Update on Freezer Meals

A couple of weeks ago my friend and I created 19+ meals (list below) so here's a little update.

4Burgundy Beef tips
2 Cilantro Citrus Chicken
2 Asian pork loins
2 Italian Mozzarella Chicken
4 KC Burgers-16 patties total
2 Garlic Basil Pasta Casseroles
3 batches of HG Spaghetti Sauce

The first meal that I had was the KC Burgers. On practice nights I like to have something that is very easy to get done with very quick clean up! I grilled the burgers on my George Foreman grill. While the burgers cooked I was able to slice tomatoes and get out the other needed ingredients. I also premade HG Mock Spianch Dip earlier in the day....so we had chips and dip along with the burgers. Both of my kids (6,3) ate an entire burger themselves! I made all 8 patties and saved the leftovers for later. My family ended up eating burgers again the next day for dinner. I had had a late lunch and wasn't hungry for an early dinner, but no one seemed to mind that they were eating burgers again! No cooking and basically no cleaning!

I also used one of my HG Spaghetti Sauce batches with the Italian Meatballs I had for a spaghetti and meatball dinner. I also served a salad. I can never go wrong with Spaghetti in my house! We had the leftovers for lunch the next day.


We've also had the Garlic Basil Pasta Casserole. I pulled this out of the freezer about 2 days before serving it. I dumped half of the casserole into a microwave safe bowl and heated it up. I served this with a salad and garlic bread. This is another one of those meals that I didn't have a bunch of clean up or prep time. I simply got the bread in the oven, tossed the salad and warmed up the casserole. We used paper plates which helped with the cleaning. We had the other half for dinner 2 days later.

I was very excited to try the Italian Mozzarella Chicken dinner! It's a newer recipe that I had not tried...I'd only heard from other HG Consultants about how wonderful it was. I baked it in the oven, covered, for about 50-55 minutes....the chicken breast were thick. I steamed up a bag of long grain rice with mixed veggies and I also steamed corn on the cob. This is one of my favorites new recipes! The only difference is that next time I'm going to bake this with brown rice on the bottom and then dump the entire mixture over it. It makes a lot of sauce and the rice would absorb all that yummy flavor!

Yesterday we had Burgundy Beef tips. I had a HG gathering yesterday evening so I wanted to make sure to have dinner for my family before I left. By the time that my husband got home the beef tips were in the crock pot on warm and I had cooked egg noodles on the stove. All he had to do was to serve it! This is also great served over mashed potatoes or rice. There was only enough leftovers for me to have for lunch one day this week. It's a nice feeling that I can leave for an event and my family still has a warm dinner to come home to.

I can't wait to try the Asian Pork Tenderloin....It's a favorite for many of my customers!

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Italian Mozzarella Meatballs

About 2 weeks ago I whipped up 2 meals with the package of 2 1/2 lbs ground beef that I had in my refrigerator.

I also noticed I had a few boxes of Mac-n-Cheese (which I hardly ever make) so I thought I should use them up for that night's dinner. I'll get to that in a moment. While I was getting that night's dinner going I decided to make another meal and used the remaing meat I had left to make Italian Mozzarella Meatballs. I put all the ingredients together, shaped them with a melon baller, and then baked them.

Once they were out of the oven I let them cool down. Then I put the entire cookie sheet in the freezer to let the meatballs firm a little. I think they were in the freezer for about 15 minutes. After I pulled them out I put the almost frozen meatballs in a gallon size freezer bag. This way I can just pull out however many I need for 1 meal. I made 30 meatballs in all. Here is the recipe.



















Italian Mozzarella Meatballs

10 tablespoons Homemade Gourmet® Italian Mozzarella Meatloaf Seasoning Mix
1-1/2 ground beef
1/2 cup ketchup
1 egg
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350°. In a large bowl, combine all ingredients.
2. Shape mixture into 1-inch meatballs.
3. Place meatballs on foil lined pan or baking sheet and bake for 15 to 20 minutes.


















I made spaghetti and meatballs a few days later. I just pulled about half of the meatballs out and then I heated them in the microwave-enough to defrost. Then I put them in the pot with my Spaghetti Sauce to warm. I made a batch of spaghetti noodles and dinner was a hit. The kids always love spaghetti! Now with the remaining meatballs I can make Meatball Subs or make another Spaghetti dinner.



















This is my Taco Mac-n-cheese. I browned 1lb of ground beef with 2-3 TBS of HG Taco Seasoning. Then I started the pasta. While this was cooking I made the Italian Meatballs from above.

Then I drained the pasta and made it as directed on the package. I added the taco seasoned meat and 1 can of diced tomatoes and mixed together. I served this with a salad.

We all were pleasantly surprised at how great this tasted! Both of the kids ate it up! Very easy and another hit with the family! We even had left overs (this made a huge batch, I used 2 boxes of pasta) that we ate later that week. Less work and clean-up the 2nd time around!!

