Casseroles for the Freezer

As you all know, I have recently moved. The best thing about moving is that I got all my own stuff back!! (It has been in storage for the past 2 years while I was in residency) Part of that stuff was my chest freezer. I freeze pretty much everything. I have found over the years that cooking for one person sucks. I'm sure I've mentioned that before...but it really does. What does a person who likes to cook to do? Well I found that I can make the dishes I want to make then portion them into individual servings and freeze them. They basically turn into my own Lean Cuisines!! I haven't found anything so far that doesn't freeze well - but I usually cook big batches of pasta with tomato sauce, soups or casseroles. I've heard you can freeze milk but I'm not much of a milk drinker...but then you have those recipes that use 1 cup of milk...hmmm. I also have heard recently that in those type of situations you could use powered milk...something to try in the future. But I digress...my freezer is empty so I have decided to make some casseroles to stock it.

The first casserole I decided to make was from the most recent issue of Food Network Magazine. I've had a craving for enchiladas recently so this recipe particularly spoke to me. The best part is that there is chicken AND beef in it...yum! I pretty much followed the recipe as is with some lower calorie additions - I had chicken stock around from poaching chicken so I used that, I used a leaner ground beef (93% lean), and I used less cheese, probably 2 cups in the whole dish and it was a reduced fat cheese (2% milk). Also I split the dish into two casseroles - one I cooked then portioned out and the second I froze before baking for a future date.

Tortillas on bottom

Cheese, then beef layer

More Tortillas

Chicken layer (has cheese in it)

Final layer of tortillas, top with enchilada sauce and cheese, then bake

Nom Nom Nom

It was very tasty (I had it for lunch today) and I had 5 single-serve containers plus a whole casserole for the freezer!! Yay!!

The second casserole I made today is from The Kichn. Last week there was a post about King Ranch Casserole, which is apparently a pot luck staple in Texas. This version has less processed ingredients by making your own sauce - apparently the original version uses cream of chicken and cream of mushroom soup. Since I have never had this before and I do not live in Texas, I have taken some liberties with the recipe. I guess the original version used tortilla chips so in the redone version, you toast the tortillas in the oven...nice sentiment but seriously, I'm going to pour a liquid over these things - so I skipped that part. I also used less cheese and split the casserole into two - one to bake now then portion and one to freeze. About to put the one to bake in the oven so I don't have a verdict on how the whole thing tastes BUT I tasted the filling for seasoning and it was darn tasty...

Looks kinda like the above casserole, but I assure you it is different!!

And on a side note, under random Pinterest ideas that work - pulling chicken with the KitchenAid mixer...

Before

After

It really works! I did this twice - with cold chicken from the fridge and room temp chicken I just cooked - the cold chicken shredded much easier. Also, the chicken has a tendency to fly out of the mixer, so this might be a good use for the splatter shield that comes with the mixer. Plus - it was fun! Happy Labor Day all!