Chicken Potstickers

I love potstickers and now my daughter has declared them one of her favorite meals as well.  They are a bit time consuming to make, but they cook quickly straight from the freezer.  They'll definitely be a regular in our freezer meal rotation.

Difficulty: Difficult - They aren't difficult to make, but they are time consuming.
Category: Freezer to Pan
Recipe Column: DM

Yields about 50

Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole

As I mentioned the last time I posted, I recently had a baby.  I'm still doing my freezer meals.  After all it's the easiest way to stay on top of feeding my family.  But since I currently have a needy, helpless and unpredictable little person to take care of those freezer meals need to be easy in every sense.  They need to be easy to put together before freezing since I have little time and energy for cooking right now.  They need to be easy to cook or reheat on the night that I'm serving the meal since the baby is most likely to be fussy right when it's time to start making dinner.  They even need to be easy to eat since I will most likely be eating the meal one handed while the other snuggles a tiny baby who doesn't want to be put down.  Oh and they need to be delicious.  Fortunately this casserole meets all of these requirements.

Adapted from: Joy Filled Eats
Difficulty: Easy
Category: Simple Side
Recipe Column: DL

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.

Asparagus in Ambush

Like the Avocado Tacos I posted before, this is not a freezer meal.  However, on occasion I post meals that are simple to make and delicious, which describes asparagus in ambush perfectly.

Adapted from: An American Place

2 lbs asparagus, woody bottom ends cut off and discarded
10 oz thinly sliced ham
14 slices swiss cheese
7 flour tortillas

Makes 7 wraps

1. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil over high heat.  Add the asparagus and boil until just tender.  Drain well.
2. Place three slices of ham on a tortilla.  Put two slices of cheese on top of the ham and place a handful of  asparagus in the center on top of the cheese.  Roll the tortilla up around the ham, cheese and asparagus.  Place the wrap in a baking dish.  Repeat with the other tortillas.
3. Bake the wraps at 350 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes or until the ham is hot and the cheese is melted.

Chicken Soup Three Ways

These chicken soups are warm and comforting on a cold day  They would be particularly nice to have when sick.  I plan to keep one batch in my freezer on a regular basis just to have for that reason. It's nice to make a very large batch of this that can be divided into meal-sized portions.  Then we can have it with dumplings, noodles or matzo balls depending on which we want that day or how much time we have.

This recipe turned into quite the project.  My initial plan was simply to create a freezer meal for chicken and dumplings, which we have always enjoyed and eaten regularly.  The chicken and dumplings freezer meal turned out well.  It consisted of two parts, the chicken soup and the dumpling dough that were frozen separately.  I realized the chicken soup part could be used to make other kinds of chicken soup like chicken noodle soup and matzo ball soup.  I decided to wait on posting the chicken and dumplings until I could post all three variations of the soup together.  This took a while as I needed to try all the variations and we didn't want to be eating chicken soup all the time.  There is often a long development process in creating freezer meals.

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.

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.