A months worth of dinners in 2 days! {Part 2 - cooking marathon}

OK...I admit. When I said {part 2} was going to come the day after {part 1} I was lying. Sorry! I know you'll forgive me. I have pregnancy brain and cant concentrate on anything for more than 5 seconds these days :)

Alright...here we go.

After you get yourself organized as mentioned in {part 1} of my "making freezer meals" post...its time to cook!!!

The recipes I decided to use are ones I have tried in the past so I know they tasted yummy and would work straight out of the freezer. The first 3 recipes are ones I have blogged about previously so you can click on the links to see them. The enchiladas I just kind of made up so excuse my super non technical recipe.

Artichoke Manicotti with pesto cream sauce

* Note: I tweaked this one a bit since the first time I made it. I decided I was to lazy to make the pesto myself so used store bought and combined it with Parmesan and heavy cream in the blender. I thought it turned out pretty good. I just kept tasting it until the pesto/cream ratio was perfect.

* Another note: I doubled the filling and cream sauce but think that I will triple it next time because I wasn't able to fill as many shells as I wanted.

Chili con carne

Basic pasta sauce

Chicken Enchiladas {here is my attempt at remembering how I made them}

Ingredients:

- 4 chicken breasts
- 2 small cans of diced green chilis
- Sour cream
- 4 cups shredded cheese ( I used the Mexican blend)
- 1 large can of enchilada sauce
- 20 pack of white corn tortillas

1. Bake chicken breasts - place in a shallow baking pan, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Fill pan with water to almost cover chicken then bake at 350 degrees for 40 min or until cooked through. Let cool.

2. Once chicken is cool shred with a fork and place in a large bowl. Mix in green chili's, sour cream and about half of the shredded cheese {this is the part I don't really measure. Just keep adding until it tastes good. I like mine creamy so put in lots of sour cream}

3. Start rolling filling inside corn tortillas, place in bake pans then top with enchilada sauce and cheese. {Tip: its helps to warm tortillas a bit so they don't break when rolling}

4. When cooking from frozen - cover with foil and place in 400 degree oven for about 40 min.

* Note: When I was cooking I only made 2 meals at the same time to avoid confusion. I started off by popping chicken in oven for enchiladas since it took a while to cook and cool then I began on the chili and tomato sauce. Once they were done I started up on assembling the enchiladas and manicotti.

Now its time to package your meals! Be sure everything is cool prior to sealing up containers and placing in freezer.

The manicotti was portioned out 4 per tray.

I packaged the Chili in the round soup containers. Be sure to label and date them!

Enchiladas were in the tins. I was able to fit 3 per pan.

The zip top bags are great for the tomato sauce because they close tight and wont leak plus you can stack them flat in the freezer so they don't take up much space. I measured out 2 cups of sauce per bag. I find that's a good amount for a 2 person pasta dinner.

One other thing I did was buy 5 loaves of the Columbo garlic bread. I sliced each loaf in half then placed in freezer bags. Now we have 10 portions of garlic bread we can easily use to accompany either the chili or pasta dinners.

Now we are all set for a few weeks once the baby comes. But, trust me you dont need to be having a baby to prepare make ahead meals. This is a great plan for every busy household. What could be better than always having a stash of easy no fuss dinners on hand.

Oh, and also this coming week im picking up the share of beef we resesrved a few months ago through the Bay Area Meat CSA. So, in addition to having all of the prepared meals we will have loads of prepackaged grass fed beef to cook too!

A months worth of dinners in 2 days! {Part 1- the prep}

Part 1 - The PREP WORK

Since our little bundle of joy will be arriving soon (3 weeks!) I decided it was about time that I stocked up on freezer meals. I mentioned in a previous post that I wanted to do this but am now just getting around to it.

Believe it or not, it was pretty easy. You just have to be prepared and dedicate the time. It took me about 6 straight hours of marathon cooking but I know the time invested will pay off later when we are sleep deprived. Once the baby arrives all we will have to do is pop the premade stuff in the oven or microwave. That's it!

I know we could just buy frozen dinners or order take out but making the meals yourself is much healthier and saves money.

The plan:

1. Buy containers so you can portion out the meals. I love the ones they have at Dollar Tree. I get the aluminum trays, plastic soup containers and zip top bags. I noticed that at Dollar Tree only certain types of the plastic containers are microwave safe so be sure to read the label. I spent $15 on all of the packaging and have a few left over if I decide to make more meals later on.





2. Go shopping! Have your list prepared for what you need at the grocery store. If you forget anything its going to put a cramp in the marathon session. FYI- the grocery bill for all the meals I made was $122. Not bad.


3. Got freezer space? Hopefully you have an extra freezer in the garage like we do. :)

Stay tuned tomorrow for the recipes so you can make your grocery list and get started!

