Rerun: No Fuss Lasagna by Beth (originally Wendy's recipe)

Here is the link to the recipe. 

The only things I changed was:
1) Add 1/2 large onion (chopped) to the ground beef while browning.
2)  I did not get Zesty spaghetti sauce, so instead, I added 1 1/2 tsp. garlic powder and 1 1/2 tsp. of basil to the saucy beef mixture.

http://freezerfriendz.blogspot.com/2011/08/no-fuss-lasagna.html

Cajun Chicken Pasta by Beth

adapted from http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/cajun-chicken-pasta/

Ingredients:
1-1 & 1/2 lb raw chicken breast, cubed

3 1/2 tsp Cajun seasoning, divided
2 T. olive oil, divided
2 T. butter, divided
1/2 yellow pepper, seeded and sliced
1/2 orange pepper, seeded and sliced
1 red pepper, seeded and sliced
1/2 large red onion, thinly sliced
3 t. garlic, minced
4 whole Roma tomatoes, diced
1 1/2 t. fresh cilantro, finely chopped
2 c. low sodium chicken broth
1/4 c. white cooking wine
1 c. heavy cream
1/4 t. pepper
1/4 t. salt
2 T. flour
1 lb. fettuccine noodles
Assembly:
Sprinkle 1 1/2 tsp. Cajun seasoning over chicken cubes; toss to coat.  Heat 1 T. butter and 1 T. oil in large skillet over high heat.  Add the chicken in a single layer.  Cook until chicken is no longer pink, turning with tongs; do not stir.  Remove with slotted spoon and put in gallon size freezer bag to cool.  In same skillet add remaining butter and olive oil (1 T. each).  Add peppers, onion, and garlic.  Saute over high heat until peppers become soft.  Add remaining Cajun seasoning (2 tsp), tomatoes, and cilantro.  Cook for an additional minute.  Remove veggies from the pan and add to the freezer bag with chicken.  In the same skillet, pour the wine and broth.  Bring to a boil.  Remove a little of the liquid and whisk with the flour in a small bowl until all the lumps are out.  Add to the rest of the liquid mixture.  Pour in cream and return to a boil; boil for 2 minutes or until thickened.  Season with salt and pepper (You may add more Cajun seasoning if you want it spicy...I did not for our group).  Allow to cool and then pour into freezer bag with chicken and veggies.  Seal and lay flat to freeze. 
Serving Day:
Thaw in the fridge.  Cook fettuccine noodles per package directions.  Meanwhile, heat contents of freezer bag in saucepan on stove.  Drain noodles and mix with hot chicken mixture.  Serve.

Garlic & Herb Beef Bottom Round Roast by Jackie

**Adapted from http://www.justapinch.com/recipes/main-course/beef/beef-bottom-round-roast-perfection.html

Ingredients:

4-6 lb. beef bottom round roast

6 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp. coarse sea salt
2 Tbsp. dried rosemary
1 Tbsp. dried thyme
1 Tbsp. cracked black pepper
2 Tbsp. minced onion flakes (can sub 2 tsp. onion powder)
1/4 c. olive oil



Assembly:
Place roast on a plate.  Mix all dry ingredients together.  Add oil until a paste forms.  Smear mixture on all sides of the roast.  Place in gallon size Ziploc freezer bag.  Label and freeze.

Serving Day:
Thaw completely.  Place roast in slow cooker. Cook on low for 6-8 hours.

Optional:
Remove the roast from slow cooker. Combine drippings with 1-3 tablespoons
of flour.  Increase temperature to high until gravy reaches desired consistency.

Creamy Italian Chicken by Jen

Adapted from: http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/2009/07/crockpot-italian-chicken.html#Usbc41b8LBh95Tg2.99

Ingredients:
6 Chicken breasts
1 1/2 envelope Italian salad dressing mix
1 1/2  package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
2 cans (10-3/4 ounces) condensed cream of chicken soup
Hot cooked pasta or rice

Assembly: 
Place the chicken in a crock pot and sprinkle Italian dressing over it.  Combine cream cheese and cream of chicken soup in a small pot over low heat until completely melted.
Pour over chicken in the Ziploc freezer bag. 

