Gyros

The last thing I posted was about all the time I spent making freezer meals.  It was a lot of work, and I'm guessing it seemed like too much to some.  I intended to make a list of things I was able to do because I had the freezer meals, but... I didn't.  I forget to document stuff.  So I don't have a comprehensive list, but I will say that I find life a lot easier when I have freezer meals.  It's easier for to find the time and energy for other things when I don't have to worry about dinner, and it's easier for me to keep up on cleaning the kitchen and other housework when I don't have cooking messes all the time.  I didn't keep a written record, but from memory here's some of the things I did now that dinner was taken care of:

Microwave Side Dishes

I am not a great microwave cook.  Until recently I only considered the microwave good for melting and reheating, not for cooking.  That attitude is gradually changing.  While the microwave may not be great for baking, it can be a useful tool in making easy side dishes to go with freezer meals.  Plus grocery store have started selling rice or pasta pouches that are already cooked and can be reheated in the microwave.  I haven't tried the pasta pouches, but I have tried a couple of the rice ones and found them useful.  I don't plan to use them all the time since they're more expensive, but having a few in the pantry would be handy as a back up.

For making my own microwave sides, I started with the obvious, potatoes.  I have been microwaving potatoes and sweet potatoes to serve as a side since long before I started making freezer meals.  When I started doing freezer meals I sometimes needed a vegetable side for a meal.  This lead me to using the ready-to-microwave bags of green beans or broccoli that are found in the supermarket produce section.  It took me a while to get over not prepping my own veggies, but these are convenient and tasty with a little butter, salt and pepper.

Mashed Potatoes

So... I... uh... this post is supposed to a recipe for freezer mashed potatoes to accompany my meatloaf post.  I made a large batch of mashed potatoes and froze it in dinner-sized portions and apparently neglected to write down the proportions of the ingredients I used.  It's a simple dish though that most of you likely know how to make.  If you don't, this recipe looks similar to what I do.

Really the point of this post more than giving you a recipe is to let you know that creamy mashed potatoes do freeze well and make a great side to have in the freezer for a number of dishes.  Next time I make them I will write down the recipe.  Sorry.

Pork Tacos

Tacos are one of my favorite meals.  There's a restaurant near us that sells awesome tacos al pastor, which I crave occasionally.  Unfortunately the last time I ordered takeout from there, dinner cost $40 for our family.  They were delicious but too expensive to have regularly until I realized that pre-cooked, shredded pork could make delicious tacos at home for a fraction of the price.  Plus they're super easy when you have the pork already cooked.  Now I just need to find a good source for horchata.

Serves: 4

6 cups cooked pork or about 1 1/2 pounds
1 1/2 tsp cumin
1 1/2 tsp chili
1 tbsp lime juice
chopped cilantro
chopped onion
warm corn tortillas
green salsa - I really like 505 tomatillo salsa

Heat a frying pan over medium heat.  Add the spices and toast for just a few seconds.  Add the pork and lime juice.  Heat the pork gently over low heat.  Cover when you're not stirring it to make the pork heat faster.  Serve the pork on corn tortillas with onions, cilantro and salsa.

Pork Noodle Bowls

This is seriously one of my favorite meals ever.  The combination of the pork with sweet, juicy mango and mint is simply amazing.  I have served it a number of times to guests and while some have been skeptical about such unusual flavor combinations, it has always been incredibly popular.  I make this using pre-cooked, shredded, frozen pork.

Adapted from: Smitten Kitchen
Difficulty: Easy
Category: Some Assembly Required

BBQ Pulled Pork

I wrote previously about cooking, shredding and freezing pork butt.  One of our easiest and most classic ways to use it is to serve pulled pork with BBQ sauce.  We sometimes have this as a sandwich and sometimes by itself.  Either way I always serve it with coleslaw.  I love fresh coleslaw on BBQ pork, and it's easy to make if you get a bag of pre-shredded cabbage from the produce aisle.  I really like this coleslaw, but sometimes I'm not in the mood to measure stuff.  In that case I just take a bag of the shredded cabbage, add a dash of apple cider vinegar, a squeeze of mustard, a spoonful of mayonnaise and salt, pepper and celery seed to taste.  It's fast, easy and delicious.

For the BBQ sauce you can, of course, use a store bought sauce.  I like the Stubb's brand personally.  For pulled pork though, I prefer to make my own mustard sauce.  My favorite is this recipe from Amazing Ribs, although I like to run it through the blender after making because I prefer it smooth.  I make a large batch of sauce when I make the pulled pork.  Then I divide it into containers and freeze as well. It's ready to go when I serve the pork.  You can serve the pork by heating the sauce, adding the pork and gently simmering until the meat is heated through.  If you would like to serve the sauce on the side, gently heat the pork in the microwave.

