Freezer Meals for a New Mom

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I am so excited for this weekend!  I get to go and see my new niece who is 3 weeks old.  Of course my plan is to just cuddle her the whole time, but I thought I could probably be of some help to my sister-in-law by bringing a cooler full of freezer meals.  I spent a few nights getting these all put together (if I had a whole day I could have done one of those cook-for-a-month-in-a-day things, but I only had evenings after work).  I made dishes that I know our family has always enjoyed and that would be really easy for them to prepare.  Many of the pins and blogs and recipe books about freezer meals had "mostly ready" meals where you had to stir fry the meat or cook side dishes, but I wanted things that were pretty much self contained.

I stopped at Dollar Tree and found packages of foil containers (4 for $1)--I thought I had enough rectangle ones, but oh well, lasagna in a round pan will taste just fine.   I ended up with 5 entrees, each making two pans...10 meals ready to go!  (Its just my brother and his wife needing the meals, so if you are making things for larger families, you could just use larger pans and end up with 5 meals, or double things up).



Enchiladas
16-20 Corn tortillas
1 1/2 lb. Shredded cooked chicken
1 small onion, diced and sauted

1/2 tsp cumin  
2 cans green enchilada sauce
8 oz. Shredded mexican cheese mix


Dice the onions and saute until soft and add cumin.   In a bowl, add the chicken, onion, half the cheese and about 1/2 cup of enchilada sauce.  Clean out pan and heat some oil and lightly fry the tortillas (keep warm in paper towels while filling).   In the bottom of the baking pan spread some sauce. Fill each with about 1/4 cup of filling. Roll the tortilla and place seam side down in the pan.   Once the pan is full, pour sauce all over making sure all the tortillas are covered.    Sprinkle cheese on top.

Bake from frozen:  350 for about 40-60 minutes.



Meatloaf
1 lb ground beef
1 c. quick oats
1 sm. onion, finely diced
1 egg
1 can tomato sauce
1 tsp each salt and pepper


Mix everything up in a bowl and place in a small loaf pan or disposable pan.   You can top the meatloaf with your favorite bbq sauce before baking, or make your own sauce by mixing ketchup and brown sugar. Freeze raw meatloaf (you'll get a better result than cooking and then freezing). When ready to cook:  Thaw in fridge overnight, then bake for 50 minutes at 450.  Serve with the twice baked potatoes. Or toss a couple baking potatoes into the oven about 15 minutes before you add the meatloaf to the oven. 
 

Twice Baked Potatoes
4 russet potatoes
milk
butter
salt and pepper
cheddar cheese

Bake the potatoes at 350 for about 60-80 minutes (depends on how big the potato) until tender.  While still hot, use a paper towel or pot holder to hold the potato while you cut it in half and scoop the potato into a bowl.  Add butter and milk and whip the potatoes with a mixer.  Refill the potato shells and top with a thin slice of cheddar cheese.  Cool, then freeze in a zipper bag.  To bake from frozen:  Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes.  

 


Chicken Pot Pie
I used the America's Test Kitchen recipe (free sign up with your email address)
When ready to cook, put frozen pie in 400 degree oven for 40 minutes and let rest 10 minutes before serving.

chicken
celery
onion
carrots
chicken broth
frozen peas
flour
butter
prepared pie crust (I used the Betty Crocker mix)
 
 

Thai Coconut Chicken Curry
1 lb chicken, cut into pieces
1 each red, green, yellow pepper, cut into same size pieces as chicken
1 onion, cut into pieces
2 carrots, sliced in rounds
3 mushrooms, sliced
2 T. green Thai curry mix (I buy a bottle of seasoning at Ross or TJ Maxx)
1 can coconut milk

Toss the chicken with the curry powder mix.  Put the chicken in the bottom of a zipper bag then pile up the veggies.  Freeze.  When ready to cook:  Thaw in fridge, toss in crock pot with a can of coconut milk for 4 hours on  high.  Serve over rice (I pre cooked rice and put it in a zipper bag too--thaw in fridge, reheat in microwave with a bit of extra water added).

 

Lasagna (makes 2-3 small casseroles)
1 lb ground beef
1 lb ground pork
1 clove garlic
2 tsp. basil (dry)
2 small cans crushed tomatoes
2 cans tomato paste
1/2 c. apple juice
1 tsp each salt and pepper
3 c. cottage cheese or ricotta
2 eggs
1/2 c. parmesan cheese
2 T. parsley flakes
1 tsp salt and pepper
No-cook lasagna noodles (but I place them in a pan of hot tap water to soften)
1 lb Mozzarella, shredded

Cook the meat in a large pot.  Drain any excess fat.  Add the garlic and cook for about one minute.  Add tomatoes, paste, basil, apple juice, salt and pepper to the meat.