Serving Day:
Empty items into the crock pot set on low and come back 6.5-7 hours later.  Once chicken is done you can leave the chicken breasts whole, cube it, or even shred it. I always cut the breasts into tenderloin size strips.  Once you have cut up the chicken, throw it back in the crock pot and stir into the sauce. If you feel the sauce is too thick you can thin it to your preferred consistency with a little milk.  Prepare noodles before ready to serve, and enjoy chicken over hot cooked noodles!

Very Greek Grilled Chicken by Jackie

The weather has been crazy here the past few weeks.  We had shorts weather and then within a day we were experiencing freezing temperatures and snow again.  Well, the end of this week brought warmer weather back, hopefully for good! I'm choosing to believe that it is now spring!  With spring comes grill season.  I always get a little giddy when we change our Soup/Stew/Chili category for freezer swap back to Grillables in the spring because it signals that we get to be outside more.  To kick off our grillables season, I decided to make this delicious chicken recipe.  Hope you like it!

Ingredients:
6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/2 c. extra virgin olive oil
1/3 c. fresh squeezed lemon juice
1 tsp.  fresh lemon zest
1 tsp. Greek seasoning
1 tsp. poultry seasoning
1 tsp. dried oregano
1/4 tsp. black pepper



Assembly: 
Trim chicken and put into gallon-size freezer Ziploc.  Mix all other ingredients in small bowl and pour over chicken.  Lay flat to freeze.

 Serving Day:
Thaw completely. Grill. Enjoy!

Shepherd's Pie Stuffed Potatoes by Beth

adapted from https://www.facebook.com/buzzfeedtasty

Ingredients:
6 large baking potatoes
1/2 large onion, chopped
1 lb. ground beef
1/4 c. flour
1 tsp. thyme
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 T. Worcestershire sauce
1 can beef broth
12 oz. pkg. frozen peas and carrots (cooked as directed on the package)
milk
butter
additional salt and pepper

Assembly:
Scrub and rinse potatoes thoroughly.  Place in 9x13, cover with foil, and bake at 400 for 1-1 1/2 hrs until soft (the time depends on the size of the potato).  Uncover and allow to cool.  In large skillet, cook onion and beef until beef is done; drain.  Return beef to skillet and add flour, seasonings, and Worcestershire sauce.  Mix until combined; add broth.  Cook until mixture is bubbly.  Add veggies; stir until combined; remove from heat.  Lay potato on cutting board, slice the top off (lengthwise) and scoop out the potato pulp leaving enough around the edges to make a boat. 

Fill each boat with beef mixture to the top (you may have leftover beef mixture based on the size of your potatoes).  In a large mixing bowl, make mashed potatoes by beating the potato pulp, milk, butter, and salt/pepper.  (Amounts of milk, butter, and seasonings is based on how much potato pulp you have and to your taste).  Pour mashed potato in gallon size plastic bag.  Cut a small hole in the corner and pipe mashed potatoes onto top of beefy boats.

Place boats in 9x13, cover, and freeze.

Serving Day:
Thaw completely in fridge.  Bake, uncovered, at 375 for 45-60 min.  These are thick and take awhile to get the inside hot.  Once hot throughout, broil the last 5 min. to get a slightly crispy potato top.  Enjoy!

