Carry Laws
Hello friends: this is abby joe at forgotten way. carrylaws in today’s article i’m going to be filling the freezer with 21 homemade from scratch, freezer meals – i start by prepping my kitchen and food, so meal, prep and cooking time will go as smoothly as it can. getting the kitchen clean and tidy and starting the beans in the pressure cooker: stuffing and seasoning two chickens to roast in the oven for later use in my freezer meals. So i already got two chickens in the oven roasting for the enchiladas and pot pie.
I might do the enchiladas half chicken half hamburger, i haven’t decided and i got beans in the insta pot. I usually soak those overnight, but i forgot but anyways, i’m just going to do it real quick in the insta pot and it will definitely fill the bill and work out and i will be able to use those beans for the enchiladas and for the stuffed peppers. So one thing that you see in my kitchen is that i cook part gluten-free part not gluten-free, so the pizza dough will not be gluten free. We just make regular pizza dough for the family, and then i have separate gluten-free pizza crusts in my freezer. For my daughter, but our lasagna and like big main meals, i try to make sure that they’re gluten free so for the lasagna i buy these gluten-free lasagna noodles.
I got these on clearance, which i was thrilled. I’Ve been using for a long time. That’S another one of my tips pro tip here is that whenever you see anything on sell, buy a whole bunch of it so that you can have it in your pantry and you have that sell price and you can just go in and use it and man. These have lasted me forever. I think about like a whole pile of them a year ago and we still have three boxes.
So that’s just a real handy thing. Sometimes it’s easy to think. Oh, that’s! A good deal i’ll grab two, but why not grab six? You know it’s good to have a full pantry, so some of my biggest tips to keep your workflow clean and organized is the night before make sure your dishes are done.
Your counters are clean. You’Ve got food laid out for the next day. You’Ve got meat defrosted that you need for your recipes and just even look over your recipes that helps you to know like what you’re going to be cooking the next day and troubleshooting anything that might come up like. Oh, i don’t have this or oh. I need to grab this all those little things and make sure to take a break.
Sometimes when i’m cooking and i’m getting a ton done by the end of the day, you’re like oh, my goodness, i’m so exhausted, make sure you take a snack break. Make sure you take a coffee or tea break, it helps the day and it helps you not get so frazzled. I already had a cup of tea this morning, getting everything ready for the freezer meals, but now i’m going to pour myself a cup of sparkling water because i love sparkling water, , so part of cooking like this is i’ve got to do several things In the kitchen, in order to keep all of this chaotic mess going at the same time, it’s really not chaotic, but it can feel like that. So i’m going to get the bolognese sauce going, which it’s actually my grandma’s recipe and i’m looking here make ahead. Lasagna and really honestly, my grandma used to make this and she would just put it in the fridge for like the day before and then pop it into the oven, and it would like hydrate the noodles, and i just do the same thing, but i freeze it.
So basically, i’m just gon na make a real simple. I always just used to call it like a meat tomato spaghetti sauce, but the fancy name is bolognese or should i say the correct name, so we’re gon na be making that all right. Well, let’s just get cooking, i’m gon na start on a couple pots of bolognese sauce for the lasagna, and one thing i like to do is i just like to knock out a whole bunch of stuff at once, so i’m gon na probably get all the lasagna Fixings together get the bolognese sauce going, get everything prepped.
So i can just layer and then we’ll have four or five meals already done and then, as the beans are cooking and the chicken is going, i can start preparing for the peppers and the enchiladas and also i can start peeling and getting everything ready for the Casserole pot pie, i’m gon na go light my candle and get this kitchen cozy for baking. We were able to buy our beef at a local butcher this year in bulk, so it’s been really handy being able to just grab this out of the freezer and defrost it the day before and cook with.
It is so tasty pounds of beef, one pound of sausage, two pounds of beef, one pound sausage and i’m gon na get that all browned and beautiful . I have a lot going on in the kitchen and my wonderful husband is good at jumping in and being my sous chef by chopping for me when i need it: , okay! So i’m going to saute these onions now in this brown meat, it’s so beautiful, so brown so much flavor in here and then i’m going to add some grated carrot to this, just to get some vegetable in and goodness into this beautiful, beautiful sauce. So i’m grating! This carrot up for the bolognese sauce, but i don’t have to do that.
