Vegetarian Dish

I adore French Onion Soup. So when I found a recipe for it, I thought I'd give it a try. Then I discovered that it can be frozen. Yipee! I'm still working with it a little. I don't think its salty enough. I'm going to make another batch today, and I'll let you know what I discover. Meanwhile, here's the recipe:

French Onion Soup
6 onions, sliced thin
4 Tbsp Butter
1/4 tsp. Salt
4 cups water
1 can beef broth
1 tsp. dried thyme
French Bread
Gruyere or Swiss cheese

Melt butter over med-low heat in 12-inch skillet. Add onions and salt to cook. When onions are tender, and begin to carmelize (45 minutes), reduce heat to low and cook, stirring constantly, 15 minutes more until turn deep golden brown. Transfer onions to another pot. Add water, beef broth, and thyme.
Heat to boil over high heat. Reduce heat to simmer for 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 450.
Bake French bread for 10 minutes
Place oven-proof bowls on pan. Spoon soup into bowls.
Top soup with bread, then grate Gruyere or Swiss cheese onto bread.
Bake 12-15 minutes, until cheese has melted and begun to brown.

To FREEZE: Ladle soup into individual freezer containers (plastic or pint mason jars), let cool. Place slice of bread in plastic ziploc bag, grate cheese into another ziploc bag. Seal cheese bag, place inside of bread bag, label. Put lid on soup, tape bread/cheese bag to soup container. Freeze. When ready to reheat, thaw soup in refrigerator or microwave. No need to thaw bread and cheese. Then follow last two instructions in recipe. Bread and cheese will take longer to brown from frozen. Enjoy!

Apples

Boy, do I love desserts! Here's my favorite Apple Crisp recipe. It's my own creation...inspired by many of my favorite pie and crisp recipes, and (of course), it's great for the freezer. You can make a bunch of crisps in disposable pie tins, cover them with foil, and put them away in your freezer for special occasions.

Avalie's Delicious Apple Crisp

FILLING:
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tsp cinnamon
4 cups peeled and sliced apples
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
1/2 tsp. nutmeg (optional)

Avalie's Famous Crumb TOPPING (makes enough for 3+ crisps):
2 cups oats
1 cup flour
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 cup cold margarine/butter

Peel and slice apples, pour lemon juice over apples. Mix sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon, and nutmeg (if desired) in a small bowl. Pour sugar mixture over apples and mix until coated. Pour apple mixture into pie tin or small casserole dish.

Combine oats, flour, sugars, margarine/butter in KitchenAid mixer (or cut-in with a pastry blender) until resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle over cobbler(s).
BAKE: Cover with foil and bake at 375 for 20-30 minutes, or until apples are tender. Serve alone, or with whipped cream or ice cream. Refrigerate leftovers. Reheats great in microwave.

TO FREEZE: Finish assembling crisp, cover with foil, label, and freeze.

TO BAKE FROM FROZEN: Preheat oven to 375. Bake, covered, 1 hour, or until apples are tender.

VARIATION: Put a pie crisp in the pie tin, fill with apple mixture, and top with crumb topping. Now you have an Apple Crumb Pie. Bake 375 for 1 hour, until pie crust is baked. Delicious!

Dry Beans

Okay, it's time to tackle dry beans. I was inspired by my sister-in-law in Seattle who asked for vegetarian freezer meal ideas. Plus, everyone's trying to find easy ways to stretch their food budget dollars. I can't think of a better way than to incorporate dry beans into your meals! They're inexpensive, readily available, and have an almost eternal shelf life! :) Of course, now we need to figure out how to use them. So all of us have used canned beans before, right? I've spent the last few weeks figuring out how to make our dry beans as convenient and easy to use as the cans, without the expense. I got started with the book Make-A-Mix by Eliason, Harward, and Westover. Then I adapted the ideas for crock pot, and created my own kidney bean recipe. So pull out your crock pot and a few simple pantry items, and you'll be ready to go. It takes a little time, but your crock pot does all of the work. You just need to throw it all in and let it cook.

