Thai Chicken Patties

Between the gyro patties, black bean burgers, Southwest chicken patties, falafel and now Thai chicken patties my summer freezer meals are becoming a variety of patties.  I'm okay with that.  As evidenced by the list above, patties come in a variety of flavors and proteins, so even though the shape is the same they can be vastly different meals.  Patties are also easy.  They're easy to make.  More importantly they're easy to cook.  They require no thawing and can go straight from the freezer to the frying pan.  Plus they cook quickly.  I'm even thinking the next time I make meatloaf I will try making meatloaf patties, so they won't require a long thaw and cook time like meatloaf.  I can also cook just a couple patties for dinner instead of having a large meatloaf we eat for a couple days.

Anyway to these specific patties.  They're delicious.  I made a quadruple batch and wished I had made more.

Difficulty: Easy
Category: Freezer to Pan
Recipe Column: DU

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:

Final Days and Summary

I've done a full week of cooking before, and I generally start out strong and then lag at the end.  This is definitely the case this time.  On day 8 I made the souffle and SW chicken burgers.  All that was left was the falafel and some vacuum sealing.  The falafels are easy, but I took me almost a week to get around to making them.  I took me a few more days past that to get around to vacuum sealing the last of the food.  Also my notes are getting sparse, and I have fewer pictures.

Day 7: Pierogi, Lentil Joes and Black Bean Burgers

On Tuesday I took a break from cooking.  I took my kids to an event in the park, we had a picnic and we ran errands, including picking up ground turkey for my SW Burgers (more on that next post).  On Wednesday I got back to cooking with a big project, pierogi.

Days 5 & 6: Veggie Crepes Continued and Thai Chicken

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

Sunday

Day 5 was on a Sunday, and during the day I didn't do much other than go to church and take a nap.  All this cooking is tiring!  In the evening I got back to work.

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

Day 3: Jambalaya and More Brisket

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

Friday

Onto day two of cooking.  I spent the majority of Friday out with my kids.  We went to a free magic show in the park and to the playground.  In the evening we went to our town's ice cream social.  Both were very fun, and I love that our new town has lots of family-friendly events going on.  This type of thing is also a big part of why I do freezer cooking.

Day 2: Chicken and Brisket

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

Thursday

Usually on my first day of cooking I do all the slicing, dicing and mincing on the list in the "Prep" tab of my macro.  Today I decided to do things differently. As shown yesterday, my fridge is packed and I decided to start by using up some of the items that are taking up the most space, specifically the 2 briskets, 9 lbs of chicken breasts and 10 lbs of chicken cutlets.

11:05 - I started with the brisket.  I have 2 large briskets, and half a brisket will fit into my crockpot at once to make French dip sandwiches.  I am making 3 batches of French dip and saving 1/2 a brisket to cook in my smoker at some point.

Freezer Cooking Day 1: Shopping

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

Wednesday

It was my intention to start doing my freezer cooking last week.  It got derailed a bit when one of my kids got super sick Sunday night and didn't sleep AT ALL.  I took him to the doctor Monday morning and got him started on some medications.  He started doing better immediately, but the lack of sleep combined with needing to take care of a sick kid threw off my plans and exhausted me.  By Wednesday July 25 I was tired of waiting and really wanted to get some food in my freezer.  I decided to get started with the freezer cooking, but to do it at a more relaxed pace so as to accommodate taking care of a sick kid.  I used Walmart pick-up for the bulk of my shopping. I'm using a lot of ground chicken there and it's cheaper there than the other grocery stores around.

I intended to blog this as I went, but it turns out that after cooking all day I didn't feel like writing about it.  I'm blogging this a week later.  Hopefully my notes are good enough.

It took me 40 minutes to order everything through the Walmart grocery app for a total of $264.66.

Walmart didn't have everything I needed, so I decided to head to Wegman's for the last things I needed.  I spent about an hour there.  I could have probably done it faster, but the store has free childcare.  I was enjoying the quiet and took my time.  I spent $96.03.

