Please Help with Freezable Recipes

We have recipes for soups and chili that freeze really well. Also, I think it's so helpful to have muffins in the freezer for a new mom, so she can take out one or two and have a quick, nutritious snack. We have recipes at www.welcomingkitchen.blogspot.com

Soups and Stews freeze REALLY well. You can portion them into smaller containers so that she doesn't have to heat the entire thing all at once. If you let the soup/stew cool before you freeze it, you can even use freezer bags. When you freeze them, lay them flat in the freezer and put wax paper between them. It will save a TON of room in the freezer.

Wild Rice Casserole Preheat oven to 350
1 box Uncle Bens wild rice, Cook as box instructs
1 lb, Velveta type cheese cut into small cubes (American works just as well)
1 lb breakfast sausage crumbled cooked and drained ( I purchase Jimmy Dean light)
1 small onion chopped
3 stalks celery chopped
1/2 small bell pepper chopped (optional) Pimento (drained may be substituted)
1 can Cream of Celery soup condensed (low fat works)
1 can Cream of Chicken soup condensed (low fat works)

In a large skillet add (cooked and drained) sausage, onion, celery and peppers, sauté with 1 TBL butter.
Add cans of soup and heat until warm.

In 2 quart casserole
Place a third of the sausage, soup mixture in bottom of casserole.
Next layer ½ of wild rice
3rd layer sprinkle 1/3 cheese cubes

Sausage layer
Rest of rice
1/3 cheese.
Top with rest of sausage layer and sprinkle with cheese.

Place in preheated 350 oven bake till bubbly.

I usually place foil underneath in case it bubbles over.
Our family sometimes likes this a little spicy, so you can use spicy breakfast sausage if you like. My Aunt likes the spicy Velveta cheese for this recipe
This recipe doubles great and makes a ton. It freezes perfectly and many people like it even better the second day.

There is a website I love called Once A Month Mom and she has whole menus of freezable recipes! There are breakfasts, lunches, and dinners!! You can pick & choose recipes that your friend would like--or that you wouldn't mind cooking. Great Idea and good luck!

I have frozen Lasagna (pretty much any noodle w/ sauce freezes well), Chicken Noodle (or Rice) Soups, Chili, Chicken Enchiladas (cream sauce), Beef Enchiladas (Red Sauce), Sloppy Joes (just the meat mixture), Stuffed Pepper (Meat/Rice Mixture). I have also browned lots of ground beef and frozen it in smaller packages. Then, all you have to do is thaw it out, add tortillas, lettuce, tomatoes, olives & sour cream and you've got tacos/burritos/taco salads. Most veggies/fruits will freeze well, as long as you're warming up/cooking them afterwards, as freezing will make the cells in the veggies/fruits expand and sometimes burst, causing them to be mushy. Also, maybe throw in some muffins, as they thaw well too. I think this is a fabulous gift to give your friend! I'm sure she'll appreciate it immensely! Good luck & do some for you too while you're at it!

Another great idea is when you are making a meal for your family, just double the recipe and freeze half. Google OAMC (once a month cooking) and you will get a lot of sites that have great freezable meals. Recipezaar is one of my favorite sites to get some great ideas. You can also find ingredients that don't freeze well, which will help you decide if your own recipes will freeze or not. Good luck! And I have to tell you that this is a WONDERFUL gift for your friend. I just had my 3rd daughter 2 weeks ago and had 30+ recipes in the freezer and it has been a real life saver.

Look at the ideas from Let's Dish and find recipes to recreate these ideas yourself: http://www.letsdish.com/

I love some of their seasoned roasts done in the slowcooker, to make wraps. Also, chicken enchiladas freeze well. Meatloaf (raw) freezes well too.

You can find disposable aluminum oven pans online for really cheap, like: http://www.thefind.com/kitchen/info-aluminum-disposable-pan Try to find ones that come with those paper lid inserts.

Another clever trick my friend does is she prepares a dish inside of a ziplck that's laying in a glass baking dish, freezes it in the glass dish, and once it's solid, take the dish back inside to make another one. Then when she is ready to cook it, she can cut the ziplock off the frozen food, drop it in her glass pan, and it's ready to cook. good for lasagna type of dishes.

***edited: just remembered vegetable quiche cups! They're in the SouthBeach Diet book, super simple to make, and go great with salsa (for my husband, who doesn't diet, a little cheese in the mix before cooking makes this greatness, and you can freeze them). ***
I did this for myself when pregnant with my 2nd child, and it helped SO MUCH! Great idea for your friend. I stacked my deep freezer with a stouffers lasagna (easy, good), but then for cooking I made a chicken/sausage gumbo, a great chili, chicken tortilla soup, a beef taco soup, and did a pulled pork recipe (back of the McCormicks season pack) for BBQ sandwiches in the crockpot. I made my spaghetti sauce and meatballs and froze them (no noodles), a little thing of prepared taco meat to have later as tacos, burritos, or salad. (also froze the wholly guacamole and stored it next to the taco meat). For veggies to cook with later, I diced up onions, bell peppers, garlic, jalepenos, the stuff I always cook meats with and had them in individual sandwich bags, which I stored in a large freezer bag labled "chopped veggies". For the soups, stews, and even BBQ pulled pork: put them in freezer bags and lay FLAT (best if on a big box like the stouffer's lasagna so it's not all ridges everywhere), it'll freeze like that, and then you can stand them up and put them together like files. I made a king ranch casserole because I make a good one and we all love it, but turns out we did NOT like it after it was frozen. The tortilla chips had a weird consistency to them. Too bad. I didn't do a beef stew because someone said potatoes freeze weird too. I made a great chicken soup that I could bulk up with rice or egg noodles with after thawing, and that turned out fine. I grilled a few things (balsamic chicken, etc) and had those in individual sandwich bags (like 5 of them, inside a large freezer bag--good for putting into a salad or serving with rice and veg, whatever. Calzones were good---I used refrigerated pizza dough to make those, stuffed with whatever you want. Muffins is a good idea; I didn't think about that at the time. And have a couple desserts too, just in case there's a craving or guests over.

