It was a productive Sunday at the Fox household – 6 double-batch healthy freezer meals, 3 Strombolis, and a couple super bowl apps done before 5:00.  Boom.  It is Super Bowl Sunday, and I feel like I’ve earned the drinks I’m about to consume!

My motivation for making healthier freezer meals this week was two-fold.  1.) my best friend is about to have a baby and her husband eats clean, and 2.) I’m competing in a “transformation challenge” (aka workout more, eat better, and track results – operation Mexico bod) with my gym Orange Theory Fitness.

I’m never quite sure what to get my friends post-baby, but have found food is always welcome.  I wanted to be ready when Jen and Bryan had their new little girl (remember they adopted Bauer!) but wanted to respect Bryan’s clean eating (he is doing awesome with his diet!).  And for me, as I’ve said before, I do best eating healthy when I prepare in advance, so having 6 meals ready (each serving 4) is great for both of us.

Below are 6 fairly healthy freezer meals that are easy and tasty:

1.) Black Bean, Quinoa, and Sweet Potato Soup from Oh She Glows

I was craving chicken tortilla soup but wanted something a little different, and had this recipe saved to Pinterest.  It has simple ingredients with a lot of flavor!

2.) Crockpot Chicken Gnocchi Soup from Pinch of Yum

This is one of my favorite soups – I mean what is not to love about gnocchi, chicken, bacon, and spinach?!  I subbed the evaporated milk for almond milk to make it dairy-free and the consistency was still great.  Plus it is a crockpot meal, so you dump the ingredients and can move-on!

3.) Skinny Eggplant Rollatini with Vegan Ricotta and Ground Turkey (adapted from Skinny Taste and Vegan Insanity)

I’ve made these Eggplant Rollatinis before, but this time made a vegan ricotta to make them dairy-free, plus added ground turkey to the quick marinara sauce to add a bit more protein.

Step 1 is to prepare the eggplant. I did this a day in advance to reduce the day-of prep time

The vegan ricotta is cashew-based, and the cashews need to soak for 2 hours so just build that into your prep time

Combine the vegan ricotta ingredients…

Then process in the food processor

Layer spinach, vegan ricotta..

..and the ground turkey marinara on your eggplant slices

Then roll-up and top with extra marinara sauce!

4.) Maple Pork Enchiladas with Butternut Squash from Sweat Peas and Safron with Skinny Tex Mex Quinoa Casserole from ifoodreal

I’ve made these before, and they are a great fall/winter comfort food!  The Maple Pork is a crockpot recipe and can be used for many different things – My husband loved it so much we decided to make a chicken version for the Super Bowl to serve with Hawaiian buns!

To make the prep easier I used frozen butternut squash, and added some garlic powder to it along with the chili powder to add more flavor

layer whole wheat tortillas with the smashed butternut squash..

..then the maple bacon pork

then top with a drizzle of enchilada sauce

layer in a pan with enchilada sauce, top with more enchilada sauce and a small amount of cheese

I made the Tex Mex Quinoa casserole to go with it but only used about 1/2 cup total of cheese to make it a bit more lactose intolerant friendly 🙂

5.) Ground Turkey Sloppy Joe stuffed Peppers

I kind of made this one up – I have been stuffing sweet potatoes with ground turkey sloppy joes and decided to change it up!

You can use any sloppy joe recipe, but here is what I did:

Ingredients:

1 lb ground turkey
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 can kidney beans
1 can tomato sauce
1 cup chili sauce
1 Tbl Italian seasoning
salt/pepper to taste

Directions:

Heat the onion with some olive oil over medium heat for 1-2 minutes, then add the ground turkey and cook until cooked through.  Add the garlic and cook for 1-2 more minutes, then add the seasonings.  Stir  to combine then simmer for 10-15 minutes until thickened.

6.) Slow Cooker Balsamic Chicken from Jam Kat’s Paleo

I have made this before for Luke and I, and it was super tasty!  We serve it with brown rice.  Of all of the meals, this was the easiest to prep!  Just combine into a bag and stick in the freezer crockpot-ready! (sorry for the lack of pictures, this was one of my last meals and I was just ready to be done!)