I drove to Walmart, which was about an hour round trip.  Unfortunately Walmart didn't have very much ground chicken, leaving me 7 lbs short.  This was pretty irritating since that was a big reason I went to Walmart in the first place.  I'll have to make another trip later.

I spent another hour cleaning out the fridge and fitting all the food into it.

Somehow a few other items were missing from my Walmart order.  I don't know what happened.  I definitely remember looking them up and thought I added them, but they don't show up in the order at all.  I ran out to the store for another 30 minutes and $29.81.

Time spent so far: 4 hours 10 minutes
Money spent so far: $390.05

Fitting everything in the fridge:

It can be difficult to fit almost $400 worth of food into a refrigerator.   Here's some tips about how to make it happen.

Clean out the fridge - This is an obvious first step.  Get rid of old leftovers, produce and condiments you're not using any more to make space for the new food.  Usually I do this the day before I go shopping.  This time I did it when I got home with the food.  This actually worked out well, since everything was out of the fridge it was easier to fit everything in.

Cut down on staples - My fridge usually has a lot of cheese sticks, milk and fruit for my kids.  When I do freezer cooking I cut down on this stuff to make room in the fridge.  It does mean I will have to go to the store soon after the freezer cooking.

Use a cooler - I didn't need one this time, but in the past I have used a cooler for overflow from the fridge.  In retrospect I should have used a cooler for some of the produce this time.  The produce I had on the top shelf in the back froze.

Use large items right away - If there are items that are large and don't require a lot of work, time your shopping so you can use those items immediately when you get home so they don't have to go into the fridge at all.  Often when I smoke meats I go to the store early in the day, so the meats can go straight to the smoker when I get home.

Stagger shopping - While it was irritating that Walmart didn't have all my ground chicken, it worked out for the best.  My fridge was packed, and I was able to get the rest of the meat while out running errands another day.

Easy Non-Freezer Meals

After a couple months and four service visits my new freezer is finally working.  It was fixed shortly before I left for a three week road trip with my kids.  I didn't have the time or energy to fill the freezer before the trip.  Now I'm back and recovering. I'm getting ready to do some freezer cooking, probably next week.  In the meantime I thought I would post some of the easy meals I've been making while I have not had a freezer.  Something I noticed is that a number of them are things I already make for the freezer.

These easy meals that freeze well are a good option for those who don't want to dedicate a whole day or week to making freezer meals.  Instead you can make these meals for dinner make enough to freeze at the same time.  Check out the new "eat one, freeze one" category in the index to find meals that would be a good candidate for this.  I've been making a lot of the meals in that category lately.  Here's more meals I've been making that are easy and don't freeze well.

Mascarpone Walnut Pasta

I used to make this dish a lot before I started freezer cooking.  It's delicious and easy.  It was nice to have it again while we were waiting for our freezer.  I briefly considered working on a casserole version of this dish, but it's so fast and easy it doesn't seem worth it.  I didn't think to take a picture.  The last time I made it, so you'll have to use your imagination. :)

Mascarpone Walnut Pasta

From: Great Pasta Sauces

Serves 6

1 lb pasta (I live campanelle, but you can use something else)

4 tbsp butter
1 clove garlic, minced
1 3/4 cup chopped walnuts
8 oz mascarpone
1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan
salt and pepper

1. Put the pasta on to boil according to the package instructions.
2. In a large frying pan melt the butter.  Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds.
3. Add the walnuts and gently stir for 3 to 4 minutes until they are toasted.  Be careful not to burn!
4. Stir in the mascarpone then the parmesan.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.
5. Add the cooked pasta and toss to combine.

This is very tasty served with a bacon and spinach salad.

Lemon Chicken and Gnocchi Sheet Pan Dinner

I haven't had a freezer for the past few months, so I've been exploring other quick and easy, but still tasty, meals.  Sheet pan dinners have been really popular online lately.  I admit that I have been skeptical of them. Generally sheet pan meals have potatoes, vegetables and meat all cooked together on one tray, and some of the ones I see seem like the meat would be way overcooked before the potatoes are tender.  However, I do love this sheet pan chicken tikka, and it convinced me to take a look at more sheet pan dinners for quick non-freezer meals.

