Friday, February 11, 2011

BEEF BURGANDY (CROCK POT)

Makes 4-6 servings
1.5 pounds beef cut into 1" pieces
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 cup red wine (You can use cooking wine, but seriously tastes better with real wine)
1 small onion chopped
1 can 4oz sliced mushrooms
1 package dry onion soup mix
1 tablespoon minced garlic

Freeze in Gallon Size Freezer bags. Crock pot on low 6-8 hours. High 4-6 hrs. Serve over spiral noodles (stroganoff?)

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Easy Teriyaki Chicken (crock pot)

Quickly I'm going to answer a question. I pull out all my oven (in Pyrex) meals in the morning so they defrost on my counter top . So the cooking time is the same. If you pull them straight from Freezer to Oven, which is fine, it just keeps your oven on longer, cook for an additional 30-45 minutes. Oh and I don't preheat, I just plop the food in right when I turn on the oven. Some ridiculous part of me thinks this helps the frozenness adjust better to the hottness. Slowly getting warmer :)

Made this yesterday so I cannot tell you if it tastes good, but it smelled good :)
By Barbara Shie, Colorado Springs, CO

2-3 lbs skinlees chicken pieces.
20 oz can pineapple chunks. (juice and all)
dash of ground ginger
1 cup teriyaki sauce

With the chicken there are options, I bought at Harmons already cubed fresh chicken breasts. Same price per pound, why wouldn't you. They didn't have enough so I had my butcher cut more, so if your store doesn't sell it that way I bet they can do it for you. Or you can get the fresh chicken breast strips and then just have to cut the additional direction, or you can get the entire breast and cube it your self. cut into about 1-2" pieces.


To save dishes, I just pulled out my gallon size freezer bags wrote on them and then dumped everything in them. Seal TIGHTLY squish it all around to mix and plop in the freezer.

Place bagged goods in slow cooker. Cook on low for 6-8 hrs or high 4-6 hrs. I'd serve over instant rice with a side of veggies:)

Lasagna

This one's going to be quick. You can freeze lasagna. So your favorite lasagna recipe will work.
Its a time consuming meal so I always like to make more then one batch and freeze extras. It is also one of the more expensive meals. This one you'll want the Pyrex for as well.
I'm giving you my friend Liz's recipe. You'll have left over sauce. Just put it in a freezer bag and use it for spaghetti. Sometimes I'm lazy and I'll just buy the already made sauce in a jar (Ragu, Prego...), but making it yourself is much cheaper.

"K so I don’t have measurements cuz I don’t measure anything…

This will make a 13x9 pan, sometimes a 13x9 pan and 9x9…

I generally have sauce left over, but I don’t know how much…

Sauce

1 lg can of crushed tomatoes (at the grocery store – don’t know the size but it’s the lg can – not lg costco size:))

1 reg can of diced or cut tomatoes

1 reg can of tomato sauce

1 small can of tomato paste

Italian seasoning

Oregano

Basil

Parsley

Garlic powder

Chopped onions (fresh or dried)

Pepper

Salt

(if you add a little bit of sugar it will make it less spicy if you like less spicy)

Simmer for a few hours to blend all the flavors (or as long as you can :). Simmer while you are preparing everything else. The flavors will blend during the weeks it spends in the freezer)

Brown Ground Italian Sausage and add to sauce (you could also do ground beef, or meatballs, or Italian links for spaghetti too:)) (if doing italian links squeeze out of the skin and brown then add to sauce)

Cook one box of lasagna noodles (you need 9 unbroken ones and can have an equivalent of 3 broken ones to fill a 13x9 so when you do a whole box you can generally do the 13x9 and 9x9 since you have enough sauce)

Rinse noodles and lay flat on the counter

Cheeses

1 tub of ricotta cheese (I like the lowfat precious brand – there are two sizes, you want the larger size)

1 egg

Italian Seasoning

Italian Bread crumbs

Parmesan cheese

-mix above ingredients together

Grate a ball of mozzarella cheese (I like the low fat precious brand)

Lasagna

Spread a little bit of sauce on the bottom of pan

Lay 3 lasagna noodles and the cut/broken ones to fill the bottom of 13x9 pan

Spread sauce over each noodles

Drop small spoonfuls of cheese mixture

Spread grated mozzarella cheese over top

Layer more lasagna noodles on top and press down to evenly spread cheese mixture

Repeat sauce, cheese mixture, mozzarella

Another layer of noodles again pressing to evenly spread cheese mixture

Sauce and mozzarella

Put in Freezer or Bake in oven 350 degrees 30-45 minutes till top is golden brown