Freezer Prep

We fix and freeze taco chicken meat, all our pasta sauces, the BBQ shredded chicken recipe listed below, prepared hamburger meat for dishes, pancakes for Matilyn, and prepared turkey bacon for breakfast sandwiches. Please read the recipes below for other freezer options. Make sure you click through all the pages. We put all our chicken and hamburger freezer meals in freezer bags to make thawing easier. Happy Cooking!

Chicken Casseroles-Freeze Four Small Meals

We make the equivalent of a nine x eleven casserole dish in four smaller tin pans. We freeze four meals per casserole recipe. You can do this in several ways.

Option 1: (Quick)
2 large cans of cream of chicken soup
Three shredded chicken breasts or a rotisserie chicken shredded
One box of dressing
One can of Veg-All.
Bake Chicken or shred a rotisserie chicken
Spray tin pans with cooking spray of your choice. We use coconut oil spray.
Shred chicken after it cools
Pour in soup (as much as you want in each pan) and drained veggies
Cover with prepared dressing box mix
Bake for 45 minutes at 350 degrees.
Cool, wrap all four tins in aluminum foil and freeze. They stack nicely.
Put in fridge the night before you want to serve and reheat in oven the next day.

Option 2:
Make low sodium chicken soup:
1 and 1/2 cups low sodium chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon poultry seasoning
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon parsley
a dash of paprika
1 and 1/2 cups 2% milk or almond milk
1/2 cup flour or almond flour

Boil seasoning, chicken broth, and 1/2 cup milk for two minutes, then mix the other cup of milk and flour together, add to boiling mixture and stir like gravy until it thickens.

Put chicken in cocunut oil sprayed pan, pour in drained veggies and soup, mix well.
Add some whole wheat bread crumbs or prepared dressing mix to the top. Bake 45 minutes at 350 degrees.
Cool, wrap all four tins in aluminum foil and freeze.
Put in fridge the night before you want to serve and reheat in oven the next day.

Baked Chicken for Everything

I know this sounds simple and easy, but many forget how easy it is to freeze all your meats monthly. It makes cooking dinner much faster. I cook an oven full of chicken breasts each month, dice it or slice it, bag it, and freeze it until I need it.
1 Pan: Italian herbs from grinder--salt free seasoning and a little olive oil.
1 Pan: Fresh squeezed lemons with olive oil, garlic, and oregano (baste every 15 minutes).
1 Pan: Cajun mix-salt free seasoning and a little olive oil.
1 Pan: Plain chicken with a little bit of olive oil and crushed black pepper.
I use some for salads and some for wraps. Just pull a bag out of the freezer and place it in the fridge the night before you want to use it.

I can get 12 bags out of a big pack of chicken breasts from Sam's.

Chicken Chili--ACC Championship Day! Freezes Well

We make this with ground beef sometimes, but we like the lighter version with chicken the best. This is one of Matthew's recipes. It calls for a pound and a half of ground beef if you choose to use that instead of chicken. Just brown your ground beef first and add about ten minutes to your overall preparation time.
This recipe takes about 45 minutes from start to finish.
We buy a cold rotisserie chicken and break it up.

3 pounds of rotisserie chicken
1 large chopped onion
3 tablespoons chili powder
2 tablespoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon of salt
1 tablespoon Sriracho
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 pack of chili Texmex
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 cans kidney beans
2 cans pintos
2 cans diced tomatoes
1 (14 oz) can Rotel
1 can tomato paste
1 (16 oz) tomato sauce
1 can of Coors Light
1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
1 teaspoon sugar

Saute onion in dutch oven, then add chili powder, salt, oregano, cayenne, and Tabasco, mix well.
Dump all your other ingredients on top, except for the chicken, and bring to a boil. Add your chicken and lower the heat to medium-low to simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Season to your liking. If it is too hot for you and your family, just add a little sugar to cool it down.

It's a great chili on a rainy, ACC championship day! Since State is out, Go Devils!

Firecracker Shrimp

Matthew bought, not jumbo, not extra jumbo, but colossal shrimp at the fish market today.
He gives them an egg wash after they are deveined, puts a small amount of panko on each one, and gives them a nice sauté in olive oil.
He combines 1 tablespoon chili sauce, 2 tablespoons of cocktail sauce, and 2 tablespoons of remoulade sauce for a delicious appetizer or lunch with a salad. He sautéed eight shrimp today for the three of us. It was delicious.

Patty Melts of All Kinds!

I started with a recipe from Ree Drummond on Food Network. Here's a link to her recipe.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ree-drummond/patty-melts-recipe.html

I used her basic recipe, but instead of using a stick of butter, I used one pat per side of the bread.

For three sandwiches:
Six slices of nice bread of your choice.
Six pats of butter
Half an onion chopped and caramelized
Six slices of cheese. We use Swiss.
Your choice of ham, turkey, roast beef, or prepared hamburgers.

Throw a slice of cheese on each piece of bread, your meat, and cover with the other piece of cheese then bread. Throw down three pats of butter in an electric frying pan, then repeat that step when you flip sides. I put the top on between turns to steam the cheese a bit.

Makes a great lunch after church!

Smashed Potatoes (Crash Hot Potatoes) Freezes Well

I got this one from Ree Drummond on Food Network.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ree-drummond/crash-hot-potatoes-recipe.html
My husband loves potatoes of any shape, color, kind, or preparation. We had these for two meals. I used most of her recipe with a few changes (Parmesan cheese, no boiling) for the first round, then pan fried the leftovers for lunch the next day in olive oil. Makes a nice, easy version of potato cakes!

I purchased the small, microwaveable bag of golden potatoes at Ingles instead of boiling a bag of potatoes.

The potatoes take six minutes in the microwave. 

Once they cook, throw them on a baking pan and gently flatten them with a potato masher. Drizzle olive oil, Parmesan cheese, and pepper over them. The potato masher makes a nice pattern on them. Bake at 475 for 15 minutes. Ree Drummond is an excellent cook! I attached a link to her exact recipe. Potatoes are at the top of the picture.