Need Ideas for Freezable Dinners

I have 2 great cookbooks. "Don't Panic, dinner is in the Freezer" which give you great recipes and tells you how to X3, X6 etc and how to freeze and then prepare them. Also "Cook Once and eat Well the Rest of the Week is also a great book. Good Luck

I just got an e-mail with a link to this article on freezing ahead:
http://www.marthastewart.com/photogallery/freezer-friendl...

Have you tried SupperThyme USA? I haven't myself but have heard wonderful things. Price ends up being just a few dollars per serving and sometimes one meal actually can count as two. Good Luck!

I freeze alot of things myself to take to work. Here is one of my favorites:
8-10 chicken breasts with skin
2 heads cabbage
3 onions
2 industrial size cans of mixed vegitables-2 cans chicken soup base
1 tablesppon salt
1 tbl pepper

Fill pot about 3/4 full hot water
mix salt pepper chicken base
add chicken
bring to boil
cook 1-1.5hours
pull out the chicken and set aside to cool
chop up cabbage onions toss into soup broth
temp drop to med heat
drain cans of veggies, (toss the juice)
add veggie to broth
pull all chicken into chunks
add to broth
mix and cook on low heat for 4-5 hours.
Eat and freeze the rest.

Just a single father of a wonderful 3 year old lil girl.

Farmer's Caserole

6 cups frozen shredded hash brown potatoes
1 cup grated cheese
1 cup diced ham
1/4 cup sliced green onion
4 beaten large eggs
1 12oz can evaporated milk
1/8 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp salt
(you can also add scampi blend)

Grease 9x13x2 in baking dish. Arrange potatoes evenly in the bottom. Sprinkle with cheese, ham and green onion.

In a bowl combine eggs, milk and seasonings. Pour mixture over the potatoes.

Dish can be frozen (up to three months) and then thawed the day before you intend to use it. Or bake at 350 F, uncovered, for 40-45 minutes or until center appears set. Let stand 5 mins before serving.

beef taco bake
6 flour tortias cut 1 inch segments
1 can tomato soup
1/3 cup milk
1 cup shreeded cheese
1 cup salsa
1 lb ground beef (browned)
combine all but half of the cheese put in greased 9x13 pan bake 20 min at 400 degrees. Sprinkle rest of cheese bake an additional 5 min. freezes great

LASAGNA ROLLS

1lb bulk sausage OR hamburger (browned and drained)
1 8oz + 1 3oz cream cheese
1 bunch green onions, chopped
1 green pepper, diced
15 oz jar spaghetti sauce
12 lasagna noodles
1 1/2 c mozzarella cheese, shredded

Combine sausage and cream cheese in the same skillet the sausage was browned in. Cook over low heat until cream cheese melts. Stir in onions and pepper, remove from heat. Cook noodles and remove from heat, but leave in water. Spread half of the spaghetti sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish. Lay one noodle flat on a cutting board and place 2 heaping Tablespoons of mixture at one end and roll. Place in baking dish and continue with remaining noodles. Top with remaining sauce and the sprinkle with cheese. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes or until cheese has melted.

I divide the recipe in 2 and freeze both. If it's frozen it takes 30 minutes to an hour to bake. We LOVE this recipe!

Mexican Casserole- 2lbs cooked hamburger,1 can cream of mushroom soup,1 6oz.can tomatoe paste, 1 sm. can of green chilies,1 bottle of taco sauce,1 can chicken and rice soup
,mix it all together. 10 flour tortillas,3 cups of cheese put a layer of tortillas on bottom of pan then meat mixure,1 cup cheese,and repeat layers so you end with the meat and cheese on top cook on 350 for 30-35 minutes until cheese bubbles.When you are ready to eat it you can put cut up lettuce,tomatoes, onions,sourcream or whatever you like on top. This is really good and makes alot. Enjoy!

I've been cooking for my freezer this weekend too. Just about any recipe can be frozen! I freeze nearly all of my meals and side dishes. Some great ideas are marinading fresh beef or chicken and freezing it - let it thaw and its ready for the grill, you can also freeze sides like twice baked potatos. Other ideas are beef stroganoff, chow mein, chicken divan, etc.

There is a great book out there from the thirty day gourmet. http://www.30daygourmet.com/ The book is inexpensive and a great way to get started. I highly recommend it. Once you buy the book, you have access to the website where there are many more recipes and member message boards.

You can also google freezer cooking - there are tons of recipes out there.

If I don't have time to cook for just the freezer, I'll make a double batch of recipes when I make supper and freeze half. Many recipes can be frozen cooked so you just have to warm them up in the microwave, or uncooked so you just pop them in the oven. I do a little of both.

Once you get a system down, freezer cooking saves a lot of time and money. Good luck! Feel free to email me if you have questions or are looking for some specific recipes.

Frozen Assets by Deborah Taylor-Hough is a good book.

