Freezer Cooking Day cont'd

Put your baking panties on and get ready to cook up some more awesome freezer meals!

Manicotti Roll-ups (ninetuple batch)
48 lasagna noodles
7 c. shredded mozzarella cheese
8 c. cottage cheese
2 jars grated parmesan cheese
7 eggs
(for eating: 1-1.5 c. spaghetti sauce)

Prepare lasagna noodles as directed on the box, being careful not to let them stick together. (You may have to do them in batches.)

In a bowl, combine the cheeses and eggs. Spread a heaping 1/4 c. of cheese/egg mixture over each noodle. Roll up and place seam side down in a gal. freezer bag (8 per bag)

To eat: place in greased glass baking dish. Heat at 350-375ish until they are warm, then pour spaghetti sauce over the roll ups. You may top with additional cheese if desired.

Okay, so this one below takes the cake for being the EASIEST recipe! It goes together in no time flat!

Marinated Chicken (Quadruple Batch)
16 boneless skinless chicken breasts, frozen
2 bottles Italian Dressing
8 large green peppers, sliced
8 large onions, sliced

In a gal. freezer bag, put 4 frozen chicken breasts. Dump in half of a bottle of Italian Dressing, a quarter of the green peppers, and a quarter of the onions. Fold the freezer bag in half (so the mixture only takes up half the bag) and stick it in the freezer, you're done!

To eat: cut bag off of frozen mixture, put in crockpot. Heat on low for 6ish hours (or as long as you like, quite honestly!) Eat over cooked brown rice (or white rice, whatever!)

French Bread Pizzas (Double Batch Supreme, Double batch pepperoni)

Supremes:
4 loaves French bread
2 jars spaghetti sauce
3 lbs. hamburger cooked with salt and Italian Seasoning
1.5 bags pepperoni
4 large green peppers, diced
2 large onions, diced
2 cans olives, diced
5 cans mushrooms
8 c. shredded mozzarella

To assemble: split loaves in half then cut in half (so you have 4 open faces) (an electric knife works SWELL for this!) Top with: 1/4 c. spaghetti sauce, spoonful of hamburger, 7-8 pepperoni, peppers, onions, olives, mushrooms, and 1/2 c. cheese. Wrap in heavy duty foil.

Pepperoni:
4 loaves french bread
2 jars spaghetti sauce
1.5 bags pepperoni
8 c. shredded mozzarella

To assemble: spit loaves in half then cut in half (so you have 4 open faces.) Top with: 1/4 c. spaghetti sauce, 1/2 c. cheese, and 7-8 pepperoni.

Make-Ahead Butterhorns (makes anywhere from 24-48 rolls depending on how you slice it)

2 Tablespoons dry yeast, heaping
1/3 cup warm water (110-115 degrees)
9 cups flour, divided
2 cups warm milk (110-115 degrees)
1 cup butter, melted
1 cup sugar
6 eggs
2 teaspoons salt
3-4 Tablespoons butter, melted

In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in water. Add 4 cups flour, milk, butter, sugar, eggs and salt. Beat 2 minutes or until smooth.

Add enough remaining flour to form a soft dough. Turn onto floured board and knead lightly. (Or, knead in mixer until sides of bowl are clean, then knead two more minutes.)

Place in a greased bowl, turning dough once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled (1-3 hours).

Punch dough down and divide into four equal parts (When we made it for freezer cooking day, we made a double batch, then each family got a half of a batch. Some people divided their half into thirds, then made 24 rolls - because I'll warn you, if you make four equal parts, then 8 wedges from each part, the 32 rolls will be pretty big ). Roll each part into a 12-inch circle and brush with melted butter.

Cut each circle into 8 pie-shaped wedges. (Alternately, you can cut a circle into 6 wedges, which are a great size for sandwiches.)

Roll up each wedge for wide edge to tip of dough and pinch to seal. Place rolls, top down, on baking sheets and freeze. When frozen, place in freezer bags and keep frozen until needed.

To bake: Take out as many frozen rolls as you’ll need and place them on a greased baking sheet. Thaw for five hours or until doubled in size. Bake at 375 degrees until lightly browned. Brush with melted butter as soon as they come out of the oven. Remove and serve immediately or cool on wire racks.

Broccoli Chicken Casserole (Quadruple Batch)

1 c. butter
2 large onions, diced
2 c. celery, chopped
8 c. uncooked rice
8 chicken bouillon cubes
4 cans cream of chicken soup
4 c. milk
3 head broccoli, chopped
2 chickens, cooked and cubed (cook in crockpot for 6-8 hours on low)
1/4 c. Montreal Steak Seasoning
(for eating: 1 c. cheddar cheese)

Cook rice according to package directions, adding chicken bouillon cubes to the water. Saute onion and celery in butter. Add broccoli towards the end and cover briefly to steam broccoli slightly. Mix milk & soup. Mix all ingredients in a LARGE bowl & place in greased foil in 8x8 glass baking dish. Pop it in the freezer and when frozen, cover with excess foil and put it in a gallon freezer bag.

To eat: Peel foil off and put back in the 8x8 pan. Bake at 350-375 until warm, then top with cheese and bake until hot.

So there you have it! That's all the recipes we used for Freezer Cooking Day in July. We were pretty proud, because we spent $159.19 TOTAL (not per person!!) Some of it was from our gardens, and some of it we lucked out because we get milk and beef for free. That figures out to $4.82 per meal (not per person) for a 4 person meal. In my opinion - you can't beat that! Anyway, here are a couple of pictures from the day: