Homemade Frozen Dinner Idea # 1: Breakfast Burritos

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I’m putting together homemade meals and freezing them to make my own TV dinners. Unfortunately, I’m already running out of freezer space and wish I had a second freezer. It’s definitely on my list of things to search for.

I just finished making eight mini breakfast burritos and I took pictures as I went through the process. Let’s start with the ingredient list:

7 strips of bacon

8 breakfast sausage links

4 eggs 8 slices of processed cheese

Shredded cheddar cheese

8 small soft tortilla shells

Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation: I started by frying the bacon on medium-low temperature (so as not to overcook it). I chopped up the breakfast sausage into small pieces and fried it on medium-low temperature as well. When the meat is done, I remove the pans from the heat and drain the bacon on paper towel. You can drain the sausage too, but I did not. I cut each strip of bacon in half lengthwise and then chopped into small pieces or bits. I scrambled the eggs in the same pan I fried the bacon in (drain any grease beforehand) and salt and peppered to taste. I added a small amount of milk to my scrambled eggs too.

Building a Burrito:

I laid everything out on the countertop and I built them all at the same time, so that the ingredients were evenly spread between each burrito.

I tore one piece of processed cheese in half and laid one near the bottom and one near the top of an open tortilla shell. Next, I added equal portions of egg on top of the cheese. Please note that you can sprinkle a bit of shredded cheddar around at this time as well. The cheese will help keep everything together. Finally, I spread equal amounts of bacon and sausage on top and finished off with more shredded cheddar cheese.

Folding: I started by folding the bottom up first.

While holding my first fold into place, I fold the top down.

While holding my first two folds in place, I carefully roll from one side until to the other and firmly press down (without breaking the shell) so the rolled burrito stays rolled when set down.

Storage:

I wrapped each burrito with tinfoil and then plastic wrap. I wrote today’s date on each one, along with what it was. I filled out this same information on a gallon size freezer bag and placed all eight breakfast burritos in the bag and into the freezer. All of my ingredients were cooled by this time.

Serving:

These can either be microwaved or baked. To bake, heat oven to 350 degrees and bake until tortilla shell turns a light golden color. You can bake in the tinfoil, but I would remove all wrappings. To microwave, remove foil and plastic wrap and wrap in a wet papertowel. Microwave on high 5-7 minutes or until cooked through.

October 26, 2013 0

Homemade TV Dinners: It’s Cheaper, Healthier and Tastes So Much Better!

There are not very many TV dinner choices in Ireland. Stores like Iceland have a decent selection, but Iceland stores are not everywhere and they are not where I am currently living. Even the cheapest TV dinners are not very inexpensive (in my opinion) compared to what you can pay in the U.S., but we have a lot of need for something quick and easy to throw in the oven or microwave, so I decided to make my own. And I thought I’d share what I did with my readers.

To start, I need to buy some foil baking containers. I had hoped to find some smaller, rectangular-shaped shallow containers, but only found deeper ones. I bought a five-pack of the deeper ones. I also cleaned out our freezer of any of the meat products we don’t seem to be eating. I’m either making recipes out of those products or baking them off in the oven to be re-frozen for later use.

Here are some of my thoughts on things I could make and freeze:

Meatballs: Tony’s mother gave me this idea a few years ago. She made some amazing Swedish Meatballs and would cook a bunch of them off and then freeze them so when they wanted something easy, all she had to do was heat them up.
Lasagna: Although, this takes a bit more preparation than some other ideas, homemade lasagna is much better than store-bought.
Spaghetti: Very simple, because you can get away with store-bought sauce (jazz it up a bit) and pasta is cheap and easy. When you’re ready to make it, butter two sides of sliced bread and sprinkle with garlic powder, pepper, salt and a small amount of Italian seasoning and bake until golden. Add cheese for cheese bread.
Meatloaf: Meatloaf is great, because it can be heated up with mashed potatoes and buttered corn or individual slices can be frozen and thawed for meatloaf sandwiches.
Pot Pie: You can make beef, chicken or turkey. I used a mini springform pan to make my pot pies, because I didn’t have any mini pie pans. Once the pie has cooled for 15 minutes, you can separate the springform and carefully remove from the bottom.
Various Chicken Dishes: There’s a lot you can do with chicken. You can season it various ways and bake it, stuff it with cheese, bread it—any number of things. Serve with frozen vegetables, mashed potatoes or more.
Potato Wedges: I had a bag of potatoes already and picked up some garlic potato wedge spice. I’m going to bake them off in the oven and use them as sides with my meat dishes.
Burritos: Burritos are excellent for the freezer. I’m making breakfast burritos, but you can also do enchiladas, baked chicken wraps and more.
Pizza: Who doesn’t love pizza? I guarantee your frozen homemade pizza will knock store-bought frozen pizza out of the park!

