Dump and Go Freezer Meal: Meatball Casserole

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It’s time for meal #4 for our Fill your Freezer in 7 days blog series!

This comforting recipe can become fitness friendly with the use of Barilla Protein Plus Pasta.  It’s made with lentils, chick-peas, flax and other protein rich legumes.  Our local Wal-mart and Target both carry it and occasionally Target has coupons plus sales for great stock up prices.  If your local store doesn’t have it, Prime Pantry carries it for about the same price.

Any pasta will work in this dish, even gluten free pasta, so pick what works best for your needs.

Starting with frozen meatballs makes this super fast to throw together, but I’ll include a recipe for homemade meatballs at the end, just in case you prefer to do it yourself.

Meatball Casserole

Serves 8

1 jar, 24 oz, marinara sauce

3 cups water (just fill the empty sauce jar up and shake it up)

32 oz Turkey meatballs

14 oz bow tie or penne pasta

2 cups Mozzarella Cheese

For freezer cooking, pour the marinara, water and meatballs into a gallon baggie.  Press out air and seal.  Freeze.

For Oven Baking:  Thaw bag, pour into a baking dish with dry pasta and stir to combine.  Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Top with cheese and bake uncovered for 15 minutes longer.

For Slow Cooker: Thaw bag and pour into a 4-5 quart slow cooker. Top with cheese and cook on low for 3 hours.

For Pressure Cooker: Thaw bag and pour into your instant pot.  Cook at high pressure for 5 minutes. Use quick release on the pressure.  Top with cheese and let stand a few minutes until it melts.

For Skillet: Thaw bag, Pour into a skillet.  Bring to a simmer, then cover with a lid and cook for 15 minutes.  Top with cheese and stick under the broiler until golden brown.

Homemade Meatballs

2 lbs Ground Turkey (or Beef, chicken, pork, venison, etc.)

2 eggs

1 cup Milk (Use Unsweetened Almond Milk of Dairy Free)

1 cup Italian style Bread Crumbs (Gluten Free: use Almond Meal or Gluten Free bread crumbs plus 1 tsp Italian Seasoning.)

1/4 cup parmesan cheese (Skip if Dairy Free)

2 Tbs Dried onion flakes

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

Use a mixer to combine everything together.  Roll into 1 inch balls and place on a baking sheet with a rim.  Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.

 

Dump and Go Slow Cooker or Pressure Cooker Quinoa Enchilada Casserole

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It’s recipe 3 for our fill your freezer in 7 days challenge.  I hope beyond just giving you a few recipes, that I spark your imagination about how to adapt some of your favorite recipes for the freezer or even create some new flavors.

If you pre-dice your chicken, or used browned ground meat instead, this dish can be made in a skillet in just 20 minutes.  I love how in the slow cooker, it’s hands off until the end.  It’s truly a fix it and forget it situation.

This recipe is both fitness and family friendly.  To add calories and filling power, my growing kids serve theirs over a plate of tortilla chips, then top with sour cream and extra cheese.  I skip that part, then we all top it with shredded lettuce and chopped fresh tomatoes and salsa.

Be sure to rinse your quinoa before throwing it into your mix.  It removes the saponins that can taste bitter.  Since the grains are so small, I line my colander with a tea towel.

Dump and Go Quinoa Enchilada Casserole

1 lb boneless Chicken Breasts (If you bought it frozen, keep it frozen.  Thawing and refreezing raw meats changes the texture in an unappetizing way.)

1 Tbs taco seasoning mix

2 cans black beans, 15 oz each, drained and rinsed

1 chopped onion

1 cup dry quinoa, rinsed

1 can red enchilada sauce, 20 oz

1/2 cup water

Place all ingredients in a gallon baggie and freeze.  To cook, thaw just enough to be able to get everything out of the bag.  Pour into a slow cooker and cook on high for 3-4 hours, or on low for 6 hours. Shred the chicken with two forks and stir into the dish.  Top with shredded cheese, then replace the lid for a few minutes to allow it to melt.   Serve with a toppings bar.

To make in the pressure cooker, follow the directions above, except cook at high pressure for 10 minutes, following the manufacturers directions for pressure release before opening the lid.

Toppings suggestion:  Tortilla chips, shredded lettuce, fresh diced tomatoes, green onion, cilantro, sour cream, cheese, salsa, diced olives.

