So yesterday I made some freezer meals, but the preparation going into it all really did take me almost all day! I made homemade marinara sauce for my pizza casseroles, and I made homemade chicken stock and cream of chicken soup for my chicken pot pies. All together I got 2 chicken pot pies, 3 pizza casseroles, 19 freezer burritos, 4 bags of shredded chicken (3 cup portions each), cream of chicken soup, and lots of homemade chicken stock! Here are the recipes I created:

Pizza Casserole (makes 3 9in round casseroles)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 packages of spaghetti noodles cooked

marinara sauce (I cooked 2/lbs of ground turkey with shredded carrots, onions, and garlic. I added 2 jars of Ragu pasta sauce and 1 8oz can of tomato sauce. Adjust your seasonings to taste.)

4oz cream cheese cubed

2 cups mozzarella cheese

1 package pepperoni

sliced olives

Directions:

In your 9in casserole dishes start layering your dish as follows. Marinara sauce, pasta, cream cheese, mozzarella cheese, olives, pepperoni, marinara sauce, pasta, and pepperoni. Cover and freeze. The night before cooking day pull casserole out of freezer and place in refrigerator. When you are ready to cook sprinkle the top with some mozzarella cheese and parmesan cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes. Yum!

Chicken Pot Pie (makes 2 9in round casseroles)

Ingredients:

3 cups shredded cooked chicken

3 cups frozen mixed veggies (I did carrots, corn, and green beans)

1 cup sour cream

3 1/2 cups homemade cream of chicken soup (recipe HERE)

1 package premade Pillsbury pie crust

Directions:

Mix all ingredients together and pour into 2 9in round dishes and top with Pillsbury pie crust. Cover and freeze. The night before cooking day pull casserole out of freezer and place in refrigerator. When you are ready to cook brush pie crust with some melted butter. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Freezer Burritos recipe HERE

Shredded Chicken

I couldn’t resist the sale at Smart & Final on bone-in chicken breast, plus I’m out of chicken stock. If you aren’t certain how to boil chicken to make homemade stock use this post HERE.

A quick tip: Once chicken is done cooking let the chicken rest in the stock until the pot is cooled and you can handle the chicken. This will keep the chicken extra moist and it won’t dry out. Also, once shredded, place in freezer bags and add about 1/4 cup stock to the bag, this will also help keep the chicken from drying out.

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This is a tip I learned when I went on the Esselstyne diet, which is a vegan diet designed to prevent and reverse heart disease. WinCo sells whole flax seeds for around $.80/lb, and 1/lb will last you quite a while! Next time you’re out of eggs or if you just want to add something healthy to your baked goods, try this tip!

Take 1 Tbsp. of whole flax seeds and grind them up in your blender. Add 3 Tbsp. of warm water to the blender and blend until the mixture is frothy looking. Now just add this to your recipe in substitute of 1 egg and you are on your way! Flax seeds are so healthy for you as they lower bad cholesterol and have lots of fiber, so give it a try and let me know what you think!!! This tip is best used in baked goods like bread, pancakes, muffins, and so on.

FYI: Don’t buy already ground flax seeds. The nutrients die quickly and you won’t be getting the full benefit of grinding them yourself!

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Wash your kiddo’s hands and give them this project to do. Have them sort the red M&Ms into one bowl, and the green M&Ms into another bowl. Then, place them in Ziploc bags for future use. We have Valentine’s Day just around the corner and St. Patrick’s Day will be here before we know it! So plan on making some M&M cookies for those special occasions!

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Since ham is pretty much a staple at Christmas time, I’m sure a lot of you have leftovers! I like to dice my leftover ham and freeze in 1-2 cup ratios in freezer bags. Then I have ham ready and cooked for pizza toppings, omelets, casseroles, and hot pockets! Check out this hot pocket recipe below, we have tried them with diced ham and they are delicious!

Homemade Hot Pockets By Our Best Bites

These can be frozen too!

Thanks, Our Best Bites for a fabulous recipe!

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I love this idea for the holidays. It makes the perfect snack. Head over to Chex Mix and print this new coupon for $1.50/2 Chex Cereals!
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Then make this recipe for the Original Party Chex Mix:
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Ingredients:
3 cups Corn Chex cereal
3 cups Rice Chex cereal
3 cups Wheat Chex cereal
1 cup mixed nuts
1 cup bite-size pretzels
1 cup garlic-flavor bite-size bagel chips or regular-size bagel chips, broken into 1-inch pieces
6 tablespoons butter or margarine
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons seasoned salt
3/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
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Health Focus
To reduce the fat to 2 grams and the calories to 80 per serving, use 3 tablespoons margarine instead of the 6 tablespoons butter, omit mixed nuts and use fat-free bagel chips.
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Preparation Directions
1 In large microwavable bowl, mix cereals, nuts, pretzels and bagel chips; set aside. In small microwavable bowl, microwave butter uncovered on High about 40 seconds or until melted. Stir in seasonings. Pour over cereal mixture; stir until evenly coated.
2 Microwave uncovered on High 5 to 6 minutes, thoroughly stirring every 2 minutes. Spread on paper towels to cool. Store in airtight container.
Oven Directions Heat oven to 250°F. In large bowl, mix cereals, nuts, pretzels and bagel chips; set aside. In ungreased large roasting pan, melt butter in oven. Stir in seasonings. Gradually stir in cereal mixture until evenly coated. Bake 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Spread on paper towels to cool, about 15 minutes. Store in airtight container.
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Go here for more recipe ideas!
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Thanks Kim!