Another great book is Once a Month Cooking by Mary Beth Lagerbord and Mimi Wilson. The book teaches you how to spend one day in the kitchen preping and freezing 30 meals. After that, you just have to thaw, bake and serve with salad or rolls. It saves a tremendous amount of time because instead of pulling out the pans to brown 1 lb of meat 10 times during the month, you brown 10 lbs of meat once. Same concept with vegetable cutting, etc. Also, it is economical to buy large quantities of meat, canned food, etc. that don't ever go to waste because you make the food all at once.

Another great resource is www.allrecipes.com . You can do a variety of different searches depending on what you need and all the recipes have ratings and reviews so you can pick the best ones that have been perfected by hundreds of cooks. And the website is free.

I also like to make soup and freeze it. I just drop the soup ice block into the crock pot and let it cook on low all day. By dinnertime, it is just right.

Good luck,
S.

J.,

Probably the easiest dinner suggestion I have is for pork chops in the slow cooker. Place 4-6 pork chops in your slow cooker, cover with 1 family size can of cream of mushroom soup. Add a can of mushrooms if you like. Cook frozen chops on low for 8 hours or if fresh chops cook on low for 4-5 hours. They freeze really well and taste great reheated in the microwave. Enjoy!

My aunt gave me The Warehouse Gourmet as a baby gift, and I love being able to make recipes for the freezer. You're supposed to make them all for the freezer, but I'll make three entrees--eat one for dinner that night, and then freeze two. Either way, I love having two or three freezer meals a week.

Hey J. I'm a mother of a 2 preschoolers 2 & 4 and been married 10 years. Both my husband I love to cook and bake.

A group a friends and I started a freezer meal exchange group. We all have preschoolers and husbands that work a lot. We needed to simplify the dinner hour. Well I want you to know we post out freezeable recipes to our blog. Check it out of you want and happy cooking.

http://freezersupperswappers.wordpress.com/

One of our favs is green bean casserole:
Brown hamburger or ground meat of choice with small amt of onion salt and pepper to taste
layer in casserole hamburger, cream of mushroom soup, green beans or veggie of choice, and tator tots
bake at 400 degrees til tator tots done and hot thru
Can make quantity to suit your needs. Can sub ingredients to ur taste. Easy, simple, and my kids actually eat their veggies this way!

Here's a great one to use up leftover turkey after the holidays!

layer the bottom of a 9 X 11 pan with cooked chicken (or leftover turkey). Top with cooked broccoli (or I have been using the frozen california blend veggies). Mix 1 cup mayo (I like to use the light helman's mayo), 1 can cream of chicken soup, cheddar and velveeta cheese to taste (more is better in our opinion), and salt and pepper to taste. Bake covered at 375 for 45 minutes. Then uncover and bake another 15 minutes. Serve over egg noodles.

Here's another one we like:
brown hamburger and put in the bottom of an oven-safe pot. Add green beans, corn, and carrots (I use 2-3 cans of each for a large pot). Pour in a jar of beef gravy. Top with mashed potatoes or browned tater tots. Cover and bake until heated through. I usually bake at 375-400 for about an hour but it doesn't necessarily need to bake that long.

This one is a little time consuming, but it is really good. This one is from Cooking Light.

Chicken Tetrazzini
1 tblspn butter
cooking spray
1 c finely chopped onion
2/3 c finely chopped celery
1 tsp black pepper
3/4 tsp salt
3 (8 oz) packages of presliced mushrooms
1/2 c dry sherry
2/3 c flour
3 (14 oz) cans fat-free, less sodium chicken broth
2 1/4 c (9 ozs) grated fresh parmesan cheese
1/2 c (4 oz) 1/3 less fat cream cheese
7 c hot cooked vermicelli (1 c uncooked)
4 c chopped cooked chicken breast (about 1 1/2 lbs)
1 slice white bread

Preheat oven to 350. Melt butter in a large stockpot coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Add onion, celery, pepper, salt, and mushrooms. Saute 4 mins or until mushrooms are tender. Add sherry, cook 1 min. Lightly spoon flour into a measuring cup, level w/knife and add. Gradually add broth, stirring constantly. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, simmer 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from heat. Add 1 3/4 c parmesan cheese and cream cheese, stirring with whisk until cream cheese melts. Add the cooked pasta and chicken, stir until blended. Divide the pasta mixture between 2 (8 in square) baking dishes coated with cooking spray. Place bread in food processor, pulse 10 times or until coarse crumbs form. Combine breadcrumbs and 1/2 c parmesan cheese, and sprinkle evenly over pasta mixture. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove the casseroles from oven and let stand for 15 mins. Yield 2 casseroles, 6 servings each (serving size about 1 1/3 c.)

I usually bake one right away and freeze one for later. When you reheat the frozen one be sure to let it thaw out first.

Hi J.,
We love having lasagna, chicken enchiladas and stuffed shells made up ahead of time. Enjoy!
J.

