Chicken Pot Pie

Due to my worsening hip pain, I am changing up how I do my freezer recipes this month. Not wanting to get behind on my freezer cooking, right before surgery, I have decided to change my method a bit. This method has been recommended in a lot of blogs and books for the beginner freezer meal cook, that I have read. Instead of doing all the cooking in one day, try and just cook 2-4 of the same meal when you prep a meal for dinner, then freeze the rest. It doesn't take much more time or energy to make four of something than it does to make one. Really! Today I did Chicken Pot Pie. I made 4, cooked 1 and froze the remaining 3.

Today I will share my method and recipe!

Keep in mind ingredients are approximate. I don't really measure as much as put stuff in until it tastes good to me. Feel free to switch up ingredients to your family's taste.


Chicken Pot Pie 

(per pie)
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 small russet potatoes
1/2 C. carrots
1/2 C. frozen corn
1/2 can Cream of Chicken soup
1/2 C Milk
1-2 C. chicken broth or stock
1 t dried minced onions
1 t garlic powder
1/4 T Rosemary
1/4 T Thyme
1/4 T Sage
1/2 T parsley
celery salt (small pinch)
salt and pepper to taste

1 pre-made frozen pie crusts in foil pan (deep dish).

I use the pie crust that comes frozen in the foil pan in the freezer section. It usually comes in packs of 2. This serves 2 adults and the toddler. My daughter doesn't eat it, so I don't even make enough for her. If you need to make this for a larger crowd, just double the recipe, put it in a larger foil pan, and buy the crust that comes in the roll. Of course you can also make homemade crust. Another option is topping the filling with refrigerator biscuits instead of pie crust. I have also seen individual sized foil pie pans at the store. Those would be great to keep personal portions on hand for lunches, or quick dinners! 

Take out pie crusts and let thaw.

 (all the extra broken off pieces, I save and thaw also. They can be used to flatten out and fill gaps in the dough later)

Cube Chicken and cook in a large stock pot.

While chicken is cooking, cube the potatoes. I make mine into small cubes so they don't overwhelm the dish, and make it too starchy.

I store my potatoes and other veggies in a bowl of water until ready to use, to prevent browning. You can use any veggies you like in this recipe. Drain most of the water before adding to the pot.

Add the veggies to the pot, and cook until the veggies just start to soften. You can add a bit of water or stock to keep it from sticking, if needed.

Add the soup, milk, and water or stock, until there is just enough liquid to completely cover the meat/veggie mixture. Simmer until sauce has reduced to a thickened consistency, similar to a thin gravy.

While the pot of "soup" is simmering, turn the crust dough out on to sheets of wax paper. It will come out misshapen and a bit strange looking. Just press it together into a circle shape, the best you can, and press flat with a rolling pin. Store in a stack in the fridge until filling is ready. It is ok if it doesn't look perfect. 

Once the "gravy" is thickened, place it into the pie pans, and let cool until no longer steaming. Taste and add final seasonings at this point.

Once cooled a bit, flip the crust over off the wax paper on top of the pie pan. Carefully cut or push off any extra dough, making a clean edge around the pie. Push with a fork on the edges to seal crust to the pan, and make the edges look neat.

Wrap well with foil, write cooking instructions on foil, and freeze! They are sooo much better than the pot pies you get in the freezer section at the grocery store!

TO COOK:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Bake with foil on for 1-2 hours. I know it is vague, but it depends how cold your freezer is, and accounts for the difference in ovens. After 1 hour, check every 20 min or so. Once it is heated through the center, take the foil off and turn heat to 400. Bake until top is golden brown. Let sit for 15 min before serving for best results. Enjoy!!

(this one wasn't so perfect looking, but it is the one we baked today, and it was yummy!)

We had this today on a drizzly, rainy day, and it was perfect! YUM!

Don't forget to leave a comment if you try this recipe, with your critiques, and/or ideas for the recipe. Let me know what worked or didn't work for you. Hope you love it!

Recipes finally!!

