Stuffing and Swiss Cheese Chicken

This recipe is so easy to assemble and just pop in the freezer. No pre-cooking required. I do recommend thawing this one completely in the fridge before cooking. Otherwise you may be cooking it for a very long time to ensure the chicken is cooked through.

1 lb uncooked chicken breast meat, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 box stuffing (I use Stove Top)
4-6 slices of Swiss cheese
1 can cream of chicken soup
water & milk

Arrange chicken pieces in an 8x8 pan. Cover with slices of Swiss cheese.


Sprinkle with entire box of stuffing. (If you don't want as much stuffing in your dish, just use 1/2 a box and decrease the amount of soup mixture you pour over stuffing. I happen to like stuffing a lot so I use the whole box).



Mix together 1 can of soup, 1 can of water and 1/3 can of milk. Pour over stuffing. Stir carefully with a spoon to gently incorporate soup mixture and stuffing.


Wrap with heavy foil, label and freeze. Thaw in the fridge. Cook covered at 350 for 30 minutes. Uncover and cook an additional 10-15 minutes until chicken is cooked through.

Taco Soup

Taco soup is a pretty common recipe. I imagine all taco soup recipes are pretty similar. It's a super simple recipe that freezes great and kids love it. This is the one dish that I can almost guarantee Claire will eat, which is saying a lot. She is a very picky two-year-old.

Taco Soup

1 lb hamburger
1 onion, diced
2 cans kidney beans (drained & rinsed)
1 can (15 oz) diced tomatoes
1 pkg taco seasoning
1-2 cups frozen corn
2 cans (8 oz ea) tomato sauce

Brown hamburger with onion, drain grease. Add remaining ingredients, cook on medium-low heat for 20-30 minutes. Serve with chips, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, and olives.

Freeze in Ziploc bags--either quart or gallon size.

Pasta Fagioli

Original recipe from Crockpot Tuesdays

I am alone for dinner tonight, and soup is often one of my favorite things to pull out of the freezer when I'm on my own. I pulled a bag of Pasta Fagioli out tonight and realized I had not posted this recipe yet. I love this soup, and it's great out of the freezer. I made this recipe a while back. It makes a lot, and after a day or two, it became evident that we were not going to make it through all that soup before it went bad. I put about 3 quart bags of it in the freezer to save for another day. It froze great although the pasta is really soft. If I were making this as a freezer meal, I wouldn't technically cook the pasta. I would mix it in the hot soup after turning off the heat.

I substituted Italian sausage for the ground beef. It definitely adds to the flavor.

Pasta Fagioli
1 pound lean ground beef, browned and drained
1/2 large red onion, chopped
1 cup carrots, chopped
2 celery stalks, sliced
2 cans (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 can white beans, drained and rinsed
4 cups beef broth
1 jar (16.5 oz) pasta sauce
2 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/2 cup dry pasta (to add at end)

Directions:

Brown the meat and drain well. Add carrots, onion, and celery to the crockpot. Drain and rinse the beans, and add them. Add the whole cans of tomatoes, and the pasta sauce. Add the beef broth. Add the salt, pepper and oregano. Stir in the meat. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours, or high for 4. At end of cook time, stir in 1/2 cup pasta. Cover and cook for another hour on low.

Serve with parmesan cheese if you’d like. Enjoy! This recipe makes about 8 generous servings.