in a mild korma curry or in a sausage and turkey stew with loads of carrots onions and some leeks that have the greenery on them .