Freezer Cooking

So I decided to spend most of my Sunday trying to get ahead and cook some food for the freezer that I can then use for the week instead of being tired and stressed out and going to a drive-thru.  Usually my forays into freezer cooking end up taking me well into the night, my kitchen counters and sinks full of dirty dishes and my floor covered in all manner of food debris.  Today went surprisingly well however and I am pleased to say that I am done with all my dishes but one and it’s not eleven o’clock at night.  Also my kitchen is reasonably clean, dishwasher running, pots and pans drying and my floor is not covered in gook!  I even have several meals for the week chillin’ in the fridge or freezin’ in the freezer.  Yea me!  Here is some of what I made and where you can find the recipes.

These are ‘Spicy Salmon Cakes’.  I got the recipe from Paleo Nom Nom.  It is originally ‘Spicy Tuna Cakes’ but I like salmon better.  I followed the recipe substituting salmon for tuna.  I like to serve these with veggies and Sriracha sauce for dipping.

Well, you can’t really see them but the bags on the left are clean eating turkey meatballs courtesy of Beyond Diet.  It is a website for paleo/clean eating type food.  I have a membership so I can see the recipes, so I’m not sure if you can get them without a membership.  Memberships are quite reasonable and in fact are much cheaper than most of the other ‘diet’ programs out there.  I paid a one time fee for the program I wanted and have been very happy with it (now if I could just stick to it)!  I did it to help me change the way I eat and guide me into healthier habits but I’ve had a hard time making the change, especially this summer with all of the graduation, birthday and Fathers Day parties we’ve had.  I still keep trying though!  The other storage bags are The Pioneer Woman’s ‘Simple Perfect Chili’.  I have tweaked her recipe and kind of made it my own but the basics are the same.

These are ‘Tex-Mex’ burgers and are also from Beyonddiet.com.  I just followed the recipe and made patties, then flash froze them and put them in freezer bags to grill up this week.  These are yummy, they are full of seasonings and peppers and get a spicy kick from jalapeños.

These are just some veggies I roasted up to have for breakfast.  I used potatoes, zucchini, mushrooms, tomatoes and spinach.  I tossed the veggies with a little avocado oil, salt, pepper and season salt and roasted them.  I started with the potatoes and zucchini for the first 7-10 minutes or so, then added the mushrooms for another 5 minutes, then finished off with the tomato and spinach for the last 5-ish minutes. I cooked them in stages because the potatoes and zucchini take longer to cook.  I just kind of judge the time by how done the veggies are getting.  You can use all sorts of veggies like peppers and onions and even broccoli and cauliflower if you like those.  I use them as sort of a hash in the morning and serve with a fried egg or some sort of breakfast meat.  These are sort of low carb-ish!

Last but not least are ‘Crock Pot Fajitas’.  I got the basic recipe from a nutritionist named Zonya Foco who had a show on PBS several years ago.  Again, this is another recipe that I have tweaked a bit but used the basics from her recipe.

Well it’s been a pretty successful cooking day and I am pooped!  I’m excited to have this done so the work week goes a little easier.  Any of these recipes you can pretty much find on the websites I mentioned except for maybe the fajitas.  I don’t want to take credit for other peoples hard work that has made my life easier and tastier!