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
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