Freezer Cooking Round 3
First up Steak Chili from Buns In My Oven. When I made this it was tasty. It was SPICY! I love, love hot, it was good for me but way too hot for the kids. I also think simmering for 3 hours was too much or perhaps I just stirred it too much because mine looks more like shredded meat and not cube chunks. Gross looking? yes. Tasty? yes. Day 2 in the fridge this resembled dog food. I really think I just cooked it longer than needed. Perhaps my meat was more tender. Anyways. I will make this again but won't cook as long.
Also from Buns In My Oven, Corn and Chicken Chowder.
Confession: I am not a fan of corn. Gasp! I know it's so anti American. Yeah I can eat it but it's not my favorite. This soup was pretty good though! Chris loves corn so I made this more for him but how can you go wrong with bacon on top of almost anything? This soup is a great freezer meal. I added a little more milk when reheating but Chris said it was just as good if not better so thumbs up!
I thought these were pretty tasty. I hate bleu cheese so I left it out but I do think next time maybe I'll add some feta or something. They freeze well and do the trick when it comes to wanting a quick snack or lunch. I froze these uncooked and just baked as I wanted them.
Next....Chicken and Gnocchi soup from My Favorite Recipes. This recipe was recommended from someone on my Inner Hooker page. {Thanks Donna!}
This is supposed to be an Olive Garden replica. I have never tested OG's before so I am not sure but I thought this soup was amazing! Creamy and garlic-y, truly just perfect. It does use a lot of half and half (fatty, fat, fat...seriously, someone stopped me the other day to tell me Dex was a fat boy! Then proceeded with "fatty, fat, fat! Man I love me a fat boy"...ok, so I was at Walmart and maybe shouldn't be surprised but I really didn't know what to say! PS he isn't even fat! Now fatty, fat, fat is a joke in my house) (back to the half and half is fattening justification here) but I tried to remember that one of the recipes made 2 dinners worth for my family of 5 so I guess if I broke it down it's not totally terrible. Better than a happy meal right? Truly this was my favorite recipe of this group. This soup freezes well but I thought the gnocchi got too soggy so in the future I'll either cook less or I'll freeze without them in it and just cook them and add when we reheat the soup. They don't take long to cook at all.
Recipe #5, Alfredo Sauce from Utah Deal Diva.
I just made the alfredo, not the recipe that is after and uses the alfredo. That may be key here. I just thought this was ok. It was very cream cheesy. If you have tried those new Philadelphia Cooking Cream Cheeses, it tastes like that...in alfredo flavor (do they even have that?) I mixed half with penne pasta (cooked the noodles about half way so they wouldn't be soggy) and froze the other half.
Last up... another recipe that was just ehh to me but could be my fault...stick with me.
I love the idea of these but they just didn't work for me. I greased my pan and they still stuck like crazy!!! Like I couldn't get them out of the pan in one piece stuck. I may have thrown out the pan but don't tell my husband! I may try them again in maybe a silicone pan or freeze them in the pan and try to pop them out that way. The boys love eggs for breakfast so this would be a nice break for me some days. For now I'll stick to scrambling but am not writing these little guys off just yet.
Enjoy!
4 comments:
I am really enjoying these freezer meal installments you've been doing! It's great to have you try out the recipes and share your honest opinions about them. It's like you're doing the dirty work for me and I'm just reaping all the delicious benefits. Thanks!
I love these installments too. I especially appreciate that you let us know how it works out once you go to use the stuff from the freezer! I try to freeze some things (like doubling, or splitting casseroles to put one in the freezer, that sort of thing), but I've never done like a day of cooking to stock my freezer. I've been contemplating it though because there are just days where it's hard to motivate yourself to cook regardless of how much you enjoy it! It would be great to have several options of tried and true recipes ready to go in my freezer! Thanks for sharing!
Doing Freezer meals like this is a great idea :) I need to start myself:) I have a stroganoff recipe that freezes well if your interested?
Oh that Corn and Chicken Chowder looks GOODDD!
Found your blog after ordering one of your patterns! It's finished - just have to figure out how to sew on the ears (a youtube video on this would be a GREAT IDEA!)! ;-)
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