Fix it and freeze it
Halloween is next week, and after that the rest of the holiday season will be bearing down on us like a freight train. A pretty, sparkly freight train decorated with lights and hauling roasted turkeys, to be sure, but a freight train nonetheless.
How many nights will you leave work thinking about all the errands you need to run and the fact that you’re not sure what to put on the table for dinner that night? I know it’ll happen to me more than a few times and it would be great to have a home-cooked meal in the freezer just waiting to be warmed in the microwave or in the oven.
That’s the point of Southern Living‘s new cookbook, “Fix It & Freeze It & Heat It & Eat It.” This book contains more than 200 recipes that can be cooked and frozen for nights like that. I love the concept and some of the recipes look tasty, so I think I’ll share a couple here. And if you know someone who could use this book, well, I’ve just given you a gift idea to boot!
Do you ever fix meals ahead of time and freeze them? What have you found that freezes and reheats the best?
Queso Potato Chowder
Serves 6
1/4 cup butter
1 cup red bell pepper, finely chopped
1 cup onion, finely chopped
3 poblano peppers, seeded and finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 (20-oz.) package refrigerated Southwestern-style hash brown potatoes
1/4 tsp. ground cumin
2 (14-oz.) cans low-sodium fat-free chicken broth
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups milk
1 cup half-and-half
1 cup (4 oz.) shredded asadero or Monterey Jack cheese
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Toppings (optional): corn tortilla chips, chopped red bell pepper, chopped red onion, sliced jalapeno peppers, chopped fresh cilantro
1. Melt butter in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat; add bell pepper and next 3 ingredients and saute 4 to 5 minutes or until tender. Add potatoes and cumin, then saute 5 minutes or until browned and tender. Gradually stir in broth, stirring to loosen particles from bottom of Dutch oven. Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer 25 minutes.
2. Whisk together flour and next 2 ingredients. Stir into potato mixture and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, 5 minutes or until thickened. Reduce heat to low.
3. Add cheeses and cook, stirring constantly, until cheeses melt and mixture is thoroughly heated. Serve with desired toppings.
To freeze: Allow soup to cool completely (you can accomplish this quickly by placing the pot of soup in a bath of ice water in the sink to cool. Stir the soup often to help release the heat). Ladle into gallon- or quart-sized zipper freezer bags. Remove excess air, seal, label and freeze for up to one month. To reheat, thaw soup overnight in the refrigerator and simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally.
Cumin-crusted Pork Cutlets
Serves 4 to 6
3 whole wheat bread slices
2 Tbsp. self-rising yellow cornmeal mix
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
8 thinly sliced boneless pork loin chops (about 1 1/4 lb.)
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 large egg
2 Tbsp. whole grain mustard
1/4 cup olive oil
1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Process bread in a food processor until finely crumbled. Combine bread crumbs, cornmeal mix and cumin in a shallow bowl.
2. Sprinkle pork chops with salt and pepper. Whisk together egg, mustard and 2 Tbsp. water until blended. Dip pork in egg mixture; dredge in bread crumb mixture, pressing to adhere.
To freeze: Lay 4 chops on the bottom of a labeled gallon-size zipper freezer bag. Top with a piece of wax paper, then lay remaining 4 chops on top of the wax paper. Freeze for up to 3 months. To reheat, heat 2 Tbsp. hot oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add 4 chops to the pan and cook for 3 to 4 minutes on each side, or until golden brown. Place cooked chops in a warm (200-degree) oven while you cook the remaining 4 chops. Serve warm.
Crunchy Ranch Tortilla Chicken
Serves 6
1 (1-oz.) envelope ranch dressing mix, divided
2 lbs. chicken breast tenders
1/4 cup buttermilk
1 large egg
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 (13-oz.) package ranch-flavored tortilla chips, finely crushed
Vegetable cooking spray
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Sprinkle 1 Tbsp. dressing mix over chicken.
2. Whisk together buttermilk, egg, and remaining dressing mix. Place flour and crushed tortilla chips in separate shallow dishes. Dredge chicken in flour, dip in buttermilk mixture, then roll in crushed chips. Coat chicken lightly on all sides with cooking spray. Set aside.
3. Place a large baking sheet in oven for 5 minutes. Place chicken on hot pan. Bake at 450 for 18 minutes or until crust is lightly browned.
To freeze: Cool chicken completely. Place in a labeled large zipper freezer bag and freeze up to one month. To reheat, preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place chicken tenders on a baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes, or until hot and crisp.
Source: “Fix It & Freeze It & Heat It & Eat It” by Southern Living
October 25, 2012 - 6:00 AM
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I’m headed out to Floyd this afternoon to get half a hog from Weathertop Farms at the processor, so that pork recipe looks great to me today!
I freeze some of almost everything I make, as work makes it difficult for me to cook during the week and I generally run out of the weekend food by Wednesday-ish. I’ve frozen Shepherd’s Pies (hint…don’t put the mashed potatoes on until after you defrost to eat), chowders, salisbury steaks and pasta sauces. After Thanksgiving I freeze pans of Turkey Tetrazini topped with leftover stuffing, which does well in the freezer.
I like the idea of freezing soup in zip-locks…I usually use tupperware or pyrex dishes, and the freezer gets full fast with those.
Hey, I was just up at a from in Floyd this morning! But it wasn’t Weathertop. Tell Cedric and Sarah that I said hello. It was a gorgeous drive up the mountain with all the orange and yellow trees.
My friend freezes a lot of things in Ziploc bags because of the space issue and because she doesn’t like to wash dishes. I like to wash and reuse Ziploc bags if I can but they still work well for squishy substances like soups.
