My Lime Green Kitchen

Posts Tagged ‘Freezer Friendly’

Spinach Meatloaf has been a favorite for years.  It’s one of those dishes that looks like it was hard to make but it’s so easy!

Ingredients

1-1/2 pounds ground beef
3/4 c. breadcrumbs
1/2 c. milk
1 egg
2 carrots, finely chopped or grated
1 onion, finely chopped
salt & pepper
1 tsp. oregano
1 pound fresh spinach or 1 box frozen spinach
1/2 c. feta cheese
1/2 c. cottage cheese

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°.

If using fresh spinach, wash and remove stems.  If using frozen spinach, thaw and squeeze as much liquid from the spinach as possible.  Discard the liquid.  (I use fresh spinach.)

Mix ground beef, bread crumbs, milk, onion, egg, carrots, salt and pepper.

Spread a piece of waxed paper onto the counter.  Pat the meat mixture into a rectangle that you can roll up and stuff into your loaf pan.  Spread the spinach on top of the meat, then add the feta cheese and cottage cheese.  Sprinkle oregano on top, and depending on how much salt and pepper used in the meat mixture, you may want to add more salt and pepper now.

Using the waxed paper to hold it all together, roll the whole thing up jelly roll fashion and put into loaf pan.

Bake at 350 for one hour or until done.  Remove from oven and let sit for 10 minutes.  Drain any grease that has cooked out of the meat. Slice and serve!

A big hit with our family.  Serve with a salad and crusty bread.  We almost always have scalloped potatoes or macaroni and cheese with meatloaf.  Make extra . . makes fantastic meatloaf sandwiches!

Make an extra meatloaf, partially cook, let cool to room temp, and freeze.

For the sauce, I used Spaghetti Sauce with Veggies which I had canned.

Italian Meat Loaf

2 T. extra virgin olive oil
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1-1/2 pounds ground beef
1 cup bread crumbs
1 c. grated Parmesan cheese
1 T. Worcestershire sauce
1 T. Balsamic Vinegar
2 T. chopped fresh basil
2 T. chopped parsley
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1-1/2 c. marinara sauce
1/2 c. mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 350.

Saute onion, pepper and garlic in olive oil.  Remove from pan and allow to cool.  Once they’re cool, mix all ingredients except marinara.  Pat into a greased loaf pan.  Top with marinara sauce.  Bake uncovered for one hour.

Allow to cool for 5 minutes before serving.  Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.

This is one of those recipes that I’ve adapted to our own tastes. We love frozen corn so I put more corn than most recipes call for. DH doesn’t like kidney beans so I use black beans. Also, with the ground meat, this sounds gross but I boil mine first, then drain it, let it cool, crumble it and brown it with a little oil. I like my ground meat in soups/stews to be real crumbly with no big chunks.

This soup freezes very nicely.

Taco Soup

2 lb. ground meat, browned and drained
16 oz. frozen corn
2 cans black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can Rotel tomatoes
1 – 2 cans crushed tomatoes (depending on your preference)
1 can chicken broth
1 cup water
1 package Taco seasoning mix
1 package Ranch dressing mix

Dump everything in the crockpot and cook 8 – 10 hours on low. Add more water if necessary to get the consistency desired.  Or, simmer on top of the stove for an hour or so.

We serve it with grated cheese and tortilla chips. I add a spoonful of sour cream to my bowl also.

If you can make a roux, you can make a gumbo. I found this at About.com that has good instructions for making a roux (it isn’t hard but you can burn it and then it’s ruined!  Nothing worse than scorched roux.  It’s time to start over when that happens.) http://southernfood.about.com/library/howto/htmakeroux.htm

That’s basically what I do to make my roux. They say to let it cool a bit before adding the chopped veggies but I don’t. I put the onions, peppers and garlic in while it’s hot so they saute. Don’t add the veggies until the roux is as dark as you want it. You have to get it pretty dark — cook it slow and stir it constantly.

Veggies:

2 onions, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
garlic, chopped (however much you’d like)

Add to roux and saute.

Add about 2 quarts hot water (can mix a little broth in here if you’d like). I usually boil my chicken a day ahead of time. Put the broth in the fridge so the fat can be skimmed off. Remove the chicken from the bones and chop it for the gumbo. I don’t measure but you can cook it down or add more water to get the consistency you like.

