Cheese Souffle

Cheese souffle is the perfect example of a complicated dish that can be broken down into components that can then be frozen, making the dish easier to make on a weeknight.  I know from long experience that egg whites freeze really well.  They can be thawed and then used as normal without any noticeable change.  One day as I was putting some egg whites in the freezer I thought about cheese souffle.  I love cheese souffle, but it's too much work to make on a regular basis.  However, a souffle is made by folding whipped egg whites and a batter together..  Looking at the egg whites I was about to put in the freezer made me realize I could probably freeze the egg whites and batter separately.  Then to make a souffle all I would have to do was thaw the two components, whip the egg whites, fold everything together and bake. 

It worked!  I took me about an hour to prepare the batter.  This is why we don't eat souffle often, but with the components in the freezer it only took me a few minutes to whip up the souffles.  This means I could make a big batch of souffle and have souffle several times for the same amount of time and work that it would take me to make souffle once.

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.

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.

Green Vegetable Tart

This tart is delicious and packed with nutritious green vegetables. It is one of my husband's favorites and to my surprise my kids really liked it and ate it all up.  I usually post recipes for single batches, so everyone can multiply it to fit their family's needs. This is a quadruple batch.  I post this as a larger batch because it works easier with the amounts some of the ingredients are sold in.  Leeks are generally sold 3 to a bundle, and this utilizes all of them. It also uses a 32 oz container of ricotta cheese which is one of the two sizes it's sold in.

Adapted from: Savoring Appetizers
Difficulty: Moderate
Category: Freezer to Pan
Recipe Column: U

Yields 4 pies.  Each pie serves 6

Carrot Miso Soup

Soups are the workhorse of my winter freezer meals.  They are endlessly variable, one-pot meals that are easy to freeze and reheat.

Carrot Miso Soup
Difficulty: Easy
Column: DH

This healthy soup is very cheap to make.  It's also a great way to use up a lot of miso, which I find handy since I sometimes have trouble getting through a package.  Look for miso in the refrigerator section of your local Asian market.  This is very easy to make if you have a food processor to slice the carrots.  I don't even bother peeling the carrots.  I just wash them well, cut off the ends and thinly slice them in the food processor.  Without the food processor, this soup will be more time consuming.  This soup becomes even easier with an immersion blender.

Serve with a drizzle of sesame oil and sliced green onions.  We also like to have it with naan from the grocery store.

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

Pumpkin Pasta

This pasta casserole is full of delicious fall flavors.  It has been part of my freezer repertoire for many years and led to my purchase of the titular very large bowl of this blog.  I was trying to make a large batch of this and while it all technically fit in my largest bowl at the time, the bowl was so full that I couldn't stir effectively.  It took forever to mix that batch and made a large mess. Afterwards I got online and purchased my 30 quart bowl that I use for my freezer cooking now.

Adapted from: Veganomicon
Difficulty: Moderate
Category: Heat and Eat
Recipe Column: AM

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

Falafel

These tasty falafels are very easy if you have a large enough food processor.  They are also inexpensive and they are very convenient as they can go straight from the freezer to the pan.

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

Get the recipe here. Form the falafels, but do not cook them.

To freeze:
Freeze the uncooked falafels on a sheet tray lined with parchment paper.  You can do up to two layers of falafel on the same pan.  Separate the layers with parchment paper.  Once the falafels are frozen, transfer them to a bag or container for storage.

To serve:
Heat a thin layer of olive oil in a large frying pan.  When the oil is hot, add the frozen falafels in a single layer.  Do not overcrowd the pan.  Cook until brown on both sides.  You may cover the pan at the beginning to help the falafels heat through.  Remove the lid towards the end of cooking to give the falafel a chance to crisp before serving.  Serve with tzatziki or other sauce and a salad.

Tzatziki Sauce
1/2 cucumber
1 cup Greek yogurt
pinch of garlic powder (optional)
dash of lemon juice
sprinkle of dry dill

1. Coarsely grate the cucumber.  Gather up the grated cucumber and gently squeeze excess moisture out of the cucumber before transferring it to a small mixing bowl.
2. Combine all the ingredients and season to taste with salt and pepper.

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!

Corn Crepes

We finished off the last of these tasty corn crepes a couple nights ago.  In fact the freezer is starting to look a little sparse.  I'm gearing up do my once a month cooking over the next couple days.  The grocery shopping is done and I will be doing the chopping, shredding and mincing this afternoon.  I'm looking forward to having some new variety in our meal rotation.

