"Dump" Freezer Meals Round 2: Pork Chops

Pork Chops go on "Manager Special" or discount prices ALL the time, so that is when I stock up on my pork chops, throw them in the freezer and cook a later date. It's so handy, and plus it makes our teacher salary stretch a little farther when it comes to buying meat.

I would love to add more pork recipes to do with a roast, but that is not something we have on hand very often. But when we do, you can bet Cafe Rio Burrito's are on the menu! :)

All the recipes call for 4-6 pork chops, however my husband and I are the only ones who will eat pork at our house (we have yet to convince the 3 year old it's just like Ham, which she loves!) So I only added 2 to each baggie.

Sage Pork Chops: (This is the ONLY one we have not tried, so I don't tell you how good it is, but I don' think you can go too wrong with such a simple recipe!)

2 tsp salt
1 tsp dried sage
1 tsp pepper
2 Tbsp butter
1 c. water
2 beef bullion cubes
Pork Chops

Throw all ingredients into a gallon sized zip lock bag. Cook on low 6-8 hours (pork cooks fast, and dries out easily, so I'd check it at about 5 hours). Serve with carrots and potatoes.

Cranberry Pork Chops:

1/2 can of cranberry sauce
1 c. apple sauce
1/4 c. white onion
2-4 pork chops.

Throw all ingredients into a gallon sized zip lock bag. Cook on low 6-8 hours (pork cooks fast, and dries out easily, so I'd check it at about 5 hours). Serve with mashed potatoes.

Cinnamon Apple Pork Chops: I really liked this one. It was a "step up" for our normal Sunday Dinner.

1 C. apple sauce
3 Tbsp Cinnamon
4 Pork Chops

Throw all ingredients into a gallon sized zip lock bag. Cook on low 6-8 hours (pork cooks fast, and dries out easily, so I'd check it at about 5 hours). We had mashed potatoes and broccoli with it.

Teriyaki Pork Chops: 

2-4 pork chops
2 Tbsp Brown Sugar
1/3 c. Chicken Broth
2 tsp Garlic
1/4 c. Soy Sauce

Throw all ingredients into a gallon sized zip lock bag. Cook on low 6-8 hours (pork cooks fast, and dries out easily, so I'd check it at about 5 hours). Serve with Rice and Veggies!

Hawaiian Pork Chops/Chicken: This is my favorite one! 

2-4 pork chops/chicken breasts
1 can pineapple tidbits
2 Tbsp brown sugar
2 Tbsp low sodium soy sauce

Throw all ingredients into a gallon sized zip lock bag. Cook on low 6-8 hours. Serve with Rice and Veggies!

"Dump" Freezer Meals- Round 1:Meatballs

Well, it's officially been WAY too long since I have done any blogging! This pregnancy has sure got the best of me for the past 8 months! Luckily for me, once I found out I had gestational diabetes, and was able to get things managed, it was like I was a whole new person again! So much so, that I made 36 freezer meals, in 3 days (with the help of an awesome friend). I would have done more, like breads and such to go with it, but my freezer was absolutely FULL!!

So I am going to share with you some of the meals I did on day 1: the quick and easiest ones! I literally sat down from grocery shopping, grabbed my ziplock bags, and all my "common" ingredients, and started dumping them in. It was so fast! I think I did about 17 "dump meals" in about 2 hours (with several interruptions from the 3 year old).

My BIGGEST tip: is go to the dollar store (one that has a freezer section) and buy the frozen pepper mix. It has green, red, and yellow peppers already diced, and onions. It was a HUGE time saver for me, and totally worth that dollar! I bought a big bag of meatballs at Sam's club to make all of these meals- it was the quickest way to get it done, and I am all about quick!

Italian Meatballs:

1 Medium Onion *I just used my pepper mix from Dollar Tree
2 Garlic Cloves    *used garlic powder
1 tsp dried parsley
1 (28oz) Jar spaghetti sauce
1 (16 oz) jar crushed tomatoes
1 (14.24 oz) tomato puree/paste
1 lb. meatballs
Pasta to be cooked fresh

Throw all ingredients EXCEPT pasta into a gallon zip lock bag, cook in crock pot on low for 6-8 hours or high 3-4. Cook pasta, and serve. Parmesan cheese*optional

Meatballs with Peppers and Onions:

1 lb meatballs
1 lg green pepper (sliced)*or diced in a pre-made bag! Seriously they were awesome!
1 medium onion
2 c. diced tomatoes
2 tsp onion powder
2 tsp garlic powder
Hot dog buns
cheese* optional

Throw all ingredients into a gallon zip lock bag, cook in crock pot on low for 6-8 hours or high 3-4. Serve on toasted hot dog buns, top with cheese.