Here goes:

Freezer White Beans
Soaking Water
2 lbs Great Northern Beans
10 cups water
1 cup dried chopped onion (or one large onion, chopped)
1 Tbsp garlic (or more if you like it a lot)
2 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp Kosher Salt
1 tsp. Black Pepper

Wash, sort, and rinse beans. Soak beans overnight. Drain and rinse beans. Combine all ingredients in crock pot. Cook on High 2 hours. Then cook on Low 8-10 hours (until tender).
Turn off crock pot. Let beans cool 1 hour. Label freezer containers (you can use mason jars, ziploc freezer bags, or plastic freezer containers available in the canning section at the grocery store) with contents, date, and quantity. Measure beans into containers, close, and freeze. To use, thaw in refrigerator or microwave. Use in recipes that call for canned white beans.

I like to measure the beans into 2 cup measures. That's about the right size for my family, and pretty close to a 14.5oz can.

So, yep, you guessed it! You can do this with ANY bean. The only thing that changes is the quantity of beans and seasonings in the recipe, since each dry bean will inflate to a different size after soaking, and each bean needs different levels of flavor to not taste chalky.

Freezer Kidney Beans
Soaking Water
6 cups Kidney Beans
10 cups water
1 cup dried chopped onion (or 1 large onion, chopped)
3 Tbsp. garlic
2 Tbsp. butter
2 Tbsp. Kosher Salt
1 tsp. black pepper

Wash, sort and rinse beans. Soak overnight. Drain, rinse beans. Combine all ingredients in crock pot. Cook on high 2 hours then on low 8-10 hours. Cool 1 hour. Measure into labeled containers, seal, and freeze. To use, thaw in refrigerator or microwave. Add to recipes that call for canned kidney beans.

Freezer Pinto Beans
Soaking Water
6 cups dried pinto beans
10 cups water
2 cups dried chopped onion (or 3 onions, chopped)
2 tablespoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons Kosher salt
1 teaspoon black pepper

Wash, sort, and rinse beans. Soak beans overnight. Drain, rinse beans. Combine soaked beans, water, onions, garlic, butter, Kosher salt, and pepper in crock pot. Cook on High 2 hours, then on Low 8 hours. Let cool 1 hour before putting in freezer containers. Measure in to labeled containers, seal, and freeze. Great subsititute for canned pinto beans, or use it in any Mexican dish...mash and fry them for great refried beans, or use them straight on your favorite burrito.

Chili Con Carne

Chili Con Carne

1 lb. beef round, fat trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces (or substitute ground beef)
1 tsp. minced garlic
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 large green pepper, seeded and finely chopped
1 large red bell pepper, seeded and finely chopped
1 large yellow bell pepper, seeded and finely chopped
1 large banana pepper, seeded and finely chopped
1 large jalepeno pepper, finely chopped
1 14.5-oz can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 15-oz can tomato sauce

1 6-oz can tomato paste
2 15-oz cans kidney beans
1 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. cumin powder
1 bay leaf

Preheat oven to 350. Combine meat and garlic in a large sauté pan or skillet and cook over medium heat until meat is browned; drain liquid. Add onion, all of the peppers, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, paste and kidney beans to the meat. Stir until well mixed; add spices. Pour mixture into a 2 ½ quart casserole. Cover and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Let cool, freeze in clean containers (mason jars or plastic freezer containers). Reheat in the microwave when ready to serve.

Savory Apricot Chicken

Savory Apricot Chicken

WHAT YOU'LL NEED:
1 Gallon Ziploc Freezer Bag
2 lbs Chicken Breast
1 cup apricot preserves
1 can chicken or vegetable broth
1 (1 ounce) package dry onion soup mix
FREEZER DIRECTIONS
1. Label bag with cooking directions, recipe name, and date.
2. In a gallon-sized Ziploc freezer bag, combine the jam, broth and soup mix. Mix together.
3. Add chicken breast to bag
4. Squeeze out air and seal bag.
5. Freeze.
COOKING DIRECTIONS:
1. Place bag in refrigerator to thaw 24 hours ahead.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
3. Place chicken pieces in a 9x13 inch baking dish. Pour apricot mixture over chicken and bake uncovered in the preheated oven for 50 to 60 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through. Serve with rice and vegetables.