I try to cook two big meals on Sundays – that feeds us meal 1 on Sunday night, meal 2 on Monday, meal 1 again on Tuesday, meal 2 again on Wednesday. Then on Thursday we do something easy like fish, and on Friday and Saturday we eat out or get take-out. I certainly do not accomplish that goal every week, as my husband could tell you
Lindsey, it was a gorgeous drive and I have a bunch of nice new piggy in the freezer.
I’ve started doing the bulk of my cooking on Sunday afternoon in an effort to eat out less and have stuff on-hand that is more healthful.
I’ll roast a whole chicken or bone-in chicken breasts and then store the meat in the refrigerator for quesadillas, soup, chicken salad, whatever. Since there’s only two of us, I’ll usually make a full-size meal and then freeze half of it for later, like pot roast or gumbo or pasta sauce. All of those things are perfect to thaw out and I make them in the crock pot, so there isn’t a lot of active time spent in the kitchen.
The other thing I’ve started doing is freezing individual portions of casseroles. That way I have no excuse not to grab something out of the freezer for lunch.
We just recently went through our budget and realized how much money we were spending eating lunch and dinner out 2-3 times a week.
Hopefully, this will work!
Lindsey,
Please let me first apologize in that this comment has nothing to do with this post. I tried the e-mail route, but apparently I have to re-configure my Microsoft Outlook in order to access your e-mail. I’ll have to wait for my Geek Squad to arrive home from work in order to slay that dragon.
This morning I read a restaurant review of Hilton’s Great American Grill written by David Gray, Special to The Roanoke Times. Lindsey, how are these reviewers selected? Are there any rules or criteria that they are required to adhere to? Shouldn’t they experience the different services on more than one occasion? Why would a reviewer,Special to The Roanoke Times, write favorably about their Dinner experience and then advise people not to patronize the restaurant. But,on the flip side,after having an unpleasant experience in the morning, recommend people go for Breakfast?
These types of unprofessional reviews should be reserved for Yelp, not published in an accredited publication. By suggesting that the public forgo Dinner at Hilton’s, even though the food and ambiance were good, does a great disservice to the hardworking chef and cooks at this establishment.
If sales drop off because of this newspaper reviewer’s unwarranted and unprofessional recommendation, people will lose their jobs. All because Mr. Gray couldn’t get a second cup of coffee and had to get his own check. It’s interesting that he was the only one having trouble getting refills and his check. His words, not mine.
Lindsey, your columns and blog have always been fair and balanced and I always enjoy reading them. You set the bar high. It’s a shame that The Roanoke Times sees fit to publish in the same Plateup section such unprofessional,my-feelings-got-hurt personal rants by “reviewers” such as Mr. Gray.
And people wonder why the independent restaurants have such a challenging time staying open.
Thank you for letting me vent.
Dear s.m.:
Thank you for the feedback.
It was my impression that David Gray thought the food at the Great American Grill was of average quality but that poor service pushed it beyond the point at which he would recommend the restaurant to others. He wrote that it was OK for breakfast because of the convenience of having a breakfast restaurant in the same hotel where one is staying, but he did not suggest that people who are not staying at the hotel go out of their way to head there for breakfast. His review indicated that dinner at the restaurant was not good enough to overrule a decision to venture outside the hotel for dinner.
We choose our reviewers by advertising for freelancers when needed, then asking applicants to send in qualifications and a sample review. We are currently searching for a new reviewer for the New River Valley area and those are the materials for which we are asking.
Vent anytime.
“Fix It & Freeze It Heat It & Eat It” would help me tremendously! My elderly mother is unwell and unable to prepare food anymore and my step-dad never learned more than breakfast, sandwiches and salads, so I’m doing my best to prepare meals for them for their home, as well as for my own home. Having things that I could prepare and freeze for them to heat and eat as needed seems like a fabulous idea to me. Thank you for posting the above recipes, which I’m saving. Good luck to everyone!
i only have one word for this blog! FOODSAVER! amazing! i have saved so much money and froze so much food its amazing!
I will put my 2 cents in on the comment about RT’s restaurant reviews. My problem is when the review is favorable but there is no mention in the article of the address of the restaurant being reviewed. The most recent one that had this omission was a review of the newest Vietnamese restaurant that compared it to an older restaurant. Especially when the review is favorable, I’d like to know where to find the establishment so I can try it for myself.
Debi, are you reading the reviews online or in the newspaper? In the newspaper they are accompanied by an infobox that contains the address and other details. But we recently realized that infobox is not making it online with the rest of the review, so we are working to correct that. Thanks for pointing that out. Pho Saigon is at 3420 Orange Avenue in Roanoke.
Love to make n’ freeze. Casseroles are probably my favorite. There are only two of us in my house, so often I’ll take the standard 9 x 13 recipe and divide it half — cook one half the night I make it and put the other half in a dish, unbaked, in the freezer. Then just pop that one out and bake another day. Chili and soups also make good freezer-fodder. This book looks very interesting, might have to put it on my list for Santa
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I’m probably an outlier, but I think the RT food reviewers bend themselves into pretzels to be positive in their reviews. I get excited to read one that doesn’t use the word “delicious” 10 times.
I will take this feedback about the reviews under serious consideration. Thanks!
Folks, I made the Queso Potato Chowder this past weekend and it is really delicious. My grocery store didn’t have poblano peppers so I substituted Anaheim. the flavor is wonderful.
I also have the book “Don’t Panic, Dinner’s in the Freezer” which has served our family for several years. Soups are my favorite thing to fix and freeze this time of year- just add a loaf of french bread and a salad and you’ve got a great meal. The crockpot has also weaseled its way into my heart, for sure.
Thanks for posting about this book- its officially on my wish list!