In a bowl, make the cheese mixture:  Cottage cheese (small curd), parmesan, parsley, eggs, salt and pepper.  Mix it well.

To make the casserole:  Put a bit of sauce on the bottom of the pan.  Layer noodle, then a layer of meat sauce, then a layer of cheese mixture, then shredded mozzarella.  Repeat the layers, ending with shredded mozzarella.

I chose to bake the lasagnas, then cool then freeze.  When ready to cook:  Bake for about 1 hour at 350 on a cookie sheet to catch any spillover.

Peach Pie
I had a few peaches from a neighbor's tree, so I made a single crust pie using the same technique I've done with freezer pies before.

4 C. peaches
1 c. sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 c. instant tapioca
1 Tbs. lemon juice
1 Tbs. butter
prepared pie crust (I used just a top crust that I made with a Betty Crocker mix)

Mix it all together and put in a 8" pan, dot with butter and place the crust on the top. Freeze.  When ready to bake, do not defrost, just bake from frozen at 350 for about 1 hour (may need to wrap some foil around the edges to keep the crust from getting too brown). 

Baby Toms

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I've had several baby showers recently and saw these cute shoes on Pinterest and decided to give them a try. I purchased the pattern from Twirly Bird

I followed the instructions and they turned out cute. However, cutting the back out of a single piece of fabric (on the fold) would make assembling them a bit easier. The tiny size makes it a bit tricky to maneuver.

I used a corduroy fabric from Walmart for the main fabric, with some brown faux suede on the soles.  The instructions call for elastic, but make sure you choose knit or braid style elastic...the woven type is too stiff to use in these shoes.  My JoAnne's had all sorts of colors of knit elastic (just use your 40% off coupon). 

Freezing Corn

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As a kid, I remember my family spending the end of summer putting up food for the winter.  Mom bottled peaches, bing cherries, pears and pickles.  She also made use of our avocado green  upright freezer (which I think may still be around somewhere...) by freezing corn.  Corn was a veggie that all of us kids would definitely eat.  Since I was just a kid, it seemed like a literal mountain of corn that would be piled out in the  yard and my brothers and I were assigned to husk it all (with the reward of a trip to A&W for a rootbeer float after).  I figure that it was probably around 12 dozen ears of corn...wow, lots of corn.  Big family.

Twelve dozen would be serious overload for me, so I usually do just 1.5 dozen, sometimes 2.  If the ears of corn are good sized, you'll get about 1 c. of kernels per ear.  Start to finish for my 1.5 dozen was about an hour.

Get the corn husked and rinsed to get off as much of the silk as you can.

If you are doing a large amount of corn, you'll want to buy a block of ice and fill up one side of the sink with the ice block and water--the other side of the sink is just cold water. If you do a small batch, like me, you can get away without the ice block.

Bring your water to a boil and add as much corn as will fit.  Bring back up to boil and put the lid on the pot--boil for 4 minutes.

Remove the corn from the boiling water and leave it in a bowl for a few minutes while you go get more corn for the pot.

Once the next batch of corn is on the timer, you put the cooked corn in the side of the sink WITHOUT the ice to cool a bit.  As you keep bringing corn from the stove, you'll move corn out of the water side and into the ice side.  (See, if you go straight from the pot to the ice side, you'll melt the ice...what you want is to cool the corn a bit first in the water, then get it nice and cold so that it stops cooking and will be easy to handle).

Pull the corn out of the ice water and place on a clean towel.

You can either get all the corn cooked and cooled before you start cutting it off the cob, or you can just do each batch as it is ready.

To cut the corn off the cob I like to use a pan with low sides (like the broiler pan)-although today I used a serving platter and a sharp butcher knife.  There are gadgets that are designed for cutting kernel off, but a sharp knife works really well. (I couldn't hold the camera, the knife and the corn all at the same time, so be sure to use both hands :)

Hold the corn with the fat end on the tray and cut the kernels off close to the cob.  With a couple tries you'll find just the right spot where you're getting all the corn off the cob, but not getting any of the tough cob in the process.