I just like to to add some vegetables and sneak them into the sauce and they’re a good filler and they’re super healthy. You can do that with squash. You can put lentils in and that sauce is going to kind of hide that and kind of bulk out your sauce. So it’s a really good way to sneak vegetables in usually, i would use the food processor if i was going to do a lot of grating, but this was just a bowl for the sauce and i just did it by hand, and it was quick and easy.
i’m going to be using this home canned tomatoes for my bolognese sauce and you could cook these down for hours without blending them, but i’m going to blend them in my vitamix just to make a smooth texture and to cook down with the sauce.
I didn’t can these this last summer, but the summer before in idaho – and this is like my last bit – there’s probably 15 more jars in the pantry, so i definitely am going to be canning a lot of tomatoes this summer. So you guys see a little bit of juice from and water from the tomatoes here. That is fine that will cook down really nice with the sauce and everything in the meat and that just works perfect. This is two quarts of tomato sauce, grandma’s recipe – actually add you add water and it kind of cooks down. So i won’t be adding water in this recipe, because it’s already in that sauce and then i’m going to also add tomato paste and a little bit of i’m out of fresh garlic right now.
So i’ll put some minced garlic in here and put some garlic powder. Oregano, some red pepper and a little bit of cayenne just for a little spice. You don’t have to do that, but that’s what we like – and this is actually a double concentrated. So it’s got lots of flavor, i’m gon na. Let this cook down!
Then i’ll taste it and make sure it tastes yummy. I really think that freezer meals can get a bad wrap because some people think they’re tasteless or this, but really, if you’re, cooking them from scratch. You’Re sauteing and browning things and making homemade sauces you’re gon na have a delicious, delicious batch of freezer meals. I’M just gon na get some pink salt in here. I love pink salt.
I love redmond salts, so in my grandma’s recipe she would have the mozzarella, cheddar cheese and parmesan all layered, and then she would do a ricotta and over the years, a ricotta or a cottage cheese. I think actually grandma said cottage cheese in her recipe. I’Ve used both ricotta and cottage cheese. I now just layer it with by taking anywhere from one to two cups of parmesan cheese, and then i take in several containers of cottage cheese. Now this is a big batch mind you.
This is not the small recipe. This is like double tripling in four times in the recipe. I do it all by eye now, but i add parmesan the cottage cheese or ricotta. I add salt, pepper and oregano, and i mix it all up, and this is how i layer the lasagna i just put lasagna i put the um, i put the sauce down, i put the noodles down, then i put the cottage cheese or ricotta mixture and then I add the mozzarella and cheddar cheese and it just makes such a delicious rich, beautiful lasagna i just went. I recently went to a restaurant store and found out that actually i can find the cottage cheese in a better price in a larger container.
So next time i’m just going to buy one large container of the ricotta or the cottage cheese and buy it that way, because it was a lot. It was even better priced. We’Ve got that parmesan in there and the italian seasoning and i’m gon na. Add some salt and pepper, i’m going to roll my sleeves up and get to work layering all this lasagna goodness! So because i’m not actually going to cook these noodles.
I always make my sauce a little on the slightly runnier side. That’S my grandma’s recipe, so it absorbs into the noodles and it cooks so nice and thick. But if i was gon na actually freeze this sauce for spaghetti or something else in ziploc bags, i would cook it a little bit. Thicker just got to cook it down. For like another hour and then i would scoop it into ziploc bags, lay them flat till they’re cool and put them in the freezer,
so, I like to make some of my freezer meals and tin foil pans. So i can just grab one out of the freezer as a gift for someone who needs a meal. You know, after having a baby or a sick or a friend that just needs a pick-me-up. However, i am starting to collect more glass pans at thrift stores, so i’m not using so much disposable items, i’m just letting everything kind of cool a little bit before i actually put the tin foil on top label. It then i’m going to put these in my fridge and chill them before i put them into the freezer, because that helps get them to temperature so that it doesn’t defrost anything in your freezer.
I’M just getting my pans washed up, so i can start making the enchiladas i’m gon na get the hamburger all browned seasoned, really good, with onions, i’m gon na chop up some mushrooms, i don’t always put mushrooms in, but sometimes i look and what’s like. What’S in my fridge and i see what needs to be used, so i have some mushrooms that need to be used. I’M gon na dice them put them in with the hamburger and the onion and season it really good and then add beans and cheese and fill the corn tortillas up. And then i’m going to make a homemade enchilada sauce and cover all of that. And it will be really really yummy ], so the chicken is brown a little bit more than i usually do like.
