Back to Freezer Cooking

Wow, it's been awhile, hasn't it?  Well, I'm not going to promise another post soon, but I wanted to share my latest batch of freezer cooking with you.  I tried some new things this go 'round.

1.  I froze mashed potatoes.  Some people say "Yes! Freeze mashed potatoes," and some people say, "No! Don't freeze mashed potatoes."  So, I tried it myself and it worked just fine.  (Oh, and by "mashed potatoes" I technically mean "whipped potatoes."  Mashed potatoes, whipped potatoes...I guess that's for another blog post.)

2.  In the spirit of decluttering my house this year and not wanting to spend all of next month's grocery budget on freezer cooking, I tried to find recipes to use what I had on hand.  Bring on the wild rice and lentils!  I found a recipe for Lentil and Wild Rice Loaf.  We ate it the other day, and you know what?  It was delicious!  And the bummer, oh, I should know better than this--I didn't follow the recipe and I didn't write it down!   AHHH!  But, what I think I did was replace the basil with 1T Montreal Steak Seasoning.

3.  And the reason I had Montreal Steak Seasoning on hand is for this recipe.  This is a rice and lentil replacement for ground beef, veggie crumbles, or textured vegetable protein.  Much cheaper, much healthier.  Again, I was quite impressed.  So far, I've only made it into taco "meat," but it worked great and we're big fans of "Mexican" style food around here!  Next up, I'll try it in spaghetti...



Until next time....

Happy Cooking

Freezer Beans

In the coming weeks months, I hope to share some of my freezer friendly recipes.  So here's the beginning.  Well, actually the beginning was the Freezer Fries recipe a couple posts ago.  Those are fabulous.  Next up, beans.

I was inspired by Once a Month Mom's refried black bean recipe.  So I made it.  But, of course, I changed a few things, well, most things.  Here's my version....

One pound of black beans
1/2 to 1 medium onion, finely chopped
Garlic, a bunch, maybe half of a bulb or so
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper


1.  Rinse and soak beans overnight.  In the morning, drain and rinse.
2.  Put beans in crockpot with onion, garlic, salt and pepper.
3.  Cover with about 3 3/4 cups water.  Add more water if needed during cooking.
4.  Cook on low for several hours until beans are easily mashed.  Mash to desired consistency with your preferred kitchen gadget.  If the consistency is too liquid, cook on high, uncovered for a bit more time.
5.  Divide into two quart-sized freezer bags and freeze.
6.  To serve, thaw and reheat on the stove

I like to serve these with Lynn's Mexican Rice.  I follow that recipe, mostly.