I didn’t want to make typical freezer meals.  Lasagna, chili and casseroles that use cans of cream of whatever soup were just not the kind of meals I was looking for.  Yes, I like to make things difficult for myself.  Yes, I am a bit of a food snob.  Ask me a year from now, and I think my love of convenience foods will have grown.  But since I have the time now, why not make something extra good?

Here is what I ended up with in my freezer.  Click on the meal for a link to the recipe.  The pastitsio and shepherd’s pie include freezing instructions.  I added my own for the chicken pasta.

Pastitsio - a layered Greek noodle dish with ground beef, tomatoes and bechamel sauce.  The beef layer is spiced with olives, oregano, cinnamon and oregano.

Chicken Florentine Artichoke Bake – a bowtie pasta casserole with chicken, artichokes, spinach, sun-dried tomatoes and cheese.

Shepherd’s Pie – Turkey, tomato, peas, corn and mushrooms topped with mashed carrots and potatoes.

These are not the quickest meals to get prepped for the freezer.  But the time you spend now will be time you save in a few weeks or a couple months when you go to enjoy the results of your hard work.  I made the pastitsio the other afternooon, I think it took me about an hour and a half to cook and clean up.  I made the chicken pasta and shepherd’s pie Saturday morning, and I think my total chopping, cooking, boiling, packaging and cleaning time was 3 hours.  Here’s my kitchen during its worst moment on Saturday.

I know some of you have now decided that I am crazy to have spent that much of my Saturday morning on this project, but it’s something I’d planned to do…and so I had to do it.  I also kind of like spending that time in the kitchen and having something to show for it.  It makes me feel productive, and it’s a lot more fun that organizing the stacks of paper on the desk in the office.  And look at my fully stocked freezer!  Two 9×13 pans and two 8×8 pans of food waiting patiently to be eaten.  Why does this kind of thing make me happy?

Here are a few quick notes and changes on these recipes.  Some changes were made because of personal preferences, others because I forgot to or chose not to buy an ingredient.  I am becoming more and more comfortable with improvising in the kitchen.  It makes life so much easier, and it saves money too.  A jar of sun-dried tomatoes was going to set me back $5.99…so I used some sun-dried tomato pesto that I already had.  It makes me feel so resourceful when I can do things like that.

Pastitsio:

• Left out the red wine
• Used green olives instead of Kalamata
• Used only 4 tablespoons of butter, 1 cup of milk and 1 egg in the pasta mixture
• Use a LARGE and DEEP pan, I did not have room in a regular 9×13 to fit all the sauce.  It broke my heart to pour that creamy bechamel down the drain.

Chicken Florentine Artichoke Pasta

• Cooked 2 chicken breasts in a skillet and chopped it up to make 2 cups
• Used a 12 ounce package of pasta instead of 8 ounce
• Used 2 tablespoons of sun dried tomato pesto instead of the chopped sun dried tomatoes
• Freezer Instructions: Bake without bread crumbs for 15 minutes, then with bread crumbs for 5 minutes.  Let cool completely, then cover with plastic wrap and a couple layers of foil.  When ready to bake, let it thaw in the fridge overnight, then bake @ 350 F covered with foil for 20 minutes and without foil for 15-20 minutes or until nicely brown on top.

Shepherd’s Pie

• Used 6 carrots and 4 large baking potatoes which was enough to top 2 8-inch pans
• Made one of my pans with cheese, and one without
• Used 1 1/2 cups mushrooms, 1 1/2 cups peas and 1 cup corn in addition to the meat and tomatoes

When Ben and I get around to eating these over the next couple months I will give some feedback about how the thawing and re-heating goes.  If you try them in the meantime and bake them right away, please let me know how they turn out!

This chicken fried steak is a bit different.  It is homemade.  It is comforting.  And it is delicious. I got the recipe from a woman I met here in Amarillo.  She grew up here and remembers having this at least once a week if not more often when she was a kid.

This is beef country, people.  A great deal of the economy depends on it.  I wake up on many mornings and can smell the feed lots when I let the dog out.  My grandpa Marvin appropriately calls it the “money smell”.  Texans love their beef, but Amarillo-ans LOVE their beef.  This may be a stereotype, but it’s a stereotype that is true and in no way negative.  Beef is good, and so is chicken fried steak.

The gravy recipe is not all hers, she admits.  She once watched an Alton Brown show where he added fresh thyme to the gravy.  Intrigued, she used it the next time she made her gravy and hasn’t gone back since.  You can’t help but love Alton Brown.  He stays true to what a dish originally was and only adds to it if it really and truly makes it better.  You wouldn’t catch him adding something weird like lavender to a chicken fried steak gravy, but I am sure some ridiculous chef out there has.

Cheryl wasn’t very specific in her measurements, but I think it all turned out OK.  I am a big fan of recipe following, so the term “some flour” kinda freaks me out.  But really when you think about it, the ingredients in chicken fried steak are simple and do not require a lot of measuring.  If it sticks to the steak, then that’s how much you need.  If there are naked spots, then you need more.  Pretty easy.

I served this with mashed potatoes and steamed green beans.  A few slices of buttered Texas toast would have been a good idea, but I was not quite on top of things enough to get Texas toast when I was at the grocery store.

Here is Cheryl’s recipe for the steaks and Alton Brown’s Gravy.

Cheryl’s Chicken Fried Steak

• 4 pieces of tenderized round steak, pounded thin
• 2 cups flour
• 1-2 teaspoons salt
• 1-2 teaspoons black pepper
• 2-3 eggs, beaten
• vegetable oil

1. Whisk the flour, salt and pepper in a large, wide dish.
2. Whisk the eggs in a seperate large wide dish.
3. Dredge steaks in flour, then eggs, then flour once more.
4. Let the steaks sit for a few minutes while you heat enough oil to cover the bottom of a large skillet over medium high heat.
5. Cook steaks in oil for about 5 minutes, flip and cook for about 3 minutes more.  Transfer to a plate and keep warm in a 200° oven while you cook the remaining steaks.

Alton’s Creamy Gravy

• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
• salt and pepper to taste

1. After cooking the steaks, heat the remaining cooking oil and tasty bits left over medium heat.
2. Whisk in 3 tablespoons of the flour left over from the dredging.
3. Add the chicken broth and deglaze the pan.
4. Whisk until the gravy comes to a boil and begins to thicken.
5. Add the milk and thyme and whisk until the gravy coats the back of a spoon, approximately 5 to 10 minutes. S
6. eason to taste, with more salt and pepper, if needed. Serve the gravy over the steaks.