Cooking for Freezing

It's been a while since I've posted here. The reason is that I've had a short stay in the hospital and I couldn't get up and about very well until lately. What I'd like to tell you about is a real life saver for the family. Since I knew I would be out of commission for a few days, I prepared freezable meals that could be heated up by anyone in the family. Actually, it's just me and my wonderful hubby. He benefited from the preparation because he had to prepare the meals until I could stand on my own.

First, I prepared two rice dishes - peppered rice and Spanish rice. I divvied them out into quart bags and that gave me one serving for the day I made it and two servings to go into the freezer. This was for both of them which ended being 4 quart bags of sides. Rice freezes really well as a prepared dish or plain cooked rice.

I made a large amount of macaroni and cheese. We had one dish for dinner and I divvied the rest into glass loaf pans and put them into the freezer. This gave us three loaves of mac and cheese to reheat.

Then I made chili. One quart and one pint went into the freezer.

Next was chicken and dumplings. I made the first night's dinner with dumplings and the frozen portions were frozen without dumplings. I had one quart left to put into the freezer after the dinner. I taught my hubby to make cheater dumplings using store-bought biscuits in a tube, when it came time to eat.

I also made small meat loaves that cooked in about an hour. Hubby likes meatloaf for dinner and cold on sandwiches. This made it easy for him to prepare his lunch for work, too.

I made pizza shells with a quick dough recipe. I keep all of the fixin's on hand so hubby can make a pizza all by himself.

I made dozens of cookies that we could set out if company came to visit. Oh well, we didn't have too much company. The cookies were good!

In the freezer, I also had a steak, some hot dogs and hamburgers, kielbasa and a few other things that could be fried on the stove quickly.

This was enough food for us for about 3 weeks of eating. My WONDERFUL hubby was able to come home from work and throw something in the oven or the microwave for us for dinner.

Preparing food ahead is a really good idea even when you're not expecting to be laid up for a while. Frozen food comes in handy when you've had a busy day and don't feel like cooking. Throw a few things in the oven or microwave and you'll have really good meals without buying expensive TV dinners.

I hope you enjoyed this post.

OK!

Anyone know what this delicious thing is?

OKONOMIYAKI!!! That's what.

If you never EVER try any other kind of Japanese cuisine, you MUST try this. This has to be my all-time favorite Japanese food. It is very filling and it is very tasty. The best part of it is, it is a rather healthy food.

What it is...a cabbage and veggie pancake smothered with Tonkatsu Sauce (brown stuff) and mayo (white stuff).

It is very easy to make.

Okonomiyaki Recipe

Mix 3/4 cup COLD water with about a teaspoon of Hon-Dashi fish boullion. If you don't have Hon-Dashi, leave it out. It doesn't make much of a difference in taste. It is important to use COLD water or you'll make a noodle dough, which you don't want.

Then add 1 cup of regular flour and 1 egg. Beat this together to make a very loose batter. Set aside.

Slice about 4 cups raw cabbage very fine. You want either hair-like strings or you can chop it in half so it is manageable. Add to the flour mixture and stir together.

Chop some onions, carrots, green peppers and meat or fish into very fine dice. Mix them together and set this aside. You can use almost any vegetable or any meat, except for celery. Celery is not a Japanese flavor.

This is a trick to keep the veggies and meat together. Beat one egg in a cup and set aside.

Heat up a skillet - non-stick works best. I use an electric skillet set to 225 degrees F.

Add a little oil to the skillet. If you use a small skillet, put about 1/4 of the veggie/meat mixture into the oil. If you use an electric skillet, use about half the veggie meat mixture and divide into two. Some on one side of the skillet and some on the other.

Put a little bit of the beaten egg in a cup over each pile of veggies and meat. Just enough so it all kind of looks like a very sparse omelet.

On top of this, put about 1/4 of the cabbage mixture, after you've stirred it to coat the cabbage. Make sure it covers all of the veggie/meat mixture and goes a little over the edge of it. Flatten a bit so it is one thickness the whole way across.

Cook it slowly. When the bottom gets a bit browned and holds together, flip it over. You may want to cover and cook it the rest of the way at this time. This will help the middle get done.

Put the finished pancake on a plate. Lightly schmeer with mayonnaise...the real stuff. Drizzle the bulldog sauce over top. Eat and enjoy!

This takes a little time to make, but, in my opinion, it is totally worth it!

Happy eating!