The Summer Dinner Recipes

I've had several people express awe at my early summer accomplishment of cooking up 12 weeks of meals for our freezer. It didn't feel like as much work as I thought it'd be and certainly not as much as it sounds like. And even though I don't have morning sickness all summer like I thought I would, I'm so glad to have these dinners. It makes everything easier.

I've purchased books in the past that have the 30 days of freezer meals recipes in them. Before Sawyer was born I made up 6 weeks of freezer meals to prepare for having a newborn. A lot of the recipes, however, had a lot more POST freezer work than I wanted to fuss with. I want something that you just move from the freezer to the oven (or possibly defrost in the fridge for a day first), crockpot or skillet and then serve. Maybe if I had to make up some pasta sometimes to go with it, that would be tolerable.

This time, I just made my own food and adapted it to freezer meals. I wrote a 14 day menu to use twice a month. It's been enough variety for us for a few months. If it was something I was going to do all the time, I'd probably alter the menu every season to suit the weather. I made sure to use stuff that I knew I'd be willing to prepare (not too complicated) and that I knew we would eat (not too unusual). Also, it had to be affordable and healthy.

One thing I decided was that anything that can be made into a casserole can probably be frozen. So, I bought a set of 30 trays and 30 lids from Sams Club. They cost about 50 cents each but I decided it was cheaper than fast food or highly processed food (which is what we end up eating if I'm sick and there's nothing else made) and that I'd probably save that amount just in knowing that I don't have to run out to the store twice a week to get stuff for dinners. I chose the trays so we could toss them out after dinner and it would be less work for everyone. My kids are good about the dishes, but if they were already going to be helping me with everything else around the house, they didn't need any extra work if I could help it.

The freezer meal book suggests lining your 9x13 pan with foil and freezing your meal and then lifting the frozen foil casserole out of the pan and re-using the pan for your next casserole. The foil and frozen casserole become their own container in your freezer. You fit it back into your 9x12 pan when you're ready to cook it. I haven't tried it but it sounds workable.

So, most of my freezer meals were casseroles. They are the easiest now that we are using them. I wrote the contents and directions on the lid of each casserole with a sharpie before I froze them. So, if I get them moved from the freezer to the fridge a day or two in advance, then I cook them for the amount listed on the lid. Otherwise, I can move them straight from the freezer to my oven and I cook the casseroles for 2 hours no matter what's in them. It's what you do with a frozen lasagna so I figured it would work for my casseroles. And, so far, I does.

In addition to casseroles I also made a very few crockpot meals. I put the meat and seasonings raw into a freezer bag and labeled it with instructions. For one dish you have to add a jar of spaghetti sauce. So, it's easy and super quick prep from the freezer. I didn't want dinner to feel like more cooking. I wanted everything to be easy enough that even I could do it if I was super, super sick and only felt like being up for a few minutes.

I made up 2 meals that were skillet meals. I cooked the chicken breast in the oven in advance, diced it when it was cool, and stored it in sandwich bags (one dinner's worth) stored within a freezer bag. Then I bought bags of stir fry vegetables and bottles of stir fry sauce. On dinner night, you remove one sandwich bag of chicken, defrost it in the microwave while you put either spaghetti noodles or rice on to cook. The chicken defrosts in a few minutes and you warm it through in a pan while you stir fry the vegetables. Toss it all in the sauce and serve it over spaghetti or rice. Quick and easy noodle or rice bowls.

The final meal style that I used was hot pockets. I made up quick dough with lecithin and fast rising yeast that is ready to use instantly (no first rising time needed). I stuff them with whatever (you only need 1-2 tablespoons of filling per pocket), fold them and set them aside to rise. Bake and freeze in groups of 16 after they are cooled. It takes them just one minute in the microwave to go from freezer to ready to eat. I made a bunch of chicken, cheese and vegetable roll ups for dinners and made some egg, bacon and hashbrown roll ups for Sunday morning breakfasts. These were the most labor intensive of all my preparations, but that have been very handy on the few days that I've totally forgotten about putting something in for dinner (because I had to rush to the doctor or I was asleep all afternoon from medication or whatever). They are ready in ONE minute. How easy is that? Also, the kids can make these themselves. We use them on scout nights which is our busy night. Everyone can make their dinner when they are ready.

An additional benefit of the hot pockets is their portability. If we're heading out for the day and we know we'll be gone over lunchtime, we can heat a bag of the hot pockets for a few minutes and take them with us. Easy to eat in the car or on a picnic. Don't make our mistake of taking them frozen and thinking they'll be thawed in time for lunch because it's a very warm day. They won't thaw. Even in the hot car for a few hours. So, defrost in the microwave first.

