Favorite Fast Freezer Meals?

Right now I'm in the (slow) process of stocking my freezer up with ready-to-go meals. I'm hoping to get about 2 weeks worth of meals in there, give or take, so that I can take a break from the kitchen. I'm feeling a little burned out lately. I enjoy cooking, but I'd like to devote some time to other interests and that time just isn't there when I don't get home till almost 6 and have to do any and all non-work things in the sparse amount of time before bed. I won't rely solely on freezer food, there will be a few easy things I'm sure. Like pizzas and grilled cheese, ha.

Anyway, the point of my rambling is- if you've got a recipe you love to whip from freezer to oven to dinner table, then do tell! Any suggestions welcome. Got a recipe that makes a serving for dinner and one for the freezer? Gimme. Have something that you look forward to pulling from your ice box everytime? Whisper it in my ear. Or in the comments, that might work better. Share! Please!

Egg Salad

Memorial Day weekend is definitely a time for cookouts and picnics. If your destination isn't very far, maybe you'd like to make some egg salad. Of course, if it is then something with mayo isn't going to fit the bill. For some ideas that travel well check out Jane's Memorial Day post over at This Week For Dinner. To be perfectly honest (and lame) I'm just making a batch of this tonight for lunch this week, but I sure wish it wasn't too hot out for a nice picnic. This recipe is from the March 2008 Everyday Food, and I made it for the first time a couple weeks ago. I really enjoyed it so I decided to whip up a half batch for my brown bagging.

Egg Salad
Recipe from Everyday Food; Serves 4












1/2 cup light mayonnaise
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon white-wine vinegar
8 hard-cooked eggs, peeled and roughly chopped
1 celery stalk, minced
1/4 small red onion, minced
Coarse salt and ground pepper

• In a medium bowl, whisk together mayonnaise, mustard, and vinegar until smooth. Add eggs, celery and onion; season with salt and pepper.

My notes: I didn't add the vinegar because I didn't have any handy. Still really liked this, and I might try it with a little cider vinegar sometime, which is an ingredient in my family's deviled egg recipe. They say this recipe serves 4, but they were pretty big sandwiches when divided evenly into 4 servings, so if you like your sandwiches a little more manageable you could probably get 6 and maybe even 8 servings quite easily.

Cilantro Lime Rice

Obviously, Cilantro Lime Rice isn't an incredibly difficult recipe. I'm sure a lot of you already make it on your own, and don't need any help from me. But I made it so I wanted to share it. This was a great side dish for these Zucchini Quesadillas that I've posted about before. And knowing this recipe puts me one step closer to being able to create our own delicious Chipotle style meals at home. Of course, there are about 20 steps left, ha, but one step closer nonetheless. This recipe was really easy, so it will no doubt be making more appearances on our menu plans. It serves 2 and actually held up well in the fridge, so that week we had the first half on Monday with these quesadillas, and the rest on Friday with some cheese quesadillas as a quick pre-show dinner.

Cilantro Lime Rice
Recipe from Everyday Food; Serves 4












1 cup long-grain white rice
Coarse salt
1/2 cup fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 garlic clove

• In a medium saucepan, bring 1 1/2 cups water to a boil. Add rice and 1/4 teaspoon salt; cover, and reduce to a simmer. Cook until water is absorbed and rice is just tender, 16 to 18 minutes.
• Meanwhile, in a blender, combine cilantro, lime juice, oil, garlic, and 2 tablespoons water; blend until smooth. Stir into cooked rice, and fluff with a fork.

My notes: I think I pretty much covered it- yummy, easy, make it.

Mother's Day Goodies

For Mother's Day this year I decided to put together some cute little packages of goodies for my mom, Josh's step-mom, and his grandmother. I put together smaller packages for both of my sister-in-law's and one for Josh's mom, to go with the plant she requested. Everything went over really well, so I thought I would share some of the goodies with you guys. The packages were comprised of a box of Chocolate Chip Cookies, Red Velvet Truffles, and Sugar & Spice Pecans.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
Adapted from Amy Sedaris and Nestle Toll House; makes 5 dozen












2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 1/4 cups flour
12 oz. semisweet chocolate chips

• Beat butter and sugars together. Add eggs and vanilla and mix. Gradually add flour, salt, and baking soda. Stir in the chocolate chips.
• Chill dough for at least 1 hour.
• Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Roll into small balls and flatten in palm of hand. Place on greased cookie sheet. Bake for about 9-11 minutes.
  

My notes: Amy Sedaris adds more chocolate chips and pecans, but I decided to omit the nuts since I was already using pecans in another way and I was making smaller cookies so I used just one bag of chips. Instead of rolling and flattening the dough I used my cookie scoop to drop about 1 tablespoon or so of dough onto a parchment lined baking sheet. This made the cookies a little smaller, and allowed me to get more out of single batch of dough.

Red Velvet Truffles
Recipe from Bakerella; Makes about 50















1 box red velvet cake mix, cooked as directed on box for a 13x9" cake
1 16 oz. can cream cheese frosting
12 squares semisweet chocolate, melted
Decorations, optional

• After cake is cooked and cooled completely, crumble into large bowl. Mix thoroughly with 1 can cream cheese frosting.
• Roll mixture into quarter size balls and lay on cookie sheet. Chill for several hours. You can speed this up by putting in the freezer, which I did.
• Melt chocolate in microwave per directions on package. Roll balls in chocolate and lay on wax paper lined baking sheet until firm.

My notes: I sprinkled each truffle with some red decorative sugar, to match the interior. Refrigerate after completed. I made these a little smaller than I probably should have, so I actually have cake balls in the freezer to make more truffles later. I made 50 truffles, and still have plenty extra, so the next time I make them I will definitely make the balls bigger, and I might make two 9" cakes and use just one for truffles. These truffles were the biggest hit of all though, so I will definitely make them again.

