20 EASY AND DELICIOUS FREEZER MEALS!

20 EASY AND DELICIOUS FREEZER MEALS!

what’s up you guys I’m Natasha from shepherding Pepper’s Farm welcome to my kitchen welcome into my house today we are going to be talking about our simplest easiest most delicious freezer meals that we are stocking up on as not only are we starting school again we do homeschool we also have all sports which means we are going to have softball because my husband does work full-time in the ministry and I am shuffling my kids around to three different teams with three different practice and game schedules and on top of that we are running a homestead Here We Grow the majority of our fruits and vegetables so our home is very busy and very chaotic and one of the things that absolutely saves my life is having healthy delicious meals in the freezer for nights when I have exhausted myself in the garden we’re chasing my two-year-old around or running my 11 year old off to practice I have a delicious healthy meal I can just throw into my oven and I can know exactly what’s in it I can feel good about it I can throw a vegetable side dish from the garden together and know that I’m feeding my family something really really awesome and good for them so one of the first things that I am doing here is making a lot of our pastas I’m getting these boiled you don’t want these to be cooked super well because these are going to get re-cooked in your oven because they are freezer meals so you want these just slightly under done you can top these with the sauces and other ingredients as I make them I drizzle the pan with olive oil and I toss the noodles in there and I just set these aside one of the first dishes that we’re going to be making is spaghetti casserole spaghetti is excellent on its own but making spaghetti casserole is kind of a treat because you can layer it with cheese and sauce and meat and it’s almost like a lasagna with spaghetti it’s really really good I’m also making this for a church potluck on Sunday or the Sunday that I was shooting this video so I made one to take to church one to put in the freezer and a bonus one just because it’s really good I think the filling for things like our spaghetti casserole or our Italian stuffed shells this is very simple you want to use about a cup of sour cream you want to put in an entire 32 ounce tub of ricotta I will use two eggs Italian seasoning salt pepper parmesan cheese asiago cheese and about a block of cream cheese this mixture was absolutely incredible it was really enjoyed by everybody and it can go into a multitude of different dishes which makes it easier when you are cooking freezer meals if you can make one big batch of something and divide it up between several different meals it’s going to save you cooking time once I have my mixture all put together I’m going to put this into my mixer I’m going to blend it all up together and then I’m going to add that parmesan and asiago cheese into it and just kind of whip it into a Cheesy delicious Frenzy so what I’m doing is I’m taking my dehydrated ground beef and I am putting it on the stove top I am doing twice the amount of water that I am doing to dehydrated ground beef and putting some basil and italian seasonings in it since this beef was going to be used in dishes like Italian stuffed shells and spaghetti and things like that so this will rehydrate the other option is to just go ahead and cook yourself some ground beef a nice big pot of it so you can do multiple freezer meals at once here we have our pots for spaghetti casserole and I am taking some spaghetti sauce and I’m throwing this onto my pasta once I’ve topped this with sauce I’m going to go ahead and put a really decent sized dollop of our ricotta mixture on here and then I’m going to mix it all up together and really get those flavors intermingling with one another now that I’ve gotten all this mixed up I’m going to top this with that Italian ground beef and then put a really decent layer of spaghetti sauce right on the top of this this will be done however in the glass pan that you are seeing that one will get a layer of mozzarella cheese on the top of it which is very traditional with spaghetti casserole except my husband does not care for a lot of melted cheese so I had some meatballs in the freezer that I had made earlier this month I think and I’m just going to come through and add these to my other spaghetti casseroles this actually tasted so good that I made two more pans of these to stick in the freezer because I couldn’t help myself it was delicious and with these ones I decided to top it with meatballs so you have that option next up we are working on completing the Italian stuffed shells or should I say I’m having Layla stuff half of the shells with just a cheese mixture and the other half with a cheese and beef mixture to do that all you have to do is take that same ground beef that you were just using in your spaghetti casserole and add it into the ricotta mixture that you were using for your Italian stuffed shells it’s very simple and straightforward so here we have our stuffed shells once these are all done they’re all stuffed with whatever makes your heart happy I’m going to cover this with spaghetti sauce you can just get a can of store-bought spaghetti sauce if you want to these are some of the cans of spaghetti sauce that we canned in the last month we put up almost 100 jars of spaghetti sauce and now we’re using it in some of these freezer meals so these are