Freezer challenge | five out of eight things: eaten
Here's what I started with last week:
The flank steak is thawed in the fridge for something for dinner tonight. Haven't decided!
The frosting is still in the freezer.
The bread is currently in the oven as a french toast casserole.
We ate the pulled pork for dinner one night.
The ground beef is still in the freezer.
The cranberry sauce is thawed but not used. But Thanksgiving IS next week...
I used the chicken breast to make a BLT salad.
And we had the Swedish meatball sauce over meatballs from another part of the freezer!
So here's how things stand from my first batch of stuff.
In addition, I used up two frozen bags of sausage meat and a package of frozen sub rolls that weren't even part of my challenge. Yay me!
This week's freezer challenge items
Here's my new batch (with a few things carried over from the last!):
Here we have:
- coffee creamer
- a loaf of French bread
- two bags of corn tortillas
- a bag of coconut flour
- a pound of ground beef
- a container of frosting
- some sausage patties
Ideas for using these up
The coffee creamer could go in some hot chocolate mix.
The French bread could become French toast.
The corn tortillas? Ugh. I don't really love corn tortillas and I don't know why I have two bags! Maybe we'll try making some tortilla chips?
I might give away the coconut flour, unless one of you has some super delicious recipe for me to use it in!
I'll probably make burgers or meatballs with the ground beef.
Sonia and Zoe said they'll eat the frosting on graham crackers.
And I'll probably use the sausages for breakfast/lunch.
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Maybe try making migas with your tortillas? Since you love eggs and veggies I bet you'd like it!
Do you have a favorite recipe to share?
The Pioneer Woman's recipe was the first I tried, and it tends to turn out well for me! https://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/i-love-migas/
Thank you! I'll go check it out.
Do you think it'd work with corn chips? I have some very stale ones that I hate to throw, but don't want to eat! 🙂
I love migas!! I just use tortilla and egg in mine and add a few splashes of Louisiana hot sauce at the end . Nothing super fancy like that recipe!
I was coming to suggest this - I LOVE migas. For me, I cut the tortillas into 1/8ths and fry them in a few TBSP of oil, replenishing as I go. Then I take them out, add in a cut up onion (you could add some of those red peppers if you like) and saute until soft, add tomatoes - I like fresh, but canned work just as good, cook a few minutes and turn down to low. Scramble eggs - I do 2 a person as it makes a serving or two of leftovers - and add to pan and cook until done.
So, do the tortilla strips stay crispy? Or do they get softened with the scrambled eggs?
They get softened with the eggs. It's kind of weird, but delicious.
Someone a few comments up asked if they could use tortilla chips. You probably can, but it might end up too salty - some tortilla chips are pretty heavily salted.
These brownies, pancakes and muffins look good for your flour! https://www.bobsredmill.com/blog/recipes/8-tried-true-coconut-flour-recipes/
I'd find a casserole to use some of the tortillas. Mexican lasagna, enchiladas or something like this: https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/trisha-yearwood/chicken-tortilla-casserole-recipe-3381471
Mexican lasagna
Corn tortillas aren't my favorite either. Baked as chips or for salad topping, they aren't bad, though. You likely have your own method, but I will tell you what I do. 😉 Spray both sides with cooking spray and sprinkle with seasonings (I like just salt and pepper, but, you know, whatever). Use a pizza cutter to make them into chip-looking pieces, or for salad topping, cut them in half and then cut the halves into narrow strips, maybe 1/4 inch wide. Bake at 250 degrees about 20-25 minutes and turn the oven off, not opening until it's cool. (It occurs to me that I haven't actually done this with my new oven, the one that works like it's supposed to, so you might keep an eye on them in case that 20-25 isn't quite right for a good oven.)
Congrats on the ongoing success of the freezer challenge. Just in time for more holiday food!
We cleaned out our fridge a couple of weeks ago, and it was A LOT of random stuff.
You could make a taco casserole out of the corn tortillas and bake it. Throw hamburger, cheese, stuff in, would be good.
I second Mexican Lasagna. I don't have a great recipe but I know it can be tasty.
We also are not fans of corn tortillas - unless fried! I had the same issue this weekend - and ended up stuffing each tortillas with a little shredded chicken, cheese, and some spices. Rolled the tortillas up and pan fried - taquitos! This might be my new go-to "use up the leftovers" recipe!
Taquitos sound delicious!
You know what I think when I see corn tortillas and ground beef? ENCHILADAS, YUM. Or an enchilada casserole, which is much easier.
I have an excellent recipe for coconut flour cupcakes that I make for my husband's birthday. The funny thing about coconut flour is you use like half a cup for a full recipe of anything. I guess because you have to use so many eggs with it. Anyway, if you want the recipe, I can send it to you. Or post it here in the comments, I guess.
I've also made pancakes with it that we really liked. I think that was just a Googled recipe that you could probably find.
You can freeze creamer? I didn't know that.... Thanks!
I love your freezer posts. It's taken 4 months, but my family has worked through 3/4 of a completely packed chest freezer. We did lose a few items to freezer burn (rip hamburgers and half empty ice cream container )
Woohoo! You are doing an awesome job.
For the corn tortillas I'd definitely make enchiladas. My favorite it is chicken, black bean, and corn. What I love about enchiladas is you can make a pan and freeze a pan. Then on a night you need a fast meal, the work is done. A night I dont have to think about dinner? It's a win.
