Two years ago I FINALLY realized that I needed to start canning and freezing some of the food that is grown in our garden. I'm not sure why it took me so long but I love it! My first year we canned tomatoes, pasta sauce, salsa, peaches and applesauce. This year I just have canned salsa, but plenty of frozen tomatoes, corn, peaches and tomato juice. In additions to the madness of canning, I decided to make 16 freezer meals in one day. I was worried it would consume my entire day but it only took two hours of active time. Here's how my day went:
First, we had a 9 a.m. soccer game so I threw a pork roast in the crock pot and seasoned it with salt, pepper and green chiles. By the time we got home it was lunch time and the two oldest children had a birthday party to go to at 1. The baby went down for his nap and I got busy.
Two roasting chickens were purchased for $9 and they were coated with olive oil and seasoned with salt, pepper and Italian seasoning. Both went in the oven at 425 degrees for 30 minutes to brown the skin. Next, I lowered the heat to 385 and baked for 2 hours.
While those were roasting I started browning two and a half pounds of ground beef. The other two and a half pounds were used for meatballs. I purchased this five pound package for $11. All of the browned beef had about 1 1/2 cups of salsa, a teaspoon of garlic powder, a teaspoon of cumin and a tablespoon of chili powder added. This was cut into four portions to be used in chili, tacos, or nachos. The meatballs were made with about a cup of panko crumbs, half cup of Parmesean cheese, a tablespoon of Italian seasoning, salt, pepper and three eggs. I ended up with around 30 meatballs.
All the meatballs were cooked while the chickens were roasting. I could only fit in one tray at a time for about 35 minutes each. While all of this was cooking I shredded the pork roast and split into two different bags. One had BBQ sauce added for sandwiches and the other had salsa verde added to make pork carnitas. I then put my feet up for a while and once the chickens were finished I shredded them. I divided it amongst five freezer bags. Three were solely the shredded chicken for soup, tacos, chicken salad. The other two were mixed with a concoction of a cup of salsa and half a block of cream cheese. I heated those two ingredients in a pan and poured it over the shredded chicken. Those two bags will be used to stuff tortillas for the most AMAZING chicken enchiladas. (All you do is stuff slightly warmed corn tortillas, roll 'em up and place in a baking pan, top with mild enchilada sauce, sprinkle with Mexican cheese and bake for 25 minutes at 350)
The following day I put a pot roast in the crock pot with 4 cloves of garlic a little water and seasoned with salt, pepper and Italian seasoning. It was later shredded and divided into two freezer bags, one for soup and the other for beef sandwiches. That's it! These will all make great starter meals for the busy nights during the week this fall for my family of five. Next, I will work on my vegetarian freezer meals...corn chowder, black bean burgers, veggie fritters!
