Fall Freezer Meals

A few weeks ago I was contacted by Marie McGinnis about her new Freezer Meals book, A Busy Mom's Simple Guide to Freezer Meals: How to Get 20 Healthy Dinners Ready in Just a Few Hours. Since I love simple, efficiency and freezer meals, I decided to try it out.

She has bundled the recipes into two easy groups. I decided to make meals from bundle A but in the interest of time and family tastes, omitted a few recipes. I ended up making the Slow Cooker Chicken and Sausage Stew, Pulled Chicken BBQ Sandwiches, Salsa Verde Steak Tacos, Slow Cooker Cuban Pork. I spent about 15 minutes gathering the ingredients and got to work. Twenty minutes later, I had put together 4 meals for future dinners. I like that kind of math!

If you someone looking to speed up the time you spend making food, save money and still serve healthy meals, A Busy Mom's Simple Guide to Freezer Meals: How to Get 20 Healthy Dinners Ready in Just a Few Hours is for you!

Freezer Meal Round-Up

Last week I posted about making a few Freezer Meals and since then, I've become obsessed with collecting freezer meal recipes. I made a HUGE batch of Freezer Veggie Burritos for Scott and a big batch of meat burritos for me. I've also made a board on Pinterest and grandiose plans! I thought I'd share some of my plans today since I don't have a recipe to share due to the aforementioned obsession with Pinning recipes.

Photo Credit: Pioneer Woman

The very first place I'd direct you is The Pioneer Woman's post on Freezer Meals. She included best tips on freezing along with some great recipes. I'm planning on making the Sour Cream Noodle Bake, Easy Calzones and the Spicy Dr. Pepper Pulled Pork.

Photo Credit: Baked in the South

I found this great blog with a big ole stack of crockpot freezer recipes which really pairs my two cooking loves together! The Mexican Chicken Soup looks delicious along with the Slow Cooker Meatloaf,  Loaded Baked Potato Soup and Cheesy Loaded Ravioli.

Photo Credit Money Saving Mom

I'm also planning on making this Chicken Broccoli Rice Casserole. It looks easy and will be so scrumptious in January!

I've really been focusing on dinner foods but I also need to start thinking about breakfasts and lunch along with snacks. I'll probably bake up some muffins and pancakes as those freeze really well. I'm also planning to start up my daily oatmeal after the baby is born. Additionally I'll be making a batch or two of Lactation Cookies and freezing the dough. For lunches, we can probably get away with a bunch of soup recipes and panini sandwiches. We have a great panini grill that Scott loves using and I do love a warm grilled cheese sandwich with a tasty soup.

Now that I've got a good selection of freezer meal recipes to choose from, I need to make up a realistic assembly plan. I'm thinking of making two recipes a week. It's completely do-able at nap time and not too exhausting. What are some of your favorite freezer meals? What are some of your freezer meal tips?

Pinterest Thursday - Freezer Meals

I've been planning to make freezer meals for a few months now. I also knew I didn't want to start until October though so that the meals would still be good when Chicken Nugget is born. This morning, I decided it was time to tackle a few freezer meals. I loved this pin because it had a bunch of chicken recipes and I had a lot of chicken in the freezer! I love it when I don't have to go shopping but can still make a bunch of food for later. 

I made two recipes today - World's Best Chicken and Black Bean Corn Chicken. It took me about 30 minutes total to make enough for 5 meals but I had all the ingredients at home so I didn't have to go shopping. I'd add on another 30 minutes if I had to go to the grocery store. 

I gathered my ingredients, labeled my bags with the recipe name and cooking instructions (I like to double bag in case of bag breakage) and got to work. Both of these recipes are ones where you just gather, chop and dump your ingredients into the bags for later. I did notice that the ingredients for the Black Bean Corn Chicken did not list cilantro though the photo in the post shows it. I did not have any cilantro at home so I skipped it but you might want to add a 1/4 of a cup to each of your freezer bags for more flavor. 

My chicken breasts were already frozen so I separated the recipe into three bags instead of two as it was easier to separate the chicken that way. Also my family of three is not going to consume four chicken breasts at one meal, especially if Scott remains vegetarian. 

I also decided to chop up some onions and freeze them. I was chatting with a Twitter buddy who just had her second child and she advised me to chop up fresh vegetables and freeze them now for meals later. I am not one to ignore sound advice. I'm doing my big Costco shopping trip this weekend and I plan to buy an extra bag of onions to chop in the food processor and freeze. Frozen onions are great! You can throw them right into your pan and start sauteing immediately. They are a wee bit wetter than fresh onions which means you might need to cook them a little longer. 

I'm pretty pleased with this pin. I got five delicious meals out of it and a good start on my "Fill the Freezer before Chicken Nugget" comes plan. 

Here are the recipes I used for easy access: 

Black Bean Corn Chicken 

6-8 Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts
4 Tbs Olive Oil  
2+ Limes, juiced (I like a little more lime then the recipe calls for)  
1 large bag of Frozen Corn (or two smaller bags)  
4 minced Garlic Cloves  
1 finely Chopped Red Onion  
2 cans of Black Beans, drained and rinsed  
2 tsp Cumin or Chipotle powder  

edit: 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
Salt and Pepper to taste  

Take ingredients and split everything into two containers. Mix bag by shaking, seal, label and put in the freezer. Cooking instructions: Cook in Crockpot on Low for 8 hours or High for 4 hours. Serve with hot tortillas and dress with sour cream, guacamole, and/or cheese.

World's Best Chicken 

4-6 Chicken Thighs

1/2 cup Dijon Mustard

1/4 cup Maple Syrup

1 Tablespoon Red Wine Vinegar

2 tsp. Rosemary 

Salt & Pepper

Trim fat off your chicken thighs. Dump all ingredients into your freezer bags. When ready to use, thaw bag just enough to dump into crock-pot. Cook on low for 8 hours. Serve with rice.