Chicken Dressing Stuffed Shells

 Today my son Andrew and I decided to make up a couple of freezer meals.  We made Chicken Dressing Stuffed Shells!  Very simple and yummy!  This is what we did...

1- box Jumbo Shells
3- cooked and shredded chicken breasts
8 oz bag of Mozzarella Cheese
1/2 bag of Herb Seasoned Stuffing or a couple of boxes.
Cream of Chicken Soup
Cream of Mushroom Soup

Fix the stuffing per box or bag directions.  Mine said to add chopped onion and chopped celery.  I added the onion but I didn't have the celery.  We cooked and shredded 3 boneless chicken breasts, let them cool completely.  Then added the bag of shredded cheese.  Mix this well.  You really just have to mix this up with your hands to get it mixed well.

 Cook your shells until they are just pliable, drain, and let cool. 

 Take your chicken mixture and stuff the shells full.  Fill your pans but make sure that you spray your pans first so nothing sticks.  At this point you can cover with foil and put in the freezer.  We decided to go ahead and finish one up and bake it for supper tonight. 

 So to go ahead and bake one or when you thaw a pan out to bake just simply mix a can of cream of mushroom soup and cream of chicken soup and spoon over top of the stuffed shells.  Bake covered at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.  Take out, uncover and sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.  Put back in the oven long enough to melt the cheese and then lightly brown it. 

 Here is the finished dish...ready to eat! 

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Meal Prepping...Freezer Meals

 I went grocery shopping early on Saturday morning as soon as we got home, I started on my freezer meals.  Here is a photo of 21 finished meals that went into the freezer!

 I mixed up a couple of pounds of meatloaf mixture...

 I ended up putting them in the mini loaf pans.  Sometimes we only need a tiny meatloaf and if I need more then I will bake a couple of them.  You can either bake them ahead of time or just freeze them raw.  I do it both ways but these are frozen raw.  I ended up with 6 of these.

 I covered them with some sauce and covered them with foil and into the freezer they went.  Just thaw and bake!

 I made 7 more Tater Tot Casseroles...this is before I added the cheese.

 I added a good thick layer of cheese, covered with foil and into the freezer they went!

 Also 5 more Baked Spaghetti's!

 Also I forgot to take a photo of them but you can see them in the complete photo here....Ranch House Crock Pot Pork Chops.  They will just go in the freezer and then cooked in the Crock Pot.  I ended up with 3 of those. 

 I also had a package of boneless chicken breast that I split up into 4 packs of 2 chicken breasts each.  Those will be used for various meals. 

 After a few hours of work everything was finished and in the freezer!  Then I decided that we would have one of the baked spaghetti's with some garlic toast for supper. 

 Just some freezer meal ideas!  This is so much easier for me not to mention it also saves money in the long run!

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Cheesy Chicken Veggie Rice Bake...Freezer or Crock Pot Meal

 Also from my grocery haul the other day...Cheesy Chicken Veggie Rice Bake!  YUM!  I forgot to take photos of every step but you can get the general idea.  :)  

I started out with these ingredients.  Boneless Chicken Breast, Long Grain Brown Rice, Cream of Chicken Soup, Cream of Mushroom Soup, 3 bags of frozen Mixed Veggies, and Cheddar Cheese! 

I mixed 1 can cream of chicken soup, 2 cans of cream of mushroom soup, 1 cup of water, and 1 cup of brown rice (uncooked).  Stir well.

 Spread a bag of frozen mixed veggies in the bottom of 3-9x9 pans that have been sprayed with nonstick spray.  Then divide the soup/rice mixture into 3 even amounts.  Pour over frozen veggies.  

 After veggies are covered with soup mixture lay 2 or 3 boneless chicken breasts on top.  That is all at this point.  Cover with foil and put in the freezer.  Add cheese later...

 These can go straight from freezer to oven!  Leave covered with foil bake at 350-375 until CHICKEN is completely done.  Remove foil and sprinkle with CHEDDAR CHEESE and bake until melted. 

You can also just dump all of this in a freezer bag (except for the cheese) and bake in the crockpot.  High 4-6 hours....Love 6-8 hours!  Add cheese when done.

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Chicken & Gravy Crock Pot Freezer Meal...

 This week is a tight week or well 2 weeks because we have some unexpected things coming up.  So when that happens, I cut the grocery bill.  :)  Here is my grocery haul for Friday.  Now other than maybe a gallon or two of milk we will be fine.  I have lots of stuff canned and also some freezer meals.  I plan on making more freezer meals out of this stuff too. 

 I forgot to take photos during the process but I made 7 freezer meals today! 

 CHICKEN & GRAVY CROCK POT MEAL

I found 10 pounds of Chicken Leg Quarters for $3.90!!!!!  These leg quarters are HUGE so most of these packs only have one in it because Richard and I can split it and if Andrew is home I can just throw 2 in the crockpot.  Hunter is picky and this is something that he will not eat.  He doesn't like mixed foods.  LOL!  

