Honey Beer Chicken

Adapted from Cooking Light.

Delicious!  And freezable!  I'm starting to make and freeze meal kits in preparation for the arrival of Kiddo #3 and this one is on the list.  I made a kit of this recipe for my husband to make for dinner one night that I worked late...he said it was easy to make, easy to follow and tasted great.  So it's even husband-proof ;)

My grocery store had 4 lb. bags of frozen chicken breasts on sale, so I'm making two kits of this recipe along with 4 kits of gumbo.  If you wanted not to have extra of anything hanging around (like 4 oz. of beer out of a 12 oz. bottle), plan to make 3 honey beer chicken kits.  Fortunately, I have a willing volunteer to take care of the extra for me today (the aforementioned test cook/Dear Husband).

Btw, I completely spaced out and didn't take a *single* photograph of this dish, any of the 3 opportunities I've had.  Go see the Cooking Light site for a beautifully food-styled picture.

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Spaghetti-Ohs

To fill any Chef Boyardee cravings...this is an astoundingly authentic copycat recipe that was great both as a prep-ahead and freezer meal.  Here's the original recipe which makes lots of dishes dirty.  Here is my version which only needed one pot.

Ingredient note: I used the canned tomato sauce that you find near the diced tomatoes and tomato paste, not spaghetti sauce or marinara sauce. 

For prepping ahead, I pre-boiled the pasta in the morning and mixed in the sauce ingredients.  By the time I put it on the stove to reheat that evening, the pasta had totally absorbed the sauce and only needed a few minutes on medium-low to get warm throughout (rather than the 20 minutes of extra cooking given in the OR). 

I froze leftovers in individual serving sizes and reheated them for lunch.  I recommend reheating in the microwave rather than the stovetop, but if you do reheat on the stove, add a splash of water to the frozen lump of pasta and heat with a cover on the pot to help keep things from sticking to the bottom too badly. 
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Garlic jelly

Due to a startling number of requests for the recipe, here it is! 

I use this jelly about 1/4 cup at a time...a little goes a long way.  Mix with a couple teaspoons of mustard and use it as a glaze on roasted chicken, meatloaf, ham, or pork roast.  Spread it on dinner rolls.  Or put a bit on a roasted chicken sandwich on rye...yum!

An overview of home canning is here.

Adapted from the Ball Blue Book (the authors of which didn't think to use yummy wine ;) ).


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Chicken Wellington

Chicken Wellington with Lemon Turnips

Original recipe here.

Yum, yum, yum, yum!  The kids like this even, and it's super-easy to throw together a double batch to freeze.  I made a double batch of the OR's portions b/c it calls for half the usual package size of a couple of ingredients and I hate having extra bits hanging around.  I used the leftover chicken from a whole roaster that we had for dinner one night here, but you could bake some chicken breasts to use just for this dish if you wanted.  The original recipe has you separate the components of the filling into 3 distinct layers but I don't think that's necessary and only makes a lot of dishes dirty. 

Be sure to wrap the wellingtons well in plastic wrap unless you'll be cooking them immediately.  Puff pastry will dry out in the freezer or fridge, so keep them wrapped until just before baking.

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Popcorn Chicken

I love this!  We eat rather a lot of popcorn here and sometimes have leftovers.  I mean, I know it's *just* popcorn, but I hate to throw out the extra (which is why sometimes my kids get to eat popcorn for breakfast ::blush::).  I saw a recipe in one of those free parenting magazines that seem to come incessantly for using popcorn as a crumb coating on chicken...brilliant!  They had some particulars for seasoning, but I think the basics are good enough.

Kids liked it, husband liked it, I liked it...this one is a keeper!  The popcorn flavor is still there even after pan-frying, and it forms a really nicely crispy coating.  It's good to crunch into, and also makes the pieces a bit "stiffer" and easier to flip in the pan.

Note: this probably won't freeze well as a prep-ahead option...I think the popcorn would get soggy in the freezer.  But I did put some leftover popcorn in a ziptop bag, pressed the air out very well and fridged it for several days before using it for this recipe with good results.  You can prep ahead the dredging elements, but I wouldn't actually do the dip until right before cooking.

I made it with chicken tenderloins, but chunked up breasts or boneless skinless thighs would work too.

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San Francisco Pork Chops

Original recipe here.

These are just so good!  The finished reduction is a mite salty thanks to the soy sauce, so I strongly recommend using low-sodium soy sauce and maybe even going halfsies on the soy with some no-salt broth.

These are completely prep-ahead and freezer-friendly.  Just mix up all the sauce ingredients in a container to fridge or freeze, make sure you've got pork chops available and have cornstarch in your pantry. 

The sauce reduces as the pork chops cook on the stovetop, giving a thick, glossy, flavorful glaze that is just out of sight.


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Lemon Turnips

Totally gratuitous butter shot...cuz butter is purty ;)

It's pretty easy in my opinion to come up with tasty ways to prep meat-based dishes ahead and freeze them for convenience.  Not so easy when it comes to vegetables.  So I'm on particular lookout for recipes that do work for vegetables in the freezer, like this one.

Turnips are maybe not everyone's favorite, but lemon butter makes everything delicious.  They do nicely in the freezer and are lower carb than potatoes.  They pack a good wallop of vitamin C and fiber, and even have a significant amount of calcium per serving.

If you want to do these as a freeze-ahead dish, you will need to basically prepare the turnips in advance and package them up for reheating.  You want to stop just short of fully cooking them so they don't get squishy.  I reheated mine as an oven packet while baking off Chicken Wellingtons, but they could get reheated on the stovetop if it's more convenient to your menu.

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