frozen food | Eat at Home

2 Awesome Freezer Cooking Resources

September 23, 2011 by Tiffany

I know that all of you love stocking your freezer as much as I do. It can be such a time saver.

And there’s the satisfaction of knowing you’ve got mealtime covered (or at least a head start).

I want to introduce you to 2 resources for freezer cooking from Once a Month Mom. (And there’s a limited number available at a discount! Keep reading for the code.)

Both books have plans, instructions, grocery lists and even labels. Everything you need to get the freezer stocked is here (except the food, of course!) [Read more...]

Filed under: frozen food Tagged with freezer cooking, holiday dinner, once a month mom, toddler food1 Comment

Chicken Enchilada Soup in the Slow Cooker

September 13, 2011 by Tiffany

This is a recipe that will be made often in my house. My kids have been asking for it again already.

I first saw the recipe when Mary from Giving Up on Perfect linked it for Ingredient Spotlight. I’ve since spotted it on Pinterest several times. This soup is fantastic! And it’s easy too.

I made just a few minor changes to the way Mary fixed it. I doubled the recipe, which made a lot. It completely filled my 6 quart slow cooker. Here’s what you’ll need: [Read more...]

Filed under: Crockpot, frozen food, Main Dish, Soup Tagged with black beans, Chicken, corn, cream of chicken soup, cream style corn, Crockpot, diced tomatoes and green chilies, enchilada sauce, freezer meal, milk, onion, pepper jack cheese, red pepper, slow cooker14 Comments

How to Freeze Zucchini

August 4, 2011 by Tiffany

This is the giant zucchini that was gifted to me the other day. I turned part of it into Zucchini Carrot Cake.

The rest got shredded up and frozen.

Just pop the shredded zucchini into a Ziploc bag. Don’t forget to label the bags. I froze mine in 2 cup quantities. I got 6 cups out of this one zucchini!

Now I can use the shreds for more cake or bread or even in soups and stews.

Filed under: frozen food, Vegetable Tagged with freeze, zucchini19 Comments

This post is from SnoWhite at Finding Joy in My Kitchen. On Ingredient Spotlight: Spinach, SnoWhite mentioned that she freezes fresh spinach to use for later. I asked if she would share her process with us and she was kind to agree.

Thanks so much for inviting me to share this kitchen tip today, Tiffany! I am honored to have a chance to guest post at Eat at Home.

In our house, we eat a lot of spinach. For a while, I was buying the $1 frozen spinach boxes in the grocery store. However, I really like fresh spinach in many dishes. I started buying organic spinach in bulk from Sam’s Club where I can get a 16 oz for just over $3. This financially worked great for us, but we quickly realized we didn’t want to eat fresh spinach for every single meal each time we purchased the spinach, nor did we want the spinach to go to waste.

[Read more...]

Filed under: frozen food, Vegetable Tagged with spinach15 Comments

Frozen Mocha Marble Loaf

February 25, 2011 by Tiffany

If you’re looking for a dessert you can make ahead of time, that’s full of chocolatey, coffee goodness, this is it!

I made this for our Valentine’s Day dinner. The recipe came from The Sweets Life. Natalie linked it up on Ingredient Spotlight, the week we focused on sweetened condensed milk. Natalie has all kinds of scrumptious recipes on her site.

I thought I might serve this with chocolate syrup or even hot fudge, but it doesn’t need any embellishment. The smooth mocha and creamy vanilla on a chocolate cookie crust is all that’s needed.

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

Filed under: Dessert, frozen food Tagged with chocolate syrup, coffee, mocha, oreos, sweetened condensed milk, vanilla, whipping cream5 Comments

Freezer Cooking – Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Storing Food in the Freezer

February 17, 2011 by Tiffany

I’m gearing up for Virtual Freezer Cooking Day on Saturday. I’ve made a list of foods I want to cook and shopped my freezer full of pork for some of the meat I’ll need. I’ve still got to make a grocery list and go shopping.

Some of you are getting ready too and I’m so excited to get to cook with you Saturday! It would be fun to do it in person, but cooking via Facebook will be a blast too.

Alison, an Eat at Home reader, sent me an email asking a few questions about how to store food in the freezer. She’s going to be cooking on Saturday to help get ready for a new baby. I thought I would answer her questions here in a post, since others may have the same questions.

