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!

Baked Ziti

Last year I made a meatball pasta baked dish.  I haven't posted yet because I haven't quite gotten the proportions right, but it is one of my favorite freezer meals.  Due to having a baby recently I haven't had the energy this year to make it.  That many meatballs is a big project.  Instead I made this baked ziti.  It is much faster and easier but has a similar flavor profile.  I will eventually get back to my meatball casserole, but this delicious meal fills that slot for now.

Difficulty: Easy
Category: Simple Side
Recipe Column: DN

Get the recipe at Smitten Kitchen.  I pretty much make the recipe as is.  Undercook the pasta slightly and rinse it with cold water after draining to stop the cooking process.  Also I don't bother to cut up the spinach.  I just add the whole leaves to the sauce.

To freeze:
Divide the pasta into containers, bags or pans. If you do pans you can top with shredded cheese before freezing.  I use containers to save space in my freezer, so I leave the cheese off.

To serve:
Thaw the pasta in the fridge overnight.  If you haven't already, transfer the mixture to a pan and top with shredded cheese.  I use a pre-shredded Italian mix.  Cover with foil and bake at 375 degrees until heated all the way through, about 45 minutes.  Serve with salad or vegetables.

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

Prep tip: Leeks

I love leeks, but they tend to be full of sand.  It's very unpleasant to be eating a delicious meal and bite into some sandy grit from leeks that haven't been cleaned well enough.  Here's how I clean them to make sure that doesn't happen.

Trim the root end, but leave the root intact.  This will hold your leek together, making it easier to slice it. 

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

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.