Here's the recipe for the hot pockets:

http://www.ourbestbites.com/2009/07/kids-week-homemade-hot-pockets.html

And you can use any dough recipe you like. I use this one:

http://community.comcast.net/t5/Food/4-loaves-of-Bread-in-One-Hour-Recipe/m-p/3211948

You can purchase lecithin and the yeast here:

http://www.pantrysecrets.net/

or you can get twice as much yeast for the same price at Sams Club and I've heard that health food stores carry the lecithin for a low price.

Here's the recipes I used. I bake everything at about 350 degrees. If it's still frozen, I cook everything for 2 hours. If it's thawed, I cook it for about 30 minutes if the meat is already cooked and 45 minutes to an hour if the meat is raw. For recipes that call for mashed potatoes or rice, I use instant mashed potatoes and we have a rice cooker, so it's all stuff the older kids can make. :

French Chicken

Add to your tray:

chicken breasts cut in half
stew vegetables (cut them yourself or add a bag of already prepped frozen potatoes, carrots, onions, peas, corn, etc)

Before cooking, pour a bottle of french dressing over the top. Serve over mashed potatoes or rice. Tastes like sweet and sour chicken.

Cheeseburger Casserole

Add to your tray:

One layer ground hamburger or ground turkey that is already cooked and seasoned with ketchup, mustard and diced pickles.

One bag of frozen peas and carrots.

One layer of frozen french fries.

Some shredded cheese.

Mix all together.

When you're ready to bake, pour a large can of tomato soup and a large can of milk or water over the top. Cover and bake.

Baked Ziti

Cook elbow macaroni or penne.

Add cooked ground hamburger and spaghetti sauce and a can of tomato sauce. (you want it to be saucier than you would eat your spaghetti because the noodles will soak up the sauce and you don't want it to be dry)

Add plenty of shredded cheese.

You can add some vegetables like diced bell pepper or mushrooms if your family likes those.

Stir it all together. No extra prep needed before putting it in the oven.

There are other ziti recipes that call for ricotta cheese, but Ric can't have much milk so I didn't use those recipes. You might like to. Use any ziti recipe you find and it will cook up well.

Meatballs with tomato gravy

Add to a bowl: 1 lb ground turkey, egg, a handful of parmasan or other shredded cheese, a handful of bread crumbs, grill seasoning, a few tablespoons of ketchup and, if you'd like, some very finely diced vegetables. This will make one meal's worth of meatballs, so double or triple it or whatever if you're making a few meal's worth at once.

Shape them into meatballs and cook them at 450 degrees for about 20 minutes. Freeze them.

When you're ready to eat, defrost the meatballs in the microwave and then heat them in the microwave for a few minutes. Put them in a large skillet with one can of gravy and one can of diced tomatoes. Warm it all through. Serve over mashed potatoes or rice.

If you don't like that much prep, then also freeze some hoagie rolls and keep a can of spaghetti sauce in your cupboard to make meatball subs. You can add a can of fruit to round out the plate.

Chicken Cacciatore

Cut chicken breasts in half and put them raw into a freezer bag.

When ready to cook, put them into the crockpot and pour a jar of spaghetti sauce over the top. Cook for 6-8 hours on low. You can add vegetables, fresh, canned or frozen, if you'd like. Serve over pasta.

Chicken Quesadillas

Pretty much like it sounds. Cook some chicken (I just get a big pack of chicken breasts at Sams Club when it's lower than $2 a pound and put grill seasoning on it and then bake them all uncovered at 350 for an hour.) Assemble quesadillas by putting the thinly sliced, cooked chicken and some cheese on a large tortilla and fold it in half. You can cook it in a skillet or I used my George Foreman grill. When it's cooked and cooled, cut it into 4's and freeze a whole bag full. They are yummy and quick to cook up in the microwave.

I got some jars of applesauce especially for this meal because the quesadillas don't contain any produce. For me, I would totally add strips of bell pepper and a jar of chilis to the quesadillas before cooking, but my kids won't eat those so I left them off.

We also made smothered burritos (burritos all lined up in a casserole dish, topped with enchilada sauce that's mixed with a can of roast beef and gravy. top with cheese)and lasagnas (use whatever recipe you like).

Long post, but that's how I did 3 months of dinners. These take up space. I used my indoor freezer, my large outdoor freezer AND my mother in law's indoor and large garage freezer. And I would have cooked more but I was totally out of room.

So, unless you have a lot more freezer space than that, you might only plan to make one month at a time or make whatever meals will fit in your freezer and then use them only a few times a week when you're desperate.

I spent about $600 buying the food for all the meals.