vegetables that we grew in our garden that we’re now getting to use in our dinner and in our freezer dinners which is great it’s really nice being able to do that but a jar of spaghetti sauce that you go to the grocery store will work just fine as well and you want to just top it really nicely you do want to make sure before you stuff your shells that you have a nice layer of spaghetti sauce in the bottom of the pan as well so if you forget to do that step just drowned the whole thing in spaghetti sauce it’ll be fine next step we are going to be making Alfredo sauce I do not buy alfredo sauce from the grocery store I absolutely despise canned alfredo sauce it tastes way better made at home and it’s really really easy to do this you just melt a stick of butter and then we’re going to season this with some garlic and onion powder and then we’re going to make a roux by adding flour once this is all mixed up we’re just going to go ahead and add in milk you can also use heavy cream here that’s very common I didn’t have that in my refrigerator so I went with whole milk it’ll be fine it still tastes great and then get it all mixed together I’m going to start adding in our cheeses here so about a cup of shredded parmesan about a cup of shredded asiago cheese and then I also like to do about a half a cup of mozzarella just to round it out that’s not typical in alfredo I really like it that way though and it tastes really good once this is all done it’s all come together it’s all nice and thick you’re going to remove it from the stove and let it rest for about three minutes on the counter and then the secret to really amazing alfredo sauce is to put an entire stick of butter in and let it melt after the sauce is done and whisk it all together trust me your life will never be the same next up we are making pesto because we have two different dishes that call for pesto pesto tortellini and then a creamy pesto chicken and to make your own pesto at home you really just need about two cups of Basil I just went right out to the Garden pulled a huge amount of Basil out brought it inside and I’m measuring out two cups of the leaves I’m putting that basil into my food processor and I’m adding in half a cup of pine nuts I’m going to put the lid on my food processor and I’m going to pulse this until it seems very chopped up and Incorporated together I’m going to take some olive oil and drizzle that in there on the top and it’s going to make it a little bit more liquidy and consistency and I’m going to top that with a little bit of salt after that’s all mixed up I’m going to throw in a heaping handful of Parmesan cheese so here we have Frozen tortellini we have the pesto in the mixer that you can see and we have a can of cooked seasoned chicken it has multiple benefits I can open the jar I have ready cooked chicken that is very soft it’s very easy to shred apart it tastes really good because I season it most often before I put it into the pressure canner and also because it provides me chicken broth these things of canned chicken get put into my canner raw packed so the chicken is not cooked at all before I put them in there and then I top it with water and all that water turns into chicken broth which I then use and all these other recipes so for this pesto tortellini chicken casserole you are going to take a cup of pesto and two cups of alfredo sauce and mix it together and you’re going to pour this over your Frozen tortellini I ended up topping this with about half of this bowl which was one can of cooked chicken those were quart sized cans shredded this up I used about half of it in this tortellini bake and then I made a second one of these because it looked really good so to make your creamy penne pasta you just need cooked penne and then you want to take about a cup of your Alfredo mixture and you want to mix it into a can of spaghetti sauce this is going to give you a really creamy unique delicious penne pasta the kids really loved this I poured that over the top of the noodles and topped it with a little bit of mozzarella cheese all right up next we are doing two different types of tater tot casserole we are doing just a really delicious tater tot casserole and a buffalo tater tot casserole because I have those spicy kids in the house who love their spicy food so for each of these tater tot casseroles I just got a big bag of tater tots and in a separate Bowl I went ahead and I put a 16 ounce container of sour cream with a 10 ounce can of cream of chicken soup mix that up really really well together and then I seasoned it I’m a big believer in seasoning your Foods garlic powder onion powder salt pepper paprika and then I wanted to go ahead and chop up some celery and get that in there I put it in both even though traditionally you wouldn’t put it in a non-buffalo casserole I just put it in there anyways because yay vegetables and then a handful of shredded cheddar cheese I also put in a couple of cups of chopped up chicken and then mix this all in with the tater tots and when it comes to the Buffalo taters casserole we did exactly the same thing except we added about a cup of buffalo sauce we are doing our kind of evening wind down at this point the kids are doing their traditional after dinner crazy run around the house like Looney Birds it’s so funny how kids do that but how they’re doing that I am cutting up and prepping the chicken breast for tomorrow I am trimming the fat off of these and then I am also going to cut