With my delivery just around the corner I want to make sure that we have healthy, yummy meals to eat while I am recovering. I would like to avoid eating a ton of takeout (hello expensive) or eating prepackaged quick meals for every meal. I haven’t done much freezer cooking but I am excited to try. Basically the idea is to make meals ahead of time that can be put in the oven or easily put together and still taste like you just made them. Here are a few recipes I found searching on the internet that I am going to try:
Cranberry Chicken Freezer Cooking Recipe
6 chicken breasts
2 tbsp melted butter
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 c cranberry sauce (jellied or whole berry)
1/4 c orange juice
1/8 tsp cinnamon
Combine all ingredients in a freezer container or Ziploc bag. Freeze.
Instructions from Freezer: Allow to thaw.
Pour cranberry chicken into a casserole dish. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and bake for 20-30 minutes. Serve. Great with rice!
Low Fat Chicken Fettuccine Freezer Recipe
You can easily double or quadruple this pasta sauce to feed your freezer even more!
1 lb ground chicken
1 large onion, chopped
2 – 14oz cans crushed tomatoes
2 tsp oregano1 tsp sugar1 tsp salt
On cooking day:
8oz whole wheat or vegetable fettuccine noodles, cooked according to directions
2 cups low fat mozzarella cheese
Spray large skillet with non stick cooking spray and brown ground chicken with onion until no pink remains and onion is softened. Add tomatoes, oregano, sugar and salt to frypan and stir to combine.
Pour into freezer container, allow to cool, and freeze.
To serve, thaw chicken fettuccine sauce overnight in refrigerator. Preheat oven to 350F while cooking the fettuccine noodles according to instructions on package. Place fettuccine in the baking dish, pour thawed sauce over top and bake, uncovered, 45 minutes (you can reduce cooking time to 30 minutes if you heat the sauce on the stove top while you are cooking the noodles). Sprinkle cheese on top of dish then cook for 5-10 minutes or until cheese melts and is bubbly.
Bacon Wrapped Garlic Chicken with Cream Cheese Freezer Recipe
4 oz. cream cheese
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp dried basil leaves
1/8 tsp black pepper
12 chicken strips (chicken breast cut into strips)
1 package bacon1 tbsp butter or margarine
In a bowl, combine cream cheese, garlic, basil and pepper. Set aside.
On a cooking sheet, place a piece of wax paper, then place six chicken strips on it. Top each piece with an even amount of the cream cheese mixture, then top with another chicken strip. Carefully wrap strips of bacon around each piece… you can use either one or two pieces, depending if you are watching your calories!
Flash freeze in the freezer. As soon as they are frozen, store in a ziploc freezer bag. If you will be leaving them in the freezer for more than a few weeks, wrap each individually in freezer wrap before placing in freezer bag.
On cooking day, thaw in refrigerator. In a large skillet, melt 1 tbsp butter or margarine, then add chicken. Cook for three minutes on medium then using tongs flip each piece over. Reduce heat to low, cover skillet and cook for 8 minutes or until the chicken is no longer pink. Serve.
Have any of you tried freezer cooking? Do you have a great recipe to share? Please let us know in the comments. I would love some advice and recipes!
Whe I was pregnant I made 3 large batches of lasagna. It helped us through my maternity leave very nicely.
Going to Let's Dish once a month got me through my horrific pregnancy and stocked my freezer for about the first month after they were born. I learned enough tricks there to recreate the experience in my own kitchenand now fill the freezer regularly with dinners ready for the oven or crockpot.
It is so funny that you posted this today. I sat down this morning with a couple of my freezer meal cookbooks and started making my list. My new baby is due the beginning of February, and I am adamant about having wholesome, healthy food for us. I don't want to be eating pizza every night like we did with our first one. Gotta love neighbors wanting to help, but pizza and breastfeeding, don't really work great, especially when baby has reflux. Good luck, your recipes sound great! I am adding them to my list as well!
I agree-No pizza and take out every night! I really should have started cooking sooner though! If you have any great recipes send them my way! Like I said I am new to freezer cooking so I am hoping everything turns out tasty!
-Sarah
I guess that I am an idiot, I have never heard of doing things like this before. Both of these recipes sound yummy. I think I am going to make the Bacon Wrapped Garlic Chicken for supper tomorrow. What could be better than bacon, chicken and cream cheese all in one meal?
Thanks for the info.