Freezer Meals ~ Starting an Exchange With Your Friends (she: Becky)

First off, I just want to say, "Happy Thanksgiving!!" on behalf of the Shes.

Hello! I'm Becky, mom of 2 cute little girls (1 and 3), and wife to a fun energetic husband. I love cooking, being with my family, girl night outs, and being creative. I don't feel like the most creative person in the world, but I love to find fun ideas and use them to enrich the life of those around me. That is one reason I LOVE the blogging world. We are able to share ideas with each other. How great is that?!?! I am a member of the Crafty Chicks so check us out and see all the fun ideas these ladies come up with.

So onto my post. I don't know about many of you, but I have such a hard time deciding what to cook for dinner and then having the motivation to actually cook. Enter the freezer meal. I was slightly hesitant at first. My husband is kinda picky when it comes to food from a freezer, but I thought I would give it a shot. So about a year ago our freezer meal group was formed. Our first time around we got together and made 6 meals, Chicken Cordon Bleu, Chicken Parmesana, Chicken Broccoli Casserole, Chicken Rollups, Lasagna rolls, Ham and potatoes, and pulled pork. We got at least 16 meals out of this and it only ended up costing each of us $91.60. I don't know about you, but that is almost one trip to the grocery store for me.

So here are the details so you can start a freezer meal exchange...

1. Get a group of girls together. (We had 5 total, I don't know that you would want many more people than that unless you have a large kitchen and don't mind doing the work for more.)

2. Have a pre-dinner making meeting to decide what meals you would like to make. Each person should bring their family favorite recipes. As you can see, we made a few chicken things, but tried to incorporate different meats as well.

3. One person should gather the recipes and make a list of the different ingredients and how much of everything is needed.

4. Shopping lists are made--We sent a group to Costco (we had two shopping carts full of food), and a group to Wal-Mart to gather supplies.

5. Each person was given an assignment for prep-work. Prep-work consists of browning, or cooking all meat, chopping all veggies, and cooking all pasta. Having the prep-work done helps out so much. It saves so much time in compiling the meals.

6. Everyone meets together and the labor begins. We can get 6 meals done in 3 hours.

7. We then take the receipts from the two stores and split everything evenly between the 5 of us. We all get equal amounts and it has worked great so far.

Some extra details...

 

We use 8x8 foil pans for the casseroles and we use ziplocs for packets, chicken breasts, meatballs, and pulled meats.

Another thing we have tried, and loved, is making meal kits. It is such a pain to make sure you have everything on hand for meals like Hawaiian Haystacks. So we make everything and have a freezer kit with the sauce, cheese, peas and anything else that would spoil. Then we make a pantry kit with chow main noodles, pineapple, and olives. It is so nice to just pull those packets out and have the meal ready to go.

Also, one thing we do to make our chicken breast stretch is to fillet the chicken in half lengthwise so that it is thinner. This way we get double the chicken and our portions are a better size.

Now the group situation might not work for you and your family. If you have more than 3 kids, you might want to just put some meals together on your own. Just double dinner one night a week and you can have some meals saved up in no time.

Here are a couple of my favorite recipes. I hope you enjoy them too.

Lasagna Rolls

1 ½ lbs. mild sausage, cooked, crumbled, and drained (I use Jimmy Dean brand, because I don’t love the spicy kind.)
11 oz. cream cheese
1 bunch green onions
1 green pepper, diced
26 oz. jar spaghetti sauce
12-16 lasagna noodles (1 package)
3 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded

Combine meat and cream cheese in skillet. Cook over low heat until cheese melts. Stir in onion and green pepper, remove from heat. Spread ½ the sauce in a 9x13 pan. Cook noodles according to package directions. Remove from heat and leave in water. Lay one noodle flat and spoon 2 T. of meat mixture at one end. Carefully roll up and place in baking dish. Repeat with the rest of the noodles. Pour reserved sauce over top of rolls, top with cheese. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes.

Chicken Dijon

2 stick butter
3 Tbls Dijon mustard
1 clove garlic minced
1 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
2 cups soft breadcrumbs (we used Italian breadcrumbs)
2 Tbls fresh parsley, chopped
6-8 chicken breasts

Melt butter, add garlic and mustard. Stir well. Put parsley, cheese, and bread crumbs in a large dish; mix well. Dip chicken in butter sauce, then into crumbs, coating well. Put in 9x13 pan and bake at 350 for 45 minutes. If you are freezing, put chicken breasts in ziploc bags. Pull out what you need, defrost and cook as directed.

I hope this helps you. It is so nice to have a stocked freezer of food for the holiday season. It helps me to know my family is getting a great meal even if I don't have time to cook (or the desire).

- Becky

Related post: Freezer Meals ~ Tips for Dummies!

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