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I got to thinking about how easy freezer meals are for dinner, but at lunch I often times have a hard time trying to figure out what to eat; which causes me to graze. Then it occurred to me that I could make dry soup mixes to keep on hand for lunches, then I would have an easy, yet delicious soup to eat without a lot of fuss! An even better idea, lets make them super cheap by buying these dry ingredients in WinCo’s bulk section! Here are some pretty good looking recipes I will have to try! (Another idea: make the soup a head of time and freeze in muffin cups. Then just pull 2 out and heat.) Please let me know your favorite soup mix recipes.

Friendship Soup Mix

Instead of using ground beef in the recipe because I will be making this for lunch I’ll either at Smoked Sausage or no meat at all, but it’s completely up to you!

Yields 16 servings, so definitely cut into small batches if possible!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup dry split peas

1/3 cup beef bouillon granules

1/4 cup pearl barley

1/2 cup dry lentils

1/4 cup onion soup mix

2 teaspoons dried Italian seasoning

1/2 cup uncooked long-grain white rice

2 bay leaves

1/2 cup uncooked alphabet pasta

Directions:

Place all ingredients in a jar or Ziploc bag to be used later (bag the pasta separately). On the day of cooking you will need the following:

Ingredients:

1 pound ground beef

black pepper to taste

garlic salt to taste

1 (14.5 ounce) can chopped tomatoes – undrained

1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste

3 quarts water

Directions:

Remove pasta from top of jar, and set aside. In a large pot over medium heat, brown beef with pepper and garlic; drain excess fat. Add diced tomatoes, tomato paste, water, and soup mix. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low. Cover, and simmer for 45 minutes. Stir in the pasta, cover, and simmer 15 to 20 minutes, or until the pasta, peas, lentils and barley are tender.

Chicken Noodle Soup Mix

Yields: 10 cups of soup, could be split in half to make to smaller batches

Ingredients For Mix:

1/4 cup red lentils
2 Tablespoons dried onion
1-1/2 Tablespoons chicken-flavored bouillon granules
1-1/2 teaspoons dried dill weed
1/8 teaspoon ground celery
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1 small bay leaf (optional)
1 cup uncooked medium egg noodles

Directions:

Mix all ingredients together in a Ziploc bag or glass jar to store. On the day of cooking you will need the following:

Ingredients:

8 cups water
1 jar Turkey-Noodle Soup mix
1 package (10 oz.) frozen mixed vegetables
2 cups cooked, diced turkey or chicken

Directions:

Bring water to boil in large saucepan over high heat; stir in soup mix. Reduce heat to medium-low; cover and simmer 15 minutes. Discard bay leaf. Stir in frozen mixed vegetables and cooked turkey. Cook 5 minutes longer or until noodles and vegetables are tender.

Thanks, Thrifty Living & All Recipes

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I love the flavor fresh ginger adds to dishes, but I often times have trouble using the whole ginger root before it goes bad. Recently I learned that you can freeze ginger root, and actually it’s easier getting the skin off to grate when it’s frozen! Just use your potato peeler and the skin comes right off. I then use my microplane to grate the ginger right into my recipe!

Below is a picture of what the ginger looks like once it’s been peeled using the potato peeler, and yes the ginger is frozen. I know it looks a little weird, but I just wanted to prove that it works!

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I am not one to drink a lot of coffee, but when there are pretty good sales on creamer it’s hard for me to not want to buy! So, I did some research and learned that freezing coffee creamer in ice cube trays (BPA FREE of course!) has been proven to work, and the flavor does not change! I leave you with this great thrifty trick to freeze your coffee creamer, especially since there are some pretty great sales going on right now, and who can resist Peppermint Mocha!?!

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Have you ever had this happen?!? I have and it’s disappointing when the soup is over salted. You start adding more ingredients to compensate for the saltiness, and now it’s not the way it should have been. Well, today’s tip is pretty cool!!! Just drop a whole peeled potato into your over salted soup, and the potato will absorb any excess salt. Hopefully leaving you with delicious non-ruined soup! Keep this tip in mind next time you have a disaster in the kitchen, I know I will!

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Lets face it, meat is expensive! Well, more expensive than vegetables, that’s for sure! Whenever doing this, make sure you are buying your produce and meat at rock-bottom prices to make it worth your while. So today I will be showing you how I stretch our meat the healthy way. It’s so simple to do, and it’s just another thing to add to my freezer to have on hand for an easy weeknight meal.

Ground Beef- $1.88/lb on sale last week at Vons

Carrots- FREE using Recyclebank coupon $2.00/2 Earthbound Farm Organic Carrots. Walmart sells them for $.88 per package making them FREE + $.12 overage! These coupons are still available!

Bell Peppers- $.33 each right now at SaveMart

Onions- $.25/lb bought a few weeks ago at Walmart, price matched using the Vallarta ad

Ingredients:

1.5-2/lbs of ground beef or turkey

1 onion chopped

1 bell peppers chopped

3 large carrots chopped

Directions:

Allow all ingredients to cook together. I covered mine with a lid to allow the veggies to cook up faster. At this point you can allow mixture to cool, then place in freezer bags and freeze for later use, or season as taco meat (which is what I did below).

This is what the mixture will look like once cooked.

You can stop here, or follow what I did below!

After the mixture was cooked through and the veggies were tender, I added:

1 (8oz) can tomato sauce

1 (15.5oz) jar salsa

1 tsp. cumin

2 tsp. chili powder

salt & pepper

Now I have taco meat ready to go for enchiladas, tacos, taco soup, taco salads, and the list goes on! You could also season your meat Italian style for lasagna, stuffed shells, spaghetti, and the list goes on from there too!

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