Freezer Fall Backs

The past couple weeks I have been under the weather and it has been more difficult to get dinner on the table.  All I wanted to do was sleep the minute I got home from work but unfortunately I still needed to basic things to keep our household running.  My husband took care of many things for us but cooking is not something he does (he’s quite happy with pizza and tacos every night).  So needless to say I made a lot of very simple dinners like eggs, sandwiches and soup but that got boring pretty quick (for me anyway). 

Thank goodness I could go to my Freezer Fall Back list in the front of my recipe binder and put a meal on the table with very little effort.  I freeze different things for each season so when we are transition from one season to next I try to use up any freezer meals from the last season before I make new ones. Most foods can be frozen 3-6 months depending on your freezer. Unpredictable Michigan weather and this nasty cold are making it very easy to use up some of my winter soups and meals.  When I make meals for the freezer usually it is just recipes that I have doubled or tripled or left over meal from large roast. 

Here is a sample of what's left in my freezer winter (looks like it is time to defrost the freezer).

Here are my empty containers that I can fill once the freezer is empty.

 This is what my Pyrex looks like when they are not nesting inside of each other.  I use Pyrex because you can freeze and bake in the same container.  As you can see they are very easy to store inside of one another and take up very little space in my freezer.

 

Freezer Fall Back List

 

Meats (usually leftovers from large roast)

• Sliced Ham for sandwiches and wraps
• Diced, ham for pizzas, soups and egg dishes and soup
• Sliced turkey or chicken for sandwiches and wraps
• Diced turkey or chicken for pizzas, quesadillas, soups and egg dishes and soup
• Cooked ground beef for pizzas, soups and stews
• Cooked bacon for pizzas, salads, egg dishes and sandwiches
• Cooked Sausage for egg dishes and pizza topping
• Cooked whole breakfast sausage (reheat in a steam basket for breakfast) 

Soups and Stews 

• Mama’s Chicken Soup 
• Autumn Turkey Stew 
• Vegetable Cabbage Soup 
• Vegetable Beef Barley 
• Chicken Pot pie soup (I also thaw this and use it as the filling in pot pie) 
• Chili
• White Chicken Chili
• Fiesta chicken Chili 
• Beef Stew

Other Frozen Foods

Breakfast 

• Oatmeal, individually packaged; just thaw and reheat in a steam basket 
• Breakfast burritos, thaw and bake or reheat in a steam basket 
• Waffles, reheat in the oven or toaster 
• French toast, reheat in the oven or toaster 
• Quiche thaw and bake

Sides

• Cooked rice for side dishes or to add to soups, reheat in a steam basket 
• Cooked quinoa for side dishes, in chicken salad or to add to soups, reheat in a steam basket
• Cooked mashed potatoes, thaw and bake in the oven
• Twice baked potatoes bake from thawed or frozen in a 350 degree oven 

Meals  

• Enchiladas or taco pie 
• Taco meat for tacos, quesadillas, nachos 
• Sloppy Joe's 
• Meat Sauce for spaghetti 

Meal Kits-These all parts of a meal packaged together

• Taco Meal Kit-taco meat in a bag, shredded cheese in a bag and soft shells, all three Items are placed in one larger bag 
• Chicken Fajita Meal kit-shredded chicken and cheese, soft shells 
• Chicken pot pie meal kit-chicken pot pie filling and pie dough packaged together 
• Meat Pie-cooked ground beef, shredded cheese and mixed vegetables

Snacks

• Muffins 
• Cookies and cookie dough 
• Frozen yogurt Popsicles 
• Banana Bon Bons