J., how about lasagna, frozen pizzas, i make homemade pizza, they are really good, i use frozen bread dough, and i also put string cheese in the edges, for stuffed crust, but the store sells frozen pizza, why cant you ? meatloaf, ? and i used to love the crock pot, put a meal in it in the morning and by the time we were home in the evening it was done, put in a roast, some potatoes, and some onion soup mix, makes a really good meal, too, its not frozen, but with a microwave you can freeze anything , and reheat it, any way , have fun and enjoy life, D. s

Lasagna also freezes well, but my favorite thing to make and freeze is taco meat and sloppy joe meat. You can brown all the hamburger together then seperate it in half. For sloppy joes, I just add onion, ketchup, mustard and brown sugar to the browned and drained hamburger and simmer awhile. It freezes great and its wonderful to just pop as much as you need into the microwave and have on buns with chips or carrot sticks! With the taco meat, it gives you so many different options other than just heating the shells and having regular tacos. Think how easy taco salad would be if you didn't have to make the meat first. We like to spread the meat down the center of an entire tube of cresent rolls spread out on a cookie sheet, then fold over and bake...a yummy variation. Any hearty soup freezes well too!

Really anything that doesn't contain milk can be frozen. (My experience with milk-based soups is that the milk separates.) Quiche, lasagna, any hotdish, taco meat, barbecue pork/chicken....

A couple of tips: When I freeze a dish that contains noodles, I only cook the noodles for one-third the time. (Ex. If the box says to boil for 12 minutes, I cook the noodles for 4 minutes.) When the dish is reheated, the noodles finish cooking and are still firm, never soggy or dissolved. Another tip is to make the dish "saucier" or "soupier" than you normally would, otherwise, the dish will seem dry when you reheat it. Good luck!

Meatloaf - especially if you preslice so it can be used for hot sandwich or served open faced on a thick slick of toasted whole grain bread. Toast the bread, add the prewarmed meatloaf slice, top with cheese and slide under the broiler long enough to melt the cheese. Wonderful with broiled tomatoes and maybe some green beans.

Vegetable beef soup freezes well as do many chicken stock based soups.

Turkey dinner - just be sure to pack the right proportion of turkey, dressing, and gravy in each pack and seal well. The dressing and gravy help keep the turkey moist.

Roast or Friend chicken - add fresh green salad and maybe microwaved potato as side dishes.

Chicken baked IN dressing. Warm it in the oven still covered, then top with slices of sharp cheddar and slide under the broiler for long enough to get it bubbly.

Meatballs - add sauce for hoagies.

Beef Burgandy!
2lbs of stew meat (uncooked)
1 package of Beefy onion soup mix
1/2 cup burgandy wine
1 to 2 cans of cream of mushroom soup
depending on the soup, 1/2 can of water

Mix all together in a dutch oven, cover & cook at 250 for about 3 1/2 hours

You can freeze in baggies, serve over noodles or rice. may need to thicken up at the end!
Enjoy!

A pork or beef roast works great you can make it with all the veggies and potatos and then freeze them. Or a beef strouganof would be good. Just about anything with gravy freezes well. Good luck!
N.

lasagne, meatloaf, the possibilites are endless. My philosophy is if you see it in a TV dinner, you can make and freeze it yourself. I also utilize my crock pot and gas grill for quick meals during the week.

Hi J., Boy, I can think of tons. Alfredo, stews, soups, lassagna, Sheppherd pie, tatter-tot cassarole, chicken enchilladas, taco meat, for taco salads and tacos, etc... If you are intrested in any of my recipes. Just let me know? B. g.

Lasanga, Soups can be premade and frozen, Sloppy Joes, pulled pork/chicken, Cheese bean enchiladas (see below)

1 can cheese soup (we use fiesta cheese soup)
1 can (large) of each:
Pinto Beans
White Beans
Black Beans
Red Beans

Rinse beans and mix w/ soup.

Roll a small amount in tortilla. Put tortillas in a pan (I use what ever I have. a 13x9 in pan will make enough meals for 2 nights - 2 tortilla's per adult and 1 for the toddler for each meal).

Mix 1 can enchilda sauce and 1 small can tomato sauce. Spread over tortillas. Freeze.

Thaw (takes about a day at room temp or 2 in fridge), cover and bake 350 for 30 minutes.

Uncover sprinkle w/ cheese and bake another 10 minutes.

You could also sprinkle on olives, jalepenos etc. I make it spicy to taste. I use hot enchilada sauce for my DH and mild for my son and myself. He does ok w/ it.

There is this storage container from tupperware called the rock n serve. It goes from freezer to microwave so you can put anything in there. I just did a tater tot casserole (tater tots, cream o mushroom and ground beef/turkey-add corn or greenbeans). Make a ton and freeze the leftovers.

I like making and freezing stuffed peppers - if you need the recipe, just ask :-)

I love doing that as well! Try burritos (beef or chicken) with all the fixins execpt lettuce. They free nicely individually wrapped or as a pan fun. Soup also freezes well - of course you have to allow for a longer thaw time.
All types of pasta dishes freeze well. Try making up some penne with browned sausage, red sauce & shredded parmesan on top. Freeze it right in the pan you plan tobake it in. Yum!

you have some great suggestions already,
but my favorites are
buritos
pizzas. use a flour tortilla shell as the crust or english muffins. my 3 year old helps me make them! we set up a little assembly line, and she loves it.

meatballs (for spaghetti)
pancakes
soups

Martha Stewart has a great website where you are able to download free recipies. I use it all the time.