The leftovers reheat pack well in a thermos for hot lunch on the go.

Nutrition facts:  1/6 of the recipe without cheese or toppings yields: 381 Calories; 7g fat; 37g net carbs; 30g protein

 

Lime Chicken Tacos: A Freezer Meal That’s Slow Cooker and Pressure Cooker Friendly

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Any meat that has to marinade makes a great freezer meal. Just don’t thaw it and refreeze it.  If your meat is already frozen, you can pour the marinade on it and put it back in the freezer.

Therea re two ways to make this into a freezer meal: 1. You can cook the meat through and then freeze it shredded and ready to serve, which saves time at the dinner time.  2. Or freezing it uncooked and in the marinade makes the freezer day prep super fast and easy. If you remember to pop it in the slow cooker or have an instant pot for faster cooking, this is a great option.

You’ll need 1 gallon freezer bag for this dish and then just your favorite taco toppings at time of serving.

I love how this dish is easily adaptable for all allergy and fitness needs.  For example, gluten free friends can use corn shells, or make a taco salad over corn chips. Keto friends can skip the honey and the shells or chips and make a big taco salad with full fat sour cream and cheese.  Dairy free friends can use avocado instead of dairy toppings.

Lime Chicken Tacos

Serves 4

1.5 lbs chicken breasts (These can be the ugly ones that are too thick or mis-shaped to grill)

1 Lime, zested and juiced

1 Tbs Olive Oil

2 Tbs Apple Cider Vinegar

1 tsp Honey

1 can, 4 oz, Green Chilies (If doubling the recipe, no need to double the chilies.  It saves money to use just 1 can while still giving great flavor.)

2 tsp Ground Cumin

2 tsp Chili Powder

1 tsp Minced garlic

A few dashes of cayenne if you like it hot

Combine everything in a Gallon size Freezer Baggie, press out the air.  Seal, Label and freeze.

To slow cook, place contents of the bag in a slow cooker and cook on high for 3 hours or on low for 6 hours. Shred with two forks and stir to coat in sauce.  Serve with a slotted spoon or tongs with your favorite taco toppings.

To Pressure cook, place contents of the bag in a pressure cooker. Add 1/4 c of water and cook at high pressure for 10 minutes.  Wait until pressure is reduced, or use quick release to bring down the pressure and remove the lid safely.  Shred chicken and stir into sauce. Serve with a slotted spoon or tongs with your favorite taco toppings.

Suggested Condiments: Tortillas 6″ or Tortilla chips, Shredded Lettuce, Diced Tomatoes, Diced Red Onion, Shredded Cheese, Sour Cream, Salsa, Guacamole

This is recipe #2 in our series, Fill your Freezer in 7 Days. Find more here.

Philly Pepper Steak Sheet Pan Freezer Meal

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This delicious meal is fast to put together and cooks with hands off time.  Letting you pop it in the oven in the evening and unwind from the day’s tasks while it cooks.

You’ll use two 1 gallon freezer bags for the assembly.  The meat will marinate in the freezer, then cook up tender and flavorful.  It’s easier to slice cooked meat than raw meat, so I prefer to slice it after cooking.  If you know you’ll be too stressed to slice it at the time of cooking, slice it now, then reduce the cooking time in step 1 to 12 minutes.

If your family is on a regular diet, grab some sandwich rolls to make these into sandwiches. If you are gluten free you can serve it over brown rice, or low carb eaters can dish theirs over spaghetti squash or cauliflower rice.

This recipe is for 4 people, adjust as needed for your family:

Bag #1:

1 lb Flank Steak, or any boneless lean roast 3/4 inch thick.

2 Tbs cup Apple Cider Vinegar

1 Tbs Worcestershire Sauce

1 tsp Onion powder

1 tsp Garlic powder

1/2 tsp Salt

1/4 tsp Pepper

1/4 tsp cloves

Bag #2

2 Green Bell Peppers,Sliced

1 Onion (red or yellow), Sliced

8 oz Sliced Mushrooms

1/2 tsp Salt

1/4 tsp Pepper

Seal both bags, pressing out all the air first. Then label with the recipe name, today’s date, and the bag #.  Freeze.

Additional Ingredients: Provolone Cheese Slices and Sandwich Buns or Rice.