Plus I also made a Stromboli, which is not so healthy, but an awesome freezer meal to serve with the soup and for a crowd!  I’m sure there are a ton of recipes out there, but this is my Aunt Honey’s which means it is full of love and cooking wisdom 🙂

Here is the base recipe:

Seasoning:

1 egg yolk (save white)
1 tsp parsley
1/2 tsp garlic powder
2 Tb olive oil
1 Tbl parmesan cheese
1 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp pepper

Mix together and spread over rolled frozen bread dough or refrigerated pizza dough then layer with your favorite meat/cheese

Spread egg white over stromboli then Cook 30 minutes at 325 degrees, seam side down

I made two different kinds:

1.) “Classic” Stromboli with ham, turkey, and salami

use your favorite meats/cheese

spread seasoning on dough, then layer cheese first

then a layer of meat

another layer of cheese (doesn’t need to cover every square inch, since it spreads)

Then meats

and end with cheese. You can use shredded cheese too!

2.) “Philly” Stromboli with peppers, onion, and roast beef (my sister’s idea!)

saute the onions and peppers

spread seasoning on dough

layer first with cheese

then meat and pepper/onion mixture

Then cheese…

…and meat again, roll the “long” way

to freeze, spray aluminum foil with cooking spray and wrap well. Thaw before cooking!

After a busy day of cooking I am now enjoying some pepper nachos (mini peppers topped with buffalo chicken), buffalo cauliflower, cheese dip (yeah, yeah not so healthy), and wine!

We used leftover buffalo chicken on mini pepper halves (1 lb chicken breast, 1 cup Frank’s hot sauce, and Italian dressing mix – cook in crockpot on low for 6 hours)

http://missfrugalmommy.stfi.re/healthy-buffalo-cauliflower-bites-recipe/?sf=pyjzaer#aa

final products!

Cheers, and go Falcons!

This #FMF is a bit of a #FBF since I made these a few weeks ago, so it works right?

Regardless, I hate that moment on weeknights when you come home from work starving just to stare blankly into the fridge.  As a whole I try to eat healthy, but if I don’t plan my will power usually doesn’t last very long.  Lately I’ve also felt super busy – not sure what we are filling our time with but taking the extra hour to stop at Target on the way home, then prep, then cook, then wait, then eat just doesn’t seem feasible these days.

So long story short I’ve jumped on the freezer meal train and I’m loving it.  Essentially you pre-plan, spend half a day cooking, and you get a bunch of grub for your buck!

Although it was 70 degrees in Minnesota (Global Warming isn’t so bad?!), fall was in the air and with that comes my desire to light a pumpkin candle and cook.

Luke is a true MN Vikings fan and every Sunday watches the game, which means Stella pup and I have 3 solid hours to catch-up on Bravo, nap, be productive, and in general just do our thing.

A couple Sundays ago felt like a cooking day for us (Stella napped in her Vikings jersey).  I met-up with my friend Jen (remember the one who adopted Andy!) in the morning and we went grocery shopping together to catch-up.  Note if you hate grocery shopping and love spending time with friends like me, I recommend this!  You get to chit chat AND feel productive!

I picked the meals out ahead of time and made my grocery list based on what was already in my cupboard.  Then once I got home I separated the ingredients by meal.

I’ve done a few rounds of freezer meals, and find it is easiest to determine which items need time to bake, marinate, etc. and start with those (in this case the sweet potatoes, spaghetti squash, and pork).  I also will browse the recipes to see how the ingredients need to be prepped (chopped, sliced, etc.) and pre-prep everything to get it out of the way (this is partially because I hate chopping).  Another approach is to just pick a meal and prep it start to finish, whichever floats your boat!

Below is the list of recipes I made this time (some new, some repeats):

• healthy-meat-sweet-potatoes– I freeze these in individual serving and take them to work, its great and usually lasts me two days.  I also subbed the ground beef for ground turkey
• asian-pork-and-apples – This was good because it was something a bit different!
• chicken-and-veggie-enchiladas – I subbed the chicken for ground turkey, the sour cream for greek yogurt, and put minimal cheese since I’m somewhat lactose intolerant
• chicken-noodle-soup – (Per Luke’s request) I skipped the potatoes and evaporated milk
• Spaghetti Squash Casserole – I was craving something with spaghetti squash so kind of made this up, but it was similar to this recipe on Pinterest (Big difference is that I used ground sausage and skipped the cheese re: lactose intolerant reference above)

Tip: If you know you like a meal, make it a double – half the work is prepping so you might as well maximize your time!

All-in I spent $110 at Target and got 25+ meals – less than $4/person – and it included some spices which will last more than these meals!  Boom.

This makes weeknight meal planning so much easier, and is a great gift for expecting moms or a fun friend activity as well!  Happy #freezermealfriday 🙂