Chili con carne

I found this Chile Con Carne recipe on Epicurious and I just had to try it. It has over 200 reviews and 92% of people said they loved it. Sounds like a winner to me!

For those of you who don't know about Epicurious...you should check it out! It's where you can find recipes from Gourmet, Bon Appetit and other yummy cooking magazines. There is even an iphone app which is really cool...I actually came across this recipe on my phone while at the grocery store. Its great for those times when you don't know what to make for dinner.




Recipe from Gourmet Magazine - February 1990
Serves 6
(Note: items with ** are those that I have changed from original recipe)

2 large onions, chopped (about 3 cups)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic
2 carrots (Chop most of carrots in mini chopper and then coarsely chop the rest by hand) **
2 pounds boneless beef chuck **
1/4 cup chili powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin
2 tablespoons paprika
1 tablespoon crumbled dried oregano
1 tablespoon dried hot red pepper flakes, or to taste
1- 29 ounce can tomato sauce **
1 - 14 ounce can beef broth **
3 tablespoons cider vinegar
2- 16-ounce cans kidney beans, rinsed and drained **
1 green bell pepper, finely chopped **

In a kettle cook the onions in the oil over moderately low heat, stirring occasionally, until they are softened, add the garlic, carrots, bell pepper, and cook the mixture, stirring, for 1 minute.

Add the chuck and cook it over moderate heat, stirring and breaking up any lumps, for 10 minutes, or until it is no longer pink. Add the chili powder, the cumin, the paprika, the oregano, and the red pepper flakes and cook the mixture, stirring, for 1 minute.

Add the tomato sauce, the broth, and the vinegar, bring the mixture to a boil, then simmer it, covered, stirring occasionally, for 50 minutes to 1 hour, or until the meat is tender.

Add the kidney beans and salt and black pepper to taste, and simmer the mixture, uncovered, for a few more minutes (until beans are warmed through)

Serve with garlic bread, corn bread or chili cheddar shortcakes

We loved this recipe. Its definitely a keeper! Oh, also this can be frozen for up to 2-3 months and reheated.

Freezer meals: Artichoke manicotti in pesto cream

Here is one of those recipes that works great straight out of the freezer. You can prepare a bunch in advance then save them for later. Everyone has those nights where they just don't feel like cooking. Right?

As mentioned in a previous post. I purchased a bunch of tins from the Dollar Tree (3 for $1). They are perfect size for a 2 person meal, store easy and can be popped straight into the oven then thrown away. No cleanup!!

The only real work you have to do is preheat the oven, open a bottle of wine and put on some So You Think You Can Dance. Now that's what I call the perfect night...but maybe its just me.

Here is what they looked like after assembly but prior to freezing

Recipe from Robin to the Rescue by Robin Miller

Total time: 40 min

Makes about 3-4 meals (I doubled recipe to make more)

1lb manicotti shells

1 14oz can artichoke hearts, drained (not marinated)

1/2 cup ricotta cheese

1/2 cup shredded mozzarella (plus more for topping)

1 tsp dried oregano

Pesto Cream

2 tbs pine nuts (toasted in oven or in skillet)

2 cups packed fresh basil

1 cup heavy cream

2 tbs olive oil

2 tbs grated parmesan cheese (plus more for topping)

2 cloves garlic

1. Cook manicotti shells according to package directions. Once done remove from water and let drain on paper towels.

2. Meanwhile, in blender or food processor combine artichoke hearts, ricotta, mozzarella and oregano until smooth.

3. Fill shells with ricotta mixture. An easy technique is to fill a large ziploc with the mixture. Snip of one corner of bag then squeeze into shells. This is faster and less messy then spooning it in by hand.

4. Make pesto cream: Blend toasted pine nuts, basil, cream, oil, parmesean and garlic in a blender or food processor until smooth (don't over mix as the sauce might separate a bit. This happened to me. Didn't look as pretty as it should have but still tasted great)

5. Assembly: Spoon layer of pesto cream on bottom of foil container. Place 4 filled manicotti shells on top. Layer on more pesto cream then sprinkle parmesean and shredded mozzarella on top. Once cool you can place the lids on and freeze. Don't forget to label the containers so you know whats inside!!

**NOTE: Can be kept frozen for up to 3 months.

6. Cooking:

From freezer: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Remove cardboard lid from foil tray, cover with tin foil. Bake for 40-50 min (no need to defrost first). If you want the cheese to brown a little remove foil for last 5 min of baking.

If defrosted or fresh made: Preheat oven to 375 degrees and bake for 25 min.

Enjoy!!

I have 2 other freezer meals to share with you. All of them are really easy. You can make all 3 at once over the span of a few hours then package them up so you have a nice size supply of dinners for later.