Sweet and Sour Meatballs: This one is my favorite!

1 lb meatballs
1 can pineapple tidbits
3 sweet peppers
1 onion *again I did the Dollar Tree pepper and onion mix for this
1/2 c ketchup
1/2 c vinegar
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1/2 c brown sugar
2 Tbsp Cornstarch *add day of cooking

Throw all ingredients EXCEPT cornstarch into a gallon zip lock bag, cook in crock pot on low for 6-8 hours or high 3-4. Add Cornstarch 30 minutes -1 hour before serving. Serve with Rice and Broccoli.

Meatball Soup:

4 c Frozen Veggies (I did peas and carrots)
1 onion
24 oz jar spaghetti sauce
4 tsp beef bullion
1 lb meatballs
4 cups water*add day of cooking

 Throw all ingredients into a gallon zip lock bag, cook in crock pot on low for 6-8 hours or high 3-4. Serve with sliced bread and butter (or rolls).

Salisbury Steak Meatballs: This was my other favorite one! They're all good, but this one hit the spot!

1 lb meatballs
1 onion thinly sliced
2 c, beef broth
1 tsp ketchup
2 Tbsp fresh parsley
1 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
1 Tbsp Cornstarch *add day of cooking
8 oz Al-dente Cooked Egg noodles

Throw all ingredients EXCEPT cornstarch and al-dente cooked egg noodles into a gallon zip lock bag, cook in crock pot on low for 6-8 hours or high 3-4. Add Cornstarch 30 minutes -1 hour before serving. Add cooked noodles last 10 minutes, to warm up.

Crock Pot Freezer Meal Series

Crockpot meals are always nice when life is crazy! Sadly, i wish i was better about doing this lately! Our typical conversation at about 4:30pm is, "So, what do you want for dinner?" Because we haven't planned our meals out (I hate that!) Here are a few of our favorite "go to meals"

 Southwestern Chicken: (I got this from a website a long time ago but can't remember where, so sorry I can't give proper credit)

1 small bag frozen corn
1 can black beans
2 lg boneless, skinless ckicken breast
1-16 oz jar of medium heat salsa

TOPPINGS:
shredded cheese
tortillas or chips
sour cream
cilantro
avacado

Pour bag of frozen corn in bottom of crockpot. Place chicken breasts on top of corn and cover with rinsed and drained black beans, salsa, and cilantro. Cook on low for 4-6 hours. Serve with toppings and chips or tortillas.
*can also place all ingredients in freezer zip l8ck bag and cook on a later date.

Garlic & Pineapple Chicken:

1 lb chicken breast
1/4 tsp onion powder & garlic powder *I like a lot so I do 1 tsp.
8 oz pineapple chunk in juice (save 1/4 cup)
1 Tbsp. Brown sugar
5 oz sweet & sour sauce
16 oz frozen mixed veggies (broccoli,  peas, peppers,  whatever you like. We do Mediterranean blend)

In a bowl add wet ingredients, powders, and sugar, mix well. Place in greased crockpot over chicken. Cook on low for 4-6 hours, add chopped veggies last 30 minutes, cook on high. Serve over rice.

Chicken Cassiatoré: *we just had this last week and loved it!

1-10oz can tomato soup
1 28oz can chopped/diced tomatoes, undrained
1/4 tsp minced garlic (we like 1 tsp)
1 1/2 tsp italian seasoning
1/2 c chopped green pepper
1/2 c chopped mushrooms (we uses 1 can)
1/2 c onion, chopped
1 lb chicken breast
Pasta or rice *we did spaghetti noodles

Mix sauces, add to crock pot. Add rest of ingredients, except rice or noodles. Cook on low for 7-8 hours.  Serve with rice or pasta al dente.

Ham & Cheesy Potatoes:

1 bag frozen diced potatoes with onions and peppers (thawed)
8 oz shredded cheddar & monterey jack cheese blend
1 can cream of celery soup
8 oz sour cream
3 lb fully cooked smoked ham *or 3 cups cubed ham

Spray cooker. Add ingredients to crockpot. Cut ham lenth wise in half and place in potatoe mixture. Cover and cook on low 5-6 hours or until potatoes are done. Remove ham and slice for serving.