I read this and thought, "You go, girl!" I need to be better about using up fridge and freezer scraps. I have a perfectly good cooked chicken breast in the fridge right now; I think I'll use it to make a sandwich for lunch. 🙂
If you need ideas for the corn tortillas, I love chopping them up and using them in King Ranch chicken casserole. I use this recipe: https://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/king-ranch-chicken-casserole
I second that. It's really good. And, you can freeze it, but since you're working on getting the freezer emptier, better eat or for lunch or something!
How is the texture for soft tortillas after they are frozen and thawed? I have an unused bag of flour tortillas sitting on my counter. I should probably freeze them. I'm worried that once they are thawed out, that they will break apart when you try to eat your tacos.
I’ve never tried freezing flour ones but in my experience the corn ones crack and break easier after being frozen. I make layered enchiladas with ones I’ve frozen.
I free whole wheat ones and they are fine when thawed
freeze*
this snow has my brain frozen *LOL*
Flour tortillas freeze fine in my experience. Corn tortillas get crumbly, but heck, even corn tortillas straight from the store are kind of crumbly!
I love to tear up the the corn tortilla and cook it in butter/oil until they are softer and then scramble an egg or two or three into it. Its my go to egg dish!
Or put a light coat of oil on the corn tortilla and bake them until crisp to make chalupas.
yum yum yum.
Hello From New Mexico!
The Swedish Meatballs look great and I have ground beef! I should start cleaning out our freezer soon. First up is the refrigerator. With snow coming tonight and the possibility of power outages (weatherman may be a bit dramatic, but we do tend to lose power) I skipped grocery shopping today. Quick question, I linked to the post about Aldi: Not Just for Groceries and am wondering do you still have the cast iron skillet? Thanks.
Sure do! It's holding up great.
green chili enchilada casserole. I always have cans of green chilis stocked in the pantry just for the purpose of using up corn tortillas.
Great idea. I am doing this with the refrigerator tonight since there is snow on the way. Love the Swedish Meatball recipe. I read the post about Aldi's cast iron skillet, do you still use it? My pans never seem to last. Thanks.
Yep, I still have my cast iron pan from Aldi! It's holding up great.
I freeze flour tortillas after first separating each one with wax paper
Flank steak screams fajitas to me. And you could use your tortillas!
I thought this too!
You have some great ideas, love how I get wonderful helpful information here. Thank you
I was going to say make chips with the tortillas and use the ground beef and make nachos. Or make tortilla soup and use some of the tortillas to make strips and garnish or make chips and make guacamole or make chips and grind them up as a thickner for soup or you could make a batch of enchiladas.
I love Mexican Lasagna!
Your girls are selfless to take care of that frosting for you! 😉
Their hearts are pure gold. 😉
I don't love corn tortillas either -- but i always have some in my freezer for tortilla soup.
https://www.howsweeteats.com/2016/11/cheesy-turkey-chicken-tortilla-soup-crispy-tortilla-strips/
I always double the recipe -- it freezes well into lunch portions!
Believe it or not, I've eaten corn tortillas by warming them and spreading molasses on them. I know, I'm odd.
Mostly, I use them in "Mexican" dishes, though.
Search for "gluten free recipes" and you'll find a lot of uses for coconut flour. Many of my cassava flour recipes that I use include a little coconut flour in them, too.
So... why did you buy the coconut flour? Busy-body little minds want to know.
Haha, well, if I recall it came with a grouping of coconut products that I reviewed a long time ago and it's been sitting in the bottom of my chest freezer ever since!
I'm going to pipe in with support for Mexican Lasagna. We use hamburger with a Frontera taco sauce pouch and layer it with cheese in between corn tortillas. You can also add black beans or refried beans. Bake it on 350 for about 45 minutes (covered).
For the coconut flour, you can use it to coat fish or chicken like you would with panko before frying. It's also good in banana bread or cookies (you can do half and half with regular flour, if you prefer).
Tortilla soup! Use the tortillas to thick the soup by blending them first with some broth. I usually use 6-8 tortillas in a pot of soup. With a good blender like a Vitamix, it actually comes out super creamy.
Also enchilada casserole 🙂
You can also use the tortillas in a Tex-Mex freezer meal intended to be given to someone else or taken to a pot-luck.
This recipe is great comfort food when it's cold outside and would use up a lot of corn tortillas. https://thebetsyblog.com/tag/bread-and-wine-enchiladas/
The enchiladas recipe in the quick family cookbook from atk is our favorite! I make it all the time. I use shredded chicken most times instead of the ground beef. But sometimes ground beef. Both are good. I use whatever cheese I have on hand - sometimes cheddar sometimes Monterrey jack or Colby. And sometimes we use red enchiladas sauce and sometimes the green kind (aldis has really good green enchiladas sauce). We don’t like them super saucy, so I use about 1/2-2/3 of the sauce they call for or just make extra filling. I throw a can of black beans in to stretch it out more sometimes.
It freezes really well and is a great meal to take people.
Make it with a side of shredded lettuce, pico, and Mexican rice and it is almost as good as a restaurant. It is our favorite!
Loving this freezer challenge -- so many ideas here!
This is so inspiring. I was so diligent this summer about faithfully prepping (blanching, cutting, pureeing) excess vegetables from our CSA to put into our freezer FOR the winter. Now winter is here, and i'm having hard time getting motivated to start pulling things OUT of the freezer that I purposely froze during the summer. I'm blaming the weather!