The best part about these 2 meals was that I made it at the same time!! Saving me lots of time later. I made the meatballs while the pasta was boiling and the ground beef was cooking! While we ate I let the meatballs cool down. So even if you feel that you don't have time to fill your freezer I want you to ask yourself as you are cooking...Is there anything I can make while this is going on?...or make a double batch and freeze the rest for later. Before you know it you will have a freezer full of options available to you! Doing a little at a time is better then not doing anything at all. You will be excited as you start to see those meals ready to go every time you open that freezer door! Save your time and engery on something else-like homework! 1st grade homework keeps Kathryn and me busy!

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Friday Freezer Frenzy

A little back ground before I go into detail about my freezer night. I had told my friend, Alicia, that we need to fill our freezers since our schedules were getting really busy with kids, work and softball!! We kept putting it off until Friday morning. I get a call from Alicia saying that she's on her way to Sam's to purchase meat for us to make our meals. I happened to have ground beef and boneless chicken breast sitting in the fridge from my grocery day earlier in the week. So I said okay! She asked what type of meat she should get and I suggested stew meat and more chicken. She also got pork chops and more ground beef...she brought canned goods that she had in her pantry aswell.

Alicia arrives at my home later that day with her groceries and lots of excitement! I like to plan my menu out but we didn't even know what meals we were going to make....(we ended up just looking at the HG seasonings and would pull one that sounded good.) I must admit I was a little panicked but I reminded myself that this is easy to do. We actually didn't have to have a 'plan' to succeed. And succeed we did!

This was our final result....19+ meals!

4 Burgundy Beef tips

2 Cilantro Citrus Chicken

2 Asian pork loins

2 Italian Mozzarella Chicken

4 KC Burgers-16 patties total

2 Garlic Basil Pasta Casseroles

3 batches of HG Spaghetti Sauce-13.5 cups of sauce

* I say 19+ meals because with any leftover meat from these meals you can create a different meal....saving you time and money! As an example...you can shred leftover chicken to use in a casserole, pasta salads, a HG soup like Chicken Enchilada Soup, on salads, wraps or tacos.

We put all the ingredients on my kitchen table which included tomato sauce, chicken broth, diced tomatoes, cream of chicken/mushroom soup, pasta noodles, and the meat.

I pulled out all my Homemade Gourmet Pantry Staple containers/seasonings, extra mixes, my recipe binder, and all of my 4 Meals in 4 Minutes Meal Planners.

I pulled out a pot, pan, and bowl I thought we would need. We didn't dirty many dishes!! Used only the above, 2 spoons and a measuring cup.

Then we got started.

Up first was Burgundy Beef tips. We put all the needed ingredients on the island along with the recipe card. We would end up with 4 Burgundy Beef Tip meals.

First we labeled 4 Ziploc gallon sized freezer bags "Burgundy Beef Tips' with the date. Then Alicia split the meat into the bags.

Then we added 5 tablespoons of HG Sunday Roast Seasoning to each bag.

Dumped in a can of mushroom soup and 1/2 cup of water to each bag.

Then, Alicia's favorite part....she 'Smooshed' the bag....making sure to mix up all the ingredients as much as possible. Then she got out as much air out of the bag and sealed it.

Here are our 4 beef tips! The one on top contains a can of beef broth...due to the lack of planning we only had 3 cream of mushrooms soups..so we improvised and used the broth instead.

Now, Alicia has hosted her own Homemade Gourmet Gathering before and has attended a friend's gathering so she already had experience with making 'smooshed meals'. At her HG Gathering I demonstrated how to make 4 meals in 4 minutes with the help of her guest. I got 4 volunteers and each made a meal for Alicia's freezer....she just provided her meat and canned goods and I provided the seasoning. Schedule your own Homemade Gourmet 4 Meals in 4 Minutes Gathering so you too can get 4 meals in your freezer!

Now it was on to making our Casserole:

I put the 2lbs of ground beef with 4 tablespoons of HG Garlic Basil seasoning on the frying pan. I also got the pasta going. We made other 'Smoosh' meals while this what going on. I would turn back and forth checking on the meat.

After draining the pasta I dumped everything else in this pot and mixed it up. Then I split this into 2 freezer bags labeled 'Garlic Basil Pasta Casserole' with the date and cooking instructions. Thaw, place in baking pan. Bake 20-25 minutes on 350 degrees.

This casserole includes 2 lbs of Garlic Basil seasoned ground beef, mozzarella cheese, HG Spaghetti Sauce, and 1 box of pasta noodles (of your choice). This fills 2-9x13 pans. So really you can get 4- 8x8 casseroles out of this. I normally use the Glad Ware pans....the type that can go from freezer to oven to microwave to dishwasher. I fill an 8x8 pan with half a batch and put it in the oven for that night's dinner, then I would fill the other 8x8 pan with the rest and top with aluminum foil then cover with the lid and freeze for a later time.

