With three growing boys in the house, it was inevitable. We finally bought a deep freezer. And we totally lucked out when friends had a second-hand upright freezer to sell instead of the chest-style one I had been considering.
I already love it, but it currently contains only one pot roast waiting for that first perfect fall day (see recipe below), a loaf of bread, two bags of hot dog buns (thanks, Yvonne!) and three kinds of ice cream for Beloved and the boys. In other words, seriously underutilized.
Now is the perfect time for me to be filling the freezer both with bulk items and with make-ahead recipes. And an unexpected side effect of my new Plan B diet is that I don’t rely on prepackaged foods nearly as much as I used to. Until February, at least, I have the time and the means to be ferreting things away for when time is less leisurely.
I’ve never owned a deep freezer before, so I’m not really sure how to best make use of it. So tell me, what’s in your freezer? What can I freeze to make my own life easier? And please feel free share any make-and-freeze recipes you love!
(My no-fail Yankee Pot Roast slow cooker recipe, with next day beef sandwich left overs to die for, is tucked below the fold.)
Filched from CTV Ottawa’s news at noon cooking feature with Pam Collacott:
ALL DAY YANKEE POT ROAST DINNER
Serves 6 to 8
1 3-pound boneless pot roast (cross rib, blade, rump, sirloin tip)
6 medium potatoes, peeled
4 large carrots, peeled or scrubbed, cut into thick sticks
6 small cooking onions, peeled
½ of a small rutabaga, peeled, cut in chunks
2 cloves garlic, peeled
2 tablespoons onion soup base
1 teaspoon thyme
½ teaspoon rosemary leaves, crumbled
Pepper, to taste
1 cup beef stock or water
½ cup red wine or tomato juice (or more beef stock)
2 to 3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 cup cold water
Salt and pepper, to taste
1. Brown roast on all sides in large ovenproof Dutch oven over medium heat. Add remaining ingredients except cornstarch, 1/4 cup cold water and parsley; cover pot.
2. Transfer to 200°F oven. Cook for 9 to 10 hours, or until meat and vegetables are tender. (or at 225°F for 6 to 8 hours; or 250°F for 4 to 6 hours.)
3. Remove meat and vegetables to platter or tray; keep warm in 200°F oven. If slow cooker: transfer liquid to saucepan.
4. Add 1 to 2 cups more water or stock if needed to make gravy. Bring liquid to a boil. Dissolve cornstarch in cold water. Stir into boiling liquid. cook and stir until gravy thickens. Add salt and pepper, to taste.
Slow Cooker Variation: Brown roast in skillet as above. Assemble (step 1) in slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for 8 to 10 hours, until roast and vegetables are very tender. Go to Step 3.
YANKEE POT ROAST SANDWICH MELT
Leftover pot roast and gravy
1 crusty roll
Horseradish and grainy mustard
Caramelized sliced onions*
Sliced cheese (Swiss, old Cheddar, your choice)
* To caramelize onion, cook with small amount of oil in small skillet over medium heat, stirring often, until soft and light brown. Sprinkle with a few drops balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper.
Slice pot roast along the grain. Shred with 2 forks. Add enough reserved gravy to moisten. Heat in microwave or on low burner.
Spread both sides of bun with horseradish and mustard to taste. Spoon beef onto bottom half of bun. Top with cheese. Broil until cheese melts and bubbles.
Hi Dani! Thanks for your comment…I think it is only the 2nd one from someone I didn’t know!!! How exciting. And I’m not being sarcastic:) Anyway, I am totally into this preparing meals ahead of time and freezing them…I too, have a deep freezer that is under utilized. I think I need some outside help in figuring out what to make! Stuff the kids will for sure eat, anyhow…I am trying to cut costs, eat healthier, satisfy 3 kids who love their twinkies, and create convenience all at once. Yippee for me! Well I haven’t thrown in the towel yet…your pot roast sounds yummers, but my kids aren’t huge meat eaters. Maybe I’ll try that one when the boyfriend and his kids are around. Until next time, I’ll keep checking you out to unearth some recipes and fun ideas:) Happy happy.
