Staring down a 10 pound pork butt

Oh my, for $1.49 per pound, you cannot go wrong with this cut of meat! It's deboned, now in the crockpot (with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and my own secret broth) - and when it's done, I'll portion it out and shred a bunch of it for pulled pork sandwiches/meals. I'll then slice up the rest for a couple of roast pork meals and freeze those in the gravy.

Plus, I simmered up the bone for a couple of hours, and got enough meat off it for a tasty little lunch for myself. Yum!!!!

Freezing pre-baked cookies/pastries

Most cookie doughs can be made ahead of time and frozen - just thaw, form your cookies & bake normally. But this method takes it one step further - saving you the thawing time!

Here's my recipe for cheese tarts - well, OK, my whole family calls them "those little pie crust things" - LOL. Check out the freezing method here, because these holiday pastries are waaayyyy better warm from the oven.

3 oz. cold cream cheese
1 stick cold butter
1 cup all-purpose flour

Chop up the cream cheese and butter, and put it all in a food processor with the cup of flour. Process until it looks like fine crumbs - about the size of corn meal. Dump it into a bowl, squish it all together forming a dough, and shape it into a disk and chill for an hour.

Roll out the dough on a floured board or mat, cut dough into 3" circles. In the center of each circle, place a 1/4" tsp of your favorite jam (we like seedless raspberry or apricot). Wet the edges of the circle, fold the circle in half over the jam, and seal with a fork like you would pie crust. Hence the name, little pie-crust things.

To bake immediately - place the tarts on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 20 minutes, or until they are slightly browned.

To freeze, place the tarts instead separately on a waxed-paper coated piece of cardboard and flash-freeze. When frozen, place them in a ziplock bag. When ready to bake, place the frozen tarts on an ungreased cookie sheet - and follow the same baking instructions as above - adding another few minutes to the baking time if needed.

Meal Ministry

Having meals in the freezer ready to go is VERY convenient when the need arises to bring a meal to a family in need. I brought over some crispy chicken (previously cooked and flash-frozen), apple-mashed potatoes and baby carrots - with homemade applesauce (frozen for her to thaw) for dessert - to a friend and her family tonight. All she had to do prep-wise was reheat the chicken in the over, and reheat the potatoes and carrots in the microwave. Most people just don't think to prepare food this way! In addition to the meal for tonight, I also brought her a pre-seasoned whole frozen chicken to keep in her freezer for another night that she didn't have time to cook. They're in the process of moving, nothing really serious, but it's tough when you have small children and limited time.

Tis the season for pot pie!

The absolute best way to freeze pot pie is to assemble the filling, precook the liquid part, mix it into the filling, and then dump the whole thing in a gallon ziplock bag and freeze flat for convenient freezer storage. When you're ready to make the pie, just prepare the bottom crust, thaw the filling & dump it in the crust, top with a top crust, and bake! This is a huge time saver!

Here's my recipe - see if it gives you any ideas for freezing your own recipe!

Makes:
1-9" deep dish pie
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour
Ready In: 1 hour 20 minutes
Servings: 6

Ingredients:
2 refrigerated pie crusts
4 tbsp. butter
4 tbsp. flour
2-1/2 c. milk
1 tsp. granulated chicken bouillion
salt & pepper to taste
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
2 potatoes, peeled & diced
2 carrots, peeled & sliced
1/2 cup frozen cut green beans
2 cups chopped cooked chicken

Directions:
Place bottom pie crust in a deep 9" round pie plate. Put potatoes, carrots, green beans, chicken and onion in pie plate and mix up a bit.
Melt butter in 2-qt. saucepan. Add flour & cook for 1 minute. Add milk, chicken bouillion, salt and pepper. Heat and stir until thickened. Pour sauce all over pie filling. Top with 2nd crust and seal edges. Cut slits in the top to vent, and bake at 375 degrees for 1 hour.

Meats in marinade

Take your favorite cuts of meat, add your favorite marinade - put meal-sized portions of meat and plenty of marinade in a gallon ziplock bag, squeeze out the air, and freeze! The meat will continue to marinate in the freezer, and the liquid protects the meat from things like freezer burn. To prepare - simply thaw it out and grill, broil, or whatever the cut of meat calls for.

This preparation method saves time, money, and produces a much more flavorful piece of meat!

Examples:

Quick & Lazy BBQ Pork Chops

Place 4-6 pork chops in a gallon ziplock bag. Dump in a bottle of your favorite BBQ sauce. Work the sauce through the bag until chops are coated thoroughly. Squeeze air out of the bag and freeze. Yes - it's that simple!