some of these into tenders for our marry me chicken and our chicken tetrazzini a lot of this is going to start out the same way once you have melted your butter you mix your flour into it and then you are going to whisk in milk or heavy cream and once I get this to a gravy like consistency I’m gonna start seasoning these both of these are going to get salt pepper garlic powder onion powder and two cups worth of chicken stock and then they’re gonna start being a little bit more distinct and different the marry me chicken is going to have oregano time about a half a cup of sun-dried tomatoes we did make these from scratch which I am very proud of some basil as well and some chili flakes and about a half a cup of Parmesan cheese mix that all together and that is going to be your marimi chicken sauce marry me chicken is so good it is one of my favorite things in the world the chicken tetrazzini recipe is just a little bit different you’re going to want to add in about half a cup of cooking white wine a little bit of nutmeg and then I like to put in a dash of Italian seasonings I’m not a mushroom person so I do leave the mushrooms out but that is traditional for you to have those in there and then I will put these on top of my pasta and my chicken after I cook this it’s the next day and one of the recipes that we are going to be cooking today is chicken bacon ranch casserole which requires that I have cooked bacon so I am taking some bacon grease from my pantry coating my pans very lightly in the bacon grease and putting the bacon in the oven at 400 so that can cook I am going to use the bacon grease on my cookie sheet for the rest of the afternoon I am going to use it to Quick cook my chicken breast for my chicken tetrazzini the marry me chicken the creamy pesto chicken all of these recipes are going to require chicken breast I like to lightly coat them in flour and then bake them in the oven on top of a cookie sheet that has bacon grease on them it gives it a really wonderful flavor for our ranch parmesan baked chicken tenders all we need here is about a cup of Panko bread crumbs and then about half a cup of grated Parmesan cheese a cup of ranch dressing which you can see on the Blue Plate and then all I’m going to do is take my chicken tenders and I am going to dip it in the ranch and then dip it into my breading and then put that on a cookie sheet that has been lined with parchment paper and then I will throw that into the freezer and let that flash freeze and then I can go ahead and put it into my foil pans label it and I’ll know exactly what that is and all these have to do is bake and then we’ll be done once that is done we are going to make our Cracker Barrel chicken tenderloin sandwich tenders and to do that we need to marinate some of these chicken tenders what we’re going to do is we are going to get out a cup of Italian dressing a tablespoon of lime juice a tablespoon of honey and we’re gonna mix this all together and we’re going to coat our chicken tenders in this mixture for a minimum of an hour I think I ended up leaving mine on the table to marinate for about four hours before I breaded these in flour and then I just baked them in the oven really quickly on a cookie sheet that had bacon grease on it up next this is kind of a achieving freezer meal it feels like because it’s so very very easy you just need to get a big thing of chicken wings we get these from Sam’s Club because I just took this giant bag and divided it between separate freezer containers and I covered one of these with homemade barbecue sauce and one of these with buffalo sauce let that sit on the counter for about an hour just to marinate a little bit and then we just pop this into the freezer and I can either take this out and bake this in the oven or I can take this out and throw this on the grill if I want to and this is a probably about as simple as it can possibly be and if you’re really feeling like you want to Jazz it up a little bit or throw something extra in there you can add a little bit of liquid smoke to this and it just enhances all those flavors everybody loves Smoked Meats Smoked Meats are awesome so by throwing a little bit of that in there you you end up with smoked buffalo wings or smoked barbecue wings it’s really good up next is chicken bacon ranch casserole this is one of my absolute favorite things to eat in the entire world it’s it’s really really really good A lot of these if you couldn’t tell her are some of my favorite freezer meals on the kids too and for this you really just need shredded chicken obviously you can see I’m using canned chicken here because that’s what I had and then you want to cook up about a pound of bacon and chop this up into teeny tiny little pieces after you have your penne pasta which we made yesterday and let it sit over you’re going to take alfredo sauce and ranch seasoning and you’re just going to mix that up together and use that as a coating on top of your pasta mix in your chicken and your bacon sometimes I’ll even sneak a little bit of mozzarella cheese in here because Seth doesn’t dislike the mozzarella as much as he does melted cheddar so he doesn’t really notice it and it just adds a little bit of extra flavor to it and have a absolutely delicious freezer meal that’s a hit with just about everybody this is just chicken rice from Coors and you cook it according to the package directions steam up some broccoli and then give that a solid Dice and again we’re just using canned