Freezer Meals

As some may know, I recently had a new baby.  In the lead up time to the momentous occasion of meeting our son, I decided to prep some freezer meals, Paleo style.  Most were marinades + meat that we could just thaw during the day and quickly cook that evening.  A couple were completely pre-cooked meals that simply required reheating.  When I prepped these meals, I generally also prepped one for the current week as well.  Making 2 or 3 batches of each is just as easy as making one.

Hawaiian Grilled Chicken

• This is a thaw and cook style.  Make the marinade as instructed and add the chicken, with the following substitutions: Use 1 cup of coconut aminos instead of 2 cups of soy sauce, and 1 cup of water instead of 2 cups.  Use 3/4 cup Grade B maple syrup instead of the brown sugar.  
• This made a TON of marinade.  I only used 3 pounds of chicken and split it into 3 separate bags, but we could have easily used 4 pounds. Despite her warning, we used chicken breasts instead of thighs, and it was still delicious.
• Serve with cauliflower rice and/or fresh pineapple.

Beef Short Ribs

• This one is a reheat and eat freezer meal.  Cooking this the first time takes about 3 hours, but it's definitely tasty.  It's a treat to have well-made, tasty beef out of the freezer when you're exhausted from trying to remember how to take care of a newborn!

Sweet & Sticky Baked Chicken

• This one is a thaw and cook meal.  Make the marinade and add the chicken as instructed, but replace the brown sugar with 2 T of maple syrup.
• We made 4 batches of this one - it's a favorite!

Honey Garlic Chicken

• Another thaw and cook one.  100% paleo - no subs necessary.
• Serve with your choice of roasted veggies.

Beef with Broccoli

• I pre-cooked the meat, then wrote instructions on the bag for the remainder of the recipe.  Since we generally have fresh broccoli on hand, it was fairly simple to complete.
• Serve with spaghetti squash or cauliflower rice.

Honey Lime Chicken

• This is a thaw and cook meal.  Make the marinade and add the chicken, substituting coconut aminos for the soy sauce.

Pineapple Caribean Jerk Steak

• This is simple to adapt into a thaw and cook meal.  Make the sauce as instructed and add the meat.  We used tri-tip this time, but any hearty cut of beef will do.
• After thawing, place just the beef in a pan to cook.  When the meat is ready, add the rest of the sauce plus the pineapple, onion and jalapeno, if desired.  (We only added the pineapple.) We skipped the bacon part, but that could easily be done here as well.
• Again, you'll need to have some fresh ingredients on hand for the full affect, but the beef and sauce alone would make a wonderful meatl.

Cilantro Lime Chicken

• Simply make the Cilantro Lime sauce, skipping the asiago cheese, and freeze.  When ready to use, cook some chicken with salt and pepper.  Toss with the dressing and put on a salad.

Using these recipes, plus maybe a little ordering out and donated meals from friends, we have easily gone 3 weeks without any intensive cooking required.  I may start cooking most of my meals on the weekends and putting them in the freezer...

Paleo Latte

In a change of pace, I just wanted to share one recipe that I've come up with that makes my morning a little more pleasant.  It's a Paleo Latte that, in my opinion, tastes pretty dern good.

Start with 6 - 8 oz of coffee (depending on the size of your mug).  Stir in 1 - 2 T of coconut sugar, according to your taste.  Heat 1/4 cup of heavy cream in the microwave for 25 seconds.  Optional: put cream in a small container, close the lid and shake for 15-20 seconds to foam it up a bit.  Pour cream into your coffee.  Enjoy!

Week Three Menu

Pre-Week Prep

• Clarified butter, if needed
• Make sure you go into each week with at least 12 oz (1.5 cups) of clarified butter
• Paleo hamburger buns (by Friday)
• Bread-replacement Paleo items are notoriously not like bread.  These buns are no exception. We used these, but I probably wouldn't make the effort again.  They serve only to give the impression of eating a burger with your hands.  There is no added flavor or texture.  But if you can't handle eating a burger without a bun, these seem to work.

Sunday
You may notice a pattern.  I plan Sunday nights to be steak every week for 2 reasons.  First,  it's a meal we all really enjoy, is fairly easy to prepare and gives us good reason not to spend lots of money on a steak dinner at a restaurant.  Second, if we only cooked 5 meals instead of 6 the week before and I have leftover ingredients, we'll use those the following Sunday night instead and keep the steak in the freezer.

• Restaurant Style Steak
• We LOVE this steak.  We will never grill steak again.  Make sure to use a cast iron skillet and follow her cooking instructions precisely, substituting clarified butter for standard butter.  We skip the herb butter and just sprinkle garlic powder on the steak, along with black pepper and kosher salt.  Use either filets or good strip steaks.
•  Sweet Potato Casserole
• Definitely not as sweet as your traditional Thanksgiving version or the kind at Ruth's Chris, but still very good.

 

Monday

• Burger with Chunky Guacamole
• Mix 1 lb of ground beef with 2 T Worcester sauce, 1 T garlic powder and 1/2 T kosher salt.  Form into patties and grill.  Top with guacamole.
• Sweet potato hashbrowns
• These take longer to crisp up that you would expect.  Start these way before the burgers, especially if you only have one waffle iron (who has more than one?).  You might find yourself continuing to cook these throughout the meal.  We also tried taking half of our shredded potatoes and cooking in a saute pan, but they didn't get nearly as crispy as the waffle iron version.

Tuesday

• Honey Lime Chicken Skewers
•  Replace soy sauce with coconut aminos. We didn't use the Saracha and cooked these in a skillet instead of the grill.  We really should buy a barbeque grill.  It was pretty tasty!
• Cauliflower Rice
• We used cheesecloth to cook the shredded cauliflower and it didn't stick like it did for the authors of the linked post.  We served the chicken on top of the cauliflower.

Wednesday

• Pork Ribs with Pineapple
• CROCKPOT RECIPE / REQUIRES 4-6 HOURS
• This was ok.  We used boneless pork short ribs.  The meat was drier than we'd like and the sauce was not as thick as it appeared to be for the original poster.  The pineapple was good, but not as good as grilled pineapple.  For a meat/pineapple recipe, we'll stick with Pineapple Jerk Steak.

Thursday

• Sweet and Sticky Baked Chicken
• REQUIRES PREP WORK / MARINATE IN THE MORNING
• Replace the brown sugar with 2 tablespoons of maple syrup and the soy sauce with coconut aminos.  The sauce didn't thicken for us quite as much as it did for the original poster, and we used chicken tenders instead of drumsticks, but OH MY GOODNESS this was delicious!  We also didn't back it quite as long due to the cut we used.  You will see this recipe show up again.
• Butter steamed Broccoli and Carrots
• Melt about 1/4 cup clarified butter in large saute pan over medium heat.  Add 1 cup of carrots and cover.  Steam for 5 minutes, shaking pan occasionally to prevent burning. Add 2 cups of broccoli and continue to steam and shake for another 10 minutes. Add more butter if veggies aren't done to your liking but starting to burn.  Serve.  Have a salt shaker on hand, since clarified butter doesn't contain salt. 

Friday

• Turkey Garlic Burger
• Mix 1 lb of ground turkey with 2 T Worcester sauce, 1 T garlic powder and 1/2 T kosher salt.  Form into patties and grill.  Serve with Paleo bun (or wrapped in butter lettuce) and BBQ sauce.
• Sweet potato chips and avocado
• We just had sweet potato chips out of the bag (Terra Sweets and Beets).  If you find a different brand, check the ingredients.  Make sure there is no flour and that the oil used is Paleo friendly.