Lemon-Rosemary Grilled Chicken

Whisk together 1/4 cup EVOO, 1/4 cup lemon juice, 2 Tbsp. honey, 1 tsp. dried rosemary, dash garlic powder, salt & pepper to taste. Place 4-6 boneless, skinless breast halves in a ziplock bag, dump in the marinade, work through the chicken, squeeze out air, and freeze. This one's a family favorite!

Spaghetti sauce is a breeze to freeze!

No need to ever buy prepared jarred sauce again. Even if it's just basic tomatoes and spices - you can always thaw it and add other ingredients (ground beef, sausage, vegetables) later - the time-consuming work and pre-cooking will have already been done by the time it hits the freezer.

No need for a vacuum sealer - just put it in a gallon size Ziplock. REMEMBER! Freeze the sauce FLAT!! This will save on both freezer space (making the bags stackable) and thawing time by increasing the surface area.

Don't forget to also freeze some smaller amounts of sauce as well for things like calzones, homemade pizza, and sauce for dipping.

Freezing meatloaf

I've tried every method out there - cooking first and freezing, freezing uncooked in the pan and wrapping the "brick" up for freezer storage - but the following method is by far THE BEST all around method.

Stock up the next time those ground meats go on sale. Assemble your favorite meatloaf recipe, and after it's all mixed up and ready to put into the pan - put it in a gallon ziplock bag instead. Flatten it out completely in the bag, which easily pushes most of the air out - and seal. Freeze ready-to-go meatloaf this way, and you can stack them on top of one another, saving oodles of freezer space. This method also cuts down greatly on the time it takes to thaw the meatloaf, because it's such a thin, flat package.

When the package thaws, you have the option of adding more ingredients to it, or just dump it into a meatloaf pan and bake as usual.

Simple Whole Roasted Chicken

Whole chickens are one of the most economical meals you can make for your family, especially when they are on sale for 69 cents per pound...or sometimes even less! You can stock up on whole birds IF you have the freezer space, and you know how to properly freeze them for quick thawing and easy preparation later.

Open up the packages, and remove all the giblets. I freeze the giblets separately for making soup/broth later on. Rinse the chicken inside and out with cold water, and then pat dry with paper towel. Now rub a generous amount of spice mixture all over the bird...here are several concoctions below, but you can tailor any blend of spices to suit your own tastes:

For roast "sticky chicken" like you find rotisserie-style in the grocery store, here's the spice mixture for a 6-7 lb. bird. When you cook the bird, stuff the cavity with chopped onion, and baste the bird frequently with the pan juices, which will contain a good amount of carmelized onion.

4 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

For a very different flavored chicken - try this! Seriously, and don't laugh, it is delicious!

4 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons white sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

There are many different things you can season whole chickens with - a quick internet search will lead you to some winners, I'm sure!

After the chicken is seasoned, vacuum seal it and freeze. The seasoning gets into the chicken really well during the freezing process, and the chicken gets even more tender than if you made it fresh.

Freezing cooked pumpkin

Pumpkins are so versitile, and they're everywhere this time of year! Now is a great time to bake some up, scrape it out, and freeze it in 2-cup (or whatever your recipes call for) portions - ziplock bags work just fine for this, because it's pretty easy to get all the air out of something as squishy as squash.

Imagine - baking pumpkin pie, or making pumpkin bread or muffins with fresh pumpkin at any time of year!

All winter squash freezes very well after it's been baked - acorn, butternut, etc., so take advantage of autumn's bounty.

Cookies on the fly

I was perusing the dairy case at Stop & Shop the other day, noticing that the ready-to-bake cookies were getting more and even more ready-to-bake. Now you don't even have to scoop out the dough - you can just separate the little squares and bake them.

Many times, when I want a homemade cookie, there's just no time to spend baking a batch. They're not hard to make, I mean c'mon - this is not rocket science here. So my guess is the main reason ready-to-bake cookies are so popular is a time crunch thing.

My solution? My own ready-to-bake cookies right from the freezer. Cookie dough freezes amazingly well!

For example, when I make a batch of tollhouse cookie dough, I always set aside a dozen or so dough balls and flash freeze them - that means place them separately on a waxed paper lined piece of cardboard and place in the freezer. When they freeze - transfer all the little frozen balls into a ziplock bag, label it, and store in the freezer. You can now pop those little frozen dough balls onto a cookie sheet in the future and bake them up - just add an extra minute or two to the normal baking time.

I'm tellin' ya - freezer cooking/baking is the bomb!

Freezer containers

It's no secret I love Gladware, but the Stop & Shop equivalent containers are just as good and slightly less expensive. The entree-sized ones are perfect for packing and freezing hot lunches for Glen. When labeling with a Sharpie - the marker rubs off easily with a dry papertowel for the next time you need to label.

I also have the 1-quart containers for soups/stews and the tiny ones for gravy & sauces that are sometimes best heated separately from the rest of the lunch.

