Thursday, September 25, 2014

Freezer Meals

My life is crazy. My schedule is crazy. I help take care of a lot of people. Even though I wish I could just spend 3 hours cooking dinner ever night and experimenting with new flavors and techniques and ingredients..I have way too much to do for all that. I took a little leaf of out my friend Laurel's play book and decided to make some freezer meals (basically I want to be just like her when I grow up. That is not an exaggeration. Go read her blog.)
Gelato break in NYC
The main resource I used was www.onceamonthmeals.com. I wanted this process to be as fast and painless as possible, so I was looking for things that required no cooking ahead, and could be made in the crock pot. Basically, I wanted to assemble things in a bag and then be able to eat it with zero work later. But you know me, I can't follow instructions. Like at all. So, visit their website for their ideas, and you can see which ones I loved and modified here. I won't be posting anything until I actually eat it, so more will come later.  First up, Pineapple Beef Teriyaki.


Pineapple Beef Teriyaki
20 oz pineapple chunks (if you use canned, don't drain it)
1 1/4 cup red onion, diced
3/4 cup of teriyaki sauce
1 tsp ground ginger
1 cup green bell pepper, sliced
2 tbsp sesame seeds
2.5 pounds of sirloin tips (Original recipe calls for beef stew meat, but we had sirloin tip roast and I cut it up. Use whatever is on sale that week.)

Combine all ingredients and put in gallon freezer storage bags. Label your bag with your instructions: "Thaw & cook on low in crockpot for 7 hours"

A few notes:
-This recipe serves 6, so I divided mine into two bags.
-My pickiest friend in the world loved it so much she made it after she had it when we went to the beach.
The pickiest most wonderful human alive, my friend Jen.

-I served it over rice.
-It tastes better if you freeze it. If you just follow the instructions and cook it, it's good, but not as good as when you freeze it first.
-The first time I made it, I cooked it on high for 4 hours. It was fine. 
-I absolutely, under no circumstances, can I spell teriyaki without spell check/autocorrect.
-Do you have crock pot liner bags? If you don't, I'm about to change your life. Go buy some. You will never have to wash your crock pot again. You will want to abandon any and all stove cooking for a while. Enjoy your crock pot honeymoon.

What do you do when you need to prepare for a busy season of life?

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