Freezer Meals

I just did a freezer meal exchange with some of my ward friends. We each made 3 meals & ended up with 15 meals. It was fun! I thought I'd post a few of the recipes I made & received. You can freeze almost anything, I've learned. I also learned a few tricks....1. you can freeze almost any dish in gallon Ziploc bags- lay them flat to freeze & they take up much less space {although they don't look too appetizing!}. 2. to get all the air out of the bags before freezing, close all but one end of the bag & use a straw to suck out the air, then seal quickly {this is a bit tricky with soups, but you can make it work}! Anyone have a good freezer meal they want to share???

Marvelous Minestrone Soup
Serves 10

*1 lb ground sausage
1 quart water
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 large onions, chopped
2 to 3 carrots, cut up
2 stalks celery, cut up
2 (15 oz) cans diced tomatoes
2 (8 oz) cans tomato sauce
2 (10 oz) cans beef bouillon broth
½ tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
1 TB dried parsley flakes
¼ tsp sugar
Salt and pepper to taste
1 (15 oz) can cut green beans
1 (15 oz) can garbanzo beans, drained (I always leave this out)
1 handful dry macaroni (uncooked)
Grated Parmesan cheese for topping

•Bring water to a boil in large kettle
•Add sausage by breaking it up and dropping it
into boiling water
•Stir and mash sausage as it cooks, boiling
until it loses its pink color
•Add remaining ingredients, except the canned beans
and macaroni
•Simmer slowly 3–6 hours
•At least 20 minutes before serving, add cans
of beans and macaroni.
•Stir occasionally so macaroni doesn’t stick
•Top with Parmesan cheese when serving
This soup is excellent, even after being reheated.

*I’ve used drained hamburger or no meat at all, and the soup is
still delicious. The hamburger or vegetarian method is much
easier than using the sausage—but I must admit, the sausage
adds a more complex, richer taste.

Meat Loaf Muffins with Barbecue Sauce
Serves 6

Vegetable oil, for pan
1 pound ground beef
1 small yellow onion, cut into quarters
1 small green pepper
A Splash of Milk
1 large egg, beaten
1 cup plain bread crumbs
2 TB. Grill seasoning (Montreal Steak Seasoning)
1 Cup smoky barbecue sauce
½ cup salsa
1 TB. Worcestershire sauce

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Brush a 6-muffing tin with oil.

Put ground beef into a big bowl. Put onions into food processor. Cut the bell pepper in half, remove seeds, cut into pieces and add to the processor. Pulse to finely chop onion and pepper. Add to the meat bowl. Whisk the milk into the beaten egg and add to meat. Add bread crumbs and grill seasoning.

In a small bowl, mix together barbecue sauce, salsa, and Worcestershire sauce. Pour half of mixture into the bowl with the meat. Mix the meat loaf together with your hands.

Use a large ice cream scoop to put the meat into muffin tin. Top each muffing with a spoonful of reserved sauce. Bake about 15 min (it always takes mine longer to cook). Test with thermometer for doneness. Serve with extra sauce.

Spanikopita

30oz frozen chopped spinach
1 onion, minced
1 tsp dill weed
¼ c. fresh parsley or 1 heaping Tbl of dried parsley
1 tsp salt
½ lb feta cheese, crumbled
½ lb cottage cheese
4 eggs, slightly beaten
3 Tbl Olive oil
phyllo dough
butter for layering

First, sauté onions in Olive Oil. Cook until soft, then add dill and parsley. While onions are cooking thaw spinach and squeeze out all excess moisture.

When the spinach is thawed, add the butter, onions, and herbs with the spinach. Then add feta and cottage cheese. Mix well. Then add eggs and additional olive oil if desired; stir well.

Melt butter. Butter a 9x13 pan. Place six layers of phyllo in the bottom of pan, making sure to butter between each layer. Then pour the spinach mixture on top of the phyllo layers. Add six more layers of phyllo on top of the spinach mixture. Again, make sure you butter each layer. At this point you can score the top into smaller serving sizes to it is easier to cut when serving.
Bake in the oven at 375 until top layer of phyllo is golden brown.

Wild Rice Chicken

1 6 1/4-oz. package quick-cooking long grain and wild rice
1 cup cooked, chopped chicken
1 8-oz. can sliced water chestnuts, drained
1 cup finely chopped celery
1 1/4 cups finely chopped onion
1 cup light mayonnaise
1 can cream of mushroom soup

Cook rice according to package directions. Combine rice with chopped chicken, water chestnuts, celery, and onion; put mixture in a 1-gallon freezer bag.

To prepare for serving, thaw rice and chicken mixture, remove from bag, and place in a baking dish that has been sprayed with nonstick spray. Preheat oven to 325. Stir mayonnaise and cream of mushroom soup together, and spread over top of chicken. Cover and bake for 1 hour. Makes 6 servings.