Ground beef ready to go!

Pre-cooked ground beef freezes really well! When purchased in 6-7 lb. packages, I can get 20% lean ground chuck (our favorite) for $1.99 per lb. - give or take .10 per lb. I'll then get it home and "scramble" it up - and you can even season it with onions or whatever. When it's just cooked, drain it on some papertowel to remove the excess fat, let it cool a bit, and then measure it out into portions that usually work in your own recipes, label and freeze. I use my foodsaver, but a quart-sized ziplock bag with the air sucked out works OK for shorter term storage.

FREEZER TIP - freeze the packages with the ground beef flattened out as much as possible. This give you more efficient freezer space (you can stack them on top of one another) and also reduces the amount of thaw time. :)

This is a tremendous time saver for me as well - because at 5:00 pm, I'm not staring down a frozen package of raw ground beef that I paid $3.49 a lb. for!

Last night @ 6:30 I made a baked ziti - and adding the ground beef was an afterthought. It thawed in the microwave and was ready to add to the cassarole in @ 8 minutes.

Applesauce

It's fall in New England, and that means apples galore! There's nothing quite like homemade applesauce, and thanks to the freezer, you can make huge batches of it and freeze it to enjoy the rest of the year! I store it in quart-sized ziplock bags...and by the end of autumn, I have at least twenty-something quarts of homemade applesauce in my freezer.

Unfortunately, I do not have a recipe written down. I chop up apples and fill my crock pot, add a little water, and cook all day. Then I add sugar, cinnamon and ground cloves to taste. That's all folks! Every batch tastes a little different. Sometimes I don't bother peeling and coring the apples - I just run the whole lot through a food mill when it's done.

Homemade applesauce is one of the simplest, most satisfying things you can make this time of year. Make this your year to try it!

Lunch for Delci

We stocked up at Sam's yesterday, and one thing I picked up was a 6-pack of salmon pinwheels - Delci's favorite! The rest of my family thinks they are just "ok" - so I wrapped each one separately in plastic wrap, placed all 6 in a gallon ziplock bag, sucked out most of the air, and froze them. Each one thaws very well in the microwave and bakes up nicely in the oven (according to the package directions)...so she has six very nice lunch entrees whenever she wants them. All for her. :)

Mmmmmeatballs!

Here's how to make the best italian meatballs on the planet (my dad's recipe, slightly modified) and store them pre-cooked in the freezer, ready to drop into simmering sauce, or thaw to slice up on homemade pizza, or reheat in the microwave to make great meatball grinders.

1-1/4 pounds ground chuck
1 cup fresh breadcrumbs (run 2 slices of bread through a food processor)
3/4 cup italian breadcrumbs
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp parsley
1/2 tsp basil
1/2 tsp garlic powder
2 tbsp (scant) dried minced onion
2 whole eggs
1 cup milk

In a large bowl, mix together well the beef with the breadcrumbs. Beat eggs in separate bowl - add onion, salt, pepper and spices. Add milk and whisk together. Add to meat mixture, and mix thoroughly - it'll be really squishy. Form into 1-1/2 to 2" balls, and place on greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes, transfer meatballs to a sturdy piece of cardboard lined with waxed paper, and place in freezer. When frozen, transfer meatballs to a gallon ziplock bag and store in freezer until ready to use.

Glen is the envy of the shop

When I prepare dinner, I usually make sure there's enough left to make one or two lunch-sized entrees for Glen. I make them up in the Gladware (or similar) containers, label and date them, and freeze them - and he has his pick of home-cooked hot lunches. This resonates well with him, because he tends to be rather frugal, so to him - I am domestic diva numero uno! When his employees smell his lunch heating in the microwave, they are either staring unhappily at their baloney sandwiches, or bemoaning the fact that they had to spend $7.00 at Subway or the Chinese takeout!

Freezing deli meats

Since I've gotten a FoodSaver, vacuum sealing and freezing cold cuts has meant saving money and better quality! I used to just wrap sandwich portions in plastic wrap & bag them, but they still didn't taste like fresh...with the FoodSaver, they do!

So now I can buy larger quantities of Boar's Head and other nicer deli meats when they go on sale, and I feel good about freezing them, because the quality is like fresh! Plus, I can wash out and reuse the FoodSaver bags, so it is still very cost effective for us.

Chicken Wings

Precook chicken wings however you like them! I separate mine into pieces, saving the tips to make broth later. Spray a cookie sheet with pan coating spray, lay out the wings, and sprinkle with Lawry's Seasoned Salt. Bake at 375 for 45-50 minutes, turning over halfway and sprinkling again with seasoned salt. When they're done, cool them a bit - then place them on a wax-paper-lined piece of heavy cardboard, or cookie sheet and freeze. When frozen, transfer them to a gallon ziplock bag - and voila! Precooked frozen wings ready to pop in the oven - and you can take out as many as you need at any given time. I reheat mine at 400 for 30 minutes or so - longer, depending on how crispy you like them.