Thanks to everyone for being so patient. Sorry it has taken me so long to finally get recipes to you all. It is much harder than I thought to write a recipe! I never use a recipe, I get ideas from recipes, then just add stuff until it looks like it will taste good. I hate to measure and usually just throw a splash of this, pinch of that into the pan and taste as I go. So, that being said, I hope these recipes work well for you all. If something in a recipe doesn't look right to you, or you want to switch up ingredients, go for it! That is what cooking is all about. Be sure to change the recipe to the tastes of your family, and enjoy! 

I have a lot more recipes for you. I will only post ones I have tried and liked. Or I will let you know it is an un-tested recipe. Many of these ideas I got from cookbooks or online, but I have changed them to suit my family. If I use a recipe from somewhere else I will just provide the link, so they can get credit for their recipe. I'll also add pictures if I have them.

Shrimp Scampi with Pasta

1 lb. Frozen or fresh raw shrimp. (Shell off or you can remove)

½ stick butter

½ C. Sweet white wine (can substitute stock and a splash of apple cider vinegar)

1 clove minced garlic

¼ C. minced onions (I use dried)

¼ C. Lemon Juice

squeeze of honey

salt and pepper to taste while cooking

Combine all ingredients except shrimp in ziplock bag. Mix ingredients in the bag. Add in shrimp, remove air and freeze.

I also mostly cook about ½ lb of any pasta. I prefer penne. I freeze that in a seperate bag, and put them together in a larger bag. Or you can tape the bags together.

To cook:

Thaw completely. Add all ingredients to pan, except pasta. Cook until shrimp is pink and firm. Remove shrimp. Simmer the sauce until it starts to reduce and thicken. About 10 min. Add pasta and cook until pasta is warmed through. Salt and pepper to taste. Combine with shrimp and serve.

Balsamic Glazed Pork Roast

1 pork roast

1 C. Chicken broth or stock (or pork if you want to spend the extra $$)

¼ C. brown sugar

⅓ C. Balsamic Vinegar

1 T soy sauce

1-2 cloves of minced garlic

1 T onion powder or dried minced onions

1T Honey- add to sauce when reducing on the day you cook it.

Also may add more soy sauce, and salt/pepper to taste.

Add all ingredients except pork to bag and mix well. Add pork roast to bag and cover with sauce. Remove as much air as possible and seal.

To Cook:

No need to thaw! Just let it sit out long enough for the juices to thaw enough that you can get it out of the bag. Plop the big frozen lump into your crock pot. Cook on low for 8-10 hours or high for 4-5 hours. Cooking on low will produce a more tender roast.

Once cooked, remove the roast from the crock. Let it rest 10-15 minutes, then shred. While the roast is resting, pour all the liquid into a saute pan and reduce until it thickens into a nice thick glaze. You will want to do this on a pretty high heat. once it is thickened, pour it over the shredded pork and serve over rice.

EXTRA TIP: I save the leftover pork, mix with your favorite bbq sauce and microwave until warm. Serve over baked potatoes with cheese and sour cream, for another very yummy meal!

Chicken Cordon Bleu Rolls (makes 12)

6 large chicken breasts

12 slices swiss cheese

12 thin slices of regular ham,  or 24 slices of deli ham.

breadcrumbs to coat

2 eggs

⅔ C milk

Slice chicken breasts lengthwise, and pound out until thin. Mix eggs and milk in a bowl. Dip the chicken in the egg mixture, then dip into bread crumbs and set aside. Once all the chicken is breaded, lay one flat and add 1 slice of cheese and 1 slice of ham on top of the chicken. Use 2 slices of ham if using deli ham.

Roll as tight as possible. My trick to keep them together? No toothpicks! Lay them on a strip of plastic wrap a few lengths larger than the rolls. Roll in the plastic wrap leaving some extra on the sides. Twist the ends of the wrap in opposite directions (like a candy wrapper), keep twisting until you chicken forms a nice tight bundle. It will freeze this way, then stay together when you cook it!

To Cook:

You can cook from frozen, but I prefer to thaw about halfway.