Breaded Pork Chops by Beth

Adapted for freezer from http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/flavorful-breaded-pork-chops

Ingredients:
2 T. flour
4 egg whites
1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp. balsamic vinegar
1/8 tsp. hot pepper sauce
3/4 c. bread crumbs
3 T. Parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp. ground thyme
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. paprika
6 boneless pork loin chops (1/2 in. thick)

Assembly:
Place flour in shallow dish.  In another shallow dish, beat egg whites, Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, and hot sauce.  In a third dish, combine bread crumbs, cheese, and seasonings.  Coat pork chops with flour.  Dip into egg mixture, then coat with bread crumb mixture.  Place on wax paper lined cookie sheet in a single layer.  Place in freezer until frozen solid.  Once completely frozen, place in gallon size freezer bag and return to freezer.

Serving Day:
Thaw in fridge.  Place chops in greased baking dish.  Bake, uncovered, at 350 for 25-28 min. or until juices run clear.  If you bake these from freezer (which I'm sure you can do), please comment how long they took.

BBQ Chicken Pizza by Jackie

Ingredients: 
1 frozen pizza crust (I buy mine in bulk from Sam's Club at the cafe counter.)
2 c. cooked, shredded chicken
2 c. shredded cheddar and Monterrey jack cheese
14 oz. your favorite barbecue sauce (I use Montgomery Inn.)  

Assembly: 
Place pizza crust on cardboard pizza round. Cover with plastic wrap.  Cover with heavy duty aluminum foil.  Label and freeze.  Place chicken in quart size Ziploc bag.  Place cheese in sandwich size Ziploc bag.  Place both bags into gallon size Ziploc freezer bag. Label.  Freeze.

Serving Day:
Thaw all ingredients, except crust.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Unwrap crust.  Top pizza crust with sauce.  Spread evenly over crust.  Sprinkle chicken in an even layer over sauce. Sprinkle cheese evenly over pizza.  Slide off of cardboard and onto oven rack.  Bake 10 minutes or until the underside of the crust is cooked to your liking. Enjoy!

Italian Chicken Pasta Toss by Wendy

An adaptation from Pampered Chef

Ingredients:
3 cups (9 oz.) Bow Tie Pasta
1 can diced tomatoes
1 small onion, chopped
1 medium zucchini, sliced
1 small bell pepper, cut into thin strips
8 oz. Cooked Chicken, cut into dices
2 tsp. Olive oil
2 garlic cloves
1/2 cup frozen peas
1 tsp. Italian Seasoning
1 tsp. Salt
1/4 cup Parmesan Cheese


Assembly:
Bag 1:  In a Sandwich bag measure 3 cups Bow Tie Pasta.
Bag 2:  In a Gallon Size Ziploc Bag place tomatoes, onion, zucchini, bell pepper, chicken, Oil, garlic, peas, Seasoning and Salt.
Bag 3:  In a Snack Size Ziploc Bag measure the Parmesan Cheese
In a Gallon Size Ziploc Bag place all 3 bags and freeze.


Serving Day:
Thaw completely.

Pour Chicken Mixture in a large pan and cook until heated through on Medium Heat, stirring every few minutes.


Cook Pasta until al dente.  Drain and Mix with warmed Chicken Mixture in large pan.


Add Parmesan Cheese, stir and serve.


Serves:  6

Re-Run Sante Fe Soup by Jen

http://freezerfriendz.blogspot.com/2013/04/re-run-sante-fe-soup-by-jen.html

Homemade Sloppy Joes by Jackie

Adapted from Best Loved Slow Cooker Recipes

*As of May 2009, this recipe can be made gluten free by using the products in parenthesis.

One recipe makes 16 servings.

Ingredients:
3 lb. ground beef
1 c. chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, minced or ¼ tsp. garlic powder
1 1/2 c. ketchup (*Heinz)
1 c. chopped green pepper (I used orange peppers too.)
1/2 c. water
4T. brown sugar (*organic)
4 T. prepared mustard (*French’s)
4 T. vinegar (*red wine vinegar)
4 T. Worcestershire sauce (*French’s or Lee & Perrins)
3 tsp. chili powder

Assembly:
In large skillet, brown ground beef, onion and garlic. Cook until meat is brown and onion is tender. Drain fat. In any size crock pot, combine remaining ingredients. Stir in meat mixture. Cover and cook on Low 6-8 hrs. or on High 3-4 hrs. Allow mixture to cool.  Divide meat between two gallon-size Ziploc freezer bags.