Difficulty: Moderate
Category: Simple Side
Recipe Column: AF

Get the recipe at Smitten Kitchen.

To freeze:
Cool the crepes and divide into dinner-sized stacks.  I generally plan on two to three crepes per person.  Wrap each stack tightly in plastic wrap or place in freezer bags and freeze.

To serve:
Thaw the crepes overnight in the refrigerator.  Remove from the plastic wrap or bag and place on a plate.  Sprinkle 3 tablespoons of water on a clean kitchen towel and cover the crepes.  Microwave in 2 minute bursts at 70% power until hot.  The recipe linked above has a few serving suggestions.  I initially tried the crepe cake with the mayo and queso fresco because I love Mexican corn.  I found the mayo and cheese overpowered the delicate corn flavor of the crepes.  My preferred serving method is just to fold them up and serve with a little sprinkle of queso fresco.  We had it with avocado cucumber salad.  I also think it would be good with a fresh tomato salad.

Black Bean Salad

As I have been posting recipes to this blog I have noticed that we really like black beans and avocados.  Already I have a few recipes with featuring these two ingredients in different configurations and there's probably more to come.  Black beans and avocados are both tasty and nutritious.  Plus beans are a cheap source of protein, so we'll probably keep finding different ways to eat this delicious combination.

Black bean salad is the latest of these recipes.  It's really easy to put this in a crockpot and let it simmer away while you work on your other freezer meals.  It's nice to have a low maintenance dish in the rotation as making freezer meals can be a big process.

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.

Pierogi

These potato pierogi were a staple for us last summer.  They were my first freezer to pan meal.  Last summer when I was tired or forgot to thaw something for dinner, I would throw a few of these in a pan and have a quick and easy dinner.  They are time consuming to make, but they're cheap and super convenient once they are made.  I think these could also be tasty with up to half the potatoes replaced by cauliflower.  I was going to give it a try last time I made them, but the cauliflower was looking pretty sad when I went to the store.

Difficulty: Moderate
Category: Freezer to Pan
Recipe Column: AK

Black Bean Burgers

These black bean burgers are inexpensive and tasty.  Plus they can be cooked straight from the freezer, making them very convenient as well.

From: Veganomicon
Difficulty: Easy
Category: Freezer to Pan
Recipe Column: BR

Lentil Joes

I realize that just seeing the the word "lentil" is going to turn some people off, and that would be a shame.  Admittedly, this dish is not a hit with everyone I have ever served it to, but I think it is delicious and the majority of people I have made it for have enjoyed it too.

I even featured a sample of this in a class I taught about inexpensive protein sources.  Over a year later I ran into a lady who had attended the class.  She brought up the class and the lentil joes enthusiastically and said she had been making them regularly ever since even though she had been skeptical initially.  So, I heartily recommend giving these a try even if you're not sure about them.  They freeze great and are very inexpensive at about $0.80 a serving.

Chickpea Stew

I love this garlicky stew.  It's filling and delicious, and between the spinach and the chickpeas, it is packed with nutrition.  It is also inexpensive.  The only ingredient that is on the pricey side is the saffron.  However, a little saffron goes a long way, and  this recipe only uses a tiny amount, so after your initial investment you will be able to make this and other dishes containing saffron for a long time before you have to buy it again.

Technically this falls in the Simple Side category because you do have to add the spinach to it as it reheats before serving. It is so easy to add a bag of pre-washed baby spinach to it that it is almost like a Heat and Eat.

Cheese Blintzes

I love blintzes and yet I have had them less than five times in my life.  Few restaurants serve them, and I have only made them once.  They are labor intensive.  They require making the crepes and the filling.  Then all the crepes need to be filled, rolled and fried.  The one time I made them they were delicious, but they were too much work for a single breakfast for me to do again.  Until one happy day I realized that they would freeze well.  Making a huge batch of these is a project, but the fact that I can make a ton of these one afternoon and have enough for several breakfasts makes the work worth it for me.

A Collection of Pancakes

Pancakes are great for freezing, and it's easy to make a huge batch of them.  Plus, they heat well straight from the freezer, which is convenient if you're short on time and forgot to thaw something for breakfast.  We have pancakes at least once a week, so I make a triple or quadruple batch when I make them.

As I've stated before, I like a hearty breakfast.  My day is so much more enjoyable and productive if I start the day by eating something substantial.  Unfortunately, as delicious as traditional light and fluffy flapjacks are, I don't find that they stick with me and keep me going until lunch.  As such I am always on the hunt for more filling pancakes.  Below are a few pancake recipes I freeze that are filling as well as delicious.