Add salt, black and red pepper to taste. If you want to add sausage to the gumbo, slice it and fry it to remove the grease before adding to the gumbo.

Add a couple of bay leaves. Simmer for a couple of hours. Before serving, add chopped parsley and chopped green onions.

Serve with a bowl of hot rice and file (spice you probably can’t find if you don’t live way down south . . can’t find it in Kentucky). But you can make your own file if you have a sassafras tree nearby. Here’s how you do it: http://generalhorticulture.tamu.edu/prof/Recipes/File-Sassafras/file.html

Never add the file to the pot . . it will get very slimey. Add it to your own bowl right before you’re ready to start eating.

Here’s a pressure cooker recipe for you. We’ve used this one for years and love it!

Cut the pork into pieces bigger than bit size but not as big as serving size. I slice my loin like it’s going to be a thick pork chop, then cut those into three pieces.

Season the meat well. I use Slap Ya Mama and it truly doesn’t come out hot because of the sweetness. I think the original recipe said to coat the meat with spicy mustard.

Heat the oil and brown the meat well. Once the meat is nice and browned, remove it. Deglaze the pot with the wine. Add the apples, garlic and onions. Put the meat on top.

Add about 1/2 – 1 cup water. Cook on low pressure for about 20 minutes.

I take everything out and make a gravy, then put everything back in and let it simmer for a little while, adding more seasoning if necessary.

Serve over saffron rice. This makes great leftovers!

Since my meatballs are mostly frozen ahead of time, I start out by browning spicy Italian sausage. Then I either make the sauce or pour in the jars of sauce that I’ve already canned. If making fresh sauce, I let it simmer most of a day. If using canned sauce, I’ll add a jar of tomatoes since I put the sauce up in concentrated form. Once the sauce is reay, I put in the frozen meatballs and simmer very slowly for an hour or more.

And here’s a post about how I freeze the meatballs.

I don’t measure anything for meatballs but next time I make them, I’ll try to pay more attention to measurements. The proportions of everything can be adjusted to suit your own tastes. Basically, here’s what I do:

Start with bread crumbs. I make my own using whatever bread we have. Sourdough makes great breadcrumbs and around here, we can get it as day old bread at Wal-Mart. Any dense bread will do. Put it through the food processor to make crumbs. Pour milk over it and stir while the crumbs absorb the milk. You want the crumbs to be . . not pasty thick and no runny . . kinda in between. Got that?

Add the bread crumb mixture to:

5 – 6 pounds ground beef (can substitute ground pork or turkey for some of the ground beef)
1 onion grated
chopped garlic – I use the chopped garlic you buy in a big plastic container and I use probably 4 tablespoons
Salt – maybe 2 tsp.
Black pepper – maybe 1 tsp.
2 or 3 eggs
1/2 c. grated parmesan cheese
ground dried oregano — maybe 1/4 cup
basil – if using fresh, maybe 1/4 c. chopped. If using dried, maybe 2 tablespoons
Fennel seeds – maybe 1 or 2 tablespoons

Shape into balls and fry.

Spaghetti Sauce

Garden Fresh Spaghetti Sauce

1 lb. Italian sausage
1 onion, chopped
1/2 green pepper, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped (I use the already chopped garlic in the big plastic jars from Sam’s)
12 fresh tomatoes or canned tomatoes (I used 3 quart jars of home canned tomatoes)
3 zucchini, sliced (I chopped mine pretty fine so Chad wouldn’t see them in there)
1 lb. mushrooms, sliced (chopped fine to disguise also)
4 carrots, shredded
2 T. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1/4 c. parsley, chopped
1/3 c. fresh basil, chopped
1 c. dry red wine (I used Shiraz because it was handy)

Remove casings from the Italian sausage (if yours has casings). Chop into chunks and brown. Drain any excess grease but leave a couple of teaspoons. Add the onions, green pepper, garlic and saute til the onions are clear.

Add the tomatoes, wine, sugar, salt, parsley, basil. Simmer for about an hour.

Add the shredded carrots, zucchini and mushrooms. At this point, I added meatballs that were already browned. Continue to simmer for another 20 minutes.

Serve over spaghetti noodles with salad and crusty bread.