Freezer Cooking Supplies

There are a few items you will want to have on hand to store foods in the freezer. [Read more...]

Filed under: frozen food, tips Tagged with baked goods, casseroles, freezer food, freezer tips, frozen, how long to freeze food, soups18 Comments

Chicken Lettuce Wraps – Freezer Cooking Recipe

February 15, 2011 by Tiffany

The filling for these lettuce wraps is perfect for making ahead and freezing. I see this becoming one of my vacation food recipes.

The chicken is seasoned with garlic, soy sauce and some vinegar. Water chestnuts and green onions add to the flavors. I based the recipe on Spicy Garlic Chicken Pizza, another winning freezer recipe.

The chicken filling would also be great served over rice, but we liked the crunch of the lettuce.

Any recipe that calls for cutting raw chicken will require a sharp knife. My favorite knife comes from Rada Cutlery. It’s called Cook’s Knife and it costs just $9.20. Frugal and sharp – I love it!

Here’s what you’ll need for the Chicken Lettuce Wraps: [Read more...]

Filed under: Chicken, frozen food, Main Dish Tagged with cayenne pepper, Chicken, freezer food, garlic, green onions, lettuce, make ahead, soy sauce, vinegar, water chestnuts8 Comments

Freezer Meatballs – extra large batch

February 8, 2011 by Tiffany

88 meatballs. That’s a lot of meatballs to stash away in the freezer.

It boggles my mind, but somehow we have managed to eat all 88 meatballs and we didn’t even have company to help. Did I mention it only took us 3 weeks to polish them off? Yikes!

I used them for spaghetti/tortellini meals twice. And I had two recipes to try out that used meatballs. One of them didn’t turn out quite the way I’d hoped the first time, so I tried it again. My kids have revolted now. I don’t think I can feed them another meatball dish for a while.

But, I still think it’s a great idea to have homemade meatballs in the freezer. They taste much better than the store-bought kind and they are better for you too. You can use them for spaghetti, of course. But they’re also good in Sweet and Sour Meatballs over Rice and Meatball Subs.

Before we get to the recipe, I want to remind you about Virtual Freezer Cooking Day on February 19. On that Saturday, I’ll be in my kitchen cooking freezer foods and I’ll be checking in on Facebook frequently to hear what you’re cooking in your kitchens. Here are the details of the event. Be sure to RSVP. There will be prizes and giveaways involved!

Back to today’s recipe: Somehow I failed to take a picture of the finished meatballs. The ingredient photo is at the top of the post.

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

Filed under: frozen food, Main Dish Tagged with bread crumbs, eggs, freezer food, ground beef, onion, panko, worcestershire sauce10 Comments

Freezer Cooking February – Tips and Recipe Roundup

February 1, 2011 by Tiffany

I hope you’re ready to fill your freezer this month! Freezer cooking is going to be our focus for the next 4 weeks. (It won’t be all freezer cooking though. I’ve got a special dessert that will be perfect for Valentine’s I’ll share later this week!)

On Saturday, February 19 we’re going to have a Virtual Freezer Cooking Party via the Eat at Home Facebook page! The idea is that if you’re free that day and want to get some cooking done, you can pop in to Facebook and share what you’re cooking and how it’s going. I think it will be more fun to “cook together” than doing it alone. And there may be a giveaway involved

Before we get started with new freezer recipes and tips, here’s a roundup of posts I’ve already published on this topic, just in case you missed them the first time around. [Read more...]

Filed under: frozen food Tagged with freezer cooking6 Comments

Menu, Grocery List, Recipes Year 2 Week 17 – Fill Your Freezer

January 31, 2011 by Tiffany

February is freezer cooking month on Eat at Home!

I know February doesn’t officially start until tomorrow (since February usually starts the first day of February). But it doesn’t hurt to get a head start on the freezer cooking.

So, I have a special edition of the weekly menu for you designed to fill your freezer while feeding you for the week.

There is more meat to buy on this menu, so the cost might be a bit higher than most of my menus. But remember, this menu is going to feed you for more than just this week. You also might want to buy some foil pans and be sure to have zip top freezer bags on hand.

Here’s what’s on the menu, with a few notes about each meal: [Read more...]