Freezer Berry French Toast Casserole

I was on vacation the past couple of weeks and totally forgot to schedule posts. Bad me. But I’m back now and ready to post.
About a month ago out huge upright garage freezer got left open and everything thawed. I was able to salavage a few things and I made quite a few freezer meals. But, that left the freezer pretty empty, so I went on the search for some more freezer recipes. I found this recipe in my search. I decided to give it a go and adadpted it for the freezer. Here’s my version.

Freezer Berry French Toast Casserole

1 loaf french bread, cut in cubes
6 eggs
1 3/4 c milk
1 tbsp sugar
1tsp cinnamon
1tbsp vanilla
12 oz frozen berries of your choice
Spray a 9×13 freezer safe pan with cooking spray. (I use the metal buffet server pans from Sam’s. Super cheap and they stand up great in the freezer. Sam’s also sells lids for them, but foil works too. ) Put the cubed bread in your prepared pan. In a large bowl, combine eggs, milk, sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla. Beat well and pour over the bread. Sprinkle berries over the top.
Cover well, label and place in the freezer.

To cook: Take casserole out of the freezer the day before you want to cook it. It needs a full day in the fridge to thaw completely. WHenready to bake, turn the oven to 350 degrees. Place thawed covered casserole dish in the oven and bake for 45 minutes. If you want the top to be crunchy, remove the cover and bake an additional 15 minutes, or until top is lightly browned and crunchy.

My family loved this. I didn’t take it out in time to thaw completely so we didn’t have it for breakfast. I started it for breakfast, but we had somewhere to be and ran out of time to finish baking it. So, I put it in the fridge partially baked and then finished it up later in the day. We ended up eating it with ice cream for dessert. It was SUPER yummy. The leftovers we ate for breakfast the next day, and they got good reviews as well. I doubled this recipe and made one with blueberries and one with mixed berries. I still have the blueberry one in the freezer, but I am sure it will be just as well recieved as the mixed berry one was.

Hot Chicken

I love 'dump' chicken recipes. You know, the ones where you dump some chicken and other stuff in a freezer baggie, pop it in the freezer, and take it out to thaw on the day you wanna cook it. The chicken marinates during the thawing process. Super easy. Here's one of my favorites. When I make this, I cook plain chicken, just seasoned with salt, pepper, & garlic powder for the kiddos.

Hot Chicken

4-6 pieces of chicken, your choice. I use boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 cup of hot sauce. I use Frank’s Red Hot, but you can use your favorite type.
1 stick of butter, melted and cooled

Put the chicken in a freezer bag. Mix hot sauce and butter in a bowl. I mix it in a glass pyrex measuring cup that I use to melt the butter. This makes for less dishes to wash, and I’m all about washing less dishes. Pour hot sauce/butter mixture over the chicken. Remove as much air from the freezer bag as you can. Label the bag and freeze.
To cook: Take the baggie out of the freezer the morning you want to cook it and put it in the fridge to thaw. Pour the thawed contents into a baking dish and bake @ 350 until the chicken is done. It takes 20-30 min for boneless skinless breasts. You can also grill your chicken, basting with the sauce as you grill the chicken. I serve this chicken with hot buttered rice.

Searching for a GREAT homemade BBQ sauce

I love BBQ sauce, but I'm a bit picky about it. I actually only buy 1 type. I have bought other types/brands, but I feed that to the kiddos because they don't care. LOL Last night I made a BBQ shredded pork that I sorta got from here. Here's what I did.

BBQ Shredded Pork

4lbs pork shoulder- I used a bone in pork picnic ham something or other I got for .99/lb.

1 onion, sliced into rings

2 cups ketchup

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup brown sugar, loosely packed

2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

2 tsp Frank's Red Hot hot sauce

1/2 tsp salt

Place pork in your crockpot. Put sliced onion in crockpot on pork. Mix remaining ingredients and pour over pork. Cook on low 8-10 hours. Shred meat with two forks.

This made a nice start for a bbq sauce. I will need to adjust the seasonings and maybe add a few things to it to give it more of a kick. All in all, it was pretty good.

