Grilled chicken for the Freezer

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With school starting and a generally busy schedule, I’m putting homemade convenience foods in my freezer every chance I get. The latest recipe started with a 10 lb bag of boneless skinless chicken breasts from Costco. I poured a bottle of chipolte lime marinade I snagged for $.50 right into the bag. And refririgerated for a couple of days until I had more time.

Then I placed them on a broiler pan and broiled on high for 5-7 minutes on each side.

Set them on a plate to cool while I cooked the rest. And then sliced them really thin.  I had in my mind restaurant style grilled chicken strips as I sliced.

Then I weighed the strips into 4 oz serving sizes and packaged them in snack size bags for the freezer.  Now all I have to do is microwave the frozen strips for 90 seconds and add them to a tossed salad or a pita for instant lunch.  It’s low-fat, high protein, and sooo tasty!!

Do you have a favorite chicken marinade recipe to share that I can try next time?  I’m out of $.50 bottles of  marinade 🙂 .

Overnight French Toast Casserole

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Here’s a make-ahead breakfast recipe for you.   I like to make it the night before and pop it into the oven right before I start my morning aerobics.  By the time I’m showered and dressed breakfast is ready to serve. 

1.  First cut a whole loaf of 100% whole grain day old bread into cubes and place in a greased 9 x 13 pan.

2.  Then mix 6 eggs, 3 cups of skim milk, a tablespoon of sugar, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and a teaspoon of vanilla and pour over the bread.

3.  Cover and refrigerate overnight.

4.  In the morning dot with 2 tablespoons of butter cut into tiny bits and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar (about 1 tablespoon sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon.)  Bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes. 

5.  Cut into 12 squares and serve with maple syrup or fruited and yogurt. Yum!

Quick Meal Stretch: Taco Meat for a Crowd

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Our hamburger comes in 2 lb frozen logs.  It barely feeds my family of 7 for a meal of tacos.  Once a week we add 4 extra mouths to our table and I knew it wouldn’t stretch.  I added 2 cups of cooked brown rice to our meat once it was browned and then added my taco spices to flavor it all together.  I loved the flavors and the children ate it well.  We had enough for lunch the next day.

3 Ingredient Taco Seasoning

1 teaspoon garlic salt

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1-2 Tablespoons chili powder

Mix spices and sprinkle on 2 lb cooked meat with 1/4 cup water.  Cook and and stir until most of the water has evaporated.

Freezer Lunch Idea–Mini Pizzas

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Like convenience foods?  I do!  But I like them best when I make them from scratch.  For these little pizzas, I put my favorite pizza dough ingredients in the bread machine and let it do the work for me. 

Then we rolled out the dough and cut it into circles using a jar lid from gallon sized penny candy jars.

A quick topping with jarred spaghetti sauce, turkey Italian Sausage (recipe to follow), and mozarella cheese.  I put veggies on some of them, because I like it that way.  Then bake at 400 for 15 minutes.  Cool and Slide meal portions into gallon size freezer bags and freeze.  To reheat, put frozen pizzas on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 20 minutes.  They are great with veggie sticks or a tossed salad.

Pizza Dough

1 2/3 cups warm water

1 Tablespoon olive oil

2 Tablespoons honey

1 teaspoon sea salt

4 cups whole wheat flour

1 Tablespoon yeast

Put all ingredients in the bread machine in the order listed and start a dough cycle.  This makes 2 extra large pizzas or 18-20 mini pizzas. 

Turkey Italian Sausage

1 lb ground lean turkey

1 teaspoon garlic salt

1 teaspoon whole or cracked fennel seed

1/4-1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/2 teaspoon crushed basil

Spread turkey in a skillet, sprinkle with spices, cook and press the spices into the meat as you chop it into fine pieces with your spatula.  Easy and Yummy.  It is less expensive and less calories than buying traditional Italian sausage.