[sloanie]

Hey chickies! Since I will need to prepare my own lunches for school I'm wondering which recipes y'all like to cook and freeze. I hope to have some things in the freezer to fill in when I don't have leftovers to take with me. I will be able to use the refrigerator in the Family and Consumer Science classroom to store things. Thanks in advance for your wonderful ideas!!

[Vickie]

Smothered Barley Chicken is awesome frozen and doesn't take up one of your rice/pasta/potato servings at lunch time. The tamale pie is another of my favorites.

[ontarget]

How about Taco Soup or Mexican Core'n bread?

[sloanie]

Thanks Vickie and Sandra. I had planned to do the core'n bread, but have not tried the other recipes. I'll look for them in the recipes. I like the idea of not using up the "starch that has to be counted" at lunch so I can have more variety at supper time.

[blessedwithsarah]

The Great Grains Casserole I posted recently does freeze well also -- other things I've frozen tha work well:

Chili -- I make mine with ground turkey, peppers, onions and mushrooms. You could add beans if you like, they do freeze well.

Smothered chicken and barley
Tamalie pie

Pasta dishes do freeze well also - there are so many posted and you can also throw together your own.

Things that I have found that don't freeze well - rice and potatoes. Both seem to get very mushy when you reheat them. Grains hold up better, beans and pasta do well also.

Good luck!

[twestra]

I cooked up about 4 pounds of chicken breasts in the crockpot, shredded the chicken and used th diet cola sloppy joe recipe and replaced the chicken with the ground beef. I had so much I had to freeze some of it. You can also do that with ground beef using the diet cola sloppy joes. I also freeze my vegetable beef barley soup and it comes out fine once I reheat it.