Garlic Bread

Garlic bread is great to have on hand to add to any meal.  It is easy to make for the freezer and tastes so good!

Garlic Bread

Ingredients

1 long loaf French bread
Garlic Butter
Cheese
Bacon Bits

To Prepare for Freezing

Slice bread lengthwise leaving one side intact.  Butter each side the bread with the garlic butter (I buy premade)

Sprinkle with cheese and bacon bits to taste over both sides of the bread.  Close the loaf.  Wrap loaf in tin foil.

Cooking Directions from Freezer





Take bread out to defrost.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Open up the bread so the cut sides are exposed and cook for approximately 15 more minutes.  Or until the cheese is melted.  Cut and serve.

Spaghetti Sauce

Sorry I have been MIA.  I was away for a couple of days.

Tonight for dinner we had another staple in our freezer, spaghetti sauce!  I normally will make a large pot and have about 10 freezer meals.  Please note that the recipe below is for one meal.  I use 3 large size cans of crushed tomatoes and wing the rest.  We also add lots of veggies!  Adding red wine to the sauce gives it a nice taste.

I also will serve this meal with garlic bread from the freezer :P

Spaghetti Sauce

Ingredients

4 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, diced
1 large red pepper, diced
4-6 cloves of garlic, minced
1 pound ground beef
3 cans crushed tomatoes
1 can tomato paste
3 tbsp oregano
3 tbsp basil
salt
pepper
bay leaf
dried chili flakes to taste
sugar to taste



To Prepare for Freezing


Prep your veg while your pot heats with the olive oil in it. Add the veg with a bit of salt and cook until the onion is translucent. Then add the garlic and stir for another minute or two. Throw in the ground beef and cook till brown.

Then add the crushed tomatoes and tomato paste. Stir. Add oregano, basil, black pepper, dried chili flakes and bay leaf.

Bring to a boil then simmer for at least an hour. Taste the sauce. Now is the time to decide how much sugar you need to add to balance the acidity of the tomatoes.

It's different every time but I usually add at least a couple teaspoons. I usually also adjust the salt now.

Allow to cook for another 30 minutes and taste test again.

Let the sauce cool.  When cool place serving amount you want into freezer bags.  Lay flat to freeze.

Cooking Directions from Freezer 

Let defrost and warm up in pot on the stove.  Serve over noodles.

Classic Onion Soup

This is yet another recipe that is a staple in our freezer!  It is great on cold days like today :)  We normally get about 6 meals.

Classic Onion Soup

Ingredients

4 large yellow onions, sliced
6 tbsp butter or margarine
1 tbsp sugar
8 cups reduced sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup red wine
Salt and Pepper to taste

To Prepare for Freezing

Melt butter in large saucepan.  Add onions.  Cook over medium heat for 12 minutes or until tender and golden.  Stir often.  Add sugar and cook, stirring, for 1 minute.  Add broth.  Cover and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer 12 minutes.  Add red wine and give a stir.  Season salt and pepper.

Let cool and put into freezer bags.  Lay flat in freezer.

Cooking Directions from Freezer

Once soup is defrost, heat up in pot.  Top with toast and sprinkle with cheese.

Beef Stir Fry

This was something that I put together and is a new recipe for this round of freezer meals. 

Beef Stir Fry

Ingredients

Cut up fast fry steak
Stir fry veggies (I bought the fresh package ones from Independent)
One jar of teriyaki sauce

To Prepare for Freezing

Place the stir fry veggies into a large freezer bag.  In another freezer bag place beef and pour the jar of teriyaki sauce ontop of the beef.  Package together and then freeze.

Cooking Directions from Freezer

Once defrosted, place the beef mixture into frying pan.  Fry till beef is done.  Add veggies and cook till crisp.  Serve over a bed of rice.

Meat Pie

Last night for dinner was meat pie.  This is a staple in our freezer.  I normally will double the recipe.  I get about 3-4 meat pies for the freezer.

I use the following recipe from the LCBO but I did make some small changes.

Ingredients

1 tbsp (15 mL) canola oil
1 lb (500 g) lean ground pork ( I add a pound of beef)
½ cup (125 mL) finely chopped onion, about 1 small yellow onion
1 large garlic clove
1 stalk celery, finely diced
1 small carrot, finely diced
1 tsp (5 mL) chopped fresh thyme or ¼ tsp (1 mL) dried
¼ tsp (1 mL) salt
¼ tsp (1 mL) ground cloves
¼ tsp (1 mL) dried summer savoury
¼ tsp (1 mL) freshly ground black pepper
¾ cup (175 mL) turkey, chicken or beef stock
2 tbsp (25 mL) finely chopped fresh parsley
2 to 3 tbsp (25 to 45 mL) Dijon mustard
1 cup of bread crumbs
Premade pastry pie shells

To Prepare for Freezing 

 

Heat oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. When hot, crumble in pork; sauté 5 to 8 minutes or until lightly browned. Stir in onion, garlic, celery and carrot; cook 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in thyme, salt, cloves, savoury, black pepper and stock. Cover, reduce heat to low and simmer 20 minutes. Then stir in bread crumbs and parsley; remove from heat. Cool until able to handle. 