Steak and noodles (from Families on the go)

2lbs stew meat
2 cans french onion soup (undiluted)
2 cans cream of mushroom soup (undiluted)
1 pkg wide egg noodles
*I like to add chopped zucchini
* I also like to add 1 can worth of water

Combine all ingredients into slow cooker except noodles. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. Serve over noodles.

Freezer Meals Part II

Okay! Life has finally settled down just a bit for us! We had a scare with our little one. She had been complaining for a few weeks about headaches, and her doctor rushed an MRI for her. Talk about the scariest, longest, day of my life! But luckily, it turned out great! And I am ready to get back to normal...whatever that is?

I mentioned previously I wanted to post to you about some of my favorite things to help out with dinners that I keep stocked up in the freezer. We all want those extra minutes with our kids, our hubby, our house (it needs love too!), or maybe for ourselves. Help a girl out, and make life simple, right!?

I know some of these may seem super tedious, but I promise, it really DOES make a difference!

1. Chopped Vegetables I don't know about your house, but we always seem to need onions and peppers for our various recipes. One thing that has made life a little simpler is to have veggies already chopped up in the freezer. As you're cooking dinner, you're sitting there chopping the onion-bawling your eyes out, while the kid is screaming in the background, and whatever you're cooking is nearly burnt. (That's real life at our house!) I did some research about some foods, how to store them, or use them to help keep them longer, or simply just to be more flexible in cooking. Chop some onions, peppers, zucchini, whatever it is that you find yourself using frequently-except potatoes...we'll go there soon, place them on a tray/plate and flash freeze them for 1 hour so they don't stick together, then throw them in freezer ziplock bags. When you need them for you next dinner, you already have them done, chopped and ready to go! (And honestly, it's so that those dang onions only make me cry every once in a while!) 

*My favorites to store are onions, peppers, zucchini, carrots, jalapenos, and tomatoes. For information on how to store tomatoes in the freezer check out this link! 

2. Meat already cooked
This may sound dumb to you, but I can't even tell you how much longer it takes to cook hamburger/chicken/ham/whatever raw, than it does already cooked and frozen again. And with our crazy life, every minute I save is precious!

We don't use hamburger very often, but it's so nice to have it ready when you need it. I buy hamburger on manager special at Smith's (saving every cent I can), bring it home, and cook it ALL in the crock pot (usually I do it at night so in the morning I just drain, sort, and throw in the baggies). I like to divide it in half, (take out the plain first), then add taco seasoning the the second half, and label my baggies plain/taco. We also like to do this with chicken.  Canned chicken is really expensive, and personally, I HATE shredding chicken. So again, I cook 6-7 chicken breasts in the crock pot with some water and broth for some extra flavor, when it's done, I chop into cubes, or shred, divide into baggies...you get the hint! It's awesome!

3. Bread sticks
These are honestly my FAVORITE bread sticks for many reasons, they're easy to make, they require no yeast (we're not friends... I can never get it to work!), and they are really filling! We've even used this recipe before as a pizza crust and it works AWESOME! My husband, a big eater, was full in just 2 slices (I am pretty sure that has NEVER happened before!) I follow this recipe-times 3 or 4. And always have to add a little more milk than what the recipe calls for, or flour if I accidentally dump the milk in! (Oops!) I make the recipe, cut the bread sticks into slices, flash freeze for an hour, place them into a freezer ziplock bag. And when I am ready to cook them, I melt the butter in the bottom of the pan-like directed, throw the frozen bread sticks on top, and add a few minutes to cooking time! It's like bread sticks in less than 20 minutes! *These make great bread sticks for dipping-like with spaghetti.

Click here for the recipe from Hill Billy House Wife 

4. Muffins, Muffins, Muffins, and more Muffins! Muffins are my favorite thing to have on hand because they help make a meal a little more filling, I can hide vegetables in them (I get pretty creative sometimes haha), and my daughter will devour them, which is pretty awesome because she hardily eats ANYTHING! I also love these because they freeze so well, they keep for probably about 3 months, and they're great for my hubby to just grab and go for breakfast in the morning. (I don't think we've ever made it to the 3 month mark, and that's with doubling/tripling EVERY recipe!)

*If you want to save time, make these into bread. I personally like the muffins, even though they take longer to make when doing in bulk because they're already divided into serving sizes and I can thaw out a small portion rather than the whole loaf.

