Freezer Cooking Report

This is the first week that I really put the freezer cooking I've been doing to the test. The result: YUM!

Three of our nightly meals were from the freezer.

1. Hamburger Stroganoff served over egg noodles: I froze 2 bags of browned ground beef and onion. The morning of the day I was to use it, I put one bag on a plate in the fridge. When I got home I dumped it into a frying pan, added the ingredients and heated it through. I cooked the egg noodles and heated a can of tiny sweet peas. This fed 3 adults for supper and provided 3 lunches.

2. Italian Chicken: On my freezer cooking day I cooked some boneless chicken breasts smothered in pasta sauce. After it finished cooking and cooled, I put the chicken and some of the pasta sauce in a freezer bag. In preparation for the meal this week, I put the frozen chicken on a plate in the fridge to thaw. When I got home from work I dumped it into a baking dish covered with foil to heat. After about 30 minutes I removed the foil and sprinkled some mozzarella cheese on top and baked for a few more minutes to melt the cheese. I cooked a small box of spaghetti to serve the chicken over and also fried some okra. To add a little more flavor to the spaghetti noodles, I added a tablespoon of butter and some Parmesan cheese. This was definitely a hit with us all.

3. Hamburgers: I froze hamburger patties, individually wrapped. After deciding how many hamburgers we needed, I placed them on a plate in the fridge to thaw. When I got home I just cooked the burgers. I also made potato salad. Delicious!

Eventually I hope to have a good supply of side dishes in the freezer as well. This week I was able to use some main dishes from the freezer, but had to come up with side dishes.

Saturday my plan is to do some baking. I want to make some muffins, brownies and cookies for the freezer. Sorry "Little Debbie"!