Previously for the chicken tikka I have put the chicken in the marinade and frozen it to simplify the process and make it a freezer meal.  Lately I have been just making the marinade and putting the chicken in it a day in advance since I didn't have a large freezer to do bulk freezer cooking.  In this way it works as an easy meal when you don't have freezer meals, or as a freezer meal where marinading  and portioning a bunch of meat in advance does simplify things.  Really any meat in a marinade in the freezer is an easy and common way to do food prep in advance.  Look at your favorite marinaded meat dishes see what you could prep and freeze to simplify your life.

Cooking Days 1 -3: Smoked Pork, Chicken and Barbecue Sauce

Well, this last month has not gone as I had thought.  I thought by now I would have a freezer full of prepared foods and would not be cooking every day.  I was wrong.

Our new freezer has turned into a long a frustrating saga.  We purchased and had it delivered about a month ago.  One of the features that attracted us to this freezer is that it has a high temperature alarm.  The freezer beeps when the temperature gets above a certain temperature.  I have lost a freezer full of food before when I left the door open.  It is a painful event not only because of the cost of the food lost (about $400) but because of the labor that went into making the lost food and the fact that I no longer had that food to rely on to make my days easier.  A high temperature alarm sounded like a good feature to have on our freezer to avoid losing food in the future.

Unfortunately the high temperature alarm goes off constantly despite the fact that the freezer is plenty cold.  GE has sent out a repairman three times now.  The first time he reset it and declared it fixed, but the alarm came back on in a couple hours.  The second time he ordered some replacement parts.  The parts were on backorder and we had to wait a while for them.  He came for the third time yesterday and installed the replacement parts.  It was declared fixed again.  And yet again the alarm came back on in a couple hours.

Freezer Jam

I'm supposed to be doing a boatload of cooking this week to fill up my brand new freezer, and, hopefully, still have enough energy to blog about.  Unfortunately there is a problem with the new freezer, and I am holding off cooking until it's taken care of.  Instead I decided to make freezer jam, which can go in the small freezer on top of my fridge.

My grandma used to make freezer jam when I was a kid.  I loved the stuff.  Later as an adult I decided to try my hand at making it.  I was delighted to find that it is super easy to do and soon had delicious freezer jam of my own.  I was less delighted to discover that the two main pectin brands, Ball and Sure Jell, did not yield a consistent product.  Sometimes I would end up with delicious, set jam, but just as often my jam would not set at all.  Instead I would have many jars of fruit syrup.  It was still delicious but not what I wanted.  In talking to other jam makers I learned that others also had problems with inconsistent set.

Planning Part 2: What to Make

Planning, Part 1: How Much Food to Make

I don't know if there is a meal planning equivalent to writer's block, but there should be because I definitely get it.  I suspect it is a common problem.  I don't know why, but when I sit down to meal plan I suddenly can't think of anything to make.  I know how to make many delicious meals and yet, nothing.  There are some ways to combat this.  I keep a list of ideas. When I'm going about my life and think of something I'd like to eat I put it on a list on my phone.  When it's time to plan I consult the list to help me with ideas.

I also come up with categories.  It's a lot easier to think of things when you narrow it down to specific categories.  This helps me to have a variety of things, so I don't end up with chicken everyday.  When I did meal planning before I started doing freezer cooking I would do categories like: chicken, soup, pasta, vegetarian,....  With freezer cooking my categories are different, which I will elaborate on more in a bit.

Planning, Part 1: How much food to make

Well, I finally have a freezer being delivered.  Tomorrow!  I haven't had a freezer since we moved in January and we left our very old freezer behind.  That means I have been cooking just about every day for a few months now.  In some ways it has been nice.  I got to make some things that I haven't for a while because they don't freeze well, but I am ready to get back to my freezer meals again.  I have missed having meals ready to go or simplified and it is way harder to stay on top of keeping the kitchen clean when dinner needs to be made every day.

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.

