Birthday Wishes and Freezer Meals

This week I did one of the worst things.  I forgot my little sister Katie's birthday for the first time in her life.  I remembered it earlier last week, and I talk to her almost every day, but when the day came, I totally blew it off.  I did not even think of what the date was once that day.  So bad.

To make it up to her, I promptly went to work on a request she made of me lately, "Will you please write down what you are doing for meals and send it to me."  In this she was referring to my plan to make and freeze several dinner dishes.  I responded in the moment with a half-committed, "Sure,"  as in, "Sure.  Like I ever write down what I'm doing."  Asking for a recipe from me is like asking me for an inventory of my cupboards.  I know approximately what I've got to work with, but recording it is another story.  I live broadly by intuition in the kitchen, and sadly, my intuition isn't that organized.    

Luckily, this time, I had a scribe in my freezer meal making endeavors, and she was an excellent recorder.  I also had another partner at the stove watching everything I was adding to each stock pot and sauce pan. When we finished making 4 recipes and 10 meals, most of what we had done was documented.  Hurray!

So, when I realized, in the middle of the night, TWO DAYS AFTER I'd forgotten Katie's birthday, I thought, "It's okay, I have the perfect gift: freezer meal recipes."  I know what your thinking. What kind of lousy sister gives freezer meal recipes as a sorry-I-forgot-your-birthday-gift?  Me.  And, that's just what I did.  Now I'm sharing with all of you.

Now for some interesting notes about the meals themselves:

• we made Chili, Chicken Ala King, Enchilada Casserole and Bacon Fried Rice
• all of these are gluten free
• all but the Chicken Ala King can be made vegetarian
• both of my culinary partners were amazed at how easy and delicious all of these recipes were
• when I broke down all the costs it was $50 for ten meals, Rock On!

And, the best part was, we made all those meals in three hours and promptly gave them away.  It was awesome.  In fact, it was so great, that I suggest when you make these, you give one or two away.  See how rich you feel.

And now for the recipes you've been waiting for.....click here.

Four Recipes - Ten Freezer Meals

10 Family Size Freezer Meals

 Chili: 4 Quarts

Ingredients

1 large onion, finely chopped and sautéed

2 red or green peppers, finely chopped and sautéed

4 cans of tomato sauce

4 cans diced tomatoes

2 cans of black beans

2 cans of white bean

5 Tbs. chili powder

3 Tbs. cumin

3 Tbs. garlic powder

2 Tbs. salt

2 Tbs. pepper

3, 12ounce cans of chicken, with the broth

               

Instructions

Combine all and bring to boil, reduce heat, simmer. Taste, taste, taste.  Does it need more garlic or chili powder, salt or pepper.  Season to taste.  Simmer at least an hour for flavors to stew together. Allow to cool.  Measure into quart size freezer bags.  For added safety, put each quart size bag inside a gallon freezer bag.  Reheat in microwave.  Enjoy the deliciousness.

Enchilada Casserole: 2- 9X13 pans

Ingredients

5, 16ounce cans tomato sauce

2 Tbs. cumin

¼ cup chili powder

1 Tbs Garlic powder

½ Tbs. salt

½ Tbs. pepper

36 corn tortillias

6 cups shredded cheese

3, 12ounce cans of chicken, drained and broken up

Instructions

In a large sauce pan, combine tomato sauce, spices, salt and pepper for the sauce.  Heat to a boil, then simmer for ten minutes.   Spoon a thin layer of sauce on the bottom of a 9x13 cake pan.  Add a layer of corn tortillas, overlapping and broken to fit in corners.  Crumble chicken on top of tortillas, top with cheese, then sauce.  Begin the layering process again.  Repeat until you have three layers ensuring sauce is the final layer so the cheese won’t stick to foil when baking.  Make both casseroles.  Cover well with heavy duty freezer foil.  When ready to eat, bake in a 350 oven for about an hour or until piping hot through the center.  Top with cheese if you wish.