Place on a foil lined, greased cookie sheet. Don’t skip the cooking spray or oil on the foil. You will never get them off your pan! Bake at 375* until the chicken reaches 165* internal temp. I can’t tell you how long because all ovens are different, and it depends how thawed they are. Check them often! You don’t want to overcook them! They will likely start to leak cheese when they are close to done. Let rest, then slice the rolls for easier eating.

Optional:

I make a basic white sauce (Roux of flour and butter, add milk and whisk until it makes a sauce). Then I add swiss and parmesan cheese, a squirt of dijon mustard, and a splash of white wine or lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste. I serve the sliced chicken over the sauce so it doesn’t get soggy.

Asian Mongolian Beef

1 lb beef. sliced thin (You can use any cut of meat. think cheap!)

1 T garlic

½ t ginger (dried)

1 T onion powder or dried onions

½ C Hoisin sauce

½ C soy sauce (less if you don’t like salt)

½ C brown sugar

2 T olive oil

½ C water

sliced green onions- add on the day you cook it

Mix all ingredients in the bag, add meat, seal tight and freeze!

To Cook:

Thaw just enough to get it out of the bag. Cook in crockpot on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours. Low heat will give better results. Add green onions the last 30 min. Serve meat and sauce over rice. I usually serve roasted broccoli or green beans with it. Or you can add any veggies you like the last 30 min of cooking. I prefer them separate.

Hawaiian Pork

1 pork roast (any type)

1 can pineapple chunks in their own juice. NO SYRUP

½ red bell pepper cubed large

½ onion cubed large

2 T soy sauce (can adjust to taste)

⅓ C brown sugar

½ C any bbq sauce

½ C Chili sauce (can use all chili sauce instead of bbq sauce)

Add all ingredients to bag. Mix in bag. Remove air and freeze.

To Cook:

Thaw just enough to remove from bag. Cook in crock pot on low for 8-10 hours or high for 4-5 hours. Low cooking will produce better results. Shred pork and serve with sauce over rice.

Cheesy Ham and Potato Casserole

1 lb cubed ham. (I use leftovers from a spiral ham)

4-6 potatoes cubed and blanched (I keep the skin on for texture)

1 Can Cream of Chicken soup

1 Can of milk or water

8 oz. of shredded cheddar cheese divided

½ C breadcrumbs

Broccoli- I cook separately and add on cooking day, but tastes good in the casserole if you like.

Mix the soup, milk/water, and half the cheese and mix until smooth. Fill foil pan with ham and potatoes. Pour soup mixture over the ham and potatoes and stir until potatoes are fully coated. You can skip blanching the potatoes if you make sure they are thoroughly coated in the soup mixture before freezing. Cover tight with plastic wrap. Mix remaining cheese with the breadcrumbs in a ziplock bag. Place on top of the plastic wrap, and cover with foil.

To cook:

Remove plastic and ziplock bag. Replace foil. Bake from frozen at 350* for about 1 hour 30 min. (will vary based on ovens). Once the potatoes are cooked, add the breadcrumb mixture and bake on 400* until browned and bubbly (about 10-15 min).

Creamy Ranch Pork Chops and Potatoes

4 pork chops (whatever type is on sale)

1 can Cream of Chicken soup

4-6 potatoes cubed and blanched

1 ranch dressing dry mix packet

1C. milk

Mix the soup, milk/water, and ranch mix and whisk until smooth. Fill foil pan with potatoes, and place pork chops on top.Pour soup mixture over the pork chops and potatoes until potatoes are fully coated. You can skip blanching the potatoes if you make sure they are thoroughly coated in the soup mixture before freezing. Cover tight with plastic wrap and cover with foil.

To Cook:

Thaw for as long as possible, but can cook from frozen. Remove plastic wrap and replace foil. Bake at 375* for about 1 hour 30 min or until potatoes are done and pork chops are cooked through. Move pork chops under the potatoes and sauce, and cook for 15-20 minutes, uncovered, until sauce thickens a bit. Serve using the sauce as a gravy to pour over pork chops and potatoes.

