Meat FULL Monday: Freezer Style

So, it's been a while since I've posted a meat full Monday blog post. Hopefully this one will hold me over until the next time, considering it's got THREE recipes packed into one and is all about freezer foods.

Freezer foods are one of my favorite things! There are days when you feel so productive and feel like cooking all day long; then there are days where you just know absolutely nothing is going to get done. So by cooking on the days you feel productive, and freezing everything, it's a win-win situation.

Over Christmas break, I went all out on the "cooking/productive" vengeance and made fully cooked meals for my baby brother to take back with him to college. Let's face it: boys are always in the "nothing is going to get cooked today" phase. Sister of the day award goes to me!

The first freezer meal I made was spaghetti. Oh so simple to make and easy to freeze.

I defrosted and cooked two pounds of hamburger - we're preparing for lots of "no-cooking" nights here....

I made the whole entire box of spaghetti noodles.

Then, when both of those were done cooking, I would put a little bit of both in a ziploc bag and pour some spaghetti sauce in with both, and maybe a dash of pepper or salt or basil if you're feeling frisky.

These are for my brother, so it's only about two servings per bag, but it made 8 gallon-sized bags! Whoo hoo!

The next two recipes were King Ranch Chicken and Smothered Pork Chops and actually had a lot of the same ingredients so it was easy to save some time doing them at the same time. Void the fact that your stove top may or may not look like this:

Hey Jack, it's all organized in my head.

I reused the pot I cooked the spaghetti noodles in, and cooked a whole bag of egg noodles.

Then, I chopped up three green bell peppers and two onions.

Put two bell peppers and one onion in a bowl

add a can of cream of mushroom, and a few splashes of Worcestershire sauce, and a small can of chicken broth to that bowl.

Lay down four pork chops and pour the bowl mixture (peppers/onion/soup/worcestershire/broth) over the top of the pork chops.

 Once you've done that, pop it in the oven for an hour at 350.

Now, take the other chopped green bell pepper and onion and sautee them in a pan with some butter. My grandma taught me to put butter and sugar on almost everything I cooked, so I'm actually keeping it fairly tame here people!

While you're waiting, take about 3-5 chicken breasts and bake them in the oven, alongside the pork chops. You can use however much chicken you want, I won't tell.

I wasn't really paying attention to how long they were in the oven - oops! But once they are white through and through (I usually pull them apart and make sure they're still juicy on the inside, but not pink) take them out of the oven and shred.

You can add whatever spices you feel like to the chicken. I used salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder.

Next, combine one can cream of mushroom soup, one can cream of chicken soup, and one can of mild rotel to a bowl.

Throw in your sauteed bell pepper and onion to that bowl as well.

Once you've mixed everything well, put the egg noodles, soup mixture, and chicken in a pan and top with shredded cheddar cheese.

Cook this in the oven for about 15-20 minutes at 350. It makes a LOT of meals. Which is convenient because this is my all-time favorite recipe EVER!

Well, that outta keep your tummy full for the next 3 weeks!





Have a fantastically delicious week!

Spaghetti
1 box spaghetti noodles
2 lbs hamburger
2 cans Prego spaghetti sauce
Oregano
Basil
Black Pepper

Cook the whole box of noodles, brown the hamburger, add the two in small increments to ziploc bags, along with the spaghetti sauce and a dash of oregano, basil, and black pepper.

Smothered Pork Chops
4 boneless pork chops
2 green bell peppers
1 large onion
1 can cream of mushroom soup
Worcestershire sauce
1 small can chicken broth
Salt
Pepper

Chop up the bell peppers and onion, add to a bowl with mushroom soup, a few dashes of worcestershire sauce, and chicken broth. Lay down pork chops and sprinkle salt/pepper on top, then smother in bowl mixture.

I had some extra egg noodles, so I added some noodles to each container of pork chops that I froze, but those aren't necessary.

King Ranch Chicken - the yummiest recipe ever
3-5 chicken breasts
1 green bell pepper
1 large onion
1 tbsp butter
1 can mild rotel
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 pkg egg noodles
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
Salt
Pepper
Garlic powder
Onion powder

Cook the egg noodles, and bake the chicken at 350 until cooked through. Chop up bell pepper and onion, then sautee in pan with butter until soft. Combine rotel, mushroom soup, and chicken soup in bowl with sauteed bell pepper and onion. Mix thoroughly. Once chicken is done, shred into small bite-sized pieces. Then season chicken lightly with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder. Drain egg noodles, then combine with chicken and bowl mixture. Top with cheddar cheese and bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes, or until cheese is golden brown.

Enjoy!