Monterey Jack Stuffed Chicken Breast!

This recipe come from one of my favorite cook books Don't Panic--More Dinner's in the Freezer: A Second Helping of Tasty Meals You Can Make Ahead. Wow, that's a long title. Any way I wanted to share one of the recipes I made from the book it's called Monterey Jack Stuffed Chicken Breast. I have not tasted it yet but it just sounded so good and I can not wait to try it. It's in my freezer ready for next weeks dinners.

I am a huge fan of bulk cooking. I have found that this method of cooking not only saves time on busy nights but also a lot of money. If done the right way. More on that later.

Here is the recipe. (I did change the amount of the ingredient's listed to work for only 4 chicken breasts.) I will have to let you know how it tasted next week.

Ingredient's

6 boneless chicken breast
10oz Monterey Jack Cheese with jalapenos
4 eggs
1/4 cup salsa
1/4 t salt
2 cups panko breadcrumbs
2 t chili powder
2 t ground cumin
1 1/2 t garlic salt
1/2 t dried oregano

Instructions

• Cut a horizontal slit into each chicken breast. Be careful not to cut all the way through.
• Put a piece of cheese into each slit. (I used cheese sticks and they worked perfectly or you could slice your own cheese.)
• You may nee to use a toothpick to secure the pocket.

• In a shallow pan mix together eggs, salsa, and salt.
• In an other pan mix together panko bread crumbs and the rest of the ingredients
• Dip each chicken pocket into the eggs mixture and then the bread crumbs

• Lay each chicken breast on waxed paper and flash freeze for about an hour.
• Wrap each chicken pocket with plastic wrap, place into a freezer bag, and freeze until ready to cook.

Cooking Day

• Place 1/4 cup butter in a 9x13 baking pan.
• Preheat oven to 375 and go ahead and put the pan in the oven to melt the butter
• After the butter has melted remove pan and place chicken pockets in pan turning to coat it in the butter.
• Bake uncovered about 35 to 40 minutes until the juices are clear.

Serve with with salsa, sour cream, tomatoes, and avocado.

Frugal tips I use to bulk cook cheap.

1. Make a list of items you need to make your recipes a few weeks before your cooking day. (That way you can look for good deals on those items.)
2. Stock up on pantry staples you know you will use for recipes while it is one sale. Don't wait until you need it on cooking day.
3. Plan recipes you want to make according to meat sales. For example, when chicken is on sale for a $1.99 a pound I will make several recipes that use chicken breast. If ground beef is on sale I will do the same make several recipes that call for ground beef and so on. I do not do a big cooking day and shopping trip like some books suggest you do. I just try to do this every week or two according to the meat sales.
4. Separate food into meal size portions. I find that we waste less food this way and I can stretch a main dish into two meals most of the time.
5. Do not make a big batch of a recipe you have never tried. What if you and your family do not like the recipe you just made 6 freezer bags of? You would most likely would have to toss it and your money you just spent to make it.

I would suggest starting out with just a few recipes and build up from there. I love to bulk cook in the fall and winter it just makes my life so much easier when my kids say "Hey Mom What's For Dinner" and I can say Monterey Jack Stuffed Chicken and most of the work is already done.

Here is a list of Freezer Cooking Books I love and own. Your local library may have these books for you to check out.

Don't Panic--More Dinner's in the Freezer: A Second Helping of Tasty Meals You Can Make Ahead

Don't Panic - Dinner's in the Freezer: Great-Tasting Meals You Can Make Ahead (my favorite)

Once-A-Month Cooking Family Favorites: More Great Recipes That Save You Time and Money from the Inventors of the Ultimate Do-Ahead Dinnertime Method


You've Got It Made: Deliciously Easy Meals to Make Now and Bake Later

Once-A-Month Cooking, Revised and Expanded: A Proven System for Spending Less Time in the Kitchen and Enjoying Delicious, Homemade Meals Every Day

Freezer-Pleaser Italian Beef

This recipe is one of my favorites from my favorite cook books Don't" Panic - Dinner's in the Freezer: Great-Tasting Meals You Can Make Ahead. I made a few changes to the recipe to make it easier for me to cook. It came out great. This is spicy so I would not call it kid friendly but sometimes I need a break from tacos and pasta dishes. LOL! Here is the recipe.

