Foody Friday - Freezer Meals

First off, I know you want the candy update. Remember my promise of no-candy-by-Nov.3?

Failed.

We still have candy.

However, it is disappearing quickly and the plan still seems to be a good one. My new hope is that by the end of the weekend, it will be gone.

Really.

OK, onto more important business. You might be wondering if maybe I should change the name of this blog to "A Litte talk" since I haven't been too talkative lately.

I've had a few people ask me if we're doing ok, and I assure you -- we're fine. We're actually doing really well, but blogging just hasn't been high on my priority list lately.

Part of it is that along with the rest of our fine country, our little pie slice of the economy is in a financial meltdown, and so a good portion of my free time has been spent looking for additional income opportunities, as well as penny pinching, which has been a bit time consuming (And FUN! Y'all, it's fun. Most of the time.)

My current work project is also fun, and demands a whole post of it's own, which will be forthcoming.

The bottom line is that I'm working after bedtime, and therefore blogging has been relegated to a lower priority. Humph. !! :)

In the spirit of our busy life, freezer meals are my best friend. Especially in the winter when fresh food isn't quite as plentiful, having meals ready to go in my freezer is awesome.

There are so many ways to approach this, and I will briefly touch on two ways:

A) Simply double/triple your meals you are already making, and freeze leftovers. This takes only a small amount of extra time, and it's fabulous home cooked food without the work later on. Many many dishes are suitable for freezing: soups, casseroles, quiche, fillings for tacos/burritos, etc... no special recipes necessary, just a little bit of planning.

B) Buy a book that has freezer-specific recipes, and set out to batch cook, tripling recipes, and have a "day of cooking". This could be great done with friends. I have a couple of freezer meal cookbooks, but my favorite is "Don't Panic- Dinner's in the Freezer". I have used many recipes from this book.


Here is one of my favorite recipes from that book (this recipe is for one batch, easily doubled or tripled):

Chimichangas

1t salt
2lbs lean ground beef or ground turkey
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2t ground cumin
2t oregano
1/2 cup canned green chiles, chopped
1/2 cup taco sauce
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup cider vinegar

Serving day
1 cup butter or margarine, melted
9 7-inch flour tortillas

Cooking day instructions
Sprinkle salt in a medium skillet. Place over medium heat. Add beef garlic, and spices. Cook until meat loses pinkness. Stir in remaining ingredients. Remove from heat and cool. Freeze meat mixture in a freezer bag or container.

Serving day instructions
In 8-inch skillet, melt butter or margarine. Dip both sides of 1 tortilla into butter; drain off excess. (alternately: spray both sides of tortilla with olive oil cooking spray, or skip the fat altogether by simply warming in the microwave) Mound 1/3 cup thawed filling on center of tortilla. Fold tortilla in envelope fashion. Place seam side down in ungreased 11x7 baking dish. Repeat with remaining tortillas and filling.

Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Bake until crispy, about 15 minutes. Sprinkle with cheese and return for a few seconds. Top with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, avocado, and additional sour cream.

Yum.

Please, join in below if you have a freezer-suitable meal to share!