Chicken Ala King: 3+ quarts sauce, three bags rice

Ingredients

3 cans of chicken with broth

1 sautéed green or red pepper

2 lbs frozen broccoli, chopped

2 cans of cream of chicken soup (This recipe can be made gluten free by omitting the cream of chicken and adding a little more of your other wet ingredients and chicken bullion. With a little extra lemon and garlic you can't tell)

2 cups of sour cream

1 cup of mayo

1 8ounce pkg of cream cheese

2 cups shredded cheese

¼ cup lemon juice

1 Tbs garlic

1  Tbs. salt

2 Tbs. pepper

1 Tbs cornstarch dissolved in 1 cup of cold milk

Keep separate: 12 Cups Cooked Rice

Instructions

In a large soup pan, combine all ingredients.  Bring to a low boil being careful not to scorch the bottom of the pan.  Once a low boil is reached turn the heat to a low simmer for 10 minutes.  Stir until the cheese is melted and worked in.  If your sauce still seems stringy with cheese, dissolve a little more cornstarch in cold milk and add to the sauce.  Stir until it a thick, smooth sauce.  Taste, taste, taste.  Does it need more garlic or lemon, salt or pepper.  Season to taste.   Measure into quart size freezer bags.  Measure rice into separate quart sized bags.  Put one sauce bag and one rice bag into a gallon size bag.  When ready to serve, heat sauce and rice in their bags, separately in the microwave.

Fried Rice: 2 - ½ gallon size meals

Ingredients

3 Tbs vegetable oil

2 Tbs sesame oil

1 lbs carrots, thinly sliced

1 lbs broccoli, finely chopped

1 onion, finely chopped

10 oz cooked crumbled bacon

10 cups of cooked rice

3 Tbs soy sauce

4 tsp of granulated bouillon or 4 ramen flavor packets

1 Tbs garlic powder

1 tsp ginger powder

1 tsp salt

1 Tbs pepper

Instructions

In a large sauce pan or wok sauté carrots, onion and broccoli over medium-high heat till tender.  Add bacon and sauté for another minute or two until the bacon has a nice crisp to it..  Turn heat down to medium, add rice, soy sauce, seasoning, salt and pepper.  Taste, taste, taste.  Does it need more garlic or soy sauce, sesame oil or pepper.  Season to taste.  Stir thoroughly till all rice is well coated with seasoning and light brown in color.  Cool and measure into gallon size freezer bags.  To serve, reheat in the freezer bag.

Overdue Reflections

So, we made it to the end of our experiment.  We cut our grocery budget in HALF.  We went from spending over $600/month on groceries to about $300.  We had enough and to spare.  We received A LOT more than we gave.  Here are some of the blessings and epiphanies that came about through our experiment:

1. We can live on WAY less than we previously thought - "What were we buying before?" one kid asked,  "Because I can't tell any difference in the food we're eating."  Perfect, no deprivation, only changes in the choices we make at the grocery store.
2. We are seeing evidence of the principle of compensation at work in our lives.  Before we began all of these adventures we had a lot going for us in the way of income, a free car, money in savings, storage rooms full of food.  A year of self-employment and another year of inconsistent paychecks depleted all of that.  Now, we are seeing a restoration of many things we had to let go of on our journey to this point.
3. Our two businesses that were in hibernation mode for the winter woke up early bringing unexpected income. 
4. We got an amazing refi deal on our home.
5. We paid down our auto loan to less than half what it was before we began our experiment and only have a few months to go before payoff.
6. Our family time has freed up in some significant ways.  
7. We had 10 incredible Christmas miracles during one of the busiest Christmases of our lives.  Some of these include a perfectly-timed rescue when we were on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere, tickets for our entire family (including Heba) to go to a memorable Christmas Concert at Temple Square, new tires on the car that prevented additional problems on our Christmas road trip, a changing of the guard in our church responsibilities.
8. We can give more than we think.
9. Our kids provide generous examples of how to give and not regret.
10. Our family has grown more united in purpose to give, save and move toward common goals.

I'm still pondering our next experiment.  Any thoughts?