shredded chicken again I can’t I can’t not Tote The Amazing powers of canning chicken it’s wonderful do you mix that all up put it in your freezer meal container and my husband absolutely loves this this is one of those casseroles that everybody will eat and enjoy broccoli chicken rice casserole it’s absolutely awesome it’s chicken cordon bleu is absolutely amazing we’re starting this with a can of creamed chicken and then we’re gonna mix in some milk and just kind of whisk this all together to save myself dishes I tried to just do this in one pan it actually worked pretty well we’re gonna throw in some shredded chicken and then a package of stuffing that’s been cooked according to the Box directions I love stuffing I’m not a big stuffing in the bird person I will make stuffing from scratch with homemade bread every year for Thanksgiving and it’s wonderful but I’ve got to hand it to Stone offers they’ve got a pretty good box stuffing mix I can pretty much just eat it as soon as it’s cooked Seth had to remind me that I need to put this in the actual casserole up next is the creamy pesto chicken this is super easy because we have all these ingredients we use them already in this video so if you have those you’re solid we’re going to use about a cup of pesto and a cup of the marry me chicken sauce ah so good and what we’re gonna do is we’re gonna mix those up together and then we’re going to add in our pasta and then we’re gonna add in our chicken and this chicken is what I referenced already before it’s just chicken tenders that have been dipped in flour and baked in that bacon grease in the oven until they’re cooked all the way through I’m gonna put that right on top of this and put this into the freezer I am of the Hamburger Helper generation so stroganoff made with hamburger helper is what I grew up with stroganoff is absolutely delicious so what we did is we melt some butter saute some onions in here you’re gonna add in some chopped garlic some salt some pepper you’re gonna add in one can of the cream of mushroom soup and about an eight ounce block of cream cheese a half a cup of sour cream we’re gonna mix this all up get this all going into this amazing sauce we’re gonna put about two cups of milk in here and it’s just gonna come together really really well even my little ones Landon and Natty this has to be one of their favorite dishes once that sauce is all mixed up I’m just going to cook a package of egg noodles I’m gonna put it in a bowl since I have a hard time mixing in this pan and I’m going to top this with sauce and Italian ground beef which we already made in our prep work I’m going to mix it all up together and put it right into the foil pan and this is good to go up next is the reuben sandwich casserole there is nothing better than a warm reuben sandwich these are so good so this is our first time trying this casserole out it actually turned out really really good what you’re gonna do is you are going to take several dill pickles these are homemade dill pickles and you are going to chop them up in the food processor after you’ve done that you’re going to add about a half a cup of Russian dressing about a cup of sour cream about 16 ounces of sauerkraut I did go ahead and strain my sauerkraut ahead of time just to kind of reduce the liquid overall we’re also going to melt up about half a cup of butter and then you’re going to take a loaf of rye bread and you’re going to cut it up into cubes and you’re going to layer that on the bottom of your pan then you’re going to pour this amazing dressing that you have that we made together over the top of that mix it up really well put about a cup of Swiss cheese over the top of this layer on your corned beef or your pastrami overall this was absolutely awesome and we will definitely be making this again in the future this has probably been one of my favorite sessions of freezer meals because they’ve all been so good up next is taco stuffed shells we had extra taco meat in the refrigerator because we had had tacos recently so I just pulled this out and put this into a large jar where I can mix this up pretty easily I added in a couple of tablespoons of chopped up garlic and dumped in a whole jar of salsa mix this up really well add it in two eggs just so this has a firmer consistency once it’s finally baked and stuffed the shells after the shells were all stuffed we just layered a little bit more salsa on the top of it popped this into the freezer these are fantastic hash brown casserole who does not love hash browns so for this recipe you just need a block of cream cheese typical eight ounces you’re gonna put that into a food processor or a bowl and then one can of cream of mushroom soup and then sprinkle in some garlic powder and some onion powder go ahead and just season this with your heart that’s the best way to do it and then I’m going to add in some salt and pepper mix this all up in the food processor and pour in a couple of cups of milk in a large bowl I’m gonna dump in my frozen hash browns I’m gonna put in a couple of cups worth of shredded cheddar cheese and about two cups worth of diced up ham I’m gonna go ahead and pour this sauce mixture that we made right on top of it mix it all up it can go right into the foil pan and into the freezer and I mean who doesn’t love hash brown casserole alright guys there you have it my favorite easy quick freezer meals I hope you enjoyed making these meals with me and I will see you guys in the next one bye

