Crock Pot Freezer Meals-June

Yesterday John and I got a lot done. We defrosted the freezer and started a one-month freezer plan. I do NOT suggest doing these projects on the same day. The above pictures shows how far we were able to get without the use of our freezer-basically everything but the meat. I had to put it all in the refrigerator until this afternoon when the freezer was ready to be refilled. It would have been nice to just be done with it and not have to deal with the meat. And I was tempted to just freeze them as-is and plan to do the meat at the time of cooking. But that was the lazy part of me. The practical part of me knew I needed to just "get 'er done"! Below are the recipes.

Coconut Curry chicken

Coconut Chicken Curry by Martha Stewart (I doubled this for 2 bags)

IN THE BAG- 3 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs, 2 lbs. of chopped butternut squash, 2 medium onions,chopped, 8 minced garlic cloves, 1 oz fresh ginger, 2 T curry powder,           1t ground coriander, 1 t ground cumin, coarse salt  **I went lighter on the garlic-like 2 cloves

TO COOK- Add the contents of the bag and a can of coconut milk to a slow cooker and cook on low all day. 25 minutes before serving, add another can of coconut milk and a bag of frozen peas.

TO SERVE- Garnish with chopped cashews and cilantro.

Savory Vegetable Beef Soup

Savory Vegetable Beef Soup (This recipe makes 2 Bags)

·                     Chop (1) Onion and Chop (2) Cloves of Garlic- Brown in Pan with the Ground Beef- once cool divide mixture between bags

·                     (2) whole carrots chopped per bag

·                     (2) celery stalks chopped per bag

·                     (3) Red Potatoes chopped per bag

·                     (1) can v8 split between bags

·                     (1) 28oz can diced tomatoes SPLIT between bags

·                     (1) cup frozen green beans in each bag

·                     (1/2)TBSP Worcestershire per bag

·                     (1/2) cup Beef Broth per bag

·                     (1) TBSP Parsley per bag

·                     (1) tsp Basil per bag

·                     1/2 tsp Thyme per bag

·                     (1/2) tsp salt per bag

·                     (1/2) tsp pepper per bag

·                     (1) TBSP Sugar per bag

*Place in Crockpot with 1.5 cups of water and 15 oz Beef Broth. Cook on LOW 8 Hours.

Teriyaki Chicken

Teriyaki Chicken (This recipe makes 2 Bags)

·                     Split a large bag of Baby Carrots between the 2 bags

·                     Cut Red Onion into Large Chunks and split between the 2 bags

·                     (1) 20oz can pineapple in each bag (undrained)

·                     (2) Garlic Cloves chopped per bag

·                     (2) Chicken Breasts in each bag

·                     1/2 cup teriyaki sauce in each bag

*Add 1/4 cup teriyaki sauce to mixture. Cook on HIGH for 4 hours or LOW for 8 hours. Serve over Rice.

Orange Chicken

Orange Chicken (I doubled this to make 2 bags)

IN THE BAG- 2 cups carrots, 2 cups bell peppers, 1 lb cubed boneless skinless chicken breasts, 3 cloves garlic, 1 t salt, 1/2 t pepper, 8 oz. orange juice concentrate (orange pineapple will work as well) **again, I went lighter on the garlic

TO COOK- Cook on low in crock pot, 4 to 6 hours

TO SERVE- Garnish with clementine slices (use 4 clementines) or mandarin oranges (two cans) and green onions (two, chopped). Serve on rice. Stir fried veggies make a great side.

"Hot and Spicy" Braised Peanut Chicken

Hot and Spicy Braised Peanut Chicken (I doubled to make 2 bags)

IN THE BAG- 2 cups onions, 2 cups carrots, 2 cups zucchini, 1 red pepper, 1/2 t grated lime peel, 2 T lime juice, 2 T soy sauce, 2 T flour, 4 garlic cloves, 2 lbs. cubed boneless, skinless chicken breast. **Yet again, I went lighter on the garlic.

TO COOK- Dump contents of bag in slow cooker. Cover with 3/4 cup chicken broth and 3 T peanut butter (whisked together). Cook on low for 5-6 hours. For the last five minutes, add in 1 can of coconut milk and 1 bag of frozen peas.

TO SERVE- To make it spicy, add 1/2 teaspoon of red curry paste before serving (I kept our unspicy for the kiddos). Garnish with chopped peanuts and cilantro. Serve over rice.


**I don't plan to do the spicy part. John can put cayenne and chili sauce on his if he wants, but the girls and I will eat ours without anything extra.

Feta Stuffed Chicken Breasts

Stuffed Chicken Breasts with Feta, Spinach, and Bacon (I cut the breast halves in half again width-wise to get two medium chunks out of each breast half...and I also ran out of stuffing room so these have no spinach or bacon. I'll add it when I bake them. Or not.