Once the corn is cut off, you have a pile off corn strips that everyone who walks by will snag.  Use your hands to reach in and break up the corn.  I do not add anything to the corn. 

All that is left is to measure it into freezer bags.  I make small 1-cup serving portions and put it in regular sandwich bags, because I like to put several bags into a larger freezer bag.  My mom used to do 3-cup bags for our family of 7.

This corn is so tasty in January when generally there is no good produce to be found.  Well, I think a rootbeer float is in order!

Shabby Nightstand with Blue Interior

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I've had the twin nightstand to the one I painted earlier this summer just waiting for me to decide what to do. I finally found a great inspiration picture on Pinterest and set about making mine just as fun.

This stand needed more repairs than the other one. The pins at the base of the front door were missing and a chunk of wood in the front right corner needed to be repaired. I used some wood filler resin (2 part putty) to fill in the missing wood and hit my local Ace Hardware for the small pins (my Ace has a wall of bits and bobs that you can buy just one at a time, including hardware for furniture). I lightly sanded all the surfaces before priming it with one coat of Kilz.

I painted the interior of the drawer and cabinet Aqua Smoke from Home Depot, still from the sample can from the previous project. The outside is crisp white-also a Behr Ultra Premium sample, just no color added. I distressed it a bit with my palm sander and finished it with a coat of wax. Glass knobs from Hobby Lobby fancy it up. (I'm still thinking about what to do with the super fun fabric I found at HobLob while picking up the knobs).

Black and White Cookies

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I have a good friend who works in a bakery, and sometimes she brings me home a black and white cookie--so delicious!  I don't often make cookies that require frosting, but when I saw these on the cover of Cook's Country magazine, I knew I'd be trying them out.  So glad I did!

According to the magazine,the traditional B/W cookie is lemon flavored, but they did a vanilla version and I really loved it (because as much as I like chocolate frosting, I don't love lemon/chocolate).  So, here is the recipe

Cook's Country, March 2012, pg 22

Cookies
1 3/4 C. all purpose flour
1/2 t. baking powder
1/4 t. baking soda
1/8 t. salt
10 T. unsalted butter, softened
1 C. sugar
1 lg egg
2 t. vanilla (the good stuff)
1/3 C. sour cream

Glaze (I made half a batch of glaze and it was just enough for a full batch of cookies)

5 C. powdered sugar, sifted
7 T. whole milk (divided)
2 T. corn syrup
1 t. vanilla
1/2 t. salt
3 T. cocoa powder

For the cookies:  Preheat to 350.  In a bowl, sift the dry ingredients together.  In a stand mixer, use the paddle to cream together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, the add the egg and vanilla.  Alternate adding some of the dry mix then the sour cream to the mixer.

Use a 1/4 c. measure to make drop cookies (note:  I did not use that big a scoop, I used my regular cookie scoop, which is about 1 1/2 T.) onto a parchment lined cookie sheet.  Bake 15-18 minutes until the edges are lightly golden (turn the cookie sheet around after about 7 minutes).  Cool on a rack.

For the glaze:  In a bowl, whisk the sugar, 6 T. of the milk, corn syrup, vanilla and salt until smooth.  Transfer 1 C. of the mix to another bowl.  In the remaining glaze, add the rest of the milk and the cocoa powder.  Now you have both the vanilla and the chocolate glaze.

To glaze the cookie:  Frost with the vanilla first using an offset spatula to smooth it to the edge.  Place in the fridge or freezer for a few minute to set the glaze, then frost with the chocolate.

I froze some of the leftovers, and while they tasted delicious, the chocolate glaze changed color-so keep that in mind if you are making them in advance. 

Table re-do with French graphic transfer

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I've had this little table in my garage for a while, and it needed some love.  I know it is solid, but someone did some tole painting on it many years ago, and then it looks like it spent some time outside before I found it.

I knew that removing paint would be a really trying job considering all the curves and crevices, so I decided to get the top looking great and let the legs be a bit shabby chic.

Using some of the "less toxic" paint stripper (the kind that is orange scented) I coated it thickly and laid the plastic tarp over it to let it do its work for about 50 minutes.  Some scraping and most of the paint came off, revealing what appeared to be walnut!  Another coat of stripper and another 30 minutes and the top was pretty clean.  I let it dry and sanded the top clean.  The legs, I used the palm sander to remove some of the paint, but left some too.

I re-stained the top using a dark walnut stain and let it dry.