Ricotta Filling
1c sour cream
32oz ricotta cheese
2 eggs
1-2 Tb Italian seasoning
Salt & Pepper
1C parmesan & asiago cheese
8oz cream cheese

Spaghetti Casserole
Spaghetti Sauce
Italian ground beef
Ricotta Cheese filling
1 package spaghetti noodles
1/2 c mozzarella cheese

Italian stuffed shells
1 pk jumbo shells
Ricotta cheese filling
Italian ground beef
2 jars spaghetti sauce

Alfredo sauce
2 Sticks of butter
2T chopped garlic
2t onion powder
1/2 c flour
4 c milk
1c shredded parmesan and asiago cheese
1/2 c mozzeralla cheese

Pesto Chicken Tortellini
1pk tortellini
1/2 – 1lb shredded chicken breast
1c pesto
2c Alfredo sauce

Creamy Penne Pasta
1 box penne pasta
1 can spaghetti sauce
1c Alfredo
1/2c mozzarella

Tater Tot Casseroles
1 bag tater tots
16oz sour cream
1 can cream of chicken soup
Season with your heart with
Garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper, paprika
1c celery chopped
1c shredded cheddar cheese
2c shredded chicken
(1c buffalo sauce)

Chicken Tetrazzini
1/2 stick butter
1/4- 1/2 c flour
1 1/2 c milk
1t garlic powder, onion powder
1/2t salt and pepper
2c chicken broth
1/2c cooking white wine
Dash of nutmeg
Dash of Italian seasoning
1 box fetticine noodles
3-4 chicken breast lightly floured and browned

Marry Me Chicken
1/2 stick butter
1/4- 1/2c flour
1 1/2c milk
1t garlic powder, onion powder
1/2t salt and pepper
2c chicken broth
1t oregano
1t thyme
1/2c sun-dried tomatoes
1t basil
1/2t red chili flakes
1/2c parmesan cheese
1 box bowtie noodles
3-4 chicken breast 3-4 chicken breast lightly floured and browned

Ranch Parmeson Chicken Tenders
3-4 chicken breast cut into tenders
1c panic bread crumbs
1/2 grated parmesan cheese
1c ranch dressing