Meatloaf and mashed potatoes

I would have never though of meatloaf as a budget meal until I was shopping for the ingredients to make meatloaf and found a 10 lb package of ground beef for about $20.  Considering that 10 lbs of meat will make 5 batches of meatloaf and that each meatloaf will feed my family for 2 meals with some leftover and that the cost of the other ingredients is low, that means that a meatloaf meal costs less than $3 for my entire family, not including the sides. And meatloaf sides can be inexpensive too.  I always need to have mashed potatoes with my meatloaf, which are cheap.  Add a vegetable side from whatever is on sale and you've got a whole meal.

This inexpensive beef was 80/20 (80% meat, 20% fat).  I usually go for 93/7 so I have less fat cooking out of my meat.  When buying a small amount the 93/7 is not too much more expensive than the 80/20, but when buying in bulk, the 93/7 was almost twice as much.  For that price difference I will deal with the extra fat!  I didn't want super greasy meatloaf, so I cooked my meatloaf on an oven-safe rack inside a sheet pan.  All the grease drained into the pan.

Easy Mango Lassi

I love Indian food, I have learned to make and freeze some of my favorite Indian meals.  Many grocery stores have also started carrying naan and I find myself going out for Indian food less often.  After all, I have delicious homemade Indian in my freezer.  This is a wonderful thing as I get to have my favorite Indian dishes regularly without having to spend a lot of money.  The downside was that I wasn't getting to have a mango lassi with my Indian dinner.  The obvious solution was to learn to make that as well. 

I tried a few different recipes I found online and wasn't really happy with any of them.  Many called for fresh mango, which while delicious, it is sometimes hard to find ripe ones.  Plus having to peel, pit and cut up mangoes kind of defeats the purpose of having convenient freezer meals.  Then I tried frozen mango chunks from the grocery store.  That did not make a good lassi.  For some reason mango gets really chalky when frozen.  Finally I discovered canned mango and created a tasty and convenient lassi that makes it so I can have the full Indian restaurant dining experience at home.  I'm going to give you the recipe, but it is really flexible.  Don't be afraid to change things around to fit your tastes.

Serves 4

1 15 oz can mango in syrup
2 cups plain yogurt ( I use Greek yogurt, but regular should be fine)
3 cups ice
honey to taste

1. Pour the mango, including the syrup into a blender.  Add the yogurt and blend until smooth.
2. My blender wasn't large enough to handle the full recipe, so I poured out half the mango-yogurt mixture into another container.
3. Add half the ice and blend until smooth.  Add honey to taste.
4. Pour the lassi into cups to serves.  Repeat step 3 with the rest of the mango-yogurt and the ice.

Roasted Chicken Tikka

Life has been crazy busy for us lately.  In October my husband learned that his company would be closing down in December and began job hunting.  A new job for him meant a move would be likely for our family.  We started packing, and I stopped adding freezer meals to our freezer.  He received a job offer and left for New York shortly before Christmas.  We already had plans to go on a cruise for Christmas, so he flew back to join us for that.  After the cruise we drove back to Mississippi to get the rest of our stuff and then drove on to New York.  We had a month of relaxed packing followed by a month of frantic packing followed by an awesome and relaxing cruise and ended it all with 4 days of driving through 9 different states.

As soon as I learned about his company closing I stopped adding meals to my freezer and switched to a focus on eating what we had.  It was great to not need to cook on top of everything else we had going on.  We didn't quite make it through all the meals we had in the freezer, and I gave the last of them to a woman I knew who had just had a baby.  Now we are in temporary housing while we wait to move into the house we are in the process of buying.  That means no freezer meals for us right now.  I miss them.  Life is much simpler when dinner is ready and in the freezer every day.  I do have a couple recipes that I made in my last batch of freezer cooking that I haven't gotten around to posting yet what with all the frantic packing. So I have something to post while I wait to get back to my freezer cooking.

This isn't a chicken tikka like you might be thinking about with chunks of chicken in a creamy tomato sauce that is served over rice, although I do have a freezer version of chicken tikka masala if that is what you are looking for.  No, this is chicken marinated in a yogurt marinade and roasted with potatoes and cauliflower.  It is delicious.  I served this to guests a few months ago and one in particular raved about it continually.