When ready to serve, press cooled tourtière mixture into premade pastry pie shell.  Place in freezer bag.

Cooking Directions from Freezer

 

Once defrosted, cook at 350 for about an hour.

Freezer Inventory

I know I am posting a couple recipes at a time but I thought I would share with you what I did in my last freezer meal cooking.  Some of the recipes are made almost fully.  They are then frozen and will only need a small amount of cooking time when defrosted. 

I also tried some new recipes were the meals are made with out cooking and frozen.  But the good thing is, they will be ready to go and will require little prep and cooking time.  Some of the meals can also be placed directly into the slow cooker.

Generally when I make my meals, I will have enough for 2-3 freezer meals.

Garlic Bread
Baked Ziti
Chili
Beef Stir Frys
Honey Sesame Chicken
Wine and Herb Chicken
Beef Dips
Chicken Teryaki
Pizza
Taco Beef
Chicken Wings
BBQ Pork Chops
Vodka Sauce
Onion Soup
Chicken Souvlaki
Stuffed Chicken
Lasagna
Shepherds Pie
Chicken Parm
Chicken Bacon Sub
Chicken Quasdialas
Chicken Enchiladas
Chicken Taco
Chicken Faijtas
Pulled Pork
Spaghetti Sauce
Stuffed Beef Shells

BBQ Pork

Today's freezer dinner was a new recipe.  It was very easy to prep and cook.  Very tasty as well.  This will be added to future freezes.

BBQ Pork Chops

Ingredients

BBQ Sauce
Pork Chops

To Prepare for Freezing 

Place all ingredients in freezer bag.  Make sure pork chops are covered with sauce.

Cooking Directions from Freezer

Defrost pork chops.  Place chops and sauce in baking dish.  Bake in oven at 350 for about 35 minutes or until fully cooked.

Chicken Bacon Sub

I had to try this recipe when I first saw it.  Who doesnt like chicken and bacon?  Yum!  This was a good and quick dinner if you are on the go.  I think next time I will try to heat mine up on the panini grill.

You will need to use the shredded chicken recipe that I posted the other day.

Shredded Chicken Recipe

Chicken Bacon Swiss Cheese Sub Recipe

1 large French loaf, sliced lengthwise
1/2 cup garlic butter (I used store bought and only enough to cover the bread)
2 cups shredded chicken
1/4 cup chopped bacon, cooked crisp
4 slices swiss cheese

To Prepare for Freezing

Place French loaf on large sheet of aluminum foil. Spread garlic butter on bottom half of bread. Spread shredded chicken across garlic butter. Sprinkle with bacon. Layer cheese over top. Place top half of bread over cheese. Wrap in foil and freeze.

We had a long loaf and managed to get three subs.

Cooking Directions from Freezer

Turn oven on to 350.  Bake for 50-70 minutes if frozen. If thawed, bake for 25-30 minutes.

Shredded Chicken for Freezing

Many of the recipes I use call for shredded chicken breasts.  Here is the recipe that I use. 

http://www.food.com/recipe/crock-pot-shredded-chicken-breasts-for-freezing-oamc-188329

Chicken Souvlaki

I am not sure if this is a "traditional" souvlaki.  I got this recipe a couple years ago when I did the South Beach Diet.  This one was always a fav in our house and is really easy to make.  This is the first time we made it from frozen and it was really good.  I will be adding this one to my standard recipes for freezing.

Ingredients

4 chicken breasts cubed
1/4 cup light soy sauce
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 cloves minced garlic
1 tsp dried oregano
Juice of one lemon

To Prepare for Freezing

Mix all ingredients excluding chicken in a bowl.  Place chicken in a small freezer bag.  Pour mixture on top.  Place in freezer.

Cooking Directions from Freezer

Defrost in fridge in the freezer bag.  Cook in frying pan until chicken is cooked.  We serve with rice and green beans.

I had enough to make 2 meals but we are a small family.

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog about my adventures in freezer cooking!

I started freezer cooking about 2 years ago.  I was having a hard time eating home cooked meals.  I lived about an hour away from work and the last thing I wanted to do when I got home was prep and cook dinner.  I learned about freezer cooking from a friend.  I had first tried a couple of recipes and once I saw how easy it was, I was hooked!

Recently I did a round of freezer cooking and I have about 60 meals to eat.  This has been my largest freeze to date.  Most of them are tried and tested meals but I did try some new recipes.

This blog I will share my recipes, cooking methods and reviews of the recipes in my freezer.

Enjoy!