Recipe swap - Page 3

[Curlita]

That pumpkin soup recipe looks awesome! I wish my hubby liked pumpkin or squash soup... but I guess there's no reason why I couldn't have it all to myself.

Hey, Laura,

Don't try to freeze anything with potatoes in it! Most other soups and casseroles seem to do okay as long as they were cooked first. Anyone else have any foods that they know don't do well frozen?

For all my soups, I let it cool enough that it won't melt a plastic freezer bag and then scoop in roughly 4-5 portions (there are three of us, but I figure a little extra is nice for lunch the next day), squeeze as much air out of the bag as possible, then label and freeze flat. If you lay them out flat, they are easier to stack.

For casseroles, I do roughly the same thing. I just wrap them up in little foil bricks first, and then put them in the ziploc.

[brooklyn_warbler]

so, a question: how many meals are you all aiming for?

i had originally planned on starting this week and maybe doing one extra dinner/week til babytime, but now i realize that's actually only eleven dinners (depending on the recipe, i imagine some of them will actually feed us for more than one dinner, though -- especially the soups i plan on making) i have a lot of extended family around and i know that the post-partum routine generally involves a lot of food (i'm pakistani) so it's not like we'll be completely on our own or anything. at the same time i know i'll definitely want my own food the first few nights since i tend to cook high-fiber, high-veg and i want to keep my digestive system as healthy as possible since, ahem, i've heard it can be pretty scary immediately post-partum.

between family and cooking eleven batches of food, i think i'd be good for at least 2.5 weeks worth of dinners, maybe 3.

i also don't have a ton of freezer space though i know i can also store things at my mom's, up the block. we have two fridges -- we don't keep much in the freezers of either of those, generally, so both can be almost entirely stocked with meals.

i just realized i should also make and freeze extra dog food since i make my own. duh! luckily her dinners aren't as big as ours.

anyway, so what are you all planning for? how long would you ideally subsist off these frozen dinners?

[Curlita]

Originally Posted by robina_josephine

anyway, so what are you all planning for? how long would you ideally subsist off these frozen dinners?

I did 14. Basically, seven recipes that served enough for two nights, plus a bit more for leftovers the next day. I'm hoping to make these emergency dinners for the nights that we really can't cope with food prep, etc.

I might freeze extras of some other stuff between now and then, but I'm not going to make a big project of it (AGAIN). We are lucky -- we have a second fridge for my husband to lager beer in (he homebrews), so we also have a second freezer. Soups don't actually take up much freezer space if you put them in 1 gallon ziplocs and then stack 'em.

[brooklyn_warbler]

Originally Posted by Googy

VEGGIE ENCHILADAS
This is the vegetarianized version of the enchiladas my Mexican-American roommates in Texas used to make. You have two options here--the legitimate, traditional rolled style, or the super-quick (also lighter but not as yummy) casserole style.

pkg. corn tortillas
1 can black beans
1 can corn or 1 c. frozen corn
1 onion, diced
1 zucchini, diced
1 yellow squash, diced
leafy green of your choice (kale, chard, etc) diced
8 oz. shredded cheddar cheese (or soy cheese)
16 oz can enchilada sace (you can buy this mild or hot)
garlic to taste
oregano, cilantro, and cumin to taste

Preheat oven to 350F.

Heat vegetable oil in large skillet.
Saute onion and garlic until tender
Add beans, corn, zucc, squash, and spices, cook until tender, add leafy greens and cook until wilted.

If doing casserole-style:
Mix enchilada sauce in with veggies and heat through.
Place 1 layer of tortillas in bottom of 9x11 pan.
Spoon layer of sauce/veggie mixture on top.
Sprinke layer of cheese on top.
Repeat until out of ingredients.
Cover in foil and bake 20 minutes or until heated through and cheese is melted and bubbly.

If doing traditional-style:
Heat a thick layer of oil in a small saute pan.
Put one tortilla at a time into pan, only for a few seconds until softened. Remove with tongs and let drip. Immediately immerse in a bowl of enchilada sauce.
Remove from sauce and place in 9x13 pan. Place a line of veggie filling down center of tortilla and sprinkle in a little cheese.
Repeat until pan is filled with lined-up wrapped tortillas. Top with cheese and bake until cheese is melted and bubbly.

i made these last week (with kale -- my favourite leafy green -- and whole wheat tortillas instead of corn. i also made my own enchilada sauce, which is easy enough, but which i often feel forced to do because most canned sauces have MSG and/or HFCS -- what gives??) and they were yum! i made two batches and froze one. thanks for the recipe!

i also made a HUGE batch of the chili i posted here tonight and froze a bunch of bags! yay!

[Isaac'sMa]

Bumping
I think I'm going to start freezing meals this weekend...it's really getting close! I'm going to try to fill our extra (dorm-size) freezer as well as I can. I figure as we make room in the freezer by eating the meals, I'll be trying to fill it up with frozen breastmilk.

Even these days, we've gotten lazy and our food-prep/menu variety has fallen by the wayside and while we don't eat unhealthily, I'm getting sick of black bean and avocado quesadillas twice a week! It'll be good to have some variety!

Curlita, did I understand that it's okay to freeze potatoes as long as they are cooked before frozen? (I'm guessing they do the same as polenta or tofu if you freeze before cooking???) I LOVE the tip about freezing the bags flat : that will make it so much easier to store as well as thaw!

[Curlita]

Originally Posted by Isaac'sMa

Curlita, did I understand that it's okay to freeze potatoes as long as they are cooked before frozen? (I'm guessing they do the same as polenta or tofu if you freeze before cooking???)

No, they get weird no matter when you freeze them. I don't know why, but they seem to spell doom for anything you try to freeze that has them as an ingredient. This is just from my personal experience, so maybe someone here is more savvy about freezing potatoes than I am.

[GooeyDay]

I have been wanting to lay away some meals, and I found a good website that gives information about how to freeze:

http://extension.missouri.edu/xplor/...nut/gh1505.htm

Just thought I'd share!

~* Laura

[Googy]

Originally Posted by robina_josephine

i made these last week (with kale -- my favourite leafy green -- and whole wheat tortillas instead of corn. i also made my own enchilada sauce, which is easy enough, but which i often feel forced to do because most canned sauces have MSG and/or HFCS -- what gives??) and they were yum! i made two batches and froze one. thanks for the recipe!

i also made a HUGE batch of the chili i posted here tonight and froze a bunch of bags! yay!

I'm so glad you liked them! I make them with kale too, and I guess I'm super-lucky to find enchilada sauce at my local health food store with no yucky stuff added! Its funny, DH was just saying yesterday that we should make and freeze this recipe next!