If i was serving a roasted chicken. I wouldn’t do that, but i’m actually going for flavor here the meat is super moist and i’m going to use all of like the bits and bobs afterwards and the bones to make a delicious broth. So i kind of went more on the roasted side, but these two chickens are going to be shredded and they’re going to be used in the chicken pot pie casserole recipe. And if i have enough energy, i might even do some chicken enchiladas, but we’ll see. This is for the enchiladas ], all right, so i’m gon na be sauteing all these onions and a little bit of mushrooms, i’m gon na get some chili chili powder in there.
I’M not gon na go wild with a cayenne um that there is four pounds of meat, so i’m just gon na keep tasting it. I’M gon na add some ground cumin and, of course, i’m gon na keep seasoning it until it’s the right taste a little bit of chipotle. I accidentally burnt this or melted it. Last time i got a little too close to some garlic. So the more you cook, the more you get used to flavoring things and you just got ta taste as you go and you’ll find the perfect flavoring for your dish.
So i’ve got all the filling ready, except for i’m going to add some diced tomatoes with green chilies, two cans to this delicious bean and hamburger mixture. For my enchiladas, i just like the pop of flavor that the tomatoes give with the jalapenos and, as you can see, i have a huge stack of corn tortillas. I do know how to make corn tortillas from scratch, and i love them, but it would take forever to make enough to make all this enchiladas. So i definitely go the easy route and get corn tortillas. We love corn tortillas and they will they make such a hearty delicious enchilada.
So once i fill all of these, then i’m gon na make homemade enchilada sauce cover it and cover some cheese, and then they are done. So this is how i do it. I just literally make these little taco shapes, i stuff them really full and then go all the way to the end, and it helps me to get a ton of them in here. It makes a really hearty meal. I’Ve had friends bring kids over that say they don’t like enchiladas and they, like my enchiladas.
So it’s always fun to try new things. I just stuff it make it work whoops. When i put all the enchilada sauce, it’s going to just go in all those cracks increase and be delicious. I’M going to cut these all in half, get everything cleaned up and get them pre-baking in the oven. Because that’s what you do before you stuff them!
You bake them for about 30 minutes, pull them out stuff them, and then you put them in the freezer, i’m throwing in two cups of rice here and just browning slightly and then i add 4 cups of water And steam, with the lid on for 15 to 20 minutes – and i will be using that for my stuffed peppers now, it’s time to pull all the meat off the chicken now that it has cooled a little, i’m saving all this lovely roasted chicken drippings to make A beautiful gravy for my chicken pot pie casserole. I want to talk to you guys about everything that is prepped here just so you guys kind of know the way that i go about doing these freezer meals in between feeding the kids. Just a few minutes ago and daniel getting dishes done, while i was getting this all kind of ready for the next batch of freezer meals, it is really in the prep and one of the things i do is i actually keep a list right here. I checked off the lasagnas, the enchiladas are almost done. We’Ve got the chicken out of the oven, it’s all shredded and actually because it’s all shredded, i’m going to pop the carcass in this pan – add some water and onion to it, throw it in my insta pot and i’m going to make a big gallon of broth.
Just to have so that’s an extra thing that i can cook with this week, so the leftover beans that were in the insta pot – i put right here – i pureed some of them and left a few whole for the stuffed peppers. I’M going to show you how i’m going to combine all that with the rice that you saw that i already cooked and when i was doing all the lasagna on the side. I browned a little bit of hamburger, so we got the hamburger, the beans, the rice, some mushrooms and cheese and then some spices and sauces, and that is how i’m going to mix everything up for doing the stuffed, peppers and i’ll show you that in just a Few so i cleaned out the instapot of the beans, like i showed you that i’m going to use and i still had leftover beans, a whole nice bag of them. So i’m going to lay them flat in the freezer, and i will use these for a meal later and actually one of my favorite things to use beans for is just bean and rice bowls. We love them.
We put just fry some rice, throw beans on and then add toppings, and that is what we do for being rice, bowls and they’re really good. Another thing that we really like is we just like pepperoni and olive pizza, i’m going to be making dough later and freezing it’s nice to just be able to pull dough out of the freezer, and then it just rises, and you can use it in the afternoon. This is the bulk pepperoni that i get at a store here. It’S actually a restaurant store and it makes a ton of pepperoni and i just put it in the freezer. I just got done bagging this.