8 skinless, boneless, chicken breasts
3 oz cream cheese
1/2c feta cheese
1/2c baby spinach leaves
8 slices of bacon


With a knife, make a split along one side of the chicken breasts to form a pocket. Season chicken breasts with salt and pepper.


In a small bowl, mix together the cream cheese and feta with a fork. Stuff each chicken breast with the cheese mixture, spinach and ham.


Wrap each breast individually (I used sandwich bags) and freeze. 


Baking Instructions: Place in a greased baking dish, cover with foil. Frozen-350F for 60 minutes. Or thaw the chicken and bake at 350F for 40-45 minutes.

When all is said and done, one month of crockpot meals take up only this much room in the freezer!

To make prep easy I started by getting out all my Ziploc bags and writing the date, meal, and prep instructions on them. On to food prep-we first chopped all the veggies and divided the right portions into the bags. I had to skimp on carrots a bit because the person who double checked our carrot status in the refrigerator prior to leaving for grocery shopping told me we had 15-20 carrots...not 6-8. Oh well. Who needs extra carrots anyhow!?

So first I chopped zucchini and carrots while John chopped onions. He used this funky grater/dicer thing I have and managed to lose part of a fingernail. Fingernails look remarkably like onions when all is said and done! Poor guy.  So I peeled and cut carrots (we don't buy baby carrots anymore...kids won't eat them. They're carrot snobs) and then he moved on to celery and red potatoes. I did the butternut squash and divvied out the frozen green beans. He took the dog for a walk while I got all the different spices and any broths into the bags. 

I'm happy that we didn't have a bunch of cooking prep to do. When I've done freezer meals before it's involved hours and hours of cooking-lasagna, enchiladas, soup, chili...all those involved precooked meat, if not almost everything else, also. This was so easy. About 90 minutes of veggie chopping and bag assembly, another 30-45 minutes today of dicing chicken to add to the bags. And done! 

I haven't tried ANY of these crock pot recipes-just the stuffed chicken one, which is not a crock pot deal, but super easy and quick and yummy with no premeditation required! I love that the only real processed things in them are the cream cheese, feta, and orange juice. And I guess the teriyaki/soy type sauces also, huh? Other than that they're all pretty whole ingredients. I tried to pick ones that will challenge the girls' tastes but not turn them off. They're not too adventurous but at the same time they're pretty good about eating different things if I put a good spin on it. All of these will be served with brown rice or quinoa (new favorite!) and/or a salad. The hope is each bag will give us one main night and one left-over night. Wish us luck!

Chicken 'n' Dumplings

Chicken 'n' Dumplings

2 lbs chicken breasts, uncooked, cubed
1 cup chopped onion
2 cups thinly sliced celery
1/4 cup flour
10 cups chicken broth
2 cups sliced carrots
1tsp Thyme, dried


Buttermilk Biscuits

2 cups flour
1T baking powder
3/4 c buttermilk

Mix flour and powder. Add buttermilk and mix until a soft dough forms.

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In a large greased soup pot brown the chicken and onions. Add the celery and sautee for a few more minutes. Slowly stir in chicken broth, thyme and carrots. Bring to a boil stirring occasionally. Cover, reduce heat and cook until carrots are tender and chicken is cooked all the way through-about 20 minutes. Meanwhile mix up the dumplings and drop by spoonfuls on top of the soup. Cover and cook until dumplings are done-about 15 minutes. Enjoy!


**Note: I added 2 cups sliced potatoes and 1 cup green beans to my soup tonight. And next time I make it I'll be thickening the soup. It was a bit too thin for my liking, but the rest of the family loved it!**

Potato Soup

Potato Soup (with noodles)

Peel and cut up desired amount of potatoes. Put in stock pot and cover with water. Add chopped onion-or dehydrated. Cook until potatoes are done. While these are cooking make noodles:

Noodles:

2 1/3 cups white flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1/3 cup water
1 Tablespoon oil

Mix 2 cups flour and salt. Make a well in the middle. In a small bowl beat oil and water into the egg. Pour this into the well in the flour. Mix well. When a soft dough forms, turn out onto surface floured with the remaining 1/3 cup flour. Knead dough with this flour until smooth and elastic-about 8-10 minutes. Let rest for 10 minutes. Divide dough into 4 equal parts. Roll out on floured surface to 1/8" thick round (or use a noodle machine!). Roll the round up (like cinnamon rolls). Cut in 1/4-1/2" strips. Unroll and lay out flat until ready to be used:


Potatoes and onions cooking in the water:


When the potatoes are done add the noodles-continue to boil until the noodles are tender (8-10 minutes). Add 2 cups chicken broth if desired-for flavor. This is also the time to add any other flavorings desired. For this batch I used some sage and oregano.

