Freezer Meals Using What's in Your Pantry

I've been wanting to do some freezer cooking here lately and have been pouring over my Pinterest boards. I have a ton of ideas pinned - but couldn't get my brained focused enough to print out all the recipes that I wanted to make and make a grocery list. It hit me to just pull everything out of the pantry and freezer just to see what I had. 

I had two bags of frozen chicken breasts, 2 lbs of ground chicken, a 1 1/2 lbs of ground beef, stew meat and  plenty of cans of diced tomatoes.

 I did go buy the green bell peppers and carrots - but everything else I had. 

It's amazing to me some of the things I found at the bottom of my freezer...some Rotisserie Chicken, the Kraft Fresh Take cheese mixes and a lot of shredded cheese!

I felt like a chef on "Chopped" or "Iron Chef", I kind of looked over everything and wrote a list of things that I would have all the ingredients to make. 

First, I cooked all the meat that I needed.

I floured the stew meat and started browning it for the Amish Stew.

(see below for full recipe)

I threw the 2 lbs of ground chicken and the 1/2 lb of ground beef in a dutch oven to start cooking for the lasagna and sloppy joes. 

Next, it was time to slice all the veggies. 

I knew I needed all three of my green bell peppers sliced for the stir fry. 

(Learn more about my handmade wooden cutting board on my photography blog.)

I also tried to be fancy and cut some of the carrots for the stir fry into logs. 

It resulted in a cut finger. 

Ouch. 

I didn't have any onion on me, so for all my recipes that needed it - I used dried onion. 

It's super cheap and easy. 

I also didn't have any garlic, so used garlic powder instead. 

The Amish Stew's already to go! 

This is a family favorite! 

--Please note that you'll need to make sure and add seasonings to all your dishes!!! I love Greek Seasoning (yellow can) and good old Kosher salt.--

The stir fry's were so easy!

1/2 bag of shrimp

large handful of sliced green bell peppers

medium handful of sliced carrots

I also had a half bag of frozen green beans that I divided between the bags. 

a couple tablespoons of soy sauce

a cap-ful of Emeril's Asian Essence

You won't need to defrost these all the way. 

You can just throw them into a hot skillet or wok (using oil)

and heat them until the veggies are done. 

Serve over rice...buy a few egg rolls and your meal is complete!

The chicken stir fry was the exact same....except I used chicken.

=)

If you let your chicken defrost just a little on the counter top, they are super easy to slice into strips. 

I thought I was going to make a full on lasagna.

 Then I realized that the box in the pantry...

only had five noodles in it. 

So I made do.

Crushed the noodles in the bag.

Added a can of spaghetti sauce

1/2 of the ground chicken/beef 

Handful of mozz cheese

salt and pepper

tablespoon of dried basil or Italian seasoning

Throw everything in a freezer safe bag.

Attach an 8oz bag of mozz cheese to the outside (will be used as a topping)

When you cook this lasagna....put it into a casserole dish and top with the remaining cheese.

Cover it with foil and bake at 350 for about 35 minutes.

Uncover and bake another 10 minutes. 

The Italian Smothered Chicken was not on my original list.

But I ended up having more chicken then I thought.

This is simply 4 chicken breasts

1 can of spaghetti sauce

8oz mozz cheese taped to the outside

When you're ready to bake this...put it in a 350 degree over for 45 minutes covered with foil

Uncover and bake until cheese in completely melted. 

This is an easy one....grilled chicken.

Just four chicken breasts in a bag with seasoning (mesquite)

We also seem to have last minute friends that either come over or invite us over to cook-out.

It's always BYOM (Bring your own Meat) so this is something that we can grab out of the freezer and go. 

Last was the Sloppy Joe's.

I put the rest of the ground chicken/beef mixture in the bag and poured the can of sloppy joe mix in. 

I'm not a fan of sloppy joe sandwiches...but the kids and the hubby love them.

I do like them in bowls, something you might want to try too. 

That's it! 

I got 10 freezer meals using what I had in my pantry!!

The best part is that it took me under an hour! 

Love it!

Freezer cooking does not have to be complicated or involve big recipes.

Use your imagination and come up with some great ideas for your family! 

Here's the Amish Stew recipe that I promised: 

Amish Stew - freezer cooking and crock-pot style

Makes 2 bags, each bag feeding 4-5 people

2-3 lbs of cubed stew meat (tossed in flour mixture and browned in pan)

4 cans diced tomatoes

4 diced carrots

1 diced onion (or a few tablespoons of dried onion)

Celery (optional)

2 Tbsp of Worcestershire Sauce

Couple Pinches of salt and pepper

Divide it all between two freezer safe bags. When it comes time to cook this, you'll add 3 diced potatoes at the bottom of your crock-pot, and throw everything in the bag on top of them. Cook at low for 6-8 hours. 

Thanks so much for stopping by!!!

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