I neither plan nor cook ahead–I hardly cook at all, truth be known. But my parents always had a freezer. They stocked it with fresh frozen veggies in the summer to be eaten year round and bought meat in large quantities, cut to their specifications.
My mother also kept a big plastic bag of clothes that needed ironing–she dampened them, froze them, and and then ironed them when she had time. Thank goodness those days are gone!!
Can you double or triple your favorite recipes for things like lasagna and chili and soups. I do freeze soups b/c most recipes make more than the Kid and I can eat at once.
I love having a freezer and I am retired and there are only the two of us.
Even so, I always double the size of all meals so eventually I have a week or two when I just thaw and reheat.Favourites are spaghetti sauce,all casseroles and all meals cooked in the slow cooker. I love to make a big batch of soup and I do freeze those in individual container and then eat for lunch. Dani, if you want some recipes,let me know. I will photocopy some and mail then to you as typing them out takes me too long.
Oh, I love cooking in the fall to fill the freezer! Meals that always make the rotation are: chili (I add lentils, so good!), spaghetti sauce, lots of soups (chicken, veggie, lentil, etc,), shepherd’s pie, lasagna, chicken pot pie (a guilty pleasure made around Xmas time), and beef stew (just don’t add the potatoes before you freeze, the chunks tend to break down). We do make and freeze other things, but those are the main ones.
Have fun!
I just added four fresh, organic, free-range chickens to our deep freeze! I was sitting here reading blogs when a knock came at the door – our local farmer was on his way home after picking his chickens up from whatever it is that is done to prepare them for sale. Since he was driving past our house, he decided to stop by and deliver them personally! Gotta love rural PEI!
We tend to have a lot of meat and bread in there. My husband also loves to make and freeze big batches of Chili, spaghetti sauce, etc. We freeze the veggies from our garden too -yellow and green beans, strawberries, peas and carrots…
And, no freezer would be complete without a huge box of freezies – for the kids of course! 🙂
Can’t wait to try out the Pot Roast recipe! Thanks!
Well, my freezer’s currently stuffed with all the carbs I’m not eating, so that does you no good!
How ’bout yummy soups? We might soon reach the end of this nice weather, and therefore the end of lovely fresh local veggies. I know that’s what I’m doing next week: throwing out the bread that’s been slowly icing over since February, and replacing it with some gorgeous minestrones and stuff. Yum!
When I was pg with Rachel, I spent the last couple of months cooking and freezing so that I had 3 weeks of meals prepared for when I brought her home from the hospital. Best decision I ever made. Most of the meals are what everyone else has mentioned: spaghetti sauce, chili, lasagna, home-made meatballs, bean and ham soup, chicken-vegetable soup/stew, minestrone soup (I remember my ex saying, “It’s August and 90 degrees out there, and you’re making soup?” but that’s when all the good local produce was available, and he didn’t think it was so weird in January, when we were eating it.) I also baked apple pies and froze them.
One thing my mom does is to buy ground beef in bulk, brown it with salt and pepper and chopped onions and then freeze it in batches so that it can be made into chili or spaghetti sauce or shepherd’s pie when she thaws it out.
All our freezer staples have already been mentioned. Most often I don’t make anything specifically for the freezer, but I always make giant batches of spaghetti sauce, chili, stew, and soup. They’re so easy to make in large quantities and so easy to use from frozen. A good curry could be easily frozen, too.
Things like lasagna, meat loaf, and shepherd’s pie are great, too, but they require slightly more planning to use them (i.e. taking out to defrost or putting in the oven earlier). With soups and sauces, I just run the container under hot water for half a minute, dump into a pot, add a wee bit of water so it doesn’t burn, and let it sit at medium heat until hot. Stirring every once in a while speeds things up.
I’ve never had problems with having potatoes in stew (I guess I don’t notice their texture with everything else in the stew) but trying to freeze scalloped potatoes was disgusting. Also, I’ve found that carrots tend to get a bit spongy; again, not a problem when it’s part of a stew or sauce, but as a stand-alone, not so nice.
Other than that, we have a lot of sliced bread and meat separated into cooking portions.
