Giant, Beautiful Tomatoes

I received two large tomatoes in my produce box this week. What better use could there be than stuffed tomatoes?

If you're cooking for just a couple people, I advise you to go ahead and make the full quantity of the stuffing. Stuff the tomatoes you're cooking today (or refrigerating to cook tomorrow) and freeze the remainder of the stuffing. Next time, they'll be super-easy to make: just defrost, stuff, and bake!

If you make a little extra each time you cook a freezer-friendly recipe, you'll quickly build up meals to defrost & cook for those nights when take-out looks awfully tempting. Don't ruin your budget; just plan ahead a bit. 



Spiced Lamb Stuffed Tomatoes

• 2 large, ripe tomatoes, each about the size of your fist - - don't worry if they're not super-ripe. I think this recipe works best if they're still a bit firm. 
• 4 more tomatoes if you're not freezing extra stuffing for later
• 2 TB butter
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 pound ground lamb
• 1/2 c. dry red wine
• 1/4 c. chopped fresh mint
• 2 TB chopped fresh parsley
• Additional chopped parsley for garnish (1-2 tsp per tomato) 
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp salt
• 3/4 c. cooked rice (I used brown) - - just put some stir-fry on your menu a couple days before, cook extra rice with it, and you'll be ready to go when it's time to make these!
• 2 tsp dry, plain breadcrumbs (1 tsp per tomato)
• 2 TB grated Parmesan cheese (1 TB per tomato)

Slice the top 1/3 off each tomato. Chop this slice after removing the core.

Scoop out the inside of the big tomato piece.

When done, you'll have something that looks like this --->   

On the bottom right in the photo, you can see the innards I scooped out of each tomato. If you're making the recipe using 6 tomatoes (and stuffing all of them), you'll dice all the tops but save the innards for a different use (or discard). But if you're making the recipe using only 2 tomatoes, make up for the missing slices (like I did) by using both the tops and the innards as ingredients in the stuffing. 

Melt the butter in a large, heavy skillet (cast iron works great).

Saute the chopped onion until tender and golden.

Add the lamb and cook until browned. You also can use leftover leg of lamb; if doing so, just cook it with the onion long enough to warm it up.

While the onion and lamb are cooking is a great time to gather the rest of your ingredients.

Once the lamb is browned, add the tomatoes, wine, mint, parsley, cinnamon, and salt.

Reduce heat and simmer until the mixture thickens. This only takes a few minutes.

Stir in the cooked rice. The resulting mixture isn't the prettiest thing I've ever seen, but it tastes great! 

Spoon the mixture into your tomatoes. Sprinkle each tomato with about a teaspoon of breadcrumbs and a tablespoon of Parmesan cheese.


Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes, until heated through. Before serving, sprinkle with a bit more chopped parsley.

You can make these ahead, too. Once the tomatoes are stuffed, cover and refrigerate. When you're ready to bake them, you'll just need to add about 10 minutes to the cooking time.

If you're only stuffing a couple of tomatoes now, you can freeze the leftover stuffing for 2-3 months or refrigerate for 3-4 days. If you're not sure how long leftovers are safe, check out stilltasty.com!

I can't wait until I receive more large tomatoes from The Produce Box; I have stuffing in my freezer, just waiting for them.

Chicken Tetrazzini - now & later

It's nice to have some meals frozen, ready to go. In preparation for the birth of my daughter, I froze a lot of meals, one of which was Chicken Tetrazzini. I didn't notice any difference in taste between the freshly made version and the one that had spent a couple months in the freezer!

Chicken Tetrazzini is a great recipe to use for leftover roast chicken. This time, though, I started with raw chicken, and I made a double batch. The original recipe ingredients are located here.

Start-to-finish, it took me 1 1/2 hours to get four pans of tetrazzini ready for baking. We had one pan for dinner, and I have 3 more in the freezer. I'm actually giving some to a friend who just had a baby, but I otherwise would have had 3 nights' meals ready to go, no additional prep needed. Just defrost & bake!

