Making Frozen Dinners

I’m not one to advocate or endorse products.  I know I need to lose weight.  I get soooooo tired of all the weight loss commercials featuring Marie Osmond or Jessica Simpson. I have tasted one of the two products advertized and was not impressed.  But then there was another celebrity diet with food I have tried and liked and best of all:  we could also purchase the products at a regular grocery store.  We wouldn’t have to rely on the mail or join a weight loss club and be on the mailing list for eternity. 

Once at the store, we learned that said product was twice as much as any other frozen dinner – as well it should be.  The products offered just taste a whole lot better.  But still any of the brands added up to costly. 

We decided that we would skip the frozen breakfast and just eat smaller portions of whatever we prepared for Jenna's morning meal.  And then we began our first week of frozen dinners (which is still not the greatest way, but is the option we chose) and I’m happy to report, that even the knock off brands really did curve my appetite.  I could really feel my stomach shrink.  But my pallet really wasn’t satisfied.   

In less than a week after we started, I decided that I would just make my own frozen dinners.  Roland and I often have leftovers, and rather than refrigerate the entire lump sum, I would divvy it out into small portions and freeze them and use those as our dinners – though they might contain the same fibers that were/are needed to lose weight.

The first thing I thought of was enchiladas – mostly because I just didn’t care for the knock-off brand taste.  The thing was drown in heavily spiced sauce and I’m a dweeb when it comes to anything remotely spicy.  I have been freezing my enchiladas each time I have made them because the recipe makes more than we can handle – though I could cut the recipe in half or forth it, I don’t have a pan that accommodates less than six enchiladas.

But before I had even started the enchiladas, I had some ham in the refrigerator that was in need of side dishes.  Because we did not have whole potatoes, I had to resort to the instant potatoes or use the frozen hash browns from our freezer.  I decided I would go for the hash browns and make funeral potatoes – which I love.  At first I decided to cut the recipe in half – mostly due to my weakness for something that should not be included on a weight-loss diet, but then thought better of it and made what was obviously too much for us but decided that I would make some ham dinners (with funeral potatoes as its side) to put in the freezer. 

The enchiladas came two days later. 

I got the recipe from a sister who used to live in the ward.  She actually boils her meat (yuck!) while I steam it so that I can add salt and seasoning and flavor to the chicken.  I also add olives for variety.  She doesn’t care for olives though.  But because it’s an easy recipe as well as one that makes my taste buds happy, I tend to make it quite often.

Normally I will use large tortillas but as we only had small ones I ended up making 18 small enchiladas instead of the usual ten.  Worked out nicely I thought as I was able to freeze most of them – but only did one with the sides.  But they are the perfect size for these really small meals that I’ve been making. 

Here is what I have loaded into our freezer thus far: currently there are 10 ham meals, 4 turkey meals (that was from last night) 3 enchiladas (so much for losing weight, huh?) and one fish meal.  Tonight I’ll be making spaghetti.  I don’t know how well that will freeze.

 So here are the recipes for two of my meals: 

Funeral Potatoes

32 oz shredded frozen hash browns

2 cans cream of chicken soup

2 C  sour cream

1 ½ c grated cheddar cheese

½ c melted butter

½ c chopped onion

2 C crushed corn flakes

Directions:

In a large bowl combine soups, sour cream, cheese, onions and ½ C melted butter

Fold hash browns into mixture

Spoon out mixture into greased baking pan

Combine crushed cornflakes with 2 T butter and sprinkle on top

Bake for 30 min at 350

Enchiladas

10 – 12 flour tortillas

16 oz sour cream

1 jar green Verde sauce

1 sm can green chilies

4-6 chicken breast

3 C cheese

Precook chicken by steaming meat and let cool.  Chop or shred.

Mix sour cream, chilies and half of Verde sauce with chicken and just over 2 C cheese

Spoon mixture into tortillas and roll

Pour with remaining Verde sauce and cheese

Bake 25-30 min at 350