Chicken Florentine Bake

Hey everyone!  I've got another great freezer meal idea for you today.  This is a recipe I came up with myself.  It's a great casserole because I don't use any canned soup!  I make my own easy cream sauce so I can control the salt and quality of ingredients. The amount I show below makes two big meals.  You can make one for now and one to freeze for later.  It's also a great meal to share with someone.

Chicken Florentine Bake

Ingredients

1 - 1 1/2 pounds chicken(I used breast but feel free to use dark meat or even rotisserie)
10 oz box of frozen chopped spinach- thawed, drained and squeezed dry
13.25 box of rigatoni pasta(feel free to use penne or rotini also)
8 oz shredded Mozzarella cheese
4 oz shredded Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons of butter
2 tablespoons of flour
1/2 cup half and half or whole milk
1 cup chicken stock(you can use the stock you make from poaching the chicken!)
2-3 fresh sage leaves - shredded(optional)
a few dashes of nutmeg
salt and pepper
  
1.  Start by poaching your chicken.  Check out my tips on poaching chicken and making your own chicken stock here:  http://makingmealsforhim.blogspot.com/2012/09/chicken-tortilla-soup.html

Poaching the chicken

2.  While your chicken is poaching, start your water boiling for your pasta.  Once the water starts to boil, salt  the water and add the pasta.  Cook pasta till al dente.  Make sure not to take the pasta all the way till finished, as it will cook further while its being baked.

3.  Once your pasta and chicken are going, you can start the cream sauce.  In a medium saucepan over medium heat, add the butter and allow to melt completely.  Once the butter is melted, add the flour.  Whisk the flour into the butter until is is completely incorporated.  Allow the flour/butter mixture to cook for about 30 seconds.  Now add the half and half and chicken stock and continue to whisk.  Turn heat up to medium high to high.  The mixture will start to thicken once it comes up to a bubble.  Continue to whisk sauce until it thickens, then reduce heat to medium to medium low.  Next add Parmesan cheese, pepper, sage, and nutmeg and whisk in.  Once those three ingredients are incorporated, add in the spinach.  Once spinach is incorporated, turn off heat and let stand until ready to mix into casserole.

Spinach Cream Sauce

4.  When your chicken is done poaching, let it cool a bit and cut it into chunks.  Drain your pasta.  Now it's time to combine everything( I used a big bowl to combine everything but you could also use the pan you poached your chicken in.).  Add your chicken, pasta, and cream sauce and combine.  Put the mixture into your baking dishes and top with the mozzarella cheese.

Completed Dish!

5.  Cover with plastic wrap, foil, and label(so you can figure out what it is later;)  Freeze until ready for use.  

6.  To reheat, defrost in refrigerator for about 24 hours.  Bake at 350 degrees for 45 min to an hour or until browned and bubbly.   

Beef Taco Bake

Hello All!

Here's a recipe that's a good one for all you taco fans out there. It's a hearty meal that can be modified to your liking! The recipe makes an 8 x 8 and a 16 x 9. It's a great way to make a meal for your family and have one left over to give to someone else or one for your freezer.

Beef Taco Bake

Ingredients

1 pound ground beef(You can sub ground chicken, pork, or turkey also.)
1 pound Penne pasta
1 15oz can of corn(drained and rinsed)
1 15oz can of black beans(drained and rinsed)
1 10oz can of Rotel(not drained)
1 10.75oz can of condensed tomato soup
1 - 1 1/2 cups shredded cheese(I used a mexican blend)
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon coriander
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Use a big pot because you will use it later to mix everything up in. Salt the boiling water generously. Add pasta and cook till al dente(you want it to still have a bite to it, as it will continue to cook in the oven).

2. While the pasta is cooking, brown the ground beef. (My secret to browning meat is to bring the meat out of the fridge about 15 min before you are ready to cook it. That will help it come to room temperature. Also make sure your pan is hot before you add the meat. I usually preheat my pan to medium high. Once you add the meat to the pan, leave it alone for a few minutes. This will give the meat time to develop some color and flavor. Once its browned a bit, you can break it up and move it around.)

3. Once the beef is cooked, drain any extra fat.  Add the spices to the beef and let it all cook together for a minute or two.

Browned beef spiced up and ready to go!

4. Drain the cooked pasta and put it back into the pot.

5. Add the browned ground beef, corn, black beans, condensed tomato soup and Rotel into the pot with the pasta. Stir to combine. Make sure all the pasta is coated with the ingredients.