It’S really high quality pepperoni and it doesn’t have like a lot of junk in it and we just like pepperoni and olive pizza. It’S like one of our favorites. I’M definitely going to put a link below to all of these recipes. So don’t worry there will. They will be there for you, guys, okay, so i’m going to get some sauces going, i’m going to stuff the peppers and i’m actually going to put a little bit more chicken in the oven, because if i have enough time, i’m actually going to make a broccoli Rice casserole, because i really want to share that with you guys.
I love that recipe. It is so simple and just amazing, it’s like a comfort food, and i want to share that. So if we have enough time i’m going to make that at the end too ], one of the things i do to keep myself going is, like i say, stay hydrated. So i drink a lot of water and tea and coffee and kombucha, and i love sparkling water. Those are all just little treats i like to sip on, while i’m cooking all day, i’m just blooming.
The spices here by heating them up a little in the oil to bring out more flavor and then adding the butter and the rest of the ingredients to make a lovely, creamy, enchilada sauce. When i don’t have broth done or in my fridge. I use this organic chicken bouillon that i get at costco. It has saved me numerous times when i haven’t had broth on hand. The irony of it, though, is that i have a gallon of broth cooking in the pressure cooker.
As i am making these sauces. I will use my bone broth this week to make a kale potato soup, because my kids have been asking for that particular soup, so that will be on the menu later in the week. This is a perfect example of how i cook the peppers got all stuffed and there was leftover rice, meat and bean mixture, and i thought i would add some chopped tomatoes and some more beans. I chose garbanzos i like having different textures of beans, so i’m always using different varieties. ] – i’m just going to make some jalapeno white sauce to go with these and make these kind of a white sauce, creamy enchilada.
These freezer meals are some of our family’s favorites and ones that i like to have in the freezer. If we have unexpected company, because these really are crowd pleasers, when you do an all-day filming of freezer meals, it takes twice as long to prep and cook when you film the whole process. So i’m glad i have my husband by my side to help me and keep me laughing, wow, we’ve already cooked a lot of food. Today we have lasagna, we have enchiladas, stuffed peppers and the whole time. I was prepping for the pot pie and the chicken broccoli casserole and i’ve been making sauces for everything, and i’ve got a delicious broth going on in the insta pot.
So lots going down going on around over us here and a lot of multitasking. This recipe is so simple. I got this recipe when i was probably 18. My mom gave it to me it’s chicken and broccoli, and the original recipe has a can of cream chicken soup, but i don’t use can of cream of chicken soup. I just make my own white sauce right here.
It’S like a bechamel, but i put cream and chicken stock in it, and that is how i make my own can of creamed soup. So i cooked up three cups of rice and i’m going to add celery and broccoli and my own bechamel white sauce, i’m going to add some chopped up chicken, some chopped up, dried onion and mayo, salt and pepper, and you have a delicious creamy comforting cream of Broccoli and chicken casserole. I love this organic broccoli that i pick up at costco. When i go down there like every six months. These broccolis are huge.
I would prefer chopped up broccolis, but they will cook down when you cook it in the final. So just going to leave it, as is daniel, chopped up some celery for me and don’t forget all these recipes are like doubled and tripled. Now for the pot pie mixture i steamed potatoes and carrots, sauteed, onions and celery added to the chicken and gravy, and i stir it all together: ]. I love peas in my pot pie.
So i’d add those – and i was just going to tell you that the gravy is made from the drippings of the two chickens. They left like a ton of like a whole bowl, full of just all the juices and delicious bits, and i strained that and then i added some corn starch and water and salt and pepper and made a gravy. I’M adding this to all the pot pie. Mixture, i don’t know what it is, but there’s nothing better than a hot potato: ]. I ran out of milk, so i’m using oat milk.
I always try to keep some kind of alternative for backup, because there’s always something you run out of when you’re in the middle of cooking, and you can always substitute or try to find something that will work and most the time the recipe will turn out. Fine ], so this is a gluten-free option here. For my daughter, i always make the crust gluten-free because she really likes this casserole, so you can use regular flour, but i’m actually using this gluten-free flour that i buy in bulk, and i pull it out when i need to make something for her. I like to try to make all of our main things gluten-free, so she can eat, and then she tends to make everything um herself that, like for extras like she makes a lot of her own desserts and stuff. Is that fine?