2-3 lb. roast

2 onions, sliced

1 green pepper, sliced

2 16 oz jars sliced Pepperoncini pepper with juice

1/2 cup water

1 t. ground pepper

Cut roast into 4 pieces. Place into crock pot. Add next 4 ingredients and sprinkle with pepper on top. Cook in crock pot 5-6 hours. When meat has finished cooking remove and shred. Return meat to crock pot on warm and cook for 1 hour longer. Cool mixture and divide into meal size potions and freeze.

When ready to eat. Thaw meat and reheat. Top French rolls with Italian beef and a slice of Provolone cheese. Place under broiler until cheese melts. Serve.

Freezer-Pleaser

With Ground Chuck $5 for a 3 lb. roll at Meijer and Ground Beef $1.59 lb. at Kroger. I plan to make up some Taco Meat and Freeze it. I have two recipes for you to choose from. If you would like to follow along.

Taco Filling
Rio Rancho Taco Meat (I have made this recipe before it comes from one of my favorite books Don't" Panic - Dinner's in the Freezer: Great-Tasting Meals You Can Make Ahead)

*Do you have a good recipe that freezes well. If you would like to share it please email me. I am going to try to focus on 1 or 2 recipes each week that goes great with the store sales.

Freezer-Pleaser

Boneless Pork Lion Marinade Recipes.

Boneless Pork Loin is on sale this week at both Meijer ($1.79 lb.) and Kroger($1.89lb.). So I will be prepping and freezing Pork loin for up coming meals.

Here are the 2 recipes I will use this week.

Maple-Garlic Marinated Pork Tenderlion
Asian Pork Tenderlion

*I have never made these recipes before but they both looked really good. So I thought I would give them a try. They both have high reviews.

My Plan:

I will have the butcher cut my Pork Loin for me into 1 to 1 1/2 lb portions. This is enough meat for my family of 4. Instead of marinating my meat and cooking right away. I will place my meat and marinade into freezer bags and freeze. When I am ready to fix the meal. I will thaw the meat in the refrigerator overnight and cook it the next day. This allows the meat to marinate as it defrosts.

*Note the recipes call for Pork Tenderlion but I will use Boneless Pork Lion because it is less expensive.

*Click here to check out all my Freezer-Pleaser Posts.

Freezer-Pleaser

This easy recipe goes great with this weeks sale at Kroger. This recipe is adapted from Once-a-Month Cooking. I love this book and use it weekly. Amazon has a great price on this book $10.36 you can purchase it from my favorites on my side bar. Here is the recipe.

Chicken Taco Meat

• 4 Boneless, skinless chicken breast
• 1 10 oz Can Rotel diced tomatoes & green chilies
• 1 1 1/4 oz packet taco seasoning or 1/4 cup

Put ingredients in a gallon freezer bag. Freeze flat. When ready to use thaw and place contents of freezer bag in a slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for 4 to 5 hours. Remove chicken cut up and return to sauce in slow cooker.

*Note after my chicken cooked for about 1 hour I took a spoon and removed the white chicken film and finished cooking.

Use for chicken taco's, salad, nachos or burritos. Top with your favorite toppings lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, black beans, avocado, salsa, rice, corn.

Homemade Skyline Chili Copycat!

One of the things we did to save money was to stop eating out. We loved to eat out at Skyline. We would eat there almost every Saturday. Saturday is kids eat free day at our favorite Skyline and even with that our bill was still around $25. I used to buy Skyline in a can at Kroger for about $3 a can for the small one. I needed almost 2 cans plus pasta and cheese. This was costing me about $10 a meal. So I decided to see if I could make my own cheaper. I found this recipe and thought I would give it a try. This is very close to the real thing just a little spicy. My family loves it and we get our Skyline fix very cheap at home.

Here is the recipe.

