Freezer Lessons from Ike by Jackie

OK - I just finished assuring our children that hurricanes do not come this far. They only affect the people who live near the ocean. Well, Ike made a liar out of me!!! We lost power for 34 hours when Ike delivered hurricane strength wind to Ohio Sunday afternoon. I must say that I was not prepared for a power outage that lasted that long. We've never had an outage last more than four hours. I could not remember how long the freezer food would be good for without power. Since we didn't have Internet access, I had no way of looking it up. Luckily, I have a friend who did have power and had lots of space in her freezer. She let us bring all of our food to her house. We are so grateful, considering we just did our freezer exchange on Tuesday of last week and I had many meals in my freezer. Thanks Kristen!!! I haven't spoken to all of our Freezer Friendz yet, but I am hoping everyone has been able to salvage their freezer food!
http://www.redcross.org/www-files/Documents/pdf/Preparedness/PowerOutage.pdf
I am going to post links to info about how to handle power outages with your freezer food because I have learned that it's better to know how to handle the situation ahead of time. http://www.redcross.org/www-files/Documents/pdf/Preparedness/PowerOutage.pdf
http://ohioline.osu.edu/home/freezer.html

So, what lessons did I learn from Ike?
1. Make sure you have good friends with empty freezers.
2. Learn about freezer food safety during power outages before you actually need to use that knowledge. (Or at least have it on paper somewhere.)
3. We are so blessed to have electricity!

Cheesy Beef Stroganoff from Mags

*From the Kraft Website

Ingredients:
1 lb. ground beef
2 c. water
3 cups egg noodles - UNcooked
3/4 lbs. Velveeta (12 oz)
1 can mushroom soup
1/4 teas. pepper

1 small chopped onion

Assembly:
Brown and drain ground beef.
Boil water with the meet in a skillet.
Add noodles.
Reduce heat to medium and simmer 8 minutes.
Add cheese, soup, onion, and pepper.
Stir until melted.
You can eat immediately.

Freezing:
After cooking, spread out in a 9x13" pan and freeze.
Thaw and Reheat when you are ready to eat it - I baked ours at 350 for 45 minutes.

Chicken and Rice Casserole by Jackie

Ingredients:
4 cups diced, cooked chicken*
4 cups cooked rice
½ c. celery
½ c. diced onions
2 cans cream of chicken soup**
¼ c. mayonnaise
1 Tbsp. Lemon juice

Topping:
2 c. crushed cornflakes
3-6 Tbsp. Butter

Assembly:
Sauté onions and celery.
Combine chicken, soup, mayo, and lemon juice. Mix in rice. Add sautéed onion and celery.
Place in 9x13 baking dish.
Top with crushed cornflakes and crumbled butter.

Serving Day:
Thaw completely. Bake at 400 until heated through (about 45 minutes). If cornflakes start to turn too brown, lay a piece of foil over dish until done.

*I seasoned the chicken with poultry seasoning and baked it.
**I made the cream of chicken soup from scratch using the recipe on this link: http://www.tammysrecipes.com/homemade_cream_chicken_soup.