Serving Day:Place in microwave-safe bowl. Microwave until heated through. Serve on toasted buns
.

Teriyaki Chicken Tacos by Beth

Ingredients:
2 1/2 T. cornstarch
3/4 c. brown sugar
1 3/4 c. chicken broth
1/2 c. soy sauce
1/4 c. pineapple juice
1/2 t. garlic powder
2 t. fresh ground ginger
1 bunch green onion, thinly sliced
2 1/2-3 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken thighs
instant rice
soft corn tortillas

Assembly:
In saucepan, combine brown sugar and cornstarch.  Gradually pour in chicken broth and stir to combine.  Add soy sauce, pineapple juice, garlic powder, and ginger.  Bring to boil, stirring occasionally.  Boil for 2 min.  Remove from heat and allow to cool.  While this cools, cut chicken thighs into small, bite size pieces.  Reserve 1 1/2 c. of cooled teriyaki sauce, place in fridge.  Add remaining sauce to chicken pieces and the white part of the green onion and marinate overnight in the fridge.  The next day, pour chicken with marinade into skillet and cook over med/high until chicken is done.  Allow to cool and place in gallon size freezer bag.  Pour in the reserved marinade over the chicken.  Seal and freeze.  Flash freeze the green part of the onion.  (Flash freezing means to spread out the green onion in a single layer on cookie sheet and freeze until firm).  Place green onion in small bag and freeze also.

Serving Day:
Thaw chicken in fridge.  Warm up saucy chicken in microwave or in skillet.  Prepare rice according to directions on box (I wrote the instructions on your bag of rice).  Add the thawed green onion to the rice.  To serve, put a spoonful of rice topped with a spoonful of teriyaki chicken on tortilla.  Enjoy!

Beef Pitas with Yogurt Sauce

Recipe adapted from the Taste of Home-Busy Family Favorites

Ingredients: PITAS
2 tsp. Dried Oregano
1 tsp. Dried Rosemary
1 tsp. Salt
1/2 tsp. Pepper
2 lbs. Beef Top Sirloin Steak, cut into thin strips
1 large Sweet Onion, sliced
8 tsp. Olive oil
8 Pita Breads

Ingredients:  SAUCE
2 cups (16 ounces) Whole Plain Yogurt
1/4 cup dried parsley
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 tsp Salt

Assembly:
For Pita's, place all ingredients in a gallon size Ziploc freezer bag and shake to mix.  Let air out of bag and place in freezer.

For Sauce, place all ingredients in a bowl to mix.  Pour into Quart size Ziploc freezer bag, and place in freezer.

Serving Day:
Thaw all bags.  Place meat mixture in a nonstick skillet and cook on medium low, until beef is no longer pink. 

Serve beef mixture on warmed pita's with yogurt sauce.  You may also add lettuce and tomato, optional.  Leftover Sauce may be used to dip with pita chips.


Yield:  8 servings.

Balsamic Chicken by Jen

Ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon sea salt 

• 1 teaspoon pepper 

• 28 oz diced tomatoes 

• 4 garlic cloves, minced 

• 2 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil 

• 3/4 cup balsamic vinegar 

• 6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Assembly:

Combine all ingredients together in a ziploc bag.  Freezer ready. 

Serving Day:

Slightly thaw chicken and place in crockpot low 4-6 hours. 

Chicken Pot Pie by Jackie

 Ingredients:

1 pkg. refrigerated pie crust
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can cream of potato soup
1 (16 oz.) bag frozen, mixed vegetables
2 cups cooked chicken, shredded
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/2 cup chicken broth

Assembly: 

Place one pie crust in the bottom of a half size steam table pan or glass pie plate.  Mix remaining ingredients in large mixing bowl.  Top with other pie crust.  Use sharp knife to make slits or a design on top of crust.  This is important for venting the pie. Cover with lid.  Label and freeze.