Cheesy Chicken Broccoli and potato casserole

This recipe you can make without the potatoes and serve over rice, or a baked potato also.

2 large (raw) chicken breasts cubed

2 C broccoli florets

4 C cubed skin-on red potatoes (no need to blanch)

1 Can cream of chicken soup

4 oz Velveeta cubed

1 T worcestershire sauce

1 t paprika

2 t garlic salt

2 t onion powder

salt and pepper to taste

½ C breadcrumbs in seperate ziplock bag

Add all ingredients to foil pan. Mix with hands until combined and potatoes are coated with mixture. Cover with plastic wrap, place breadcrumb bag on top cover with foil. Freeze.

To Cook: Thaw for as long as possible, but can cook from frozen. Remove plastic wrap and replace foil. Bake at 375* for about 1 hour. Stir to mix in the melted velveeta. Cook another 30 min or until potatoes are done and chicken is cooked through. Add breadcrumbs and cook, uncovered until browned and bubbly.

Orange Chicken (makes 2 meals)

6 large chicken breasts- cubed and coated lightly with flour.

sauce:

1 can orange juice concentrate, thawed

2 whole cloves garlic

1 T dried onions or onion powder

⅓  C soy sauce

¼ c balsamic vinegar

½ c ketchup

¼ C chili sauce (can use ¾ C of all chili sauce or all ketchup if you don’t have both)

¼ C brown sugar

large pinch of salt

Mix sauce ingredients in a blender and separate into 2 quart ziplock bags. Place chicken into separate quart bags. Put 1 bag chicken and 1 bag sauce into a larger back to make a “kit”, or tape bags together so they don’t get lost in the freezer.

To Cook:

Thaw sauce enough to pour out of bag. Can be partially frozen. Add frozen chicken to crock pot and cover with sauce. Cook in crock pot on low 8 hours or high 4 hours. Low cooking will produce a better result. Serve over rice with roasted or steamed vegetables.

Cilantro lime chicken (MY FAVORITE FREEZER MEAL)

3 chicken breasts per bag

1 C Cilantro lime pesto per bag

Cilantro lime pesto:

1 C fresh cilantro

1C fresh parsley

2 ½ T Olive Oil

small handfull whole or chopped almonds

2 cloves garlic or 2 T garlic powder

¼ C lime juice

½ C parmesan cheese

¼ C chicken broth

salt and pepper

Mix all ingredients in blender or food processor until smooth. Should make approx. 1 C of pesto. Pour over chicken in ziplock bag. Seal tight and freeze.

To cook:

Thaw enough to remove from bag. Cook in crock pot on low 8 hours or high 4 hours. Low cooking will produce a better result. Shred chicken the last hour and let soak in the sauce. Serve on corn tortillas with your favorite taco toppings, or over rice with black beans and veggies.

Extra tip: leftovers are really good served cold on a salad with cheddar cheese and ranch dressing.

Beef or Chicken Fajitas

1 lb. beef (think cheap steak) or chicken thinly sliced

1 onion cut into slices

1 bell pepper (any color) cut into slices

1 packet fajita seasoning mix

1 T lime juice

1 T Worcestershire sauce

Add all ingredients to bag. Seal tight and freeze. You can also freeze the tortillas in a ziploc taped to this bag, so that you will know for sure you have some on hand the day you cook it. I LOVE my fajita kits!

To Cook:

Thaw completely. Add whole back to very HOT skillet. Cook on high until meat is fully cooked. Serve with tortillas and your favorite fajita toppings.


_ Check in again soon for more recipes. I have about 20 more that I have tried and liked, and a few more yet to try. As always please leave a comment, or email me if you have any questions, recipe requests, or have a recipe you would like me to try.

Thanks for reading! Have a wonderful day!

May cooking day

     Hello again everyone. If you are still reading this blog, THANK YOU! I hope you are getting some good tips and ideas to get you going making freezer meals for your family. I am addicted to this now, because most days it takes me less than 10 minutes to get dinner going for the day! How great is that? Also when I have surgery in July, I will have at least 6 weeks worth of food in my freezer, ready to go, since I won't be able to cook for a while. That peace of mind is the best part!