I used 5 1/2 pounds of bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs. As a bonus, since was cooking the chicken right then, I could use the water I cooked it in as the chicken broth that the recipe calls for.

We love mushrooms! 
 
I used about 6 cups. The original recipe lists 2 cups of mushrooms, so I really only needed to use 4 cups. I may have used a few extra. Just maybe. :)

Boil the chicken in enough water to cover it. My pot of water & chicken took about 20 minutes to come to a boil. Once the water boils, let it continue to cook another 10 minutes, then take the thighs out of the water. Let the water keep boiling, so it condenses down some for use as chicken stock.

While the chicken cools, prep the rest of the ingredients. 
(Measurements here are for a double batch.)

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup half-and-half
2 TB chopped fresh parsley
2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp black pepper
6 TB white wine (or extra chicken stock)
1 pound spaghetti, cooked and drained
1 1/2 cups Parmesan cheese


Once the broth has condensed down a bit, pour it into a bowl (or large measuring dish) and skim off the fat. I find that using a measuring cup inside the bowl works for this. Just push the measuring cup down into the liquid, and allow the fat to run over the rim of the little cup. That way, you're not disturbing the surface too much, so the fat won't get mixed back in.

Once the chicken has cooled, remove the skin and bones, and tear/chop it into small pieces. I tear it up with my hands, then I use kitchen scissors to chop it some more once it's in the bowl.

Are you picturing me holding one little piece of chicken at a time and snipping it in half? Nah! Just stick the scissors in the bowl and start snipping.

It's time to get that pasta cooking! Separately, saute the mushrooms in the butter.

Once the mushrooms have softened, add the flour. Then, gradually add the broth. Once it boils, remove the pan from the heat. Add the cream, parsley, salt, nutmeg, pepper, and wine.

Now, combine the pasta and chicken with the mushroom mixture. 

The biggest skillet I have (12" cast iron) cannot hold all this! I drained the pasta & put it back into the pot. Then I dumped in the chicken and the mushroom mixture and stirred it all together.

This made enough for two bread pans and two 8" square pans. I lined three of the pans with foil (one was for dinner that night, so no need for foil).

Next time, I think I'll divide the chicken and pasta into the pans and then add part of the mushroom mixture to each pan.

Some for Later: Once the foiled pans were full of tetrazzini, I put more foil over the top and sealed up all the edges. Into the freezer the pans went! Once they are frozen, I can pop the foil packet out of the pan, and drop it in a gallon freezer bag. That way, I get my pans back! When it's time to bake it, I'll take it out of the freezer and put it back in that pan; I'll put that in the refrigerator to defrost.

I also find it handy to write the recipe name and cooking instructions on the foil packet (before it goes in the freezer).

Some for Now: Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, and you're done! I sprinkled some Basil Pesto on top just for fun. Ta-da!

What are some meals you've found that freeze really well? Please share!

Baby Preparation

Once I reached about 7 months into my pregnancy, I realized it was time to start planning meals. After all, I'm the cook here. My beloved husband, Dinah, can manage on his own, but why not make things easier on him?

Here's what we did.

In order to maintain variety, I chose 14 recipes that would freeze well. By cooking & freezing at least a double batch of each, that would allow a month of meals, ready to go. However, in my classic style, I went a bit overboard. We ended up with 60 frozen meals (each serving 2 people).

Pear-Stuffed Pork Loin, from Taste of Home
- - I didn't bother to put the recipe on justrightmenus.com, as it turns out we don't like it very much.
- - Serve with microwave-baked potato & canned veggie

Lasagna
- - It's the classic about-to-have-a-baby freezer food!
- - Serve with salad and bread (can send someone to the store for bread and bagged salad, to make it easy).

Chicken-Sweet-Potato Soup
- - I got the recipe from a crock pot book.
- - Serve alone or with grilled cheese sandwiches.

Cashew Chicken
- - Be sure not to over-cook the veggies before freezing, so they don't just end up squishy. Also, I recommend *against* adding the cashews at the time of freezing. They got REALLY soft after being frozen, and I ended up adding fresh cashews anyway.
- - Serve with rice cooked fresh at time of serving... but you can cook ahead and freeze it. I just find that doesn't save much time.

