frozen food Archives - Eat at Home

Easy Peanut Butter and Jelly Ice Cream Cake

March 27, 2013 by Tiffany

I am a huge fan of anything peanut butter and jelly.

And I’m an even bigger fan of anything involving ice cream.

So this dessert was right up my alley. I guess that explains why I thought it up.

It’s really easy to make too. You start with a package of ice cream sandwiches. These get layered with peanut butter and raspberry jam. Then frost the whole thing in Cool Whip. I love a recipe that’s assembly-only.

If you need to make a dessert ahead of time, this one is perfect. It gets stored in the freezer and tastes even better after a few days frozen.

Here’s what you’ll need to make it: [Read more...]

Filed under: Dessert, frozen food Tagged with cool whip, dessert, freezer recipe, ice cream sandwiches, jam, peanut butter1 Comment

Freezer Cooking – Ground Beef in the Crock Pot

February 12, 2013 by KimM

One thing I like to do to help cut down on meal prep time is have pre-cooked meats in the freezer. I will usually buy chicken, ground turkey, and ground beef in bulk. I often use my crock pot to cook my chicken, that I will shred and freeze for use in recipes/casseroles/soup. However, I have always cooked my ground beef and turkey on the stove top, usually only a pound or two at a time. It never occurred to me that I could use my slow cooker, until I saw it on Pinterest! (Pin source) One of the many reasons I am addicted to pinning

This is not a recipe per se, just a shortcut for cooking in bulk. The above picture is 3 lbs of 90/10 lean ground beef, with seasonings (salt, pepper, McCormick Grill Mates Hamburger Seasoning, and dried onion) and about half of a large chopped onion. You could easily add taco seasoning, Italian seasonings, or leave it plain. My crock pot could have held much more ground beef too, but this is what I had on hand. I cooked this on high for 4 hours (this may vary depending on your cooker and the amount of beef used, and if it was fresh or frozen), giving it a stir once an hour. You may not need to stir it that often, but it will need to be stirred on occasion and the clumps broken up. After the meat was cooked, I drained the meat (which was pretty lean and didn’t produce a lot of grease) and allowed it too cool. Then I divided it into 3 equal amounts (since I used 3 lbs.) and placed it in freezer bags. SO much simpler than standing over a stove top!

I hope you find this little tip as helpful as I did. {Looking for ideas to use all that ground beef? Check out Eat at Home Ingredient Spotlight: Ground Beef!}

KimM is a contributing writer for Eat at Home. See more from her at her blog Makin’ it Mo’Betta, and follow along on Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter!

Filed under: cooking tips, Crockpot, freezer cooking menu, frozen food, tips Tagged with bulk cooking, freezer cooking, ground beef, slow cooker10 Comments

How to Freeze Wine the Easy Way

January 15, 2013 by Tiffany

I love to cook with wine, but I don’t love drinking it. I’ve tried to like it. Pairing wine and with food (especially chocolate!) sounds like foodie fun. But I just can’t seem to acquire a taste for it.

That means when I buy wine to cook with, I have a lot left. I’ve been in the habit of freezing wine for several years, but I’ve never found the perfect container for freezing. Ice cube trays are too tedious. Zip top bags sometimes leak.

I’m not sure why I never thought to just pour it into a plastic container before. The wine doesn’t freeze solid. You can scoop it out with a spoon and pop the container back in the freezer. Perfect!

Do you like cooking with wine?

Filed under: cooking tips, frozen food, tips Tagged with freezer tip, wine7 Comments

Cheater Chinese Chicken

October 26, 2012 by KimM

I have been craving Chinese food, specifically General Tso’s or Sesame Chicken. You know the ones….deep fried then coated in a thick sauce. Unfortunately, my waistline nor family history of heart disease allow me to eat deep fried foods whenever I want! Boo! So, I was on a mission to make a healthier Chinese meal at home. HOWEVER, my craving for Chinese food happened during a very busy week. My kids had tons of projects and homework, my husband was working late, my 4 y/o was tired and cranky…any of this sound familiar?!