DISCLAIMER: I try my best to make healthy meals for my family. We are meat and potatoes people, so you will see a lot of that in this blog. I am not a fan a frozen vegetables, so most of the meals are just the entree for the meal. Usually I pair the meals with a salad, steamed veggie, or (my favorite) I roast broccoli, asparagus or green beans in the oven with salt, garlic, and olive oil. Cooking the veggies separate, gives a fresh element to the dishes, where I think putting them in the crock pot or casserole can make them all taste the same and lose their texture. I also use a good amount of the "cream of chemical" soups. Hubby and I both grew up with them, and he really likes them. You can, of course, make your own to use in the recipes. I just haven't gotten that ambitious yet. 

Step 1: Prepare your area.

I like to do this before shopping. Clean the kitchen, make sure the sink and dishwasher are empty. Most importantly, make sure you have plenty of space in your fridge for the groceries, and your freezer for the finished product. I like to freeze the meals in my upright freezer (attached to the fridge), then move it all to the chest freezer for more permanent storage. The air circulates better in my regular freezer so the food freezes faster. The faster it freezes, the less freezer burn you will get.

Step 2: Planning

I have a little binder I am using to plan out my shopping and cooking. I want to make the most of my limited budget, so I am very careful about planning it all out. If not, it is too easy to go crazy and spend a fortune! 


Planning tips: 

• Shop your pantry first. What I mean by that is, look through everything you have and try to plan your recipes around what you already have in the house.

• Only cook meals with proteins that are on sale. My biggest expense in groceries is the meat department. When doing once a month cooking, you will use large amounts of meat and it adds up FAST. I browse all my local ads, clip coupons, and ad-match, to get the best deals possible on all the items I will be using to cook.  For example, if tomato sauce is on a really good sale, I'll make several bags of spaghetti sauce, and a few casseroles, or soups that use it.

• LISTS! I am a list maker in general. I couldn't survive without my lists. In this case though, you will need to make thorough lists if you want it to go smoothly and quickly. First make a master list of the meals you will be making. You will go back to this often.

•  I make a list of foods that I will be using (whether I need to buy them or have them on hand). Then I go through my recipes and make hash marks for how many of that item I need. Say I have 5 recipes that use onions, I mark how many onions for each recipe, so I know how many I need total. I then go through the pantry/fridge again and take off however many of each thing I already have.

• Next I list every single thing I will do on cooking day in the order I would like to accomplish it. It makes the most sense to me, to chop all the onions together then separate into bags, then all the peppers, brown all the ground beef together, etc. 

• Label all your bags in the planning stage. I like to use sharpie, but you can use tape, or labels if you like. This will save you a ton of time on cooking day. Write the thawing/cooking instructions on each bag. Trust me, if you think you will remember 2 months from now when you cook the meal, you won't. This is also helpful if family members will be cooking the meal, or if you give a meal away to a friend after having a baby, surgery, or emergency. Freezer meals make great gifts, because people can cook them whenever they are needed, instead of eating them right away.

Step 3: Shopping

This step should be quick and easy if you have planned well. I use a grocery list app on my phone that organizes all my items in order of isles the items are located in. If you aren't using something like this, just make sure you group the items on your list, so you aren't running all over the store.

 I usually shop 2-3 stores to get all the deals I can. Walmart and Target do ad-match so I always use that to my advantage. Saves a lot of time and money. 

Shopping tip: Buy all your meats in bulk whenever possible. The savings are huge. You can portion things out and freeze whatever you don't need for your next cooking session. I bought a 40 lb. box of chicken last month for $1.59lb. Usually it goes on sale in the small packages for around $2.99lb. There was some trimming and prep work involved, but so worth the savings. 

This last round was beef and pork chops. I bought a huge pack of pork chops for $1 less a pound than the ones in the smaller packages. The beef all came from one giant roast, instead of buying fajita slices, stew meat, etc. Those individual packages were anywhere from $3.99 lb-$6.99lb. I bought my giant roast for $2.79lb. Again HUGE savings.

