Freezer Cooking and other Foodie Moments

Crystal and Jessica (FishMama) host a freezer cooking day each month. Their efforts have really encouraged me to get busy and fill my freezer too! After watching them work so hard, I finally decided to join in. Even with a few bumps in the road, I managed to add a number of items to my freezer which are sure to make the coming month a little easier.

Here is what I made:

1 Stromboli Packet - yes, one! Baby steps...

Earlier in the week we had Stromboli for dinner (It is one of our favorites.) I doubled the turkey sausage recipe and used half to make that evening's meal while putting the other half in a ziplock bag. I then added 2 cups of cheese and marinara sauce to their own bags and added these to the turkey sausage - making one neat little package. Next time we want Stromboli it will be a breeze to make!

Apple Pie Filling

This was supposed to be for Laura’s mini Apple Pies. I cut up and cooked 8 pounds of apples, only to realize I didn’t have any yogurt for the dough! I’m sure I could substitute, but my brain in not functioning at it’s highest level right now. So I’m freezing some for a big apple pie and leaving the rest in the fridge until I get yogurt for the dough. Hopefully tomorrow!


Green Lemonade

I love Green Lemonade and would happily drink it daily. I just hate washing the juicer! So this is an experiment. I made 2 quarts and divided it into canning jars. The plan is to take a jar out of the freezer the night before then drink in the morning. I’ll report the results.

What is in Green Lemonade, you ask?

Mine usually consists of:

• 1 head Romaine lettuce
• 5 or so stalks of kale and/or spinach
• 1 lemon
• 1 or 2 fuji apples

The juice in the above picture contains: 3 lemons, 3 or 4 apples, 2 heads romaine lettuce, half a bag of spinach leaves, 1 bunch kale.

I first read about it on Susan’s wonderful blog. The drink was made famous by Natalia Rose in her book The Raw Food Detox Diet. I find it very refreshing and actually crave it. My husband shudders every time her takes a sip! Each to his own :)

Shredded Chicken

I originally planned to make a big pot of Tinga (recipe to come), which requires 12 chicken breasts or the equivalent. I’m not sure what I bought, but it turned out to be much less than that. So this will probably feature in a future batch of tortilla soup.

Chocolate Chips and Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

While cooking all this up I noticed a few bananas were looking a little ripe. I remembered FishMama’s Chocolate chip banana bread and decided to make that. But then there were no chocolate chips. I was really looking forward to the chocolate part of chocolate chip banana bread. Then I remembered Laura made her own chocolate chips. So I looked it up, and what do you know, they were not difficult to make and we had all the ingredients. So I made those (This is starting to sound like one of Laura Numeroff 's stories..If You Give a Mouse a Cookie)

The chocolate chips melt very easily so the remainder are living in the freezer  Although I doubt they will be there long, or end up in any other baked dish!

So that's my freezer cooking wrap up.  Be sure to visit Money Saving Mom to see what others made.