Cooking Instructions:

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Line a rimmed sheet pan with parchment paper for easy clean up.  Place the steak in the middle and bake for 20 minutes (30 if it is still frozen.)

2. Spread the contents of bag #2 evenly around the outside of the steak. I doubled my recipe so I had to put veggies on top of the steak too.  Bake 15-20 minutes longer or until veggies reach desired tenderness.  Remove steak to a cutting board and cut into slices.  Return to the baking sheet and use tongs to stir it into the veggie mixture.

3. Top all with Cheese slices and bake for another 10 minutes or until cheese is gooey.  Serve on buns or over rice.

Picky Eater Ideas: Not everyone is a fan of peppers, onions and mushrooms.  You can substitute any vegetable for them including broccoli florets, zucchini strips, or Long green beans.

Do you have tips for helping kids eat their veggies?

 

Fill Your Freezer in 7 Days

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I have a love/hate relationship with freezer cooking.  I love the idea of healthy, budget friendly, ready to warm up and serve food at my fingertips.  This run through the field of blooming tulips vision of freezer cooking has left me falling on my face in a surprise pile of cow dung every time.  There are some definite tripping hazards that I’d like to prevent before we get started.

#1: Cooking sessions that take ALL DAY, completely wear you out, and destroy your kitchen.    Honestly my freezer cooking sessions (all 2 of them) have been so draining that the pain did not outweigh the benefits.  It took years before I was willing to try it again.

#2 Meals that are so thick and so frozen solid that if you do not remember to thaw them out ahead of time (overnight in the fridge is NOT long enough) that it will take 3 hours to heat them through.  At that point the edges will be burned and the middle will be sort of warm.  Bon Appetit!   I use freezer meals for emergencies and I don’t always think to thaw in advance.

#3 Picky Eaters! It’s a big letdown when you’re standing in your perfectly clean kitchen, feeling like Martha Stewart with your freezer meal fresh out of the oven, and then have your family decide they don’t like it.

To make this viable a few things have to happen:

  1.  We need healthy recipes our families already love or are sure to love.
  2. We need the meals to thaw quickly or cook quickly without thawing.
  3. We need the cooking session to be SHORT!  Ideally less than 3 hours.
  4. We need minimal mess when we get done
  5. Plus we need not to tie up our good pans in the freezer, have room to store these meals in our freezer, and not pack them in containers that will leach toxic substances into our foods.

Here are a few Suggestions to make this go better:

  1. Skip the foil pans.  Aluminum will leach into the food and it does it at an accelerated rate as it’s heated.  If you can’t avoid the aluminum pan or foil, place a parchment paper (preferably unbleached) barrier between the aluminum and your food first.
  2. While plastics can also leach hormone disrupting chemicals into your food, they are less likely to do it at super cold temperatures.  Even BPA free plastics are harmful.  When public outcry demanded the removal of BPA, the plastic industry had to find a substitute to keep plastics from getting brittle.  They chose BPS which has the same hormone disrupting properties as BPA.  I still choose gallon freezer bags for my freezer cooking, I just make sure my food is cooled completely before I bag it and remove food from the bag before reheating. For heating, glass; stainless steel; and silicone pans are your safest bet.
  3. To make freezer cooking sessions short, I focus on dump recipes in the following categories:

Sheet Pan Suppers

Slow Cooker Meals

Instant Pot Meals

& One Skillet Meals

These meals all fit into freezer bags and take up the least amount of freezer room as possible, thaw easily, and require a minimum of prep time.  They are almost all meals-in-one needing no side dishes or just a tossed salad or bread and butter to round them out.

Tomorrow, I’ll be back with our first dump and go freezer recipe: Sheet Pan Pepper Cheese-Steak.

Does your family have favorite recipes that are sheet pan suppers, slow cooker meals, instant pot meals, or one skillet meals?  Have you had any experience with freezer cooking?  How did it go?  Send us your tips!

 

How to make pumpkin puree

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Photo credit: Tim Mossholder

While canned pumpkin is really delicious, it’s super easy to make homemade pumpkin puree to use in all your fantastic recipes.  Homemade puree freezes really well for year long stockpiling. Even though pumpkin pie, bread, doughnuts, pancakes, cookies, muffins…..dot our winter menus long after October, especially around Thanksgiving and Christmas, the time to grab your pumpkins is now. Tourism pumpkin patches will till their pumpkins under the day after Halloween and it will be terribly hard to find one anywhere.  If you buy them now, stored properly, they will keep long into the winter.

