Meal planning has also given me an opportunity to feed my freezer, as opposed to emptying it. I haven't been super great about picking meals where I can freeze the leftovers, but I've also been feeding an extra person, so there haven't been as many leftovers either. (That would be my sister, who hung out with us while she was doing her orientation. Sadly she has started her regular hours, and we don't see her as often.)
So what has been going into the freezer? I cooked a turkey the weekend after my sister arrived, so that went into some turkey bean soup for her freezer, a few turkey florentine and turkey spaghetti casseroles, and a few lunches of buffalo turkey salad. I also tried a new recipe for Carne Guisada (very tasty) that produced enough leftovers for the freezer. Zucchini was on sale a while back, so there's a few zucchini bacon lasagnas. I think I'm set on casseroles for a while, but I also like to have some microwaveable things in the freezer (that's basically something in sauce). I made Chicken Tagine, but I need to make a list of a few more things and watch for those ingredients on sale. The last thing on my list is to see what raw meat I still have in there and try to turn that into a finished meal.
I like to keep sweet potato and black bean burritos and runzas in the freezer. I suppose you could microwave the burritos as they're already fully cooked, but I just put however many I want onto a cookie sheet directly from the freezer and bake for 20-30 minutes. I've always frozen the runzas unbaked, but you could bake them first for less time in the oven after freezing. I like being able to pull out just one for me or however many I need at a time.
ReplyDeleteCould you send me your recipes for buffalo turkey salad and zucchini bacon lasagna? They sound delicious and I'm intrigued. :)
I have runzas in the freezer right now! I freeze them unbaked as well, since I got the recipe from you. :)
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