So I put at least one chicken leg quarter in a gallon freezer bag.  Then I mixed 1 jar of chicken gravy, 2 cans of cream of chicken soup, and 2 cans of cream of mushroom soup.  Mix it well and divide it up in the bags of chicken.  Then they are ready for the freezer.  That simple!!!!

You can either thaw it out the night before or just take it straight from the freezer and pop it in the crock pot.  Cook on HIGH for 4-6 hours or LOW 6-8 hours.  

Yummy Chicken and Gravy!!!! 

I'll post photos when I cook one of them!  They are yummy.  The gravy and soup just marinate with the chicken. 

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What's for supper?....Yummy Chicken/Broccoli Casserole

 What's for supper???  Well we had Chicken Broccoli Casserole. 

 This was one of the freezer meals that I recently made.  You can see that post here.

 This was the chicken mixture that I was using when I made the freezer meals.  Just shredded chicken breast frozen broccoli, cream of mushroom soup, and rice.  Once I spread the mixture in the pan, I topped it with cheese.  It is very yummy!!!

 The ease of these freezer meals they just go from freezer to oven since everything is already cook all you need to do is heat it up and melt the cheese! 

I simply served this with homemade buttermilk biscuits that I store in the freezer.  All I had to do to the biscuits was pop them in the microwave for 1 minute.  I'll do a post on the homemade biscuits soon.

This was so creamy and tasty, Richard absolutely loved it!  It's a good thing that he liked it because he is having the rest of it for leftovers.  

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16 pounds of chicken...32 meals

This is all about catching sales and stretching the grocery budget to get as many meals as we can out of it.  So please stay with me and follow my blog!!!!

Last night I pulled some chicken breast from the freezer to let it thaw in the fridge.  This was 16lbs of chicken breast with bone that I bought on sale for .99 per pound.  BTW...I know this is a Christmas tray but I needed a large tray and that was the first thing that I found.  :)

 After cooking all of the chicken, I pulled the meat from the bone and shredded it.  I wish that I had weighed it at this point but I forgot. 

 The first meals that I planned on preparing was some Chicken/Broccoli Casseroles.  Casseroles are very versatile and I usually just use what I have on hand and don't really buy anything special.  Here is what I used...2 cups white rice (cooked and drained), 2 cans of cream of celery soup, 2 cans of cream of mushroom soup, bag of frozen broccoli, cheese, and shredded chicken breast.

 I cooked and drained the rice, dumped in the bag of frozen broccoli, and I didn't measure the chicken, I just grabbed 2 big handfuls and dumped it all in a big bowl. 

 I poured in the cans of soup and stirred it up really well. 

 I had a few of these disposable pans so I sprayed them with canola oil. 

 I thought that I would only have enough for 2 but when I saw that I was going to have extra mixture I grabbed a disposable loaf pan.  I ended up with 3 casseroles and sprinkled them with cheese. 

 I covered them with some Freeze-tite plastic freezer wrap and then a layer of foil.  I wrote what it was and popped them in the freezer.  Now when I get ready to serve these all that I have to do is put them in the oven at about 350 and let them bake until hot and the cheese is melted.  Everything is already cooked so it just needs to be heated.  So that was 3 of my 32 meals. 

 Next up...canning some Spicy Chicken Veggie Soup.  I don't have an exact recipe for this soup, I just basically dump in whatever that I have on hand.  I got out some ingredients and snapped a photo but I changed some of it as I started dumping it in.  Here's what I used...3 quarts of chicken broth (that I canned from my last session of cooking chicken), onions and jalapeno's that I had frozen, potatoes (cubed), 2 cans of kidney beans, 3 cans of diced tomatoes, 2 cans of corn, chili powder, crushed red pepper, minced garlic to taste, and lots of chicken.  Again, I did not measure the chicken or anything else really.  I just dump it in and do a few taste tests.  Andrew usually eats these for his lunch or dinner and he likes it "chunky".  I didn't end up using the peas or the tomato juice in the photo so they went back in the pantry. 

 Then I loaded it all in the canner!  I ended up with 15 pints of Spicy Chicken Veggie Soup!  That takes my total up to 18 meals! 

 As I was finishing up the canning and trying to decide on what I was going to do with the rest of the shredded chicken, Andrew came in the kitchen and asked if I could make him some shredded BBQ Chicken to make some sandwiches for lunch.  So I mixed up the remaining chicken with some BBQ sauce and I had these tiny little portion bags so I put 2oz. of chicken in each bag with a little bit of BBQ Sauce.  This ended up making 14 little bags for 14 sandwiches!!!  This takes my total to 32 meals. 

I know that most of the meals are not complete family meals but everyone here is on a different schedule so sometimes "individual" meals work well for us.  

Oh and after I finished all of that up....I baked a cake!  Nothing special just a Chocolate Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting and a few sprinkles.  :)  I bought the cake mix a few weeks ago for $1each.  I saw in the sale paper today that they now have them on sale for .89 each.  So the next time that I go shopping I will pick up several more for the pantry. 

 After all of that, I took a nap!!!!  I was tired but well pleased with today's meals. 

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