Our favorites are:

•  Banana Oatmeal Muffins
• Spaghetti Squash Muffins (MODIFICATIONS: I add 1/2 cup of craisins to these too, which my family loves. I blend my squash in a blender with the eggs, vanilla, and 1- 1 1/2 c. of apple sauce (because my blender is horrible and needs a lot of "wet" ingredients to be able to blend. I also use nutmeg in the place of ginger. And do half whole wheat flour. Because I add applesauce, I minus a 1/2 cup of sugar to the recipe.)
•  Chocolate Spinach Muffins *I loved these, hubby did not, but I am pretty sure I forgot to add an egg, so they were pretty dry, and it helps if you have a good blender-NOT the blender I have lol!
• Zucchini/Pumpkin/Sweet Potato Muffins

How I do Freezer Meals- Maybe it's the lazy version way??

To all you mama's out there who can sit down and cook for 4+ hours and make a large number of freezer meals all at once, Kudo's to you! I am not one of those moms! Yes, I am only chasing one little monster, rather than some of you who are chasing multiple, but it just never really works out (as much as I wish it did). So I have come up with a real-life-mama-who-doesn't-have-hours-to-spend-in-the-kitchen-solution!

If you knew my husband, you would know he's a big eater-sometimes I feel like I am feeding a house full of teenage boys, and he is my only one! For those of you REALLY feeding a house full of boys-oye! Good luck! I feel like I can barely keep up, so I can't imagine how you REALLY do keep up!

One of my favorite things about cooking is experimenting. I like to try new things, try new ingredients in already perfected recipes, and I love to make my man happy with lunches prepared for him to take to work.

I have found the easiest thing for me to do to get freezer meals/lunches, ect to actually make it to the freezer (instead of being eaten all at once for dinner) is to double, or sometimes triple, or even quadruple the recipe! That may seem like a lot of work to you, but in my mind, I already AM doing the work. I am cooking dinner for THAT night right then and there, so I may as well make dinner or lunches for a few more nights while I am at it!

Here are a few of my favorite things and recipes to freeze, that we really love to have on hand. First of all, I have to preface, we're not big meat eaters! So in almost every recipe that I have adapted for us, it's how WE like it, and how WE cook it. If it's not enough meat for you, or too spicy, or whatever, feel free to experiment and make it work for your family! We're pretty adventurous when it comes to food, and I know some of you are not! Hope these can help you're little family! Happy cooking!

Carley's Favorite Meals to Freeze:

1. Meatloaf (and recently a Southwest Meatloaf): personally I am all about what I like to refer to as "veggie purging"-using as many vegetables in recipes as possible-because I know there are days when we don't have many, or there are days when I have a ton of veggies in my fridge that need to be used ASAP. This is one of my favorite to veggie purge with!

2. Chicken Chili- this is another one of my absolute favorite veggie purging meals! I love it because it's easy, it's filling for my man, and can easily be divided into smaller servings for him to take to lunch. Add a little corn bread muffin or two, (which I freeze those too, they'll be in a later post!) have it thaw in his lunch box, and it's ready to roll!

3. Lasagna- seriously, the easiest lasagna to throw together EVER! I love this recipe. It's even a quick meal, when you don't have it pre-frozen. It works great for lunches too! Just cook it, let it cool, and divide into smaller freezer ziplock bags!

4. Potato Soup

5. Sweet Pork recipe (or for chicken). We almost always use this for chicken instead of pork, mainly because we hardily have pork on hand. But it's a great recipe to have for salads, tostadas, burritos, ect. Or just to serve with rice and black beans. I'll share with you my "black bean concoction."

6. Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole This is a great one when you're feeling for something a little "fancy" but don't want to put the effort into a gourmet meal!

7. Carley's Enchiladas This is my husband's favorite meal I have made him since we have been married! He was so certain his favorite meal was lasagna, until he had this, and every since, he is always requesting these! *cilantro is a good add to this too!

8. Chicken and Dumpling Casserole

 9. Tater Tot Casserole

10. Stromboli LOVE This one for lunches!

11. Tortellini Stew I LOVE this one! My brother actually made it for a family event-he uses marinara sauce (what's the difference?!) I just use spaghetti sauce since I have it on hand, and if I am really craving it, will add a touch of sugar to make it a little sweeter!


Stay tuned for my next post on "sides" I love to have ready in my freezer! Which will include breadsticks, muffins, muffins, muffins, and so much more!

Carley