Freezer Meals-Round 2

Another day of back/hips/feet aches to prep for our little angel in about 4 more weeks. Our freezer is getting very full, but oh man does it feel so good to be ready for when she's here. No worries of who's cooking dinner, what we're going to eat that day, or who's going to the grocery store for food. I was talking to my mom about the foods I was prepping and hadn't realized that most of my food is Mexican or Italian based. Apparently they are just the easiest thing to prep and freeze. Oh well. I love Mexican and Italian food. Only one more round to go this weekend and we'll be completely done!

This round included my husband's famous spaghetti sauce with garlic bread, traditional beef enchiladas, creamy chicken enchiladas, chocolate chip cookie dough, Chili, lemon pepper marinated chicken, and BBQ country style pork ribs.

Brad's Spaghetti Sauce

Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef

1 lb ground pork (I bought ground sausage instead--oopsy, blame it on pregnancy brain)

1 lb smoked sausage

1 lb cheddar cheese, grated

1 lb mozzarella cheese, grated

1 white onion, diced

1 yellow onion, diced

1 red onion, diced

1 yellow bell pepper, diced

1 orange bell pepper, diced

1 red bell pepper, diced

5-8 garlic cloves, minced

1 large can of tomato sauce

1 small can of tomato paste

salt and pepper, to taste

1/2-1 cup white sugar

1/2- 1 cup brown sugar

My husband got very upset when I told him I was going to post his recipe and he begged me not to. Apparently he's never shared the recipe with anyone and doesn't want to start yet. It's an amazing recipe, best spaghetti sauce I've ever had. Maybe one day he'll let me share the actual recipe, it took him several years to perfect it.

I froze small chunks of garlic bread to have with it. Just need to keep a pasta in the pantry. Thaw, reheat, serve over pasta, and enjoy! This is such a huge recipe it actually made 5 meals! We ate one that night and froze the other 4. It's not the cheapest of all recipes, about $50, but SO worth it and like I said it really makes a lot.

Beef Enchiladas

Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef

Taco seasoning

Cheddar cheese, grated

12 corn tortillas

1 medium can tomato sauce

2 chipotles in adobo sauce

2 jalapenos, seeds removed

3 tomatillos

1 cup brown sugar

salt and pepper, to taste

1 tsp cumin

1 Tbsp chili powder

1 Tbsp garlic powder

Directions:

1. Brown ground beef, drain, add water and taco seasoning, cook out water, and let cool.

2. Broil jalapenos and tomatillos until softened

3. In blender, add jalapenos, tomatillos, chipotles, and spices. Blend until smooth. Adjust flavors as needed.

4. Warm corn tortillas in a dry skillet. This makes them more pliable and easier to roll.

5. The best trick with enchiladas is to have everything laid out and ready to go. This will make assembly much easier. Pour a small amount of the sauce into the bottom of your pan. Take one tortilla and spoon a small amount of meat into the middle, roll, and place seam down in your pan. Continue this until you fill your pan.

6. Pour the rest of the sauce over the top of your enchiladas. Make sure to spread it around and at least have some over each part of the enchilada.

7. Cover with cheese.

8. Bake at 350 degrees F until cheese is melted or freeze. When ready to eat, just pop in the oven at 350 degrees and bake for about 30 minutes.

Creamy Chicken Enchiladas

Ingredients:

1 lb boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cooked and diced

2 cans cream of chicken

2 cans of diced green chiles

12 flour tortillas

Cheddar cheese, grated

Directions:

1. Mix the cream of chicken and 1 1/2 cans of diced green chiles.

2. Mix chicken and 1/2 can diced green chiles.

3. Lay out all of your pieces to make assembly much easier. Place a small amount of the sauce in the bottom of the pan. Place a small amount of chicken in the middle of a flour tortilla, roll, and place seam side down in the pan. Continue until pan is full.

4. Pour the rest of the sauce over the top of the enchiladas. Make sure to spread the sauce around to cover the tortillas.

5. Cover with cheese.

6. Bake at 350 degrees F until cheese is melted or freeze. When ready to eat, just pop in the oven at 350 degrees and bake for about 30 minutes.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

I follow the directions on the back of the Nestle Tollhouse chocolate chip bag. Best cookies I've ever made, no point in changing something that's been proven.

Follow the recipe and then place in the fridge. This makes the dough solid enough to roll into balls. Use a little bit of flour so your hands don't stick to the dough and roll into balls. Place dough balls on a flat dish where they aren't touching and place into freezer. Let dough balls completely harden, I left them in the freezer for 2 days. Place frozen balls in a bag and place back into freezer. When ready for cookies, just place on baking sheet, bake at 350 degrees F, and bake for about 10-12 minutes or until outside is a light brown.

Chili

Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef

1 yellow onion, diced

1 can kidney beans, drained

1 large can crushed tomatoes

1+3 Tbsp Chili powder

1 Tbsp garlic powder

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp salt

1 tsp black pepper

1 bay leaf

Directions:

1. Brown ground beef and onion, drain.

2. Add tomatoes, fill can with water and add to pot, 1 Tbsp chili powder, garlic powder, cumin, salt, pepper, and bay leaf. Let simmer until thickened.

3. Add beans and remaining 3 Tbsp of Chili powder. Let cook for 15 minutes.

4. Either let cool and place into jars to freeze or enjoy now. Thaw and reheat when ready to eat.

Lemon Pepper Marinated Chicken

Ingredients:

Bottle of lemon pepper marinade

Bone-in, skin-on chicken

Directions:

1. Separate chicken into freezer bags, pour marinade into bags, mix chicken with marinade, seal, and freeze.

2. When ready to eat, thaw, and cook. You can throw it into a crock pot, bake, grill, etc.

BBQ Country Style Pork Ribs

Ingredients:

Bottle of BBQ style marinade

Country style pork ribs

Directions:

1. Separate pork into freezer bags, pour marinade into bags, mix pork with marinade, seal, and freeze.

2. When ready to eat, thaw, and cook. You can throw it into a crock pot, bake, grill, etc.

This was a big batch of freezer meals, had to get my husband to help do a lot of the prep work for me to make it easier on me. This batch cost about $100 and made about 15 meals. This means that each of these meals cost about $7 each! You can't beat that, you can't even get fast food for that much and these are way better.

So far we are up to $150 and 28 meals, plus a bag of cookie dough balls.