Now it's Asian Pork loin:

We gathered the needed ingredients, labeled our freezer bags, separated the meat, added 2 tablespoons of HG Garlic Lemon seasoning, 2 tablespoons of chicken broth. Then we 'smooshed' it together and sealed the bag. I had to write on the bag to add 6 tablespoons of honey and 2 1/2 TBS of soy sauce at time of cooking. This is best as a crockpot meal so it really didn't matter that these 2 ingredients were left out at this time.

Next meal...Italian Mozzarella Chicken:

We labeled our bags and split the chicken (most of these meals call for 2-3lbs of boneless, skinless chicken breast or pork chops). Then we added 4 TBS of HG Italian Mozzarella Seasoning, 1 can cream of onion soup and chicken soup. I always use the low sodium/low fat versions of the soups and broths on all my recipes. We 'Smooshed' until all the ingredients were blended, let out as much of the air and resealed the bag.

This recipe is actually in October's Bundle of the Month: Mini Meal Trail Collection. It's only $59.75 and includes a FREE HG Homestyle spaghetti sauce mix and a Menu Planner for 16 meals! This is a great way to begin filling your freezer. Read more about it on my HG Website.

The rest of our chicken went to Cilantro Citrus Chicken:

First we labeled out bags, divided the chicken, and dumped in 14 TBS of Cilantro Chicken, poured the remainder of the chicken broth from the Asian meal and about 1/4 c of Olive oil. Smooshed and sealed. This is really great to use in HG's Cranberry Almond Pasta Salad!

Next up was our triple batch of Homemade Gourmet Homestyle Spaghetti Sauce:

We needed 15 TBS of HG Spaghetti Sauce seasoning, 3 6-oz can tomato paste, 3 15-oz can tomato sauce, 6 cups water. We put this all in a large pot and got it to a boil while we went on to making our KC Burgers. After it reached a boil we reduced the heat and let it simmer. I left this to cool in the fridge over night, and then I put 4 cups of the sauce in a gallon bag and then I put 2-3 cups in a quart size bag...I did this twice. The gallon bag is for a spaghetti meal and the quart bag is for a casserole meal.

Our final meal was Kansas City Burgers:

These make the juiciest burgers! They are great grilled with a little BBQ sauce. Suggested toppings: sliced cheddar cheese, purple onion, avocados, cooked bacon and Kansas City BBQ Sauce as the condiment of choice

We didn't have any tomato sauce left since we used it on the Spaghetti Sauce, but we grabbed a can of diced tomatoes and put it the blender. We used half of what this made for the burgers and put the rest into the Spaghetti Sauce pot instead of just wasting it.

To our 4 lbs of ground beef we added 8 tablespoons on HG Kansas City Rub mix, 16 oz of tomato sauce. Then Alicia formed the meat into 16 patties. We placed them on Cling Wrap and folded it over and pressed around the burgers to seal (4 patties per) then placed these covered patties in the freezer bag and put another 4 covered patties on top of those-8 total patties in a bag. Now I can just pull out how ever many I need for a particular meal. This will actually make me 2 meals.

WE WERE DONE!!

This picture shows all the meals made except for the Spaghetti Sauce. One side is Alicia's meals and the other is mine.

Look at all these options now in our freezer! Also note how these meals lay flat and don't take up much room in my freezer. I actually have a lot more room on my top shelf for more meals.

Making 19+ meals didn't take us very long. We started at 5:07pm and ended at 6:45pm. Keep in mind that we stopped for pictures and we were really just taking our time while having a good time. Being that we 'winged it', I thought we did great on time. If we had planned ahead of time and had our stations already set up it would have taken a lot less time I'm sure, but nothing beats having a fun with a good friend!!

Overall we spent about $100.00 in meat and about $15 on canned goods. We used my pantry staples so we spent $28 on Homemade Gourmet seasonings.** Divide this into 19 meals and it came out to about $7.53 per meal.....each meal contains 6 servings..$1.25 per serving. Now you can't buy a kids meals for under $4.00 these days-what a value!

The value increases if you have leftovers to make another meal OR if you are feeding only 1 to 2 then it's like you are getting 38 meals!! All you would have to do is to divide the recipe into 2 freezer bags, or you could cook the full recipe at one time and then refreeze the leftovers for another date.

** I do want to point out that if you used the individual Homemade Gourmet mixes instead of our Pantry Staple size that the total for the seasonings used is $72.50!! So you can see the value in buying our 'bulk' size seasonings-the Pantry Staples.

You can find the recipes and cooking instructions online at my website www.homemadegourmet.com/marylou and click 'recipes'. You can print them out or email to a friend plus you can print a grocery list out!! Most of these recipes are from the Meal Planner that's included in our HG 4 Meals in 4 Minutes Collection.

Feel free to contact me with any questions!

Have a delicious week!

Mary Lou

mlgkng24@sbcglobal.net

832-444-9605

http://www.homemadegourmet.com/marylou