• 2lbs ground beef (I used 1lb ground venison and 1lb ground chuck)
• 2 med. onions (you need 2 cups)
• 4 c beef stock
• 2 8 oz cans tomato sauce
• 2-3 T chili powder
• 2 T apple cider vinegar
• 2 tsp worcestershire sauce
• 2 3/4 T unsweetened cocoa
• 2 tsp instant minced garlic
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 salt
• 1/4 tsp ground cayenne pepper
• 1/4 tsp allspice
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 T dark brown sugar

Puree the onions and garlic in food processor. In a large stock pot cook onion and garlic in a little oil until liquid evaporates add beef stock and bring to a low boil. Add raw meat and break up meat with a wisk until very fine then add the rest of the ingredients. Simmer mixture for a least 1 hour breaking up the meat. (Skyline has a very smooth texture so this is a must.) I chilled the mixture overnight so I could remove hardened fat. (This step is optional if you want to cut the fat content from your chili.)

Serve over hot dogs, pasta, potato's, fries and top with your favorite toppings cheese, onions, beans.

*Note I doubled this recipe and froze in meal size containers. That way all I have to do is thaw the chili and warm it up in my small crock pot. I was able to divide this into 7 meals for our family. This is a great week to make this recipe with the sales on cheese, ground chuck, and pasta you should be able to make this cheap.

Freezer-Pleaser

I wanted to share with you one of the things I do when I buy boneless chicken breasts at a good price. Instead of just putting the chicken in the freezer. I go ahead and prep it. This saves so much time later. Here is what I do.

1. I cut and trim fat from chicken.


2. I cover chicken and pound flat until it is the same thickness(this helps it to cook evenly).


3. I divide chicken into meal size portion place in freeze bag and cover with one of my favorite marinades.(I used Lawry's in the photo)


4. Label freezer bags and freeze flat.


5. When I am ready to cook it. I will thaw the chicken over night in the refrigerator. (This will allow the chicken to marinate.) I will either grill the chicken outside or on my George Foreman grill. It's so easy and time saving!

* I bought this chicken when it was on sale for $1.88 lb. The marinade was $.50. So I was able to get meat for 5 meals for a little over $10.

Freezer-Pleaser

This is my favorite Ziti and Lasagna sauce. I don't recommend this recipe for spaghetti the sauce is just to thick. I always double this recipe and freeze into container to use when I make baked ziti. For those of you who use venison. This recipe camouflages the taste of the venison.

• 1 1/2 lbs. ground beef (I use ground venison)
• 2 lbs. Italian sausage
• 1/2 medium onion, chopped
• 1 t garlic powder, or more to taste
• 1t Italian seasoning, or more to taste
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• 1/4 c grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 29-ounce cans tomato sauce
• 1 6-ounce can tomato paste

Brown ground beef and sausage in a large pot. Add onion and seasons and continue to cook over low heat for 10 minutes or until onion is browned. Drain off all fat. Add the tomato sauce and paste simmer for about 15 minutes. Dived into freezer containers.

Freezer-Pleaser

Sweet Sloppy Joes

We love sloppy joes. I make a big batch of this recipe and freeze it. I don't really like left overs so dividing into meal size portions makes sense to me.

• 5 lbs ground beef (I use venison)
• 3 small onions, chopped
• 3 small green peppers, chopped
• 3 (10 oz) cans tomato soup (undiluted)
• 3 (8 oz) cans tomato sauce
• 3 cups ketchup
• 6 T brown sugar
• 3 T Worcestershire sauce
• 3 t prepared mustard
• 1/2 t garlic powder

Cook ground meat, onions, and green peppers in large pot until meat is browned and crumbled. Drain. Add rest of the ingredients and simmer 10 to 15 minutes, stir often. Cool and divide into meal size portions and freeze. Thaw and warm up on serving day.

Taco Meat

Taco Meat

This is one of my favorite bulk cooking freezer recipes. My family loves tacos, taco salad, and nachos. We seem to have taco night once a week. So I make a big batch of this recipe and freeze in meal size portions. When I want to have tacos for dinner all I have to do is thaw it and warm it up. This saves me so much time on those busy weeknights.

• 3 medium onions, diced
• 5 lbs ground beef 
• 3 cups salsa
• 3 pks or 3/4 cup taco seasoning
• 41/2 t brown sugar
• 3 4oz cans green chiles
• 1 T garlic powder
• 1 1/2 t salt
• 3/4 t pepper
• 3/4 t red pepper flakes
• 2 cups water

Brown ground meat and onion. Drain grease. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Simmer for about 30 minutes. Cool meat mixture and divide into meal size portions. Freeze.