One Sunday...Forty Meals

I love nothing more than cooking...well, maybe there are a few things (read: red wine...crafting), but I do so love to play in the kitchen.

My cuzin and I wanted to do a massive cook-off and get some freezer meals stocked up. So Saturday evening we went and grabbed the groceries and then spent all day in the kitchen the next day.

Seven hours later…40 meals prepared… and all for around $ 2.00 per meal.

Not bad for a hard days work eh? And it went so fast with two people!

I normally do a mass cook like this every few months, but this was the first time I had ever done more freezer type/crock pot type meals. Normally, I do a lot of actual cooking (like making a huge dish of tuna noodle casserole, cooking it and then portioning it down into lunch/dinners). I think that doing dishes like these ones is a huge time saver and we were able to make twice the number of dishes than I normally would. It was more about the prepping of dishes instead of the cooking: making the sauce and then throwing it into Ziploc bags with the meat.

So what did we make? 
(It's going to be a two part-er here folks, so bare with me!)

Bacon and Black Bean Chile

This is a new recipe for our household. I normally do the same ole chili I have grown up with, which is delicious but its always a good thing to switch it up!  So far, just with “samples” out of the pot, we have two thumbs up!

Ingredients:
8 ounces bacon, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (about 8 strips)
2 medium onions, chopped fine

1 red bell pepper, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 tablespoons garlic, minced
1/4 cup chili powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes (or to taste)
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or to taste)
2 lbs 85% lean ground beef
2 (16 ounce) cans black beans, drained and rinsed
1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes with juice
1 (28 ounce) can tomato puree
table salt, to taste
2 limes, cut into wedges

Directions:
Fry bacon in large heavy-bottomed nonreactive Dutch oven over medium heat, stirring frequently, until browned, about 8 minutes.
Pour off all but 2 tablespoons fat, leaving bacon in pot.
Add onions, bell pepper, garlic, chili powder, cumin, coriander, pepper flakes, oregano, and cayenne; cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are softened and beginning to brown, about 10 minutes.
Increase heat to medium-high and add half the beef; cook, breaking up pieces with wooden spoon, until no longer pink and just beginning to brown, 3 to 4 minutes.
Add remaining beef and cook, breaking up pieces with wooden spoon, until no longer pink, 3 to 4 minutes.
Add beans, tomatoes, tomato puree, and 1/2 teaspoon salt; bring to boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, stirring occasionally, for 1 hour.
Remove cover and continue to simmer 1 hour longer, stirring occasionally (if chili begins to stick to bottom of pot, stir in 1/2 cup water and continue to simmer), until beef is tender and chili is dark, rich, and slightly thickened.
Adjust seasoning with additional salt.
Serve with lime wedges and condiments if desired.

(original recipe found here)

Stroganoff

This is a tried ‘n true mamas’ recipe. I still haven’t quite mastered the touch of my moms, but it’s so quick and easy to make and it tastes delicious, so how can you go wrong??

Ingredients

Ground beef (I have also used leftover steak from the night before in this...its delicious!)

minced Garlic

onions – medium dice

2 cans of canned mushrooms or use fresh (whatever you have on hand)

2-4 cans of mushroom soup (depending on how much beef you have)

Water

salt and pepper

Sour Cream

Directions

Brown the beef and drain any excess fat. Add garlic, onions and mushrooms and saute until cooked. Stir in the mushroom soup. I usually add about 1/3 – ½ cup of water to loosen it up. Season with salt and pepper.

You can add any additional veggies to this as well. Diced bell peppers are great in it. Just before serving, add ½ cup of sour cream. Stir to incorporate.  Serve over pasta.

Meatballs 

 

In our house, this is also our meatloaf and hamburger recipe lol.

 

Ingredients

Ground beef

A package of onion soup mix

Bread crumbs (this time we used Italian flavored that I made up)

1 egg

Worcestershire sauce

Directions

Mix it all together and form into bite size balls.

We chose not to cook them at this point. We placed them on a cookie sheet and threw them in the freezer for an hour or so to allow them to harden up a bit and then portioned them into baggies.

Jamaican Jerk Chicken

(Looneyspoons Cookbook)

This may be my new favorite discoveries to date. After a glowing recommendation from a good friend of mine about this cookbook, I ran out to Costco and picked it up.

Not only are the pictures, comments and recipe names super cute (and make me giggle) but the recipes are fantastic and figure friendly!

If you don’t try any other recipe that I have listed here, at least try this one! Two thumbs waaaaay up!.

Marinade:1/3 cup of chopped green onion (with the white parts)
1/4 cup of freshly squeezed lime juice
2 tbsp of olive oil
2 tbsp of reduced-sodium soy sauce
2 tbsp of liquid honey
1 tbsp of grated ginger root
2 tsp of minced garlic
2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and minced
2 tsp of ground allspice
1 tsp each of thyme, salt and freshly ground pepper
1/2 tsp each of ground cinnamon and ground nutmeg
5 - 6 chicken breasts or 8-12 thighs

Whisk together all marinade ingredients in a medium bowl. Place chicken in a large, Ziploc bag. Add marinade and seal bag. Turn bag several times to coat chicken with marinade. Marinade overnight in the refrigerator. Once marinated, BBQ chicken until cooked.

I have also done this in the oven. About 1 hour @ 350

Sausage and Peppers

This is a sneaky recipe and not one that all of you will be running out to try. Unless, like us, you have a freezer full of deer sausage lol.

I am not a huge fan of wild game but I don’t mind deer. When mom told me about a recipe that she had that called for chorizo, and how she had tricked the deer sausage in to thinking it was chorizo, I was all like “say what?”. Of course I had to try it!

I have made this a few times now, and I for one, am addicted!

Directions
Slice the deer (or another dry sausage) into super thin slices. In a small bowl, mix together 2 tsp of paprika and 1 tsp of cayenne (depending on how spicy you want it, back down on the cayenne). With your pan on medium heat, splash in some olive oil, and brown the sausage in small batches. Keep a close eye on it as it will brown (read: burn) quickly. Remove the sausage from the pan and put aside. Slash in another bit of olive oil and quickly saute 1-2 sliced bell peppers. Cook until they have a nice golden color. (I like to add a good splash of water to the peppers to make a bit of a “gravy”.) When peppers are done, add to the sausage back in and serve it all over a place of brown rice.


Cheers!