Stuffed Chicken Rolls
- - These turned out great as a frozen meal! Although the recipe says to slice them into rounds before serving, they stay much hotter if left whole, so I now go that route.
- - Serve with pasta and salad or canned veggie.

Chili
- - I canned about five quarts of chili, but it freezes great. Just make your favorite chili recipe like you normally would, pour into freezer bags, and you're ready to go. If you're up for the adventure, the BEST site to learn to can is the National Center for Home Food Preservation site.
- - Serve with cornbread. I bought some corn muffin mix, to make life easier.

Roasted Chicken Thighs/Quarters
- - The only thing I did here was prepare the spice mixture and pour it into the freezer bag with the chicken. That way, when you're ready to make it, all you have to do is dump it in your baking dish. It saves some prep time and makes the meal more approachable for someone not used to cooking (i.e. my spouse).
- - Don't forget to write the baking instructions on the package.
- - Serve with microwave-baked potato and veggie.

Spaghetti w/ Meatballs
- - Originally, I planned to cook the pasta and meatballs, pour the sauce over it, and freeze it like that... but then I ran out of freezer space and just put the meatballs in the freezer in packets containing enough for 2 people.
- - Serve with salad and bread.

Chicken Pot Pie / Chicken and Dumplings / Chicken and Biscuits
- - I made the innards of chicken pot pie and froze it. We don't actually make pie with it, though (I don't know what else to call it. I bought frozen biscuits to be served with it.
- - Serve with frozen or canned biscuits.

Chicken and Risotto
- - This was a one-pot-meal out of the Mediterranean cook book. It actually came out pretty bland - it's just risotto made w/ chicken broth, onions, chicken, and some spices. There's a different chicken one-pot meal I FAR prefer frozen: Chicken and "Chorizo." I have frozen the leftovers from that meal MANY times, and it comes out great.
- - Serve with salad or canned veggie.

Spinach-Cheese-Bacon Stuffed Pork Loin
- - This is definitely my favorite frozen meal. I made three of these and froze them. From now on, I plan to make several every time I make this and freeze the spares for future use.
- - Serve with microwave-baked potato and canned veggie.

Chicken Tetrazzini
- - I used a recipe from Taste of Home, and it came out GREAT. This is another one where I will make extra from now on, freezing more for later. Just like when freezing lasagna, follow all the instructions except baking it at the end.
- - Serve with salad or canned veggie.

Minestrone Soup
- - I canned four quarts of Minestrone, but it would freeze just fine. Again, for canning instructions, I highly recommend the National Center for Home Food Preservation.
- - Serve with deli sandwiches.

Enchiladas
- - These have been great not only for dinners but also for lunches while I'm at home during the day. Again, follow all the instructions except baking them at the end of the recipe. I just found a recipe online and went with that. I bought canned enchilada sauce to put in the cupboard for use at time of serving.
- - Serve with canned corn.

Some notes:
- - When freezing lasagna or tetrazzini, line your pans with tinfoil before filling, allowing enough to cover it up as well. I put foil in the pan like a + sign and seal the meal up like a package. Then, once the meal is frozen, I remove the pan and put the tinfoil-wrapped meal in a big freezer bag.
- - I listed really easy sides, but as I began to recover more, I have been cooking fresh vegetables and making some more interesting salads and sides to go with the entrees.
- - We have a side-by-side refrigerator/freezer unit, and I was able to fit the following: 2 pear-stuffed pork loin, 3 lasagna, 4 chicken-sweet potato soup, 5 cashew chicken, 6 packs of chicken rolls, 8 packs of chicken thighs/quarters, 6 packs of meatballs, 2 chicken pot pie, 4 chicken and risotto, 4 spinach/bacon/cheese pork loin, 3 chicken tetrazzini, and 6 packs of enchiladas. Combined with the chili and minestrone, we set ourselves up for meals for two months at least.

I'm really getting won over to this Once A Month Cooking thing!

Happy cooking!