Since I don’t have enough baking dishes for everything, I’m going to create five meals using the aluminum pans, a few pot pies, homemade pizza and some breakfast burritos. I’ll be taking pictures of the food I make and posting recipes, so check back for more.

October 26, 2013 0

5 Cheap Meal Ideas

If you’ve been reading any of my other recent blog posts, you may know that I am currently on the 10-day master cleanse, so it may come as a surprise to you that I’m posting about food. I’ve been wanting to post this for a while and since I’m still able to think, talk about and look at food without feeling like an animal about to go for its kill, I thought it would be a good time to get it out of the way.

Times are tough for many people around the world. I’m an American living in Ireland and although I find the food to be quite expensive here, I’m also hearing how expensive food has become from my family back home. We have good weeks and we have bad weeks here and on the bad weeks, I have to get thrifty with the grocery cost. Here are some cheap meal ideas. They won’t win you any gourmet cooking awards, but they will help reduce the cost of your food bill. Also, I can tell you that you can buy all of the ingredients for these items in Ireland.

#1. Grilled Cheese Sandwiches and Condensed Tomato Soup: You can buy bread here for as cheap as 69-89 cents a loaf if you shop at stores like Aldi and Lidl. I spent 54 cents on a can of tomato soup from Tesco and you can be 15 slices of processed cheese for 64 cents at Tesco. Butter is actually your biggest cost here. In case you’ve never made a grilled cheese before, heat up a fry pan on medium heat. Lightly butter one side of two slices of bread. Put one piece of bread butter-side down in the frying pan and lay one to two slices of cheese on top of it. Place the second slice of bread butter-side up over the top. Cook each side until golden brown. Be sure to check frequently, because there’s nothing worse than an overcooked grilled cheese sandwich.

#2. Grilled Peanut Butter Sandwich: Grilled peanut butter sandwiches are delightful. There’s nothing better than that warm, gooey peanut butter in the middle and the fried butter taste that comes with it. You make these the same way, but put smooth peanut butter in between layers instead of cheese. I personally like Tesco brand smooth peanut butter. It tastes the most like Skippy or Jiffy in the U.S.

#3. Classic Hotdogs and Potato Chips/Crisps: You can buy a 12 pack of hotdogs from Lidl for less than 2 Euro. Hotdog buns at Lidl are only 99 cents for a 6-pack. A jar of pickles (can be chopped up for relish) can be purchased just about anywhere for 89 cents and condiments are also cheap (particularly at Lidl and Aldi). I also make sort of a homemade ranch dressing using Creme Fresh (89 cents at Lidl), 2 Tablespoons of chopped chive, 2 teaspoons of lemon juice, 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of garlic and salt and pepper to taste. This can be used as a salad dressing or on the hotdogs. I simply boil my hotdogs until they’re done.

#4. Garden Salad: I love to eat salad. Of course I don’t eat healthy salad, but if it is your only meal, it’s okay to incorporate all of the food groups. Everyone’s salad is different, but here is what mine consists of: Freshly chopped lettuce (lettuce is 89 cents a head at Tesco), chopped cucumber (69 cents a piece at Tesco), sliced green olives (I get a huge jar of green olives at Lidl for less than 3 Euro), ranch dressing (can buy in some Tescos in Dublin area or make recipe above), shredded cheddar cheese (I buy 500 grams of shredded cheddar for less than 3 Euro at Lidl), diced tomato (always cheap), diced onion (always cheap again) and cottage cheese (if I have it – can be purchased for less than a Euro at many local stores). You can make your own croutons out of old bread by tossing bread cubes with butter and seasoning to taste.

#5. Buttered Noodles: If you’ve ever gone into a Noodles & Co. in the states, you may have seen or even tried buttered noodles. Sounds weird, but can be excellent. Pasta is cheap in this country. You can usually buy a bag of penne for less than a Euro (particularly at places like LIdl and Aldi). Cook the pasta according to package directions. Meanwhile, melt 1 cup of butter in a frying pan. Add 2 teaspoons of garlic powder, 1/2 a teaspoon of Italian seasonings, 2 teaspoons of salt and 1/2 a teaspoon of black pepper. Melt completely, but do not burn. Shred Parmesan cheese. To serve, fill bowl with hot pasta, pour plenty of butter sauce over the top and sprinkle generously with cheese. Again, the Parmesan and butter are going to be your most expensive purchases, but you should be able to get more than one of these meals out of a blocck of Parmesan. It depends on how much cheese you like and how many people are eating.

October 19, 2013 2