With all this going on, I had to get dinner on the table, like…STAT. No time to fuss over a lot of steps, mixing of a bunch of ingredients, etc. Thank goodness I have a few little tricks up my sleeve. First, as we’ve said here before, a great time-saver is to keep cooked chicken in the freezer. I buy bulk packages of chicken breasts from Sam’s Club, then freeze individual portions. Some I freeze raw, some I freeze in marinade, and some I will go ahead and cook (I will either boil or cook in the slow cooker) then freeze. On this particular evening, I had boiled chicken already prepared (a lot of times I will take chicken out of the freezer in the morning, with no idea what I am actually going to do with it!). The second little trick I have is to keep a couple of prepared sauces in the pantry. I would love to make everything my family eats from scratch, but sometimes, it just doesn’t happen around here. My kids love Sweet Baby Ray’s bbq sauce, so I try to keep that on hand, and recently, I found this at Target…

Perfect for curing my I-need-Chinese-Food-Now-Craving! I also picked up a head of Chinese cabbage and green onions. I may not have had a recipe, but I had a plan!

This is one hastily put together dinner that came out deliciously! The best part, there is no real recipe, so it is completely adaptable to whatever your family likes.

Cheater Chinese Chicken

Ingredients

boneless, skinless chicken breast (I'm sure thighs would work well too) - cooked and cut into bite-size chunks
onion - chopped
broccoli (any veggies you have on hand!)
garlic - minced (to taste - I used one clove)
Chinese cabbage (Napa or your preference)
Sauce (I used the above pictured, but you could use your fave)
Olive Oil
toasted sesame seeds (optional)
green onions (for serving)

Instructions

Place a little olive oil in your skillet. Heat on medium heat.
Add onion to pan and saute until translucent.
Add garlic & broccoli. Give it a good stir.
Add cooked chicken and sauce. Bring to a simmer.
When sauce begins to thicken, add Chinese cabbage - go ahead and fill the pan, b/c the cabbage will wilt and reduce in size (a lot!)
Carefully mix cabbage into the sauce/chicken/veggies and your done! It only takes a few minutes for the cabbage to begin to wilt, and I like mine to still have a little crunch to it.
Garnish with toasted sesame seeds and green onions if desired.
Serve over brown rice (or white, or fried, or noodles....)

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A delicious dinner, and no one will know that it was so quick and easy to prepare!

When not writing for Eat at Home, Kim can be found blogging about her crazy kids and kitchen adventures over at Mo’Betta!

Filed under: 31 days of cooking cheats, Chicken, frozen food, Main Dish Tagged with Chicken, Chinese, quick2 Comments

Cheddar Chive Freezer Biscuits

October 5, 2012 by AndreaG

Cheesy biscuits in the freezer, ready to bake for dinner? Now, that’s a great short cut for cheaters!

These Cheddar Chive Freezer Biscuits are simple to make and freeze really well. I serve them with so many dishes: chili, soups, chicken pot pie, pork and ham. My family loves it when I bake up enough that I have leftovers the next day. I cut the leftover biscuits in half and use them for bread in ham sandwiches. Quite delicious!

To form the biscuits, I drop them on cookie sheets using a soup spoon out of my silverware set. Using this method, I tend to get 18 biscuits out of the recipe. I usually bake 9 right away, then freeze the other 9. I love it because I can serve hot biscuits for two different dinners but only have to wash the dishes once!

To freeze these biscuits, line a baking sheet with waxed paper. Then drop the biscuits onto the waxed paper. Freeze for one hour. Remove frozen biscuits from the baking sheet and store in a freezer bag, making sure to squeeze out as much air as possible.

Helpful hint: I always mark the bag with the temperature and the cooking time. That way, when I pull out the bag, I know I need to bake the biscuits at 425 for 15 – 18 minutes.