Freezer Meal Component: Smoked Pork

I posted previously about how I smoke, shred and freeze chickens to use in a variety of summer meals.  Another meat I love to cook in my smoker is pulled pork.  However, I didn't make pulled pork to freeze because I thought it wouldn't be as versatile as the chicken.  And maybe it's not as versatile as chicken, after all I wouldn't throw pulled pork on any old salad like I do with the chicken.  It was mistake to put off freezing pulled pork.  I have been missing out on deliciousness and what turned out to be some of my favorite meals.

We had guests for the Fourth of July and smoked two pork butts and served them with barbecue sauce and coleslaw.  Two pork butts make a lot.  I made so much with the intention of freezing it, thinking that we would have plenty for the freezer.  I did freeze a lot of pulled pork, but it did not last nearly as long as I had hoped.  A week later we had more guests over and served pork noodle bowls.  We enjoyed the pork so much we kept serving it every time we had guests over, and before I knew it, it was all gone.  I hadn't done everything I wanted with the frozen pulled pork, so a scant two months after freezing pork for the first time, I had to make another big batch.

Cooking the pork:

Pork butt is a very budget-friendly meat.  It is a tough cut though, so you will need to cook it in such a way to make it tender and delicious, generally either low and slow roasting or by braising.  Use your favorite method.  I have a Pit Barrel Cooker that I use to smoke my meats and I love it.  I highly recommend it if you are in the market for a smoker.  It's easy to use, affordable and makes delicious meat.

If you don't have or want a smoker, Amazing Ribs has excellent instructions about smoking meat in a gas or charcoal grill.  It's a super informative website for smoking meats.  Before I bought my smoker I used a gas grill to smoke pork butts using Amazing Ribs instructions with great success.  It is a project though and takes all day.  So if you want to do something easier, you can use a crockpot or roast in the oven.  I haven't tried either of those links, but they look promising (although I would leave out the liquid smoke).  Or if you have a favorite tried and true way to cook pork butt, use that.

Freezing the pork

After your pork is cooked, shred it and divide it into dinner sized portions.  The main difficulty with freezing cooked meat is that it gets freezer burn easily.  If this is something you do regularly, I recommend getting a vacuum sealer.  If you're not ready for that, then I recommend putting the meat in freezer Ziploc bags and squeezing out as much air as you can.

Serving the pork

Thaw the pork in the fridge overnight.  If you are serving the meat in a sauce, bring that sauce to a simmer and add the meat.  Simmer gently until the meat is heated through.  Otherwise you can reheat in the microwave.  Spread the meat out on a microwave-safe plate.  Reheat in two minute bursts at 60 to 70% power until heated through.  Don't overheat.  That will make the pork tough.

Pork spread out on a plate for heating in the microwave.

Ways to use the pork:

 Pork Noodle Bowls - One of my all time favorite meals!

 Bahn Mi - A delicious Vietnamese sandwich.

Pork Tacos - Another personal favorite.  And super fast and easy to boot.

 BBQ Pulled Pork with coleslaw - Classic and delicious.

Burritos - Fast and easy.

Beans and Sausage

This recipe is fairly inexpensive.  It is also hardy, easy and tasty.  And it's fast and easy to reheat, so it's generally a freezer meal win.

Difficulty: Easy
Category: Heat and Eat
Recipe Column: DP

Jambalaya

I see that I haven't posted since July! Ack! As much as I'd like to say I'm going to start posting regularly from here on out, I've said that before, and I've come to realize that I'm going to need to accept that, for me, posting about freezer meals is irregular by nature.  After all, the whole reason I started to do freezer meals was because I didn't have the time and energy to make a decent meal for my family every day.  It stands to reason that I would also struggle to find the time and energy to post blog entries on a regular basis.

When life gets really busy and tiring, like it did for the past couple months, I don't add a lot to my freezer or experiment.  I depend on the meals I've already made and frozen to get me through.  This means I don't have new stuff to write. Plus as I've mentioned before, the development of freezer meal recipes can be long.  Sometimes it's a year or more between my first attempt and the final recipe.

So while I can't promise regular posting.  Hopefully these recipes can still be helpful to you as they come.  It is certainly helpful to me to have a freezer full of delicious food when life gets particularly busy.  Please be patient and keep coming back!  I have several new recipes to post.  Plus I'm going to do a Thanksgiving series!