Black beans, corn, condensed tomato soup, and Rotel

6. Transfer your combined mixture to your casseroles. This amount of ingredients filled a 8 x 8 and a 16 x 9 for me. I also sprayed my casseroles with cooking spray for easy clean up.

7. Top with shredded cheese. Cover well and freeze until ready for use. To reheat, defrost in refrigerator for about 24 hours. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 min to an hour or until browned and bubbly. Enjoy!

Ready to be cooked or frozen.

Crockpot Cube Steak and Gravy

Hey everyone!   Just a quick recipe tonight.  No pictures needed(its that easy!).  So my grocery store had a good sale on cube steak this week and I thought I'd find a good freezer meal recipe for it.  I found this recipe here:  http://steveandlindseypeterson.blogspot.com/2013/01/crockpot-freezer-meals.html

I adapted it to make it a little more healthy.   Here's what I used:

CROCKPOT CUBE STEAK AND GRAVY

Family size pack cube steak
2 cans of cream of mushroom soup(I used regular but you could use low fat too)
2 tablespoons of dried chopped onion
1 teaspoon of onion powder
1 teaspoon dried parsley
3/4 cup water
pepper to taste

Instructions:

In a gallon freezer bag, combine all the ingredients.  (I put the full bag in another bag just to make sure it didn't explode in my freezer!!)  Freeze until ready for use.  Let thaw for 24 hours in the fridge before putting in the crockpot.  Cook on low for 6-7 hours. Serve over rice, noodles, or mashed potatoes.

Just a note:  In the original recipe they call for an envelope of onion soup mix.  I omitted this because it has a very high amount of salt.  There is already a high amount of salt in the soup.  I decided to make my own onion mix with no salt.

One more note:  You can also just skip the freezing step and put the combined ingredients directly into the crockpot and cook.

Hope you enjoy this one or chose to make it for someone you know needs a meal!!

Slow Cooker Vegetable Barley Soup

Hi Everyone!  I know I usually make freezer meals, but I have a slow cooker soup for you today.  I've been fighting a cold this week and was in the mood for a vitamin rich soup.

I found the recipe here: http://www.womansday.com/recipefinder/slow-cooker-vegetable-barley-soup-recipe-124100

I almost followed the recipe but substituted a few things.  Here's what I used:

8 sprig(s) fresh thyme

2 turnips, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

2 stalk(s) celery, sliced

2 clove(s) garlic, finely chopped

1 large onion, chopped 

3 medium carrots, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

1/2 cup(s) barley (not quickcooking)

Kosher salt

Pepper

1 small (about 6 cups) bunch Swiss chard, stems discarded, leaves chopped

Shaved Parmesan, for serving

Basically I just substituted carrots for parsnips and turnips for rutabagas.

Directions

1. Tie the thyme together with a piece of thread or butcher's twine. In a 5- to 6-quart slow cooker, combine the turnips, celery, garlic, onion, carrot, thyme, barley, 8 cups water, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper.
2. Cook, covered, until the barley is cooked through and the vegetables are tender, 6 to 7 hours on low or 4 to 5 hours on high (if cooking on high, use only 6 cups of water).
3. When the soup has 10 minutes left to cook, remove the thyme. If the slow cooker is on the low setting, turn it to high. Add the chard and cook, covered, until tender, 5 to 7 minutes. Serve with Parmesan, if desired.

Here's a picture of the veges in the slow cooker before I added the water.

Super easy meal!  I think it would be a great meal to make on a weekend and eat all week long for lunches.  It would also be a good meal to make and bring to someone hot out of the slow cooker.  

Chicken Enchiladas

Chicken Enchiladas 

Hi everyone!   It's been a long time since I've posted, but I'm still at this!!  I've been really busy so far this year with work and beer events!  I wanted to post a quick and easy recipe for Chicken Enchiladas.  It's a great one to make ahead for those nights when you want a Fiesta!!

Ingredients:

10-15 Flour Tortillas

2 8oz cans Enchilada Sauce

1 8oz package of Mexican cheese

1 pound of chicken breast 

Directions:

1.   Poach the chicken to cook.  For the poaching I added onion, bay leaves, peppercorn, celery, and a little salt.  You can see my detailed explanation of poaching and how to do it in my previous post here.  One a side note:  You can also just use a rotisserie chicken for this.  It's a little quicker, but I love doing the poaching myself to get extra stock that I can use for other recipes.  I just freeze the stock till I need it.  