Cheddar Chive Freezer Biscuits

Yield: 18 biscuits

Cheddar Chive Freezer Biscuits

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup shredded sharp Cheddar
2 tablespoons minced fresh chives
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 cup butter, cold and cut into pieces
1 cup buttermilk
2 eggs, beaten

Instructions

Preheat oven to 425.
Whisk together flour, Cheddar, chives, salt, baking soda, and cayenne pepper in a medium bowl. Using a pastry blender or two knives, cut in the butter.
In a small bowl, stir together the buttermilk and eggs. Stir until flour mixture just until all ingredients are wet.
Drop dough by heaping tablespoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake until golden, between 15 and 18 minutes.

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Hot cheddar chive biscuits are comfort food at its best! How will you serve them?

Andrea has been married to Peter for 20 years, and together they have two teenage daughters. Struggling with the reality that soon her girls will be on her own, she is leaving them vlogs at 101 Life Lessons. You can also find her at The Greenbacks Gal where she finds organic deals, green steals and cooks real food meals.

Filed under: 31 days of cooking cheats, bread, frozen food Tagged with biscuits, cheddar, chive, freezer food5 Comments

Reuben Calzone

October 4, 2012 by KateS

I adore Reuben sandwiches but I’m terrible at making them myself. I always end up losing half the sandwich contents when trying to flip them. I had just about accepted that they’d be an eating-out-only treat when my husband mentioned that his Mom used to make them in calzone form.

Reubens as a calzone?

Brilliant!

It totally eliminates the everything-is-going-to-fall-out issue. It’s also easier to feed a crowd this way, since you don’t have to juggle multiple sandwiches at once.

Any recipe that calls for just 5 ingredients is an automatic short cut for cheaters. And this recipe will freeze really well, if you want to stock your freezer and bake it another night!

Here’s what you’ll need:

Yes, only five ingredients! It’s a great in-a-pinch dinner because you can pick up all the ingredients on the way home, go through the express lane and be home cooking in no time.

Reuben Calzone

Yield: Serves 4

Ingredients

1 lb. pizza dough
1/2 lb. deli-sliced corned beef
8 oz. sauerkraut
1/4 lb. deli-sliced swiss cheese
Thousand Island dressing, for dipping

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Divide the ball of pizza dough in half. Roll out one half of the dough into a rectangle approximately 8"x14".
Top with half of the corned beef, half of the sauerkraut and half of the swiss cheese.
Roll from the long side, pinching the dough together to seal. Make sure to pinch the ends together too. Place seam-side down on a lined baking sheet.
Repeat with remaining ingredients.
Bake for 30-45 minutes, until the crust is lightly browned. Let sit for 5 minutes before cutting.
Serve with Thousand Island dressing for dipping.

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Kate is a home cook living and working in New Jersey. In addition to sharing recipes with Eat at Home readers, she blogs her cooking adventures at Kate’s Recipe Box. When she’s not in the kitchen, you can find her reading or tending to her garden.

Filed under: 31 days of cooking cheats, frozen food, Main Dish, Sandwich Tagged with corned beef, pizza dough, Reuben3 Comments

Mini Deep Dish Pizzas

August 16, 2012 by KateS

I am really excited to introduce you to Kate, one of EaH’s new contributing writers. I think you are going to love reading her posts and her recipes too. Kate blogs at Kate’s Recipe Box. I can’t wait to try these Mini Deep Dish Pizzas. In fact, I may make up a batch and put them in the freezer for quick snacks and lunches.

Here in the suburbs of New York City, there is – quite literally – a pizza parlor on every corner. Getting a deep dish pizza is incredibly tricky, though. Everyone is fiercely loyal to New York-style pizza.

I first tried deep dish (aka, Chicago style) when I was in college. I loved the buttery crust and the chunky tomato sauce but quickly realized that if it was something I wanted on a regular basis, I’d have to make it myself.

I like making these mini-versions because they’re easy to adjust for different tastes. You can add any of your favorite pizza toppings in place of the green peppers. I usually make several different flavors in one pan, using whatever we have in the refrigerator – pepperoni and ham with pineapple are other favorites!

