Freezer Cooking

With my due date less than a month away now I made the decision that I wanted to get a bunch of freezer meals stocked up. That way after the little guy arrives I will have some quick and easy to prepare meals. I started scouring Pinterest and made up a spreadsheet of recipes that sounded good to me and then had hubby go through and pick out 10 that he liked too. I used my spreadsheet to help myself create a shopping list and printed it out.

First thing I did was go shopping in my own pantry, fridge and freezer. We butcher our own cows so I knew I would have lots of ground round and lots of frozen veggies from our garden. Then I reviewed my spreadsheet and eliminated all the things that I already had on hand. Saturday morning we went off to the store and bought all the things I needed to get our meals made. It cost me approximately $120 to buy all the supplies, I didn't think that was too bad.

Here's what we came up with. Some are slow cooker meals and require nothing more than chopping things and tossing them in freezer bags, others require some minimal cooking.

1. Grilled Cilantro Lime Chicken
2. Chicken Cordon Bleu Bundles
3. Ranch Pork Chops and Potatoes
4. Marinated and Baked Pork Chops
5. Stephanies Goulash/Beef Stew
6. Savory Vegetable Beef Stew
7. Loaded Baked Potato Casserole
8. Baked Ziti 
9. Lasagna
10. Chicken Caccatorie

Click the link below to see all the recipes we used! All of the recipes are linked back to the page where I got them from, except the last 3 which were recipes I already had.

Spreadsheet of Recipes

Some of these recipes make more than one meal, so all in all I got 15 meals out of these 10 recipes! I also had 2 large chicken breasts left over so I tossed them in a bag with some Italian dressing and got an extra meal!

Finished product!

I wish I had taken pictures as I went along (it was pretty much controlled chaos), but I didn't think of it until later on. Maybe next time!

What's For Dinner Wednesday

Stromboli

Ingredients to make 2 Stromboli:

2 loaves of frozen bread dough
1lb mozzarella cheese
1/2lb of thinly sliced pepperoni (sometimes I just use the stuff from the pizza aisle)
1pkg of hard salami (or 1/2lb if you get it from the deli)
1lb of ham
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 pepper, thinly sliced
Mushrooms, thinly sliced

This is my favorite kind of frozen dough to use. 

Directions:

• Thaw bread according to package directions. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

• Roll dough out into a long rectangle shape about 1/4 inch thick and move to a cookie sheet.

• Layer with meats, cheese and veggies right down the center leaving some space at the top and bottom. (Cannot believe I forgot a picture for this step!)

• Fold each end up and then each side to seal. 

• Bake for 20-30 minutes. 

• Remove from oven and allow to set for about 10 minutes before slicing. 

• Serve with marinara sauce.

Enjoy!!

What's For Dinner Wednesday!

Every Wednesday evening we get together with our neighbor Dee, that lives over the hill and have dinner here on the farm. Sometimes I make the main course and she makes the sides and sometimes it's the other way around. This time it was my turn to make the main dish and I just had to share it with you because it was so yummy! At the request of Dee for something Italian, I made stuffed shells and the recipe is below!

Stuffed Shells

Ingredients:

1 package of jumbo pasta shells
1/2 pound ground hamburger
1 container of ricotta cheese (16 oz)
1 pound of shredded mozzarella (divided)
12 ounces of Parmesan cheese (divided)
2 eggs- beaten
1 teaspoon of salt (optional)
1 tablespoon of dried parsley
1 teaspoon of black pepper
2 teaspoons of garlic (or more if your a garlic person like I am!)
1 teaspoon of onion powder
1 jar of spaghetti sauce (we like mushroom)

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

1. Boil water and cook pasta approx. 10 minutes until they are al dente. Drain and rinse.
2. Brown the meat.
3. Mix together ricotta cheese, half the mozzarella, half the Parmesan, eggs, salt, parsley, pepper, garlic and onion. ***Please see note at the bottom*** Split mixture into two mixing bowls. Leave one bowl as is and in the other bowl mix in the ground burger.
4. Start filling up the shells and lay them into a 9x13 baking dish.
5. Spread remaining mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese over the prepared shells. Then pour the sauce over top.
6. Put in oven and bake on 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

***Note***
We like to have some of our shells be just the cheese mixture and some with the meat and cheese mixture. That is why I divide the mixture. If you want it to be all one flavor you can skip this step!

I promise next time to try to remember to get a picture so you can see what it looks like, I know with recipes it is much more appealing to see the food!!

This is my modified version of a recipe I found, the original recipe can be found here. And I have to say the original version submitted by Renee is excellent too, I just enjoy adding my own flair and tweaked it to fit my families taste!