 If you are cooking your meats in the crock pot, you will never notice the difference using a cheaper cut of meat. 

Step 4: Cooking! The fun part....

First, make sure you have everything you need. 

I suggest:

• A big stock pot for boiling large amounts of food. (blanching potatoes and boiling for mashed potatoes)
• 1-2 sets of measuring cups and spoons
• a variety of sizes of mixing bowls, and at least 1 really large one. (usually I try to mix everything I can in the bags, so I don't have to dirty bowls, but you will need bowls to hold prepped ingredients.
• a cutting board for meats and one for veggies. (ALWAYS wash your cutting board well between meats)
• plenty of kitchen towels, and 1 large towel for drying blanched potatoes. 
• a variety of sizes of skillets/pots. For the most part I try to add as many things as possible to the bags uncooked. It preserves the flavor and texture especially of meats. Ground meats are easier to portion if cooked first, and don't lose much quality if pre-cooked.
• MUSIC! Get your ipod, phone or whatever music you want. It will make your cooking day fly by and be a lot more fun!
• An empty sink and dishwasher. A lot of blogs I've read say to save all the cleaning to the end (and possibly have someone else do it ;) ). I disagree. I prefer to clean as I go. Once I get enough dishes to load the dishwasher, I take a break and do it. This way, by the time I am finished, it is clean and ready for the 2nd load. Just makes more sense to me. 

Prep:

Cut all your veggies and set aside. This is best to do first because veggies can sit out at room temp for a while without causing problems.

 I usually brown the ground meats while I am prepping veggies. Once browned it all goes into the fridge or freezer on a large cookie sheet to cool quickly.

Then I do my potatoes. Potatoes are tricky to freeze. If you put regular russet potatoes in the freezer, they will turn black and mushy. Red and Yukon gold potatoes do much better and usually can be frozen without blanching first. I use those when I can, but russet are about 1/2 the price. So I go ahead and blanch them. It takes me about 30-45 min longer on cooking day to do this, but it doesn't bother me. I like knowing they aren't going to turn black. 

I cut them up, blanch in batches for 2-3 min, then submerge in ice water until cooled. I then move them to a towel to dry. They can stay on the towel for hours and never turn brown! It is a nice bonus to blanching them first! If you use red potatoes, and don't blanch them, just put them in a big pot of cold water to keep them from turning brown before you can get them in the freezer. 

Next start with one meat at a time and cut/portion it out. 

See all the meat in their own neat little baggies? Now I add all the ingredients to the bags to finish them up, push all the air out, seal and freeze flat! 

Just a few more tips and I will list the recipes I used. 

I make "kits" with things that can't be mixed while in the freezer. One example is my Olive Garden knock off Zuppa Toscana. Some of the ingredients can't go into the crock pot until the end of cooking. so I put everything in separate bags then all together in one large bag to make a kit. I do the same with my Crock Pot Orange Chicken, since the meat is coated in flour and I don't want it mixing with the sauce, until it goes in the crock pot. 

I am a big fan of using foil casserole dishes. If you don't want to use them, you can freeze your casserole in a plastic wrap and foil lined dish. Once frozen pop it out of the dish. Wrap well, then stack in the freezer. Then you can put it back in the dish to thaw and bake. I think it is worth the $ .50 for a foil pan to just freeze, then throw away. Easy clean up! 

I put my food in the pan, cover with plastic wrap (pushing as much air out as possible), then cover with foil. It is easier to label your foil tops before putting them on the pan. If you are ambitious you can do this on your planning day as well, while you are labeling the bags.

If you have read this far, and are still interested, stay tuned! My next post will have a list of what I made along with "recipes" for each meal.

 I use the word recipe loosely, because I am not one to follow an exact recipe. I get an idea of ingredients used, and adapt it to what I think will taste good. I hate to measure. 

 I have rambled on and on, like a crazy lady, so leave me a comment or shoot me an email  brandi_webb@hotmail.com  if you have any questions.