Serving Day:
Option 1 - Cook from frozen:  Preheat oven to 425.  Bake covered for 1 hour.  Uncover.  Bake another hour or until crust is golden brown and inside is bubbly.

Option 2 - Thaw first. Bake uncovered for 35-40 minutes at 425. 

**Both methods: If edges start to brown early, cover them until inside is cooked through. 

Spaghetti and Meatballs by Beth

adapted from http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/the-best-meatballs-114119.aspx

Ingredients:
2 lb. ground beef
1 pkg. (6 oz.) stuffing mix for chicken
1 c. water
2 eggs
16 oz. spaghetti noodles
Jar of spaghetti sauce
Assembly:
Heat oven to 400.  In large bowl, mix beef, stuffing, water, and eggs with hands.  Using large scoop (about 1/4 c.), shape into balls.  This will yield about 28-34 meatballs.  Each time I got a different amount.  Place meatballs on greased 15x10x1 pan (line with greased foil for less clean up). 


Bake for 18-20 min. or until done (160 deg).   Cool completely and place in gallon size freezer bag.  I gave each friend 24 meatballs (serving size is 4 meatballs).  Place in freezer. 
Serving Day:
Thaw meatballs in fridge.  Cook noodles per box instructions.  In large saucepan, place sauce and meatballs.  Heat up until hot.  You could probably place frozen meatballs in with the sauce.  It would just take longer to heat up.

Rerun: Sweet & Sour Meatballs by: Jen

http://freezerfriendz.blogspot.com/2012/06/sweet-and-sour-meatballs-by-jackie.html


Enjoy!

Rerun: Chicken Tortellini Casserole by Beth

http://freezerfriendz.blogspot.com/2012/03/chicken-tortellini-casserole-by-beth.html

Chicago Style Italian Shredded Beef Sandwiches by Jackie

*This is my variation of CHICAGO STYLE ITALIAN BEEF SANDWICHES from COOKS.COM
Servings: 12
Ingredients:
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. freshly ground pepper
1 (4 lb.) beef bottom round roast
1 tbsp. instant beef bouillon granules
1 tsp. dried Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp. dried oregano leaves
1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper
1/4 c. water
green pepper slices, cooked (optional)
12 (6" each) crusty Italian or French hoagie buns, split
12 slices provolone cheese

Assembly:
Combine garlic, salt and pepper; rub evenly over roast. Place roast in slow cooker. Combine bouillon granules, Italian seasoning, oregano and red pepper & water in bowl. Pour over meat. Cook on low 10-12 hours until meat is easily shredded with fork. Cool meat. Place half of the meat and juice in each of 2 Ziploc freezer bags. Place 6 buns in each of 2 gallon Ziploc freezer bags. Place 6 slices of cheese in each of 2 pint size Ziploc freezer bags. If desired, place a meat, bun and cheese bag in a 2 gallon Ziploc bag to keep the meal organized.

Serving Day:
Thaw meat, buns & cheese. Heat meat just until warm in microwave. Spread melted butter on rolls. Toast them in oven on broil. Put meat on roll. Add cooked green peppers if desired. Place cheese on top. Place in oven until cheese is melted.

Sun-dried Tomato/Pesto Chicken & Pasta by Jen

Ingredients:
3 lb chicken (frozen)
2 jars of Alfredo sauce
1 small jar of sun-dried tomato & pesto
Box of Pasta of choice.  

Assembly:
Place chicken in large Ziploc bag and cover with sauces.

Serving Day:
Place bag of chicken with sauces in the bottom of the slow cooker.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Cook high for 4-6 hours or low for 6-8 hours.

Meanwhile cook pasta as directed on package.  Serve chicken over hot pasta with sauce.