We like making stuffed shells - we just use the recipe off the back of the big shells box and then freeze enough of the stuffed shells in freezer bags to make a meal (about 3-4 per person). To cook them you put the frozen shells in a baking dish & pour jared spagettii sause over them, then back for about 30-35 min at 350. If you like cheese you can add cheese on top or we have used left over spagettii sause from an earlier meal in the week if we have it.

Also, when I make homemade pizzas, the pizza crust comes in a pack of 2 & we only need one, so I make up both pizzas and put one in the freezer... you can make them how every you like with all the goodies on top. I do bake it about 3 more min when I pull it from the freezer then when I cook it the day I make them.

Once a year I try to go to my MIL (ususally in the fall) and we make up cabbage rolls... meat mix is 2/3 ground beef, 1/3 ground pork, uncooked rice, salt & pepper. Then you boil the head of cabbage & peal off the leaves. When you have soft leaves you put a handfull of meat mix & roll them. We usually put about 8 cabbage rolls in a freezer bag & freeze them for eating later in the winter or year. To cook them you put them froozen or thawed in a baking dish, top them w/ tomatoes (stewed or somepeople use sauce w/ water or even soup w/ water) & back for about 40-45 min. I like to searve mine w/ potatoes or noodles. You can also pick them up sometimes at the grocery stores meat dept.

For cooking and freezing in bulk, I've used a great book and web site - http://www.30daygourmet.com/. They also have a monthly email with a few recipes. That way, maybe you can add some stuff to your own freezer while you're at it!

I suggest pizza and lasagna.

I enjoy premixed frozen fruit with a soy yogurt in baggies that I shove in the freazer and whip them out for the blender for breakfast. I also just let it thaw on my way to work so when I get there, I just add granola and pour in a bowl. Note: some yogurts freeze weird. Low calorie. low fat. Super nutritious and filling. AND cheap!

Lasagna freezes great!! So do most spaghetti dishes, although the best way to do it is to not quite cook the noodles as much as you would when normally cook & serving it. Meatloaf is another, fully cooked, THEN frozen.

That is a wonderful thing to do for your friend!! That would be terrific!! I'm having a baby in July and in May I'm planning on doing the same for myself... and my husband is home all the time, just not much help!! :) He'd rather have pb&j!! silly!

V.

Lasagna freezes really well. Put some sauce to cover the bottom of the pan, then layer in noodles (regular ones, not the ones that say they are for baking because they turn to mush). Mix a container of cottage cheese with enough mozzerella and parmesan to make it thick, then stir in one egg. Alternate noodles and the cheese mixture until you fill the pan. Put a row of plain noodles on top, then cover the whole thing with sauce, making sure you cover all the sides too. When she's ready to cook it, she'll want to put it in the oven frozen. If she thaws it, it will get too mushy. It will need to cook 1.5-2 hours covered with foil. When it's almost done, it can be uncovered and mozzarella can be added to the top. My family likes variations too. Like adding in a layer of Italian sausage, or replacing the tomato sauce with alfredo and adding a layer of chopped chicken and brocolli. I generally get a stack of foil pans and make 5 or 6 different ones to freeze. Something else I did before I had my kids was to freeze small homemade, already cooked pizzas. Also burritos. I put them together with meat, beans and cheese, rolled each in foil and froze them on a sheet. Then I was able to heat them up in the oven and serve them with sour cream. I had two c-sections, so I needed a lot of premade stuff but I've never been one to get the store bought variety. I haven't done it, but I would think small pot pies would freeze well. One thing that I know doesn't is rice dishes. Other things I freeze are calzones (basically just pizza dough, filled and folded) and meatlballs.

I am an owner of Dream Dinners, what you're doing is exactly what we do for our guests! Often people think this is an expensive option, but it really isn't. When you have to get all the ingredients for so many different meals, and then don't use up all of it, it becomes much more expensive. We buy in bulk, so we are able to save you money. Plus we do all the shopping and prep work for you so it only takes about 1 1/2 hours to do 12 meals. If a group wants to pitch in for a new mom (which we do often), they can pitch in with gift certificates for that mom, and then usually someone comes in to make all the meals that the new mom picks from the menu herself! Of course we can assemble for her too. There are 4 Dream Dinners stores in the Denver area (I don't know where you live). So feel free to check us out or contact me directly at ____@____.com

Go to www.bestsimplerecipes.com and click on the Freezer Pleasers. There are loads of quick and easy and freezable recipes here.