Massive Freezer Cooking!

Pinterest rocks.

I came across some pins where people show you how to do freezer cooking... putting together bags of food so meals are prepared ahead of time, either completely cooked and just needing thawed and heated up or ready to be thrown in a crockpot.

The kids are at my parents' house tonight, so I decided to give it a go.

I made up a list of needed items, hit the grocery store and then came home and got to cooking! I spent about 4 hours putting everything together.

Each bag will probably yield 2-3 meals for my family of four so that's a total of at least 26 easy meals!

 

1) Two bags + four single-serve meals for the husband to take to work of spaghetti. This is completely pre-cooked and will just need thawed out and heated up and topped with cheese. It includes pasta, extra meat, zuchinni, summer squash, mushrooms and my sauce.

 

2) Two bags of shredded chicken and salsa for chicken tacos. I love this crockpot recipe. You just put half a jar of salsa in the crockpot with 1 pound or shredded chicken. Let it cook on low for 6 hours or high for 4 hours and done! Serve it with taco shells or tortillas and all of your favorite toppings. (I'm partial to colby cheese, sour cream, avocados and tomatoes!)

 

3) Two bags of savory chicken. I found this recipe here and it sounded low carb and yummy so I thought I'd give it a try. It smells great and I can't wait to try it soon. It'll just need thrown in the crockpot, cooked on low for 6-7 hours, with broccoli added during the last 30 minutes.

 

4) Two bags of chicken with italian dressing and garlic for Parmesan Chicken and Broccoli. This is a recipe I got from Kraft and I haven't made it in forever. It's low carb if I use Dreamfield's pasta. The prepared bags I made just have diced chicken, Italian dressing and garlic. When I make it, I'll throw that stuff into a pan, add broccoli until done, serve over pasta and top with tomatoes and mozzarella cheese.

 

5) 1 lb of ground chuck and onions to use as base for chili or spaghetti sauce.

 

6) Two bags of teriyaki chicken. (Only one is pictured because we're having the other one tonight - it smells sooooo good!) I got this one from here, too. Throw in crockpot for 4 hours on high and serve over rice. I'm adding broccoli and mushrooms to mine.

 

I ran out of chicken or I would have done a chicken pot pie. I also ran out of steam and didn't get to my mini meatloafs.

Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas - 8g

When my husband and I got married, his mom gave me a cookbook filled with recipes that she had gathered from their family. It's pretty awesome - all the foods he grew up on, his favorite desserts, his Grandma's recipes, etc. One of them was for Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas from his cousin and after I made it the first time, it became a regular go-to meal. I love it because it's really easy and freezes great! I usually double the recipe and split it into two pans, freezing one for later!

By using my Ole Extreme High Fiber tortillas, this is actually pretty low carb. Add some guacamole on the side (for me) and Spanish-style rice on the side (for the rest of my family) and it's a great meal! I also like to top it with salsa!

I may have dropped and broken my camera... so no picture.

Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas
1 lb chicken breasts, cooked and diced or shredded
1 small can diced green chilis
8 oz shredded cheddar cheese
8 oz shredded monterey jack cheese
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 pint sour cream
1 medium onion, chopped
1 package low carb tortillas

Mix the cooked chicken with the soup, sour cream and onions. Spread a thin layer of the mixture on the bottom of a 9x13 dish. (I line the bottom with foil for easy clean up.) Add cheese to the remaining mixture, saving some to sprinkle on top. Fill the tortillas, roll them and place them in the dish with seams down. Top with any remaining mixture and sprinkle with cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes.

The counts

Net Carb: 8g

Protein: 39g

Fiber: 10g

*All counts listed are based on my best guesstimation and not necessarily correct. Remember to check the specific nutritional content of the brands you are using as each one is different.

alfredo sauce - 3.5g

It's been drilled into our heads that alfredo sauce is bad because of the fat content, but as a low carb dieter who loves meat and cheese, I already know that my fat intake is higher than your average eat-low-fat-or-your-heart-will-explode-American.

(For the record, I recently had bloodwork done to see how my thyroid was doing and it came back fabulous. Cholesterol, triglicerydes, everything was perfect.)

When I came across this alfredo recipe stuffed in my cookbook, I started to flip right past it. I'd tried it before and it just never turned out that great. I looked at the ingredients though and realized if I substituted the milk for heavy cream, it would make it lower carb and thicker. I searched the store for the right cheese and ended up getting Kraft's Italian Five cheese, which is a blend of provolone, romano, asiago and parmesan. Yum. I increased the garlic, added more cream than the recipe called for and this time, the sauce came out perfect. It is so good!

I combined it with some Dreamfield's low carb linguine, 1 cup of broccoli, 1/4 cup of tomatoes and some Purdue chicken nuggets. While my toddler inhaled it, we had the following conversation:

Me: What do you think of the alfredo sauce?
Son: Nope. I'm not afraid of the sauce.
Me: lol! No, the sauce. It's called "alfredo." Do you like it!
Son: Ooooh. Yes!

He cracks me up.

The total meal was 19g, which is higher than my goal of 15g per meal, but I didn't have any non-breaded chicken on hand. Three of the nuggets alone were 7.8g. In the future, I'll be sure to have some grilled chicken ready to go for this so my meal is only 11.2g!

Carrie's Alfredo Sauce
8 oz Kraft Italian Five Cheese (blend of provolone, romano, asiago and parmesan)
8 Tbs butter
1 cup heavy whipping cream
2 cloves of minced garlic
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp pepper

Over medium heat, melt the butter, then stir in the cream until mixed. Add the salt, pepper and garlic then add a little bit of cheese at a time, stirring with a whisk until it's melted before adding more.

Makes about five 1/2 cup servings.

The counts

Net Carb: 3.5g

Protein: 7g

Fiber: 0.1g

*All counts listed are based on my best guesstimation and not necessarily correct. Remember to check the specific nutritional content of the brands you are using as each one is different.

Chicken Pot Pie - 22g

I don't remember where I got this recipe, but as soon as I made it, I knew it would become aregular. Both my kids will eat it, it's pretty simple to throw together, makes enough to have leftovers the next day.

I don't make this as often as I used to because technically it's really not low carb. When I first started making it, I wasn't following my low carb diet at all because I was pregnant with constant nausea and a meat'egg/cheese aversion. When I did start watching carbs again, I was allowing myself 25g per meal, which may be crazy high to some doing low carb, but this totally worked.

I also used to add a potato and a bottom crust to it, which would put it at more like 35g+ so those are out fo sho.

Chicken Pot Pie
1 Pillsbury pie crust
1/3 cup flour
1 tsp salt
1/3 cup butter
1/2 tsp pepper
1 3/4 cups chicken broth (1 14 oz can)
1/2 cup milk
2 1/2 cups shredded chicken or turkey
2 cups frozen mixed vegetables

Pre-heat oven to 425. Line casserole dish with foil. (I like an easy clean up!)

In a pan, cook the chicken. I generally add some salt and pepper to the meat while cooking.

In a large, deep saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. With a whisk, stir in flour, salt and pepper until well-blended. Gradually stir in broth and milk, stirring and cooking until bubbly and thickened.

Pour cooked chicken and vegetables into the pan and mix it all together. Spoon the mixture into the casserole dish and top with a pie crust. Because the crust is round, you will have to gently stretch it and cut off one of the sides to make it cover the entire pie.

Bake 30 minutes or until crust is golden.

Makes 8 servings

The counts

Net Carb: 22g

Protein: 19g

Fiber: 2g

*All counts listed are based on my best guesstimation and not necessarily correct. Remember to check the specific nutritional content of the brands you are using as each one is different.