Sugar & Spice Pecans










You can see the recipe for Sugar & Spice Pecans I've made before here.











And that's what came out of my kitchen for Mother's Day!

Berry Good Bolognese

Did you know that the eggplant is actually a variety of berry? I learned that from television, so don't tell me all those hours I've wasted staring at the glowing box were for not. However I learned this recipe not from the TV, but from Everyday Food, of course. It was one of their reader submitted recipe's and had been on my to-cook list for quite some time. I decided to make it one weekend so that I could stock the freezer with the leftover sauce. I'm planning on doing a big cooking weekend soon, so I can stock the freezer even more, but this was a good start. I will definitely make this recipe again, when I'm out of my leftovers that is.

Eggplant Bolognese
Recipe from Everyday Food; Serves 8












8 tablespoons olive oil
1 large eggplant (about 1 lb.), peeled and cut into 1/2" pieces
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 green bell pepper (ribs and seeds removed), finely chopped
1 zucchini (about 8 oz), quartered lengthwise, sliced inch thick crosswise
1 garlic clove, minced
coarse salt and ground pepper
1 lb. ground beef chuck
1 can (28 oz) crushed tomatoes
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 lb. rigatoni or other short tubular pasta
Parmesan cheese, shaved (optional)

• In a Dutch oven or large (5-quart) saucepan with a lid, heat 6 tablespoons oil over medium-high. Add eggplant; cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, 6 to 8 minutes. Transfer to a bowl; set aside.
• Add remaining 2 tablespoons oil to pan; reduce heat to medium. Add onion, bell pepper, zucchini, and garlic. Season with salt and pepper; cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables have softened, 7 to 10 minutes.
• Add beef; cook, stirring and breaking up meat with a spoon, until no longer pink, 5 minutes.
• Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Meanwhile, add tomatoes, oregano, and eggplant to beef-vegetable mixture; season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until sauce is thick and eggplant is tender, about 25 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
• Meanwhile, cook pasta until al dente, according to package instructions. Drain; serve topped with sauce and, if desired, Parmesan.

My notes: This came out to more like 6 servings for us, guess we just couldn't help but eat a little extra. I served this over Ditalin pasta, because that's what I happened to have. A ridged pasta would be better for the sauce to grip to, but it didn't affect the taste which was delicious.

Cajun Stirfry

I was planning on making some kebabs with some of the meat I reserved from the gumbo, but I got lazy. I don't mind that I got lazy though, cause I really enjoyed what I came up with instead. I decided to pretty much just toss my kebab ingredients together in the pan and see what came of it. I thought the flavors came together really well, and it was really enjoyable and easy. I think I'll definitely toss this together again sometime.

Cajun Stirfry
Recipe from me; Serves 2-4












6 oz. andouille sausage, sliced thickly
1 large chicken breast, cut into bite size chunks
1 green bell pepper, seeded & ribbed, cut into chunks
1/2 red onion, chopped
Dried oregano
Coarse salt and ground pepper
Olive oil

• Heat about a tablespoon of oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Add bell pepper and onion and cook, stirring, till beginning to soften. Meanwhile toss chicken with enough dried oregano, salt, and pepper to lightly coat.
• Add chicken to pan and cook, stirring, until no longer pink. Add andouille to pan and cook until sausage is warmed through and chicken is cooked completely.

My notes: I served this over brown rice, which was a nice background for the spice and flavor of the meats. The recipe might sound a little vague, but since I just tossed it together I wasn't really paying a lot of attention to what I was doing. It's not hard to toss things into the pan and come out with something good though, so give it a shot! I served chili roasted sweet potato wedges on the side.

Very Pale Chicken Gumbo

This is what your chicken gumbo will look like when you are too impatient to properly cook your roux. It'll still taste pretty good, but tell me if that isn't the whitest gumbo you've ever seen. Sometimes it's hard to be patient when you're hungry. Really hard. Next time I'll be more patient, I promise. In the meantime, just make sure you cook your roux longer than me and you'll be fine. Obviously, this picture isn't all that pretty. Go ahead and scroll down and look at that Orzo. It's a lot prettier. It might redeem me.

Half-Hour Chicken Gumbo
Recipe from Everyday Food; Serves 4












3 tablespoons vegetable oil, such as safflower
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
2 red bell peppers, ribs and seeds removed, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, chopped
1 teaspoon dried oregano
Coarse salt and ground pepper
1 10 oz. package frozen cut okra
8 oz. smoked (precooked) andouille sausage, halved lengthwise and sliced 1" thick
1 rotisserie chicken (about 2 1/2 lbs.), skin and bones removed, meat shredded (about 4 cups)
Store-bought or homemade cornbread, for serving (optional)

• In a 5-quart Dutch oven or heavy-bottomed pot, heat oil over medium. Add flour, and cook, whisking constantly, until pale golden, 5 to 7 minutes. Stir in bell peppers, onion, garlic, and oregano; season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are crisp-tender, 10 to 12 minutes.
• Add 4 cups water; stir in okra and sausage. Bring to a boil. Stir in shredded chicken, and warm through, 1 to 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper; if desired, serve with cornbread.

My notes: I only used half the chicken, because I wanted to use the other half for a salad, and I used 6 oz. of andouille (1 link of a 2 link 12 oz. package). I didn't notice it really lacking because of these changes. I also added 1 cup of brown rice to get some extra fiber in there, and help balance out the less meat. I also thought that this was even better the next day for lunch leftovers. The flavors had time to mingle, which makes me think that maybe half-hour gumbo is quick, but a slower cooked one would be tastier. I made some cornbread from mix (Jiffy rules!) to go with it, at EF's suggestion.