Coconut Green Curry

I have been working on this recipe for about a year and a half now.  The first time I made this it was very tasty, but I wasn't fully satisfied with the proportions of the different ingredients to each other.  I wanted to try again but still had five batches of the original in the freezer that needed to be eaten first.  When we finally did finish eating all of them it took me a while to get around to making it again.  So, here we are a year and a half later, and I am finally posting the recipe.  This is why posting here is so irregular.  The development process for freezer meal recipes is a long one.  This curry is delicious though.   I think it's worth the wait.

Difficulty: Moderate
Category: Simple Side
Recipe Column: CF

Chicken Tikka Masala

My freezer meals have come in very handy lately as I just had a baby two weeks ago.  I am very fortunate to have wonderful family and friends that have helped us with meals since the baby was born, but the freezer meals came in very handy during the last months of my pregnancy when I had no energy to do anything let alone cooking.  I haven't actually cooked in months, and I've been totally coasting on my freezer meals.  This has been great for me but not so great for my blog.  I do have a few new things in the freezer that I still need to post about.  I hope to get to them soon and then start generating more freezer meals.

I have recently discovered another advantage to freezer meals besides being able to eat a delicious dinner when I don't have energy to cook.  I have three young children now and like many young children, they are not always the best about trying new things or eating their dinner.  However, young children become more open to trying foods with repeated exposure, and it turns out that having multiple batches of the same thing in my freezer means repeated exposure.  After the same meal has made enough appearances my kids will generally try it.  After more appearances and trying the food, sometimes they even like it.  Chicken Tikka Masala is the perfect example.  My daughter was initially reluctant to try it, but after several exposures she has declared it her favorite meal.  It's one of my favorites too.

White Bean Soup

When I was a kid my family went to a restaurant that served a bottomless pot of bean soup that I really liked.  I went to the bathroom before I finished my bowl and when I returned my bowl and the pot of soup had been removed.  I was so disappointed.  Since then I have looked for a good, basic white bean soup.  This one is pretty close.  The smoked ham hock is the key.

Difficulty: Easy
Column: CS
Category: Heat and Eat

Get the recipe here.

I made the soup pretty much as described except once I sauteed the onions and garlic I transferred them to a crockpot with the rest of the ingredients.  Then I cooked the soup on low all day until the beans were tender.  I also took a potato masher to the soup to break up the beans some and make a creamier soup.

To freeze:
Divide the cooled soup into containers or bags and freeze.

To serve:
Thaw the soup in the refrigerator overnight.  Reheat on the stove or in the microwave.  This soup gets pretty thick when frozen.  You may need to add water or chicken stock to loosen it.  If you do, add salt and pepper to taste to compensate for the added liquid.

Mashed Cauliflower

Mashed cauliflower is a delicious alternative to mashed potatoes and it freezes well.

Adapted from: Food Network
Difficulty: Easy
Category: Simple Side
Recipe Column: CP

Three Bean Chili

This is my family's favorite chili, and I have been making variations of it for years.  This is a vegetarian bean chili, but I have made this with beef before and less beans.  This most recent rendition also has pumpkin in it.  I had heard about adding pumpkin puree to chili to add more vegetables and decided to give it a try.  It sounds unusual but the chili is still delicious and doesn't have a particularly pumpkin flavor.  I'm always glad to find ways to incorporate more vegetables into my freezer meals.  It could probably take a whole can of pumpkin.  That's what I had planned on and bought a whole can for the chili, but I really needed pumpkin pancakes before I got around to making the chili. Some of the pumpkin had to be sacrificed for that cause.  Your favorite chili will most likely freeze well too.

Difficulty: Moderate
Category: Heat and eat
Recipe Column: CK

Saag Paneer

I cannot tell you how delighted I am to have discovered a way to freeze this dish.  Saag paneer is one of my favorite meals and my favorite Indian dish.  Unfortunately we only have one Indian restaurant in town and while they have some delicious food their saag paneer is not great. It can also be pretty time consuming to make saag paneer.  Due to the lack of good saag paneer in my town and how time consuming it is, I haven't been able to have saag paneer on a regular basis for a few years now, hence the delight at being able to freeze it.  Now I make a quadruple bathc and can have it even more frequently than I did when we lived in a town with more Indian restaurants.  As I've said before, Indian food is one of my favorite things to cook.  It's such an enjoyable sensory experience.

Delicious saag paneer with an equally delicious mango lassi right next to it.

