Day 4: Veggie Crepes, Potato Tacos and Gyros

Saturday

Day 1: Shopping
Day 2: Chicken and Brisket
Day 3: Jambalaya and More Brisket
Day 4: Veggie Crepes, Potato Tacos and Gyros
Days 5 & 6: Veggie Crepes Continued and Thai Chicken
Day 7: Pierogi, Lentil Joes, and Black Bean Burgers
Final Days and Summary

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.

Chicken Fajitas or Tacos

It's summertime which means once again I have smoked,shredded and frozen several chickens for convenient summer meals.  When I started doing once a month cooking a couple years ago, these chicken fajitas were one of the very first meals I tried as evidenced by its location in column L of the 'Recipes' tab. They turned out all right.  

I combined the marinade with the sliced, raw chicken in one bag and froze it.  In another bag I combined the pepper and onion slices and froze them separately.  I thawed the chicken, cooked it and then cooked the peppers and onions from their frozen state. The fajitas tasted pretty good, but the vegetables were a little mushy. If I were to try to it again I might consider using a frozen veggie mix from the grocery store as the flash frozen vegetables may not be as mushy.  Or I would just go with fresh vegetables like I did for this newer rendition.

I realized with my frozen, pre-cooked chicken I can make fajitas or tacos fairly easily and this replaced having dedicated fajita meat in the freezer.  It is fairly easy although it does require prepping the peppers and onions on the day of.  You may be able to save some time with pre-cut peppers and onions from the produce section or salad bar at your grocery store.

Creamy Chicken and Spinach Tacos

I wrote previously about how I cook, shred and freeze several chickens at the beginning of summer.  Throughout the summer I am finding uses for all this chicken.  This is a simplified version of a dish I used to make quite regularly.  It's delicious, but with the roasting, peeling a dicing of the peppers it eventually fell out of our rotation.  I am glad to have it back even in a different form, and it is still delicious.

Difficulty: Easy
Adapted from: Rick Bayless

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