Chicken Pot Pie

Gram’s Chicken Pot Pie Updated
www.kraftfoods.com
(Adapted for Freezer by Avalie)

WHAT YOU NEED:
1 Disposable baking tin
1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
2 Tbsp. KRAFT Zesty Italian Dressing
2 cups frozen mixed vegetables
1 can (10-3/4 oz.) condensed cream of chicken soup
1/4 lb. (4 oz.) VELVEETA Pasteurized Prepared Cheese Product, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 sheet frozen puff pastry (1/2 of 17.3-oz. pkg.), thawed
1 egg, beaten

FREEZER DIRECTIONS:
1. Cook and stir chicken in dressing in large skillet on medium heat 5 min. or until done. Stir in vegetables, soup and VELVEETA. Spoon into greased disposable 9x9 baking pan.
2. Unfold pastry sheet; place over chicken mixture. Fold under edges of pastry; press onto top of baking dish to seal. Brush with egg. Cut several slits in crust to permit steam to escape. Cover with foil and freeze.
3. Place pot pie in refrigerator 24 hours in advance, if possible.
4. Preheat oven to 400ºF. Bake 30 min. or until crust is deep golden brown. Let stand 5 min.
5. If cooking from frozen, bake (covered with foil) until middle is heated through. Let stand 5 minutes.

CONVENTIONAL DIRECTIONS:
HEAT oven to 400ºF. Cook and stir chicken in dressing in large skillet on medium heat 5 min. or until done. Stir in vegetables, soup and VELVEETA. Spoon into greased 9-inch square baking dish.
UNFOLD pastry sheet; place over chicken mixture. Fold under edges of pastry; press onto top of baking dish to seal. Brush with egg. Cut several slits in crust to permit steam to escape. Place on baking sheet.
BAKE 30 min. or until crust is deep golden brown. Let stand 5 min.

Got Zucchini?

Our little garden is bursting with Zucchini and Yellow Squash. So I've been collecting great recipes for zukes. As far as freezing goes, your choices are a bit limited. Try cubing the zucchini to use in soups or casseroles. Pre-measure and freeze. You can shred the zukes, then measure into freezer bags. I usually freeze in 3 or 4 cup measurements, so I can make my Zucchini Bread with them. Or, you can make the Zucchini Bread and freeze it. Quick breads (breads that aren't given time to rise...and they usually don't include yeast as an ingredient) freeze wonderfully. Just make sure you let them cool completely before freezing.

Here's a new one we tried today. It's from Everyday Food Magazine (by Martha Stewart), September 2008 edition, pg 68. We grow all of these veggies in our garden, so the soup is very inexpensive to make.

Late-Summer Vegetable Soup
4 ears corn, husks and silks removed
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion
coarse salt and ground pepper
2 cans (14.5 ounces each) vegetable or chicken broth
2 large zucchini, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced
8 ounces green beans (stem ends removed), cut into thirds (you can use frozen if you don't have any fresh ones)
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes in juice
1/2 cup orzo

1. Cut off tip of each ear of corn. One a time, stand ears in a wide bowl. With a sharp knife, carefully slice downward to release kernels. Discard cobs; set kernels aside.
2. In a 5-qt pot, heat oil over medium. Add onion; season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring frequently, until onion is translucent, 3-5 minutes.
3. Add broth and 2 cups water; bring to a boil. Add zucchini, green beans, corn, tomatoes (with juice), and orzo; cook, uncovered, until orzo is tender, 8 to 11 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

To Freeze: Ladle 1.5 cups into each of six resealable plastic bags. Store flat in freezer, up to 3 months. Before reheating, thaw in refrigerator (in a pan or bowl so it doesn't leak in your fridge).

Or, eat your zukes right out of your garden. Here's an idea...

Garlic Zucchini (great side dish)

1-2 Medium Zucchini
3 Tbsp. Butter
1 Tbsp. Garlic
1 tsp. Kosher Salt (do not use regular salt)

Slice Zucchini into desired size. You can cube it, or leave it in circles. Melt butter in medium pan, add garlic and sliced zucchini. Cook 1-3 minutes, until zucchini begins to soften. Turn over and cook 1-3 more minutes. Remove from heat, put on serving plates. Sprinkle with Kosher Salt.