To do the image transfer, first I picked out a graphic from The Graphics Fairy.  This one is a chocolate label, so of course I love it! I had to flip the image so that the words were backwards (I resized the image in Word, then used the Rotation menu to flip it).  I printed out my image on freezer paper.  I tried it on wax paper and my ink jet printer DID NOT like the light weight of wax paper (it just ate it).  Freezer paper has paper on one side and wax on the other. So just cut a piece of freezer paper to the same size as regular printer paper.  Just set it up so that the image will print on the waxy side.  Be super careful when you remove the paper from the printer that you don't smudge it.

I wiped the table top down with a damp paper towel before I laid the graphic down, waxy side down (the side with the ink on it).  If I were doing it again, I'd cut away all the extra paper from around the image so that it would be easier to center.  Once you set down the image, don't move it.  The ink jet ink will start to transfer to the slightly damp table.  I used a credit card to smooth down the image and get a good ink transfer.

I wiped the table with wax and called it good.  Cute huh?

French Macarons

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I spent my birthday back in April in Paris, where every day was one delicious food experience after another.  One of the most fun was eating these bite size bits of meringue!  They look so simple, so I was surprised when I did research when I got home about how difficult they are to make.  I think the research paid off, because using tips from other bakers, mine turned out pretty darn perfect.

I read My Sweet Life in Paris by David Lebovitz and his blog for tips, but then I came across this blog that had very detailed instructions that were really helpful.

A few things before you begin:
Leave the egg whites out the night before.
Use a kitchen scale.
Use an oven thermometer (my oven was off 20 degrees)
Make the ganache filling before you make the cookies if you want to fill them right away.
Pick a day when it is not humid outside (not usually a problem in my home state).

Ingredients
4.5 oz powdered sugar
2.5 oz almond meal (I used Bob's Red Mill brand-expensive, wish I could have found it in bulk so I could just buy what I needed, about 3/4 of a cup)
2 lg egg whites, room temperature
pinch of cream of tarter
1.5 oz superfine sugar (baker's sugar)
Filling of your choice (jam, ganache, buttercream)

 In a food processor, blend the powdered sugar and almond meal.

 Sift the sugar/meal mixture 2 times.

 Whip the egg whites on medium until a soft foam and add the pinch of cream of tarter.

 Keep whipping  on med-high until soft peaks form, then slowly add the superfine sugar.

 Keep whipping until stiff peaks form (add the food coloring or flavoring just before finished).

 Sift the dry mix onto the meringue and fold gently.  I ended up using 70 folds to get the batter looking just right.  I tested it by dolloping a bit on a plate to see if the peak would melt back down and not stay upright.  Then I put the batter in a pastry bag with a #12 Wilton round tip. 

 Line the baking sheet with parchment and pipe a 3/4" cookie.  I held the tip perfectly vertical and then squeezed the bag, letting the batter poof up around the tip.  I swirled the tip a bit and pulled it off to the side.  Most of the time I got pretty perfect circles that flattened out pretty quickly.  Rap the sheet on the counter to get any extra air bubbles out, then do the other sheet of cookies. 

Let the cookies sit on the counter for about 30-40 minutes to develop a bit of a skin (preheat the oven during this time).  Preheat to 375.  Put cookies in oven and immediately turn down to 325.  Set timer for 5 minutes.  When timer goes off, quickly turn the sheet around and continue baking for another 5 minutes.  I might do it for only 4 minutes each time next time because mine got just a bit golden on a few cookies and you don't want that. Once you've pulled the first tray out, turn the oven back up to 375 and let the oven get hot again.  Put in your second tray of cookies and again, close the door and immediately turn the temperature down to 325 degrees. 

The cookies cooled for about 2 minutes, then I put them on cooling racks.  I had no trouble with sticking.

I filled mine with dark chocolate ganache.  Yummy.

1/2 c. cream
3.5 oz dark chocolate, finely chopped
1/2 T. butter, softened

Bring the cream to a boil slowly, then pour over the chopped chocolate.  Let sit for a minute, then stir until combined.  Add the butter and keep stirring until mixed in.  Chill to stiffen before using as filling.

I ended up with 40 individual cookies, so enough for 20 sandwiches.  I filled some right away, the rest I froze without filling and will use later.

It took about 2 hours of hands-on time for these cookies, so they are more of a special occasion cookie-but they sure are tasty.  I had zero trouble with these cookies--there are lots of steps involved, but they weren't too terrible.