A good friend of mine and I have been wanting to do some freezer meals for a long time now but just didnt know how to go about it or where to start so we never did anything. Unfortunately she moved a few weeks ago. A few weeks before she moved we had a new family move into my neighborhood who also goes to our church. That family.....well the Mom.....has been doing freezer meals for about 10 years now. I did not find this out until my other friend had moved. :( This new friend who just moved in has offered to help me learn how to make/do freezer meals. She has HUNDREDS of recipes! She knows what freezes well and what doesnt. I am so excited to learn from her.
She gave me a packet that she made with tips on how to make freezer meals. It had a few recipes in it so decided to try 2 of them on my own. The first one I made was breakfast burritos. I forgot to take a pic sorry! They were so simple yet so delish! The second one I did was a chicken broccoli bake. This was oh so delish! I cant even tell you how good it was. I did make a few changes to the recipe which I will note below with the recipes. I did manage to get of pic of this one but not until after it was in the freezer and frozen. I am going to be making meatballs some time this week and will post when I get those done.
Breakfast Burritos
1 # bacon cut into 1/2" slices (I would have used 2 #)
1 lg onion ( I LOVE onion and bacon together so I would have used 2)
lg roll/pkg of sausage (I used Jimmy Deans big roll)
2 1/2 dozen eggs (I used 1 1/2 and had extra but we dont like lots of egg)
1 c. milk
salt 'n' pepper
1/2-1 # cheese grated
24 flour tortillas (about)
Cook the bacon and onion until the onions are nicely caramelized and bacon is crispy. Drain the fat. Put a paper towel into a bowl and put the bacon/onion on that. Cook sausage into crumbles. Place in a bowl. Beat the eggs with milk, salt 'n' pepper. Melt 2 Tbs. butter in a LARGE pan. (I did 1/2 of the eggs at a time to cook quicker) Cook until eggs are done. Put into a large bowl.
Now you will assemble your burritos. You can do this however you like. For ours I put a little cheese, egg, bacon/onion & sausage in each. You can do just one of the meats in each one or you can mix the 2 together. I did find that 1 or 2 spoon fulls of each topping was plenty. Then you just roll them like a burrito.
I then wrapped them individually in plastic wrap and placed them in gallon size FREEZER ziploc bags. Make sure you write on the bags BEFORE filling them! Write what they are, how to reheat them and the date so you know exactly how to use them when the time comes. Thats it, you are done!
When you are ready to use these reheat one at a time in a microwave wrapped in a paper towel for about 2 min.
Chicken Broccoli Bake
(Makes 16 servings)
1 c. butter
1 c. flour
8 c. milk
salt 'n' pepper
4 c. cooked diced chicken (I will use 8c next time. Not enough for each. I would also have cooked with garlic of some sort and salt 'n' pepper)
2 # steamed broccoli
2 # grated cheese
Make white sauce: melt butter in a LARGE pot. Add flour stirring constantly. When boils cook for 30 seconds then slowly add milk, mixing constantly with a wire whisk. Stir till thick. Remove from heat.
Place chicken into 4 square tin pans or a gallon size freezer ziplock bag. Divide broccoli among pans or bags. Pour 2 c. white sauce over chicken/broccoli. Place grated cheese into 4 equal quart sz freezer bags. Label and freeze.
To use: Thaw, bake 350 for 30 minutes. Serve over cooked rice or spaghetti noodles.
One thing I would do differently next time is instead of putting the cheese in a separate bag I would have added it to my white sauce to make it a cheesy sauce. You would basically have the same taste as adding it on top when you are ready to cook it.