Freezer Cooking with Slow Cooker Recipes

I ran across the blog Mama and Baby Love where a post about Freezer Cooking with Slow Cooker Recipes was shared. Awesome! I have my shopping list ready to give this a try! =)

I recommend her blog! Check it out! =)

Party Potatoes / Hashbrown Casserole (Recipe)

With the Holidays coming up, I thought I would pull out this tried and true recipe to share again.

Cooking for a Crowd-Potatoes for a Party
(This is my version of Party Potatoes/Hashbrown Casserole. I make it often when entertaining or cooking for a crowd. My family "has to have it" at Holiday Dinners! Enjoy!)

Party Potatoes
Ingredients:
2 - 32 oz. bags frozen hash browns (cubes)
1/2 c. butter, melted
1/2 c. chopped onions
1 c. shredded sharp cheddar cheese
16 oz. sour cream
2 cans cream of mushroom soup (or cream of celerycream of chicken)
Salt & pepper
2 tsp. dried basil
2 tsp. dried parsley
Topping:
2 c. frosted flakes
4 T. butter, melted

Directions:
In a large bowl, mix together melted butter, onions, sour cream, soup, salt, pepper, basil & parsley. Stir in shredded cheese and then mix with potatoes. Pour into 1/2 size aluminum deep foil pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Sprinkle frosted flakes evenly over potatoes flakes and drizzled melted butter over top. Bake another 10 to 15 minutes.

For my daughter's wedding reception, I made batches of these ahead a few at a time (a total of 8 pans) as time permitted, covered well with heavy duty foil, and froze them (uncooked) until the day before the party. I thawed them in our spare refrigerator and then baked them on party day. 2 of these half pans fit in my roaster side by side for serving - I kept extra pans warm in the oven to refill serving area as needed. This recipe may also be made in 2 - 9 x 11 pans for use where you're not using a roaster or warming pan.

Weekend Cooking!

Who's Cooking this weekend?

I have a pretty busy weekend, but I hope to get some cooking-ahead done.
On my list to make and get in the freezer:
-Homemde Pizza
-Stromboli - see recipe in previous post
-Lasagna
-Beef Bourguignon

I just purchased 3 new cookbooks. One is: "More, Don't Panic, Dinner's in the Freezer" (I really like the look of the recipes and the way the cookbook is layed out. More on this to come.)

Share what's going to be cookin' at your house this weekend! =)

Cookbooks: OAMC, Freezer Cooking, Make-Ahead-Meals, Co-op Cooking

I would like to add some cookbooks to my collection. I am looking for some OAMC, Freezer Cooking, Make-Ahead-Meals, Co-op Cooking Cookbooks, particular those that feature lower calorie/healthy recipes and where the recipes do not include much canned soup, velveeta...

What cookbooks would you recommend?

Freezer Cooking in Individual Portions

Our household consists of my husband, 21 year old daughter, and myself. I'm sure you can imagine that our schedules differ. With that in mind, I like to keep some individually portioned meals in the freezer for the days we are like ships passing in the night. Between work, meetings, etc, this does happen often. Those frozen individual portions are also nice for me to take to work for my lunch---saves money too by not going out for lunch.

Soup is great to freeze in individual portions. Super Easy: Fill the crock-pot with your favorite soup recipe. Let it cook away and then freeze in portions or as meals. (Keep in mind that milk based soups do not freeze as well.)

Recipe: Kelley's Easy Crock-Pot Vegetable Beef Soup

Night before: Place 1 pound beef roast, beef cubes, or beef of choice in crock-pot, season with salt and pepper, and add 1 cup water or beef broth. Cook on low overnight.
In the morning before work or activities for the day: Break beef apart into bite sized peices right in the crock-pot with a fork. Add vegetables of choice. (I use a 2 lb. family sized bag of mixed vegetables along with 1/2 cup chopped onions.) Add 1 can of diced tomatoes or equal amount of chopped fresh tomatoes. Pour in a 1 quart can of tomato juice and season with 1T. each dried basil & dried parsley flakes. Stir in 1 cup water and 1 cup of red wine such as Merlot or Cabernet Sauvignon (the wine adds a very nice flavor, but if you do not want to use wine, substitute beef broth or vegetable broth) Add 2 beef or vegetable boullion cubes and 2 T. brown sugar. Cook 8 hours on low. Divide the soup into individual portion freezer containers, label & freeze.

Chopped potatoes or beans are also good additions to this recipe.

The key to this soup is cooking the beef first. The beef becomes very tender and brings a real depth of flavor to the soup.

I make my Mom a big batch of this soup every year for Christmas and give it to her in individually potioned freezer containers. For many months, I'll be talking to her on the phone and she'll say, "I just had some delicious vegetable soup for dinner." =) I guess I'll just have to keep this on her Christmas list!

Why Do Meal Planning, Freezer Cooking, OAMC, Weekend Cooking....?

As much a I love to cook, I simply dislike coming home from work and having to deal with deciding what to prepare for dinner. Planning ahead makes a world of difference for me. When I plan our meals for the week, it's so much easier to get dinner on the table. Going one step further and preparing and freezing meals ahead has made the real difference. It's so nice to select from my "freezer inventory" for dinner.

What's great is that anyone can make "freezer cooking" work for them! Whether you do a mega session and prepare a month's work of meals to freeze, or if you simply cook for your freezer when you have some extra time, it is so do-able! Myself, I prefer weekend cooking. On Saturday or Sunday (depending on my schedule) I like to prepare and freeze meals & baked goods.

I'd love to see your comments here about how you make freezer cooking work in your home!

Another "Time-Saver"

I am very happy that I am doing some OAMC/Freezer Cooking/Meal Planning---Not only am I finding that it is helping on those days that I am super busy with work, meetings, MK facials/parties, family...it is allowing more time for a habit I have. Good or bad habit? I am not sure, but I really like my DVR! =) Currently, I am pretty much addicted to all of the old & new episodes of Grey's Anatomy! I just DVR them and when I have time I watch them! Oh isn't technology great?

Weekend Cooking

We had a busy weekend, but I was able to get some weekend cooking done:

3 Quick Sourdough Bread (Round Loaves)
Recipe used: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Quick-Sourdough-Bread/Detail.aspx
I made 3 batches of the quick-starter early in the morning...ran my Saturday errands and 6 hours later used my bread maker to work the dough in 3 separate batches resulting in 3 huge, beautiful round loaves. I did brush the loaves with an egg wash. It went quickly and was easy. The bread had a mildy sour taste and was very good. I need to take the time and make a traditional sourdough starter. Anyone have a tried-and-true method they use?


3 Cheddar-Beer Bread (See separate post on this.)

3 Pan Pizzas
Recipe I used:
www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/525/Pizza_Hut_Original_Pan_Pizza41605.shtml

This worked perfectly in 3 cake pans!

9 Freezer Conatainers of Tomato-Basil Soup
Recipes Used: www.recipezaar.com/recipe/La-Madeleines-Tomato-Basil-Soup-5368
I doubled the recipe using canned tomatoes and used half & Half instead of cream. I also used dried basil and cut down a bit on the butter.

I'll try to start taking pictures of my endeavors! =)