A few weeks ago, I was inspired by The Pioneer Woman to make some freezer meals. We are an on-the-go family but really enjoy a home cooked meal much more than eating out. I’m usually pretty good at cooking dinner on the weeknights (thank you Mr. Crock Pot) but often on the weekends we veg out on frozen pizza or order take out. By Sunday night, the only thing that sounds good is food that takes too much effort for me to prepare. Hence the need for homemade freezer meals. With a grocery list in hand and a weekend at home, I was able to prepare six meals that my family can enjoy on the nights that we crave comfort food but not the work.
Here are Six Freezer Friendly Meals:
Warning! Your kitchen will get messy 🙂
Friday night I started with my chicken meals. I bought a big bag of frozen chicken from Sam’s and cooked my chicken breasts. I keep it simple by cooking chicken on the skillet in extra virgin olive oil and season it with salt and pepper. This made it super simple to just throw the chicken into the meals I was making. I even had some leftover that I froze to use on salads and sandwiches during the week. Here are my 3 freezer meal chicken recipes:
1. Chicken Spaghetti
This meal is super easy and always a crowd pleaser. It also freezes really well in a large throwaway dish.
3 cups of cooked chicken
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup milk
3 cups cooked rice
1 cup queso dip
Stir all together and back at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes. Top with shredded cheese.
2. Teriyaki chicken
I accidentally cooked too much rice for my chicken spaghetti so I used the leftover rice to make teriyaki chicken. All I did was brown some chopped onions in the bottom of a pan with two eggs and added the rice and diced up chicken. Then I seasoned it with teriyaki sauce, soy sauce, ground ginger, a 1/4 teaspoon sesame oil, and a tablespoon of ketchup. After that, I added cooked edamame and shredded carrots.
3. Chicken Pot Pie
I’ve been dying to make a homemade chicken pot pie ever since I ate my friend Janet’s recipe. I even made my own pie crust and I can’t wait to heat this up on a cool fall night.
Start with the dough first because it needs to sit in the refrigerator for an hour. I made four batches of this dough so I could pull them out of the freezer whenever I needed a pie crust.
Flaky Butter Crust:
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
7 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled and cut into pieces
1 to 2 tablespoons ice water
To make the dough in a food processor, combine the flour, salt, and butter in the processor and process untilt he mixture resembles coarse crumbs, about 10 seconds. With the machine running, add the ice water through the feed tube and pulse quickly 5 or 6 times, or until the dough comes together and starts to pull away from the sides of the container. Gather the dough into a ball, flatten it into a disk, and wrap in plastic wrap. Regrigerate for at least 1 hour.
De’s Homemade Chicken Pot Pie:
1 cup diced carrots
1 cup diced celery
1 cup diced onion
1 cup frozen green peas
1 whole rotisserie chicken (I shredded four chicken breasts)
1 1/2 cups half n half
3 cups chicken stock
1 stick butter
1 box pillsbury regrigerated pie crust (I made my own)
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
Saute carrots, celery and onion in butter over medium high heat in large deep skillet until slightly softened – about 7 or 8 minutes. Add flour and stir for one minute to cook.
Mix half n half and chicken stock in bowl. Pour into vegetable mixture. Reduce heat to me-low and stir until thickened.
Pull meat from chicken and add to mixture. Add salt, pepper, and peas.
Place one pie crust (or half of your homemade dough) in a deep casserole dish (I did mine in a pie pan so I could make two pies out of this recipe). Bake the bottom for 10 minutes so it doesn’t get soggy.
Pour misture on top of crust. Place 2nd crust on top and squeeze edges to seal. Brush egg white on top of crust to make a pretty brown crust. Make 2 or 3 slits in middle of crust to release steam.
Bake on 400 degrees for 35-40 minutes until bubbly. Cool 10 minutes before serving. Serves 8 people. Forget the calories and enjoy!
On Saturday, I woke up and started on my beef recipes (it was game day so it seemed appropriate!)
4. Taco soup
I actually substituted ground turkey in this recipe instead of beef to keep it on the healthy side. My girls love this soup and I served it for lunch with The Pioneer Woman’s mini blueberry cornbread muffins. Yum!
My taco soup is super easy. Just brown your turkey and drain out the excess fat. Season it with a taco seasoning packet and water. Next add one whole can of kidney beans (juice included), one whole can of pinto beans (juice included), one can of rotel, and add black beans and corn that have been drained. Add a ranch seasoning packet to the mixture and 1-2 cups of water and let it simmer for 30 minutes to an hour. Serve with Mexican cheese and Frito’s for a yummy game day soup.
5. Lasagna
My mom makes a super easy lasagna. Her spaghetti sauce recipe is cooked ground chuck (drain the fat), two cans of Hunt’s tomato sauce, one can of hunt’s tomato paste, and a cup of water. Season it all with salt and pepper, garlic seasoning, parsley and oregano. I even through in a Parmesan cheese rind to give it extra flavor. I let my sauce simmer for three hours. Then, I just layered the lasagna pan with sauce, noodles, ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese, mad Parmesan cheese.
6. Sloppy Joe’s
My husband really liked these! Here’s The Pioneer Woman’s recipe:
Photo by The Pioneer Woman
Ingredients
- 2 Tablespoons Butter
- 2-1/2 pounds Ground Beef
- 1/2 whole Large Onion, Diced
- 1 whole Large Green Bell Pepper, Diced
- 5 cloves Garlic, Minced
- 1-1/2 cup Ketchup
- 1 cup Water
- 2 Tablespoons Brown Sugar
- 2 teaspoons Chili Powder (more To Taste)
- 1 teaspoon Dry Mustard
- 1/2 teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes (more To Taste)
- Worcestershire Sauce, To Taste
- 2 Tablespoons Tomato Paste (optional)
- Tabasco Sauce (optional; To Taste)
- Salt To Taste
- Freshly Ground Black Pepper, To Taste
- Kaiser Rolls
- Butter
Preparation Instructions
Add butter to a large skillet or dutch oven over medium high heat. Add ground beef and cook until brown. Drain most of the fat and discard.
Add onions, green pepper, and garlic. Cook for a few minutes, or until vegetables begin to get soft.
Add ketchup, brown sugar, chili pepper, dry mustard, and water. Stir to combine and simmer for 15 minutes, adding salt and pepper to taste. Also add tomato paste, Worcestershire, and Tabasco if desired. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed.
Spread rolls with butter and brown on a griddle or skillet. Spoon meat mixture over the rolls, topping with a slice of cheese if it makes your skirt fly up. Serve hot with kettle cooked chips!
Hope you have enjoyed these six freezer friendly recipes. Which one are you going to try first?
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