Oatmeal Cranberry Chocolate Chip Cookies

I volunteered to make something for a bake sale our Pastor's daughter is having next week to raise funds for her year long mission trip to Vietnam. So, I went looking for a cookie recipe. I found this one. Of course I changed it a bit. Oh, the best part is it doesn't have any eggs in it, so you can eat the dough raw...if that's your thing. :)

Oatmeal Cranberry Chocolate Chip Cookies
2 cups packed brown sugar

1 cup butter

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla

4 cups old-fashioned oats

1 3/4 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup milk chocolate chips

1 cup dried cranberries

Heat oven to 375°. In large mixing bowl combine sugar, butter, buttermilk, and vanilla with a hand held mixer. Stir in remaining ingredients with a spoon. Using a cookie scoop, place dough balls onto cookie sheet. Flatten slight with wet fingers. Bake until set and lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Remove to cooling rack and allow to cool.
I used a 2 scoops with a small cookie scoop for each cookie. I also cut the recipe in 1/2 and I got 2 dozen cookies out of it. You can change the dried fruit to whatever you have on hand. I had cranberries, so I used those. You could use blueberries or cherries, those flavored cranberries, or a combo.

Lemon Garlic Chicken

I love easy recipes that pack great flavor. I also love a good sale. So, when I ran across boneless skinless chicken breasts for .84/lb a few weeks ago, I bought a ton of them. When I got them home I needed to figure out what to do with them all. My favorite thing to do with chicken breasts is to package them up in gallon freezer bags with different marinades. You've just gotta toss them in the freezer and take them out to thaw the morning you want to cook them. Here is one of my family's favorites.

Lemon Garlic Chicken

4-6 Boneless skinless chicken breasts- or whatever pieces of chicken your family prefers.

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/4 c oil

2-4 cloves minced garlic, depending on how much your people like garlic.

3 tbsp dried parsley

1/4tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

Put chicken in a gallon size freezer bag. If you are going to label your bag, do it before you put the chicken in. I use a sharpie to label my bags and I always do it before I put anything in them. Mix remaining ingredients in a bowl until well blended. Pour over chicken. Seal, and put in the freezer. On the day you plan to cook the chicken, take it out of the freezer and let it thaw completely. You can either pour the entire contents of the bag into a baking dish and bake @350 until the chicken is done. It will depend on what type of chicken you used. It usually takes 20-30 min for boneless skinless breast. OR you can drain the liquid off and grill the chicken until it's done.

Meatball Soup

I have been looking for crock pot recipes to help getting dinner ready during busy summer days. I love that I can toss things in the crock pot in the morning, and have a tasty dinner in the evening. I found this recipe on the 'A Year of Slow Cooking' blog. I changed it up a bit to fit in with my family's tastes and to use up what I had on hand.

Meatball Soup

15-18 frozen meatballs ( yep, that's right. I buy frozen meatballs.)

4 cups chicken broth ( I use homemade, but you can use whatever you have)

1-14 oz can diced tomatoes

1/2 cup frozen corn

1c diced carrots

2 stalks celery, diced

1 medium onion, diced ( or dried minced onion to equal 1 cup fresh)

1 cup rice

Put broth, tomatoes, corn, carrots, & celery in the crockpot. Stire in meatballs. Cook on low 8-9 hours. It's soup, it'll be fine. About an hour before you plan to eat, add the rice and turn to high. That's it. Super easy.

Now, I will say my hubby is not a big soup fan, so this didn't go over with him all that well. I thought it was fine. It was a nice soup. If you use canned broth, it may be a bit bland. I use a lot of spices and what not when I make my broth, so there was flavor added by that.

Taco Rice

I am always looking for ways to keep my kitchen cool during the summer. I use my crockpot & grill a lot. I have decided to start looking for recipes I can make in my rice cooker. Here's one we tried recently.

Taco Rice

1 1/2 lbs ground beef

3 cups raw rice

1 can petite diced tomatoes

1 can Rotel tomatoes with green chilies

1 medium onion, diced

1 packet Taco Seasoning

Water

Brown ground beef & onion. Mix in taco seasoning.Put rice in rice cooker. Add undrained tomatoes. Fill with water to the 3 cup line in your rice cooker. Put ground beef in the rice cooker and stir. Close your rice cooker and cook on the white rice setting (unless you're using brown rice, then use that setting.) Serve in a bowl with shredded cheddar & salsa, or rolled up in tortillas.