Freezer Friendz: October 2015

Friday, October 23, 2015

Crockpot BBQ Chicken by Jackie

Recipe adapted from http://www.familyfreshmeals.com/2014/06/best-crockpot-bbq-chicken.html#_a5y_p=2090194

Ingredients:
2.5 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 cup Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce

¼ cup Kraft Roasted Red Pepper Italian dressing

¼ cup brown sugar

1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

sea salt to taste

Assembly:

Season chicken breast lightly (a small pinch per breast) with some sea salt and place in gallon size Ziploc freezer bag. In a mixing bowl combine BBQ sauce, Italian dressing, brown sugar and Worcestershire sauce. Mix well. Pour over chicken. Seal bag. Lay flat and freeze.

Serving Day:

Thaw completely. Pour into slow cooker. Cover and cook on HIGH for 3-4 hours. Shred chicken breasts. Cover slow cooker. Let chicken cook in sauce for 10-15 more minutes to soak up flavor. Serve on buns.

Thursday, October 15, 2015

BBQ Spareribs by Beth

Ingredients:
8-10 lbs. pork spareribs
seasoned salt
garlic powder
12 oz. Coke
1/2 c. brown sugar
1 c. ketchup
1 c. BBQ sauce
1 t. ginger
1 t. liquid smoke

Assembly:
Sprinkle both sides of ribs with seasoned salt and garlic powder (like a rub). Place ribs in large stockpot with enough water to cover (cut to fit, if needed). Over medium-high heat bring the water to boil and cook for 1 hour. Remove from water and allow to cool. Wrap ribs tightly in heavy duty aluminum foil. Place in 2 gal size plastic bag. In qt. size freezer bag, add the remaining ingredients. Seal and squish around contents to mix them well. Lay BBQ sauce bag inside larger plastic bag with ribs. Freeze.

Serving Day:
Thaw ribs and sauce. Preheat oven to 350. Place foil packet of ribs on large baking sheet with sides (I used my jelly-roll size stone). Open up foil and pour thawed sauce over the ribs; reseal. Bake for 30 min. Open up foil; spoon sauce over the ribs; return to oven uncovered for another 30 min. If desired, remove several times in that last 30 min to baste the ribs with the sauce. There will probably be leftovers. I spent the time to take the meat off the bone and had pulled BBQ pork another night!

Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Italian Meatball Subs by Jen

Ingredients
32 oz. frozen meatballs
1 jar marinara sauce
6 -8 deli hoagie buns
6 - 8 slices provolone cheese

Assembly
Pour meatballs and sauce into gallon-size Ziploc freezer bag. Freeze upright for easy placement of frozen food into crockpot. Place cheese in quart-size Ziploc freezer bag. Freeze flat.

Serving Day
Thaw meatball bag enough to release into slow cooker. Running under warm water for a few minutes does the trick. Cook on low for 4 hours. Toast buns in oven. Place 4 meatballs and a small amount of sauce on each bun. Top with a slice of cheese. Broil 1-2 minutes until cheese melts. Enjoy!

Freezer Cooking Quick Tips

When wrapping meals for freezer: make sure to double wrap to prevent freezer burn. Using one layer of plastic wrap and a top layer of foil is best.

Freezer Bags: Use GOOD freezer bags! Don't skimp on cheapo freezer bags or your food will taste like plastic!

Meat in Freezer Meals: Thawed meat must be cooked before it can be refrozen. Frozen cooked meat can not be refrozen once thawed.

Freezing Soup: Pour soup into gallon size Ziploc bag. Lay bag of soup flat on a cookie sheet in the freezer until frozen, then remove cookie sheet. Doing this allows soup to freeze flat, so it can stack easily with other meals in your freezer.

Flash Marinade: Put raw chicken or beef in a ziploc baggie, pour in your marinade, then freeze. In the thawing process, your meat will be infused with the marinade and ready to cook!

Cooking Noodles: Cook noodles only 3 minutes, drain and immediately run under cold water to stop the cooking process. Noodles will freeze well and not turn to mush if done this way. Tip from freezerchicks blog site!

Slow-Cooking Chicken for the Freezer: You can fill crock pot with chicken breasts and pour a can of chicken broth over meat. Cook on high for 4 hours. Another method that gives the meat more flavor is to layer 1 sliced onion in the bottom of slow cooker. Top with chicken. Sprinkle with seasoned salt, pepper and garlic powder. Cook on low for 4 hours or until done. With either of these methods, you need to keep an eye on your meat to make sure you do not overcook. Shred or dice and freeze in 2 cup portions for use in casseroles, tacos, etc...

Freezing Cooked Ground Beef: You can boil ground beef, then freeze it - it will be easy to thaw and use for tacos or something similar! To do this, add raw ground beef to large pot. Add onion, salt & pepper. Fill pot with water until water is 1" above the top of the meat. Boil, stirring occasionally to break up chunks. Meat is finished when no longer pink. Drain off the water (which drains off the fat).

1lb. raw ground beef=12 oz. cooked ground beef=2 - 2.5

Freezing Sandwiches: You can make lunchmeat sandwiches ahead of time and freeze them. Just assemble the meat and cheese on bread and place in ziploc sandwich bags. Place all bagged sandwiches into a large ziploc freezer bag. I did this once with cheap sandwich bags and the sandwiches tasted like plastic; however, they taste fine if you use Ziploc bags. **PBJ works too, if bread is a higher quality wheat bread.

Freezer Efficiency: If your freezer isn't full, fill empty milk jugs 3/4 full with water and place in freezer. This helps your freezer not have to work so hard to stay cold, saving you money.

Substitutions: Here is a great source for figuring out substitions for your recipes when you start making something and realize you are missing an ingredient: http://allrecipes.com/HowTo/Common-Substitutions/Detail.aspx

Meet The Freezer Friendz!