Copycat Cracker Barrel Chicken Tender Sandwich
1 cup Italian dressing
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 tablespoon honey
1 cup flour

Smoked Wings
1-2t Liquid smoke
2lbs chicken wings
2c bbq or buffalo sauce

Chicken bacon ranch casserole
1 lb bacon
1lb shredded chicken breast
1 box penne pasta
1-2c Alfredo sauce
1-2T ranch dry seasoning mix
1c mozzarella cheese

Chicken Broccoli Rice Casserole
Knorrs Rice 2
1 lb shredded chicken breast
3C chopped up broccoli

Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole
1 lb shredded chicken
1 box stuffers stuffing
1 can cream of chicken
1C of milk
1C mozzarella

Creamy Pesto Chicken
1C of pesto
1C marry me chicken sauce
2-3 chicken breast
1 box bowtie pasta

Stroganoff
2T butter
1 chopped onion
2T chopped garlic
Salt and pepper
1 can cream of mushroom
8oz cream cheese
1/2C sour cream
1 package egg noodles
1lb Italian ground beef

Reuben Sandwich Casserole
1 loaf rye bread
1/2c butter
1C Swiss cheese
1/2 jar dill pickles
16oz jar sauerkraut drained
1/2C Russian dressing
1C sour cream
pastrami

Taco Stuffed Shells
1 box jumbo shells
1lb cooked taco meat
2T chopped garlic
1 jar salsa
2 eggs
2T chopped garlic

Hash brown casserole
8oz cream cheese
1 can cream of mushroom
Garlic & onion powder
2C milk
Salt & pepper
1C medium cheddar cheese
1 bag frozen hash browns
1-2C diced ham

0:00 Intro
1:04 Prep Work : Noodles
1:56 Prep Work : Ricotta Filling
2:49 Prep Work: Rehydrating ground beef
3:10 Dish 1 – Spaghetti Casserole
4:21 Dish 2 – Italian Stuffed Shells
5:31 Prep Work: Alfredo sauce
6:39 Prep Work: Pesto
7:24 Dish 3 – Pesto Chicken Tortellini
8:26 Dish 4 – Creamy Penne Pasta
8:48 Dish 5 & 6 – Tater tot and Buffalo Tater tot Casserole
10:18 Dish 7 & 8 Marry Me Chicken& Chicken Tetrazzini
11:48 Prep Work: Lightly Breaded Chicken Breasts
12:16 Dish 9 – Ranch Parmeson Chicken Tenders
12:49 Dish 10 – Copycat Cracker Barrel Chicken Tender Sandwich
13:24 Dish 11 & 12 – BBQ & Buffalo Wings
14:21 Dish 13 – Chicken Bacon Ranch Casserole
15:17 Dish 14 – Chicken Broccoli Rice Casserole
15:45 Dish 15 – Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole
16:23 Dish 16 – Creamy Pesto Chicken Pasta
17:02 Dish 17 – Stroganoff
18:02 Dish 18 – Reuben Sandwich Casserole
19:09 Dish 19- Taco Stuffed Shells
19:45 Dish 20 – Hash brown Casserole

Hey Ya’ll, welcome to our little hobby farm. I’m thrilled you’re here! I hope you’ll find a comfy chair, a cup of something hot and wonderful, and spend sometime with us.

You’ll typically find me in one of two places, the garden or the kitchen. Teaching and sharing this amazing world of growing your food, cooking from scratch, utilizing your harvest, and homesteading with our family, is a passion. We hope to encourage people to grow their own food, feel confident in homesteading, and live a life both messy and beautiful, because this life comes with a bit of dirt and a lot of love.

Every week you’ll find us enjoying the wildness of raising a large family in the country. Welcome to the garden, to the kitchen, and to our small farm in South Carolina.

Faith is like a seed; plant it in your heart. God gives the harvest at the appointed time. (Mark 4:26-27,28-29)