Any pumpkins will work, but the tiny ones have the sweetest most pumpkiny flavor. And the gray pumpkins have the darkest flesh.  This one even had a sweet melon smell.  And it doesn’t have to be pumpkin, butternut squash is in the same family and makes an even thicker, rosier puree.

Read more…

Easier Prep Ahead Meals

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Eating at home instead of in restaurants is the #1 way to save on food costs, but it’s not always so easy.  I was visiting with another mom (while we chaperoned a field trip) about how expensive it can be to raise a family.  She confessed that they get food stamps but also spend over $700 a month in restaurants for their family of 4. She knows it’s sabotaging their goals, but she feels trapped.  How does a family get food on the table when they are so busy and stressed?

Planning and Preparation.  The busier you are, the more important it is to have a detailed plan and scheduled in time to make it happen. If part of your meal is already done, and all the ingredients are on hand, cooking is not as big a deal.

I meal plan on Wednesday, shop early on Saturday and meal prep for the week either Sunday night or Monday morning.  If you don’t have time to do your own meal planning, I offer affordable, detailed meal plans done for you.  If you’d like to do your own but aren’t sure where to start, click here.
After about 6 months of prepping my meals ahead this way with the FitMama meal plans, I have some thoughts about how to make meal prepping easier. The idea of Fit Mama is to have all of my food made ahead for the week, so I can focus on the meals my family needs the rest of the time and not have to make two different things every night.  Plus if my food isn’t already made before I get hangry, I will stuff my face with any and all edible substances within reach.

Meal prepping lets you borrow time from a moment when you aren’t as stressed and move it to the moment that is the most intense.

 

With Fit Mama, I eat 6 small meals a day.  Prepping 36 single serving meals for the week is more labor intensive than prepping 6 family dinners.  Yet, it has been the part of the program that has brought me the most success.

It’s important to choose simple when you are in the busiest seasons of your life.  I’ve narrowed meals down to 3 types:

  1. The easiest are stir togethers like overnight oats, homemade gelatin, chia seed pudding, or protein pancake or waffle batter.  They go together the quickest and make me feel productive.

2. Then there are casseroles, marinated meats, and crock pot or one pot dump recipes that can be assembled or thrown in a bag, then cooked quickly just before meal time.

3. On the more labor intensive end of things are meals that require cooking some of the ingredients before the dish can be assembled and cooked again.  For example, My breakfast stuffed sweet potatoes require pre-baked potatoes, browned turkey sausage, and pre-cooked scrambled eggs before assembling. They are delicious!  But if my prep time is shorter than usual, it’s not the best choice for that week.  A good option for these types of dishes is to prep the singles first, such as browning hamburger and leaving the rest of the chores for another time.  It’s a lot easier for me to consider making stuffed sweet potatoes for breakfast if all I have to do is put it together for the final bake.

The other option is do to generic meal prepping. This would include cooking a bunch of hamburger in bulk and then freezing it in portions ready to throw in a meal. Or filling the slow cooker full of chicken breasts to shred. Or washing all your produce and shopping it ready to go for the week.

There’s no right or wrong way to prep for your meals as long as it feels doable to you and takes some of the pressure off when you’re the most stressed.

It’s also the perfect time to get some of the family members involved.  Here’s a screen shot from a live video my boys did with me to show the FitMama members how we meal prep. The boys have learned to dice and chop and all sorts of other kitchen skills by helping me in this way.

Tell me about you.  How do you meal prep?  Any tips for us?

You might also like:

The Easiest Shredded Chicken for Your Freezer

Batch Cooking Ground Beef in Your Slow Cooker

Step 1 to a meal plan you’ll actually follow

 

 

5 Favorite Chicken Marinades

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We eat a lot of chicken because it’s so affordable.  Bone in is nice for all the health benefits of bone especially if you are boiling it for broth or soup.  I like a boneless breast for fast cooking convenience.  It’s hard to admit this but I don’t like bones very much….it’s much harder for me to eat bone in chicken emotionally…..it’s weird.  Just being real.