2.  After the chicken is cooked, let it cool till it is easy to shred.  I've heard lots of ways to shred chicken(forks, food processor, etc) but I've found the easiest and quickest is to use your hands.  After the chicken is shredded, put it in a bowl with 3/4 of a can of the Enchilada Sauce and 1/2 of the cheese as shown below.

Shredded Chicken, Cheese, and Echilada Sauce

3.  Mix the cheese, chicken, and sauce.  Take a tortilla and place a spoonful of the chicken mixture in the center of the tortilla.  Do not overfill.

Chicken Mixture in tortilla ready to be rolled up.

4.  Roll up the tortilla and place the seam side down in a baking pan.  Repeat till pan is filled with enchiladas.

Enchiladas in the pan.

5.  After the pan is filled with the Enchiladas, pour remaining sauce(1 and 1/4 can) on top and spread around with the back of a spoon until all the Enchiladas are covered evenly.  Top with remaining cheese.

Ready to freeze!!

6.  Cover well and freeze until ready for use. To reheat, defrost in refrigerator for about 24 hours.  Bake at 350 degrees for 45 min to an hour or until browned and bubbly.  

I hope you enjoy this recipe.  I promise I'll be posting more soon.  Let me know if you try this recipe or any of the other recipes from my blog!

Mexicali Pork Loin

Time for another blog post.  I hope fall is treating everyone well.  Here is a recipe that would be excellent to have on hand for a cool fall evening!

Here is the link to the recipe that I made:  http://food.families.com/blog/freezer-cooking-pork-recipes#

I modified it slightly so here's the ingredients I used:

Mexicali Pork Loin

1 1 and 1/2 lb Pork Loin
1/2 cup green bell pepper chopped
1/4 cup diced onion
1 can Rotel diced tomatoes with green chilies drained (10oz)
1 can diced tomatoes (14oz)
1 can whole kernel corn drained (14oz)
1 can kidney beans rinsed and drained (14oz)
1/2 cup white rice
1/2 cup water
Salt and pepper to taste
EVOO

1.  I purchased a whole pork loin because it was on sale for a good price.  I cut it in half and used half for this recipe and half for a Honey Sesame Pork Loin(I'll post that recipe later:).  Season pork loin with salt and pepper and brown it on both sides quickly.  Don't cook it too long as it needs to cook later when you heat up the dish.  The point is to just brown it and seal in some flavor.  Set aside to cool.

2.  In the same pan, cook green pepper and onion in oil till tender but not brown.  Stir in both cans of tomatoes, corn, kidney beans, uncooked rice, and water.  Season with a little salt and pepper.  (I went light on the salt since the canned products have lots of salt already.)  Bring mixture to boil.

Veges cooking(this is before I added the rice)

3.  Pour vegetable/rice mixture into a 12x7 baking dish and place the pork loin on top.  Cover well and freeze.

The finished product

4.  To serve:  Thaw dish.  Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 35 min.  Uncover and bake 10-15 min more or until the meat is at 160 degrees F.  Let stand for 5 min before slicing pork.

I hope you enjoy this recipe and make it for someone you love.  I think this recipe is a good way to use pork, especially pork loin which goes on sale quite often.  Stay tuned for my Honey Sesame Pork Loin that was also quick and easy to make!

Chicken, Spinach, and Pasta Bake

Another recipe here.  This is one that I made up.  I had leftover chicken from the soup recipe and used up some things that I had in the freezer and pantry.

Chicken, Spinach, and Pasta Bake

Ingredients

2 cups chicken cubed

1 16oz box of pasta (I used whole wheat elbows)

1 28oz can of crushed tomatoes with basil

1 10oz box of frozen spinach(defrosted and rung out in a kitchen towel to remove excess moisture)

1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp oregano

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1.  Cook pasta.  Slightly under cook the pasta as it will cook further when baked.  

2.  In a large casserole dish combine chicken, tomatoes, pasta, spinach, half of Parmesan, garlic powder, onion powder, oregano, and salt/pepper to taste.  (Careful not to use too much salt as there is lots of salt in the cheese and canned tomatoes.)

Chicken and tomatoes

3.   Top mixture with mozzarella and remaining Parmesan.

Yes please, I like cheese on top!!

4.  Cover with plastic wrap, foil, and label(so you can figure out what it is later;)  Freeze until ready for use.

5.  To reheat, defrost in refrigerator for about 24 hours.  Bake at 350 degrees for 45 min to an hour or until browned and bubbly.   

This is a great meal for kids.  Kids love pasta and cheese, and to get to that they'll have to eat the spinach too!  Use whole wheat pasta to bump up the protein and fiber.