Here’s what you’ll need (olive oil, too, which didn’t make the picture):

Mini Deep Dish Pizzas

Ingredients

6 Tablespoon + 1 teaspoon Olive oil, divided
1/3 cup onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 can (14.5 oz.) petite diced tomatoes
2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
1 ball (approx. 16 oz.) pizza dough
1/2 green pepper, finely diced
8 oz. mozzarella cheese, shredded

Instructions

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large frying pan, until shimmering. Add the onion and cook for 5 minutes, until translucent.
Stir in minced garlic. Cook for about 30 seconds, or until fragrant.
Stir in diced tomatoes and Italian seasoning. Cook until slightly thickened, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
Add 1 teaspoon olive oil to each well of a cupcake tin.
Roll out pizza dough until about 1/4 inch thick. Using a biscuit cutter slightly larger than the opening of your cupcake pan, cut out rounds of dough and push them into the cupcake pans. (If you don’t have a biscuit cutter, a large cup or small bowl would work too!)
Add a heaping tablespoon of the tomato sauce to each pizza dough cup. Top with chopped peppers and shredded mozzarella cheese.
Bake for 15-18 minutes, until cheese is bubbly and dough is lightly browned on top.
Remove from oven and let cool for two minutes before removing to a serving tray.

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Filed under: frozen food, Main Dish Tagged with freezer friendly, lunches, pizza8 Comments

No-Bake Cappuccino Pie

July 19, 2012 by Tiffany

Remember the No-Bake Peanut Butter Fluff Pie? This one is like that one, except instead of peanut butter, it has mocha cappuccino spread in it.

I love that this pie can be made ahead of time and put in the freezer. Perfect for company and hot weather. Double perfect if those two things come at the same time.

Here’s what you’ll need: [Read more...]

Filed under: Dessert, frozen food, Pie Tagged with easy pie, freezer pie, make ahead dessert, no bake dessert7 Comments

4 Freezer Marinades for Lazy People

June 7, 2012 by Tiffany

If you’re a lazy cook like me, you are going to love this idea!

I grill a lot of chicken. Usually, I just throw the boneless breasts or tenders on the grill frozen. Sometimes, I go all out and sprinkle them with salt and pepper or homemade seasoned salt. That works fine. But I really prefer the taste of marinated chicken.

However, I’m too lazy and usually in too much of a hurry to remember to thaw the chicken and get it in the marinade with time for it to sit before cooking.

But I’ve got a true short cut for you! It turns out, you can put the marinade over frozen chicken. Pop it back in the freezer and then when you’re ready pop it on the grill. Super simple and it tastes great and makes the chicken tender too.

This idea came to me when GLAD sent me some of their new Freezerware containers.

I used the large size. They are big enough for 1/2 a bag of chicken tenders to fit with room to spare for shaking to coat the meat with marinade. [Read more...]

Filed under: Chicken, cooking tips, frozen food, Main Dish, tips Tagged with Chicken, freezer meals, grill, marinade, outdoor grill13 Comments

Coffee Toffee Ice Cream Pie with a Ribbon of Fudge

May 31, 2012 by Tiffany

As far as I’m concerned, coffee ice cream with hot fudge is the best dessert in the world. It’s my favorite of favorites.

So when I was asked to try Häagen-Dazs® and I got to choose my own flavor, I jumped at the chance. Have I ever mentioned how much I love ice cream?

Of course, I chose coffee ice cream. I thought about posting a photo of a big bowl of Häagen-Dazs® with hot fudge, because that is how I like to eat it best. But, then a friend told me about a pie she once had. The pie had coffee ice cream, rich fudge, toffee pieces and a chocolate crust. Holy ice cream scoops!

This pie is impressive, perfect for serving to company. It’s no-bake, easy to assemble and you can make it ahead of time because it gets kept in the freezer until you’re ready to eat.

Here’s what you’ll need: [Read more...]