I think that was five. Six pretty sure i got that right, okay, so this is the crust for the pot pies, it’s delicious, it’s crunchy and i have not seen it around a lot. It’S just amazing. It’S just flour, butter, milk, baking powder, vinegar, salt, pepper, and another thing too, is a lot of times. You can stretch the butter by adding some olive oil or some kind of oil that you have on hand if you need to, and it works fine for this recipe, and i because i’ve done it.
So i just added the baking powder. I need to add the salt and then i’m going to add in my butter and vinegar and milk, and actually i’m like um quadrupling this recipe a couple times. Probably sorry, one two three, i’m adding the milk and the oat milk, all right, so these pot pies are gon na get their delicious toppings put on, and that is all i’m going to do today. I am going to probably make my pizza crust tomorrow and bag them up, probably like four to six and put them in the freezer, but i feel like today. I got a whole lot done and i need to clean this kitchen up, so we made enchiladas.
We made lasagna stuffed peppers, we made extra lasagna, not like lasagna extra enchilada and now we’re making these pot pies, and we made the chicken and broccoli casserole, and i freeze this with the batter, not cooked and it freezes it will cook. When i put it in the oven, so i’ve got to get this cleaned up. It doesn’t look as bad as it looks because these are big pans and they don’t take that long to wash up, i’m gon na mix up a double batch of dough. That will make four large sheet pans of pizza and i will bag those up for the freezer. Thank you guys for everybody.
That’s been here forever and all of you guys that are new. I would just encourage you to please subscribe hit that like button for email, i decided, while rolling out the pizza dough, that i should just make one for lunch. hey everyone. Yesterday was a great day. We got 17 meals in our freezer and i thought i would just get up and get some pizza dough in the freezer so that we have a total of 21 meals.
That was kind of my goal and then i decided actually to turn one of the doughs into pizza lunch today. So i just rolled out the dough put the sauce on and the pepperoni and i’m going to add this cheese and olives, and that is like our favorite, easy pizza and something that i really like to share with you guys is that put some cheese in the Freezer, it is a great way to have just something easy on hand. Grated cheese in the freezer can get you out of a pinch when you’re in a big hurry just to get food out on the table. I’M just gon na spread all this cheese out all over this pepperoni pepperoni and olives has always been a family favorite, and i really love this pepperoni that we get at a restaurant store. It’S an italian pepperoni, so it’s just super high quality and it’s a treat and we don’t order takeout.
We just get pizza at home and we can whip it up really fast with good high quality ingredients and it’s such a quick, easy, fast meal and pair that, with some chopped up vegetables. I always grew up loving carrots with my pizza, it’s a family tradition and i almost can’t eat pizza without a whole bunch of carrots all cut up, that’s kind of our kind of our thing. Carrot sticks, so celery and carrot sticks. A salad would be nice all. Those things are great to go with your pizza.
so to get the pizza dough in the freezer. All i do is make sure that the tops are floured really good. You don’t need to even let these rise to their full potential, because they’ll re-rise, when you get them out of the freezer, but i like to put lots of flour on top, so they don’t stick. Then i spray the ziploc bags with coconut oil or avocado oil. Whatever it is here and then i just kind of pat it a little flat get the air out, and you have pizza crust all ready to go in your freezer.
You can just stack them and then, when you’re ready to use them, you just set them out that morning or the night before in your fridge. Let it defrost and sit on your counter and it will rise and you can roll it out for your pizza. That was a lot of fun. I really enjoy cooking and i enjoy getting a lot of it in my freezer because it actually frees me up later, so i can actually do other things and this kind of goes along with our video on upping our skills. So if you have the time to get a little bit of extra freezer meals in your freezer, it’s really great, because you can actually give yourself an afternoon or meal time prep that you don’t have to do that.
You could actually spend time learning something new. So it’s really great for even freeing up your time filling up your freezer, giving yourself some food security, they’re, all great things for making freezer meals. But if you’re crunched for time always remember, you can double or triple your recipe. It takes almost as much time to just double and triple a recipe and then tuck those into the freezer. That might be a little bit more of a gentler way of making a whole bunch of freezer meals, and it might work for you to just get those meals all packed into your freezer and then you’ll give yourself some time to have free time and get other Things done for me that is going to be learning how to use my new pressure cooker and get some projects done, that i’ve been waiting to get done.
So i’d love to know if you guys make freezer meals and also, if any of the meals you saw today, would they be something that you guys are interested in making? I love hearing back from you guys, you’re, so sweet. This community is truly amazing and i love reading each and every comment. So thank you so much ,