Try looking at the frozen food aisle at the grocery store for inspiration! 🙂
Well, let me rummage around in here…lets see…7 loaves of bread, 4 whole salmon, Jimmy Hoffa, turkey soup from Christmas 2005, what looks like 10 lbs of blackberries, various meat products from Costco — chicken thighs, rib eye steak, human hand..ugh, Jimmy, get out of the way, halloween candy (THATS where I hid it!), and last but not least, 2 things of ice cream.
Mrs Fryman says freezer makes buying in bulk at Costco alot easier. Mr. Fry is still wondering why we have 4 whole salmon….
Hi Dani, here are my two cent worth:
Tip 1:
Buy a bigger pot with a lid.
Buy the bigger cans of tomatos.
Double, or triple, the tomato type sauces you make.
Freeze in mason jars (yes, I do that!) and leave a space between the top of the sauce and the lid for expansion.
When you defrost your sauce to add to pasta, roast chicken, risottos, chilis, whatever, you can modify the tomato sauce with whatever suits your fancy (add veggies, saussages, ground beef, etc).
Tip2:
Go to the farm market and get a big huge basket of tomatos.
Freeze in freezer bags.
When you defrost them, the skin just slips off.
Use these tomatos instead of the canned ones for sauce like in Tip 1.
Good luck!
ooohhhh…. i like javamom’s suggestions. my freezer is boring and predictable: lots of bread, chicken buddies for my boy, and a few pies. zzzzzzz….. see? you fell asleep already!
Freeze chicken breasts or pork chops in ziploc bags with a sauce or marinade added, so they are ready to defrost and cook. Salad dressing works well — we like Italian, Catalina, or Sundried Tomato and Oregano in particular. BBQ sauce also works well. You can freeze in quantities for the whoel family, or in smaller numbers so you can mix-and-match depending on who is home.
We also love frozen fruit to use in smoothies, pies, or on top of pancakes and waffles all winter. We try to pick or buy fresh in the summer and freeze our own, but we also stock up on the frozen packages at the store whenever they’re on sale. They’re also great heated up over frozen yogourt for a quick dessert.
We keep a small amount of frozen “junk food” such as chicken fingers and french fries or the Chinese Party Pack from M&M’s — we pull those out on nights we’re pooped and/or wanting a treat and woudl otherwise go out to the local pub or chinese buffet — they’re not healthier but better (and cheaper) than eating out!
When I make homemade pizza, it makes more than we need so I stretch out the extra crusts and bake for 5 minutes (so they rise) and then freeze them in ziploc bags so we have a fast dinner another night. When I have time I chop up lots of toppings and freeze them so I have everything on hand. Green pepper, mushrooms, onion, ham cubes, all freeze well. I am going to try pepperoni (I think the slices will stick to each other, so I’ll freeze in the snack-size ziplocs so I can run them underwater or put it in the microwave to defrost). It’s a lot cheaper than frozen pizzas or ordering out and tastes better, too!
you seriously cooked rutabaga? I don’t even know what it looks like. I am VERY impressed.
We are doing a ‘cooking club’ where each person makes 1 meal (passed through the group first) but make enough for four families of four. Then we switch. You have to have enough containers to make it work but it has been a lifesaver as we all balance kids, work and activities.
Oooh, I like the cooking club idea!
I just came to add the brilliant stroke of genius I had this morning when I remembered we like to freeze homemade pizza, but Marianne obvious had that stroke of genius before I did. We like to freeze pre-made pizzas, though, which then require absolutely no defrosting or prep before going straight into the oven.
Our favourite: sauce made of one little can of tomato paste mixed with about 1/4 cup Bull’s Eye BBQ sauce, topped with grilled chicken, feta cheese, spinach (I cook up a pack of frozen and it’s good for about 3 pizzas) and then mozzarella on top. You can get some big freezer bags and put in a pizza or two with waxed paper between the pizzas. I freeze them on pizza trays to keep them flat, then take the pizza trays out once they’re hard.
Also? Javamom’s suggestion for frozen tomatoes is great. My Oma always had frozen tomatoes in her freezer and it makes fabulous homemade tomato soup. You can pour boiling water over the frozen tomatoes and slip the skins off, then put them in a pot with a bit of water to cook. Add a little garlic and salt then swirl with a hand blender. Add a few spoonfuls of sour cream and mix it in and…mmmmm!