This also works really well for stuff like shake-n-bake chicken legs and thighs - precook, flash-freeze separately, and store in a ziplock.

When I'm not home, this is one of the easiest meals for Glen to prepare, and the kids love it. :)

Daily freezer tip

So I was making french toast for the kids this morning, and thought I'd share something that, for me, was a "duh" moment when I learned it. Ready? You can freeze cooked french toast and pop it in the toaster for a hot breakfast later.

Wander down the freezer aisle in your grocery store - if they can freeze it, so can you!

When the french toast cools down, wrap the pieces individually in plastic wrap, and store them all in a gallon ziplock bag. Poof - instant hot breakfast for the kids on another morning!

I've done the same with pancakes - wrapped and frozen the same way. So the next time you make these two items, make extra and freeze the leftovers - it'll be a big timesaver later on.

Back to freezer cooking

Finally! We've determined that Glen's symptoms are lessened by simply cutting out gluten, so now comes the arduous task of deciding which family recipe favorites can stand the overhaul - and which ones will have to die a natural death. One thing I've learned is this: gluten-free bread is wicked expensive - $4.99 for a small loaf. I need to learn to bake the stuff myself, and then make breadcrumbs out of it. A small can of GF breadcrumbs is around $5.00!! The good news is that GF bread freezes amazingly well because it's so dense.

So I'll be experimenting today with something simple like Bob's Red Mill GF Bread Mix. I'll let you know how it turns out...but it's still pretty expensive for the mix, and I have to do all the work myself...but at least I'll get a sense of what baking GF bread is like.

New addition to the family!

Well - things have changed a bit for the Freezer Queen. We're having to go gluten and dairy free for a couple of weeks to see if it helps Glen's rheumatoid arthritis symptoms. You can read about that on my other blog. So, I've been purging more than stocking as of late.

One new addition to the family - my new Foodsaver! Why I waited so long to get one, I have no idea. It now has a revered place on my kitchen counter, and I'll be using it a lot!

Freezer grocery list

Sam's Club is very convenient!


2 - 6.5 lb. packages boneless/skinless chicken breast
1 - 6.5 lb. package of chicken wings
1 - 6.5 lb. package chicken legs
1 - 6.5 lb. package chicken thighs
6-8 lbs. babyback ribs
5-6 lbs. center cut pork chops
5 lb. ground turkey
6-7 lb. ground chuck
1 - 3 lb. package of smoked sausage
1 - 3 lb. package of Ballpark hotdogs
5 - lb. frozen green beans
5 - lb. frozen broccoli florets
6 - lb. frozen whole strawberries


That's good for a start, I think...


While I'm at Sam's I also need:
2 - 18-packs of large brown eggs
3-pack of ketchup
6 - lb. elbow macaroni
2 - lb. cheddar cheese
1-2 - lb. havarti w/dill
case of go-gurt
2 - lb. shredded mozzarella cheese
oregano
maple syrup
10 lb. white rice
2 large boxes dishwasher detergent
1/2 gallon dishwashing soap
case of gatorade
case of bottled water
2 gallons apple juice

Dinner tonight

When you cook for the freezer, generally there is always something on-hand for dinner. All it means is thawing something out and heating or cooking it. Example - I had a meatloaf in my freezer for several months. It was all pre-mixed, but still raw. I put it into a gallon ziplock bag, flattened it out so it was only @ 1/4 inch thick, and froze it that way. I can stack ten of those babies on top of one another and take up very little freezer space. They thaw really quickly that way, too.

So - meatloaf, baked potato and salad tonight - with very little effort on my part, and more time to spend in my garden :-)

What's Upstairs

1 pork loin roast
1 chuck steak for pot roast
1 one-lb pkg chuck for stew
1 one-lb. pkg chuck for stew
1 bag precooked chicken wings
1 bag of tollhouse cookie dough balls
2 boneless/skinless chicken breast halves
2 center cut pork loin chops
2 meal portions of boneless skinless chicken thighs, uncooked
1 loaf wheat bread
1 bag of leftover pancakes
6 single serving (for salads or pitas) bags of sliced grilled chicken
1 large bag of fish sticks
1 large bag of broccoli crowns
1 bag of whole strawberries
1 bag turnips
1 bag of peach slices
1 small box of cauliflower
1 container of strawberry ice cream

Wow, I have to stock up!

Step One

Doing freezer inventory. That means making a list of everything I have in my freezer that qualifies as a meal or part of a meal. Now I just need to get motivated! Ha!

Stay tuned! I have a passion for freezer cooking, and it's about time I started a site...