The final step-to be done just before serving-is to add either evaporated milk or heavy whipping cream until soup is the richness and consistency desired:


This soup is souper basic. And souper delicious! I grew up on this. Grandma would make huge pots of it, mom would make huge pots of it...and now I've finally made a successful, rather large, pot of it!

Kim's Herb Bread

This is hands-down the best bread recipe ever. I even tried it with peaches 'n' cream jam this evening, and it tasted grand. A little...different...but still great! The bead is delicious with cheese and meat, butter, or all on it's own. Delicious to pair with soup, too!

Kim's Herb Bread

2T yeast
3 cups warm water
4T sugar
1t salt
1T caraway seed
1t basil
1t oregano
1t garlic powder
2T dehydrated onions.

Mix the above ingredients and allow to stand until the watery mixture is bubbly and "raising" from the yeast.

Add 6+ cups of flour-enough to make a sticky dough.

Allow to raise. Punch down and form into 2 loaves on a greased cookie sheet. Can also make a braided loaf out of it. Allow to raise again, until it is double in size.

Bake in a 400F oven for 20 minutes.

It'll be fairly pale but will have a nice hollow sound to the crunchy crust when done. I always spread butter over the top of mine immediately after pulling it out of the oven!

ENJOY!

Yummy Carrot Cake

Carrot Cake!

2 cups sugar
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 cups finely grated carrot
1 cup oil
4 eggs

Preheat oven to 350deg Farenheit. Grease and flour two 9-inch round pans (I used 2 hexagon pans of some unknown size ). Mix the first four ingredients. Add carrot, oil and eggs. Mix until well blended. Divide evenly into both pans. Bake at 350F for 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove from oven. Cool in pan for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and cool completely. Layer the two cakes with Cream Cheese Frosting and frost the entire cake.

Cream Cheese Frosting
6-8 oz cream cheese
1/2 cup margarine or butter, softened
2 teaspoons vanilla
4-5 cups powdered sugar

Cream the butter, vanilla and cream cheese until fluffy. Add 2 cups of powdered sugar and mix until well blended. Add the remaining flour a little at a time until frosting reaches a spreadable consistency.

***I used 1 cup oat flour, 1/2 cup white and 1/2 cup whole wheat flour. I also decorated the cake with a sprinkling of nutmeg and cinnamon and stuck raisins to the sides of it for a pleasant look.***

Whew...this was entirely from memory (I've only made it this one time) and I even went back and grabbed my trusty Betty Crocker cookbook to double check...and I remembered everything correctly!!!

Cheddar Potato Soup

Makes 6 cups

1 cup onion, chopped
2 tablespoons flour
2 cups skim milk
2-1/2 cups fat-free chicken broth
4 cups baking potatoes, peeled and diced
1 cup shredded low-fat cheddar cheese
salt and pepper

In a large saucepan coated with non-stick cooking spray, saute onions until tender, about 3-5 minutes. Add flour, stir for 1 minute. Gradually pour in milk and broth, stirring to avoid lumps. Add potatoes. Bring to a boil, stirring. Reduce heat and cook until potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes. Add cheese and stir until cheese is melted and mixed. Salt and pepper to taste.

To prepare and eat now: Serve when ready.
To freeze: Cool to room temperature. Transfer to freezer containers. Label and freeze. Suggested freezing time: up to 4 months.
To thaw and prepare later: Remove from freezer. Reheat in a non-stick saucepan or in the microwave (in a microwave-safe container).

Oat Flour Pancakes

2 c. oat flour
2 eggs
2 c. milk or water
1/2 c. oil
3 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt, optional
For waffle mix: Add 1 tsp. vanilla

Warm pan or griddle to medium with 1 teaspoon butter or oil. Add dry ingredients together and mix lightly. Next add milk and water; stir. Add oil and 1 egg at a time. Mix thoroughly. Pour 1/2 cup mix at a time.

***Now for my adaptations: I used ground flax seed in replacement of the eggs and oil:

1 egg=1 Tablespoon flax + 3 Tablespoons water

1 Tablespoon oil/butter/margarine=3 tablespoons flax


So I used a LOT of flax in these. In my opinion, I should have stopped at replacing the eggs and just used applesauce or oil...but live and learn, right? Kids and husband approved of them, so I guess they weren't too flaxed out!


I also added 2 teaspoons cinnamon and 1 teaspoon nutmeg just to give it some dimension. My family ate these with lightly sugared marionberries and whipped cream from a can (a rare treat!)