Recently I’ve been struggling with weight gain. Our busy schedule tempts me to grab something that’s unsupportive to my goals and it shows in my waistline.

Last week, I decided to spend 15 minutes and prep ahead marinated chicken for the freezer.  It’s easy to thaw in the microwave then throw on the table top grill.  The breasts cook in just 7 minutes that way! (Since it cooks from both sides at the same time.)   It takes less time to cook these than to go get take out.

Not all chicken breasts are created equal.  My favorite for marinating and grilling are from Costco.  They are the least expensive brand there, but are nice and thin for uniform cooking

Costco isn’t as close to our house as Aldi, so I ran in and grabbed a bag of frozen chicken for a slow cooker meal.  Aldi’s chicken is a few cents more expensive per pound and it’s wonky.  This type of chicken is okay to dice for casseroles, or to cook and shred into soup, but not so good for marinating and grilling.

Marinating for the freezer is the easiest prep ahead meal type. I start by placing 8 breasts (about 2 lbs) of chicken in each freezer bag.

Then mix up the marinades and pour them in.  If you want to grill chicken in the next 3 days you can seal the bags and stick them in the fridge.  If it’s for later than that, throw them in the freezer.  They will still marinate frozen.

Here are 5 of my favorite marinades.  Do you have a favorite? Leave it in the comments.  I’d love to try something new.

Honey Lemon Chicken Marinade

1 cup lemon juice (I used from concentrate from Aldi)

1/2 cup Braggs Liquid Aminos

1/4 cup honey

1 teaspoon dried Rosemary

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1 Tablespoon lemon extract or zest

 (I used homemade lemon extract–video at the end.)

Combine all and warm slightly to mix the honey in well.  Pour over chicken and refrigerate overnight.  We grilled ours, but I think slow cooking the chicken in the marinade would be yummy too.

Thyme Chicken Marinade

This one is our favorite!  It’s really good with A1 steak sauce for dipping, but you really don’t need anything to help the flavor.

3/4 cup water or oil

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup vinegar (red wine or rice vinegars are nice)

1 teaspoon fresh thyme

Fresh Black Pepper

Favorite Fajita Marinade

2 Tablespoons oil

2 Tablespoons lemon or lime juice

1 1/2 teaspoons seasoned salt

1 1/2 teaspoons oregano

1 1/2 teaspoons cumin

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon chili powder

1/2 teaspoon paprika

Teriyaki Chicken Marinade

1/3 cup water

1/3 cup soy sauce

1/3 cup pineapple juice

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp ground ginger

Instead of buying pineapple juice, I drain it off a can of fruit, then serve the fruit :).

BBQ Chicken Marinade

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

1/4 cup BBQ sauce

2 Tbs Brown Sugar or Truvia with a splash of molasses

1 Tbs yellow mustard

1 tsp salt

Crushed Red Pepper

 If you are curious about making your own extracts, here’s how I do it:

 

 

Lazy Girl’s Guide to Freezing Spinach

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the lazy girls guide to freezing spinach

I love buying spinach at Costco in the 40 oz bags.  It’s good quality and cheap, and it’s a LOT of spinach.  I use it in my eggs, salads, lasagna, smoothies, stir fries, you name it.  Sometimes I still can’t get through the whole bag before it spoils.

fresh_spinach__40

While the official method for freezing spinach involves blanching it.  I’ve had really good luck, just throwing the bag in the freezer.  (I just toss it in when I’m tired of eating spinach.) Once it’s frozen I mash the bag to break the leaves into pieces. Then it’s easy to throw into a recipe.

The idea behind blanching Spinach is to kill the enzymes that continue the ripening process. Freezing slows down but doesn’t stop or kill the enzyme process.  As long as you use it up within a couple of months and don’t try to store it for years, you’ll be fine.

The benefit besides the ease, is that it PRESERVES the enzymes that aid in the digestion process.  Now toss that into your morning smoothie :).

Batch Cooking Ground Beef in Your Slow Cooker

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I first figured out this worked on a desperate day when I didn’t have a kitchen. The no kitchen season of our lives lasted almost a year and I relied on my slow cooker and electric griddle for making almost everything.

Since then, I’ve reused this method changing the seasoning to suit the dish.  Taco seasoning for batch taco meat. Italian seasoning for pizza or spaghetti. Read more…