This recipe is time consuming and I classify it as difficult based solely on making the paneer, which is a process.  If you can find a store bought paneer or if you want to replace the paneer altogether with chickpeas, chicken or potatoes, this actually becomes and reasonably fast and easy dish.  I love the paneer though, so it's worth the effort to me to make it.

Pupusas

I uploaded an updated spreadsheet.  Go here to download it.

I enjoyed eating pupusas regularly when I lived in New York.  Unfortunately, I've had trouble find good ones anywhere else, and I have missed them.  Finally I have learned how to make them.   It took some experimenting because none of the recipes I found online tasted like the ones I had in New York.  All of those recipes called for the dough to be made with only instant masa and water.  This resulted in a dry, tough exterior not the soft exterior of the pupusas I remember.

Some internet research led me to believe that the difference is made by using instant masa instead of fresh masa.  I don't know of a place to purchase fresh masa and I don't have the equipment or inclination to make it myself.  After some experiments in adding butter and baking power to the dough with the instant masa I got very close to the soft pupusas I enjoyed so much in New York.  I realize this may not be an authentic way to make them, but they taste pretty authentic and delicious!

Peanut Chicken Noodle Bowls

I wrote previously about smoking, shredding and freezing whole chickens.  These noodle bowls are one of our favorite ways to utilize our pre-cooked chicken.  They're delicious and very refreshing for hot summer days.  We have these regularly when we have guests as they are always a big hit and each person assembles their own bowl and can customize it to their specific tastes.  The peanut sauce is easy to make and freezes well, so you can make up a big batch and freeze it in smaller portions to save you the work the day of or you can easily whip it up when you're getting your bowls ready. This is a "Some Assembly Required" meal, but it is very easy to throw together.

Adapted from: Smitten Ktichen
Difficulty: Easy
Category: Some Assembly Required
Column: BN

Avocado Tacos

I need to start this post with a disclaimer.  Avocado Tacos are not actually a freezer meal.  However, they are incredibly easy and convenient especially since they don't require any cooking.  They are so easy and fast to put together that I think they are in keeping with the spirit of this blog.  These tacos are a delicious staple for our summer meals.  They are cool, refreshing and filling, plus they don't heat up the kitchen.  A perfect meal for hot summer days.

Another advantage to these is that they can be modified in a variety of ways to make them even easier.  Sometimes I leave out the diced tomatoes to save time and just let the salsa stand in for the tomatoes.  Or you can use pre-shredded lettuce or spring mix instead of cutting or shredding lettuce yourself.  We really like the queso fresco for these, but we have sometimes used pre-shredded cheddar or Mexican blend in its place to save time on the crumbling or a trip to the store.

Potato Chorizo Tacos with Avocado Salsa

This has been one of my favorite meals for years, so imagine how happy I was to discover that both the filling and the salsa freeze well.  It's an easy meal, but it's all the easier to just thaw and reheat.  It's also nice that it's inexpensive.  If you have any leftovers, the filling is absolutely delicious scrambled with some eggs for breakfast.

When I lived in Colorado, several brands of chorizo sausage was readily available at every supermarket.  Now that I live in the South, it is not so easy to find. If you also live in an area where it is not commonly found, don't give up hope.  I eventually found a local butcher shop that sells chorizo, or you can check out Mexican grocery stores.  There is a chorizo sausage that is frequently sold in grocery stores that comes in a long, thin tube.  Cacique is one such brand, but there may be others.  Do not buy the long, thin tube chorizo sausage.  It's not very good

Butter Chicken (Murgh Makhani)

Occasionally someone asks me what my favorite thing to cook is and I generally tell them Indian food.  The process of making Indian food is very enjoyable as it requires a lot of ingredients with various and amazing smells.  Generally you start by cooking aromatics like onions, garlic, peppers and fresh ginger.  Then you add spices like cumin, garam masala, cinnamon, chili powder, tumeric, and on and on.  Each stage of the process introduces new aromas and they continue to change as the aromatics and the spices continue to cook.  Finally you add the ingredients that make up the bulk of sauce and simmer.  The scent continues to change.  All together it makes for a wonderful sensory experience.  Plus at the end I have delicious Indian food to eat, and that always makes me happy.

Unfortunately, making Indian food is a time consuming and labor intensive process.  All of those aromatics have to be peeled and minced.  The many spices must be found in the cupboard and measured.  Often the meat requires a marinade.  Plus the cooking process if generally fairly long.   Generally when I make Indian food I have had to set aside an entire afternoon to work on it.  It was a happy day when I realized that some of my favorite Indian dishes would freeze very well.