Hi I'm Sharla with Freezer Meals 101. Welcome today we are going to be making some
make ahead casseroles and I'm really excited about this one because I think that casseroles make
family life a lot easier and especially when they're already made and all you need to do
is take them out of the freezer and warm them back up so we're gonna be making some of those
awesome easy comforty meals today and I think that these are really gonna help you out and
that's what makes me the most excited about these meals so I wanted to choose a lot of variety for
today's meals because I wanted you to be able to make them and serve them all in the same
week if you wanted and not get sick of having the same thing over and over and over again
so hopefully I have done that so today we're going to be making chicken and rice casserole which is
a new to me recipe but I've heard good things and it sounds good so we'll give this one a try
we're also going to be making kind of just a good old pasta bake like easy saute your vegetables
cook your pasta throw it in there put some pasta sauce top it with cheese easy peasy but
an all-in-one meal that will be nice to have tuna casserole which some people love
and some people not so much so if that was not for you you can skip it but this is a really good
tuna casserole recipe it is such comfort food for me it reminds me of childhood and it's just
got those really good flavors for me um we are also going to be making beefy rice casserole
tater tot casserole this is one with beef and vegetables so it is an all in one meal
and spanish rice casserole so like I said lots of variety some different proteins represented
and these should make life a lot simpler for you so let's get to making these meals
this is my first time making this particular chicken and rice casserole and I'm really
excited to see how it tastes because it is easy to put together you're going to use your chicken
that's already cooked and diced so on the day you go to make this you're just basically reheating it
and then you've got some dry onion soup mix a can of mushroom soup a can of chicken soup
and then some evaporated milk 1 cup of sour cream two cups of minute rice now here's where
it gets awesome for the rice you're gonna add it in uncooked you're gonna just throw it right
in here and that's why you're gonna use minute rice to make sure that it cooks up properly but
seriously you're just gonna do two cups of rice just like that and it's all gonna cook when the
casserole cooks so how amazingly easy is that then we're gonna add salt and pepper and some frozen
green beans in there now the recipe that I'm kind of very very loosely basing this off of
didn't call for the green beans but I want this to be more of a full meal casserole so I needed
to get some veggies in there and I know that green beans go well with rice and they go well
with chicken and adds a little pop of color so there you have it the chicken and rice casserole
on the day you go to cook this you're gonna thaw it add about a cup of water and then
dump the whole thing into a greased casserole dish bake at 350 covered for 45 minutes
and then uncover for the last 10 minutes and just like that you'll have your full meal.
Now this next recipe requires a little bit more prep than my usual Freezer Meals do but
once this is done then on the day you go to cook this you just throw it in the oven
and everything is already pre-cooked so it cooks up really fast and easy
and it's just a nice really basic like good old pasta casserole we we're just gonna fry up some
veggies you can use whatever you have on hand this particular time I'm using onions red peppers and
zucchini but I have also used mushrooms green peppers uh what else have I used in this dish
jalapenos carrots seriously it's just a great way to use up the vegetables that you have in
the fridge so you're gonna just fry those up in some butter or oil until they're softened
and you're gonna at the same time be cooking your pasta in a large pot of water and cook that to the
package directions except you want to under cook it by about two minutes so that when you go to
bake this your pasta doesn't get mushy by being overcooked because you're kind of cooking it twice
so then you're gonna drain your pasta run it under cold water and then you're going to dump the pasta
into a casserole dish I'm using an aluminum tray so that I can easily freeze it and not hold
one of my good casserole dishes hostage in my freezer then you're mixing those vegetables
into the cooked pasta and just dumping a jar of your favorite pasta sauce on top
really seriously that is the entire recipe if you want you can get all fancy and add some
italian seasoning or fresh basil or whatever but this is just super easy and you're going to top it
with some shredded mozzarella cheese if you want you can sprinkle some parmesan on there as well
but that's it this is just one of those like good old pasta bakes it's a vegetarian meal
and it's got everything you need in there because you've got your vegetables and your cheese
so there you go another casserole all then I know that tuna casserole is sort of one of those you
love it or you hate it things so if you're on the hate it side of things feel free to fast forward
this particular recipe but for me tuna casserole kind of feels like childhood and comfort food
and this is a really good one now I would say that half the time I make this I make just the mixture
and then the day that I bake it I cook up the noodles and add the noodles that day but
this time I'm going ahead and making the noodles and mixing them in and doing it all together so
that the day that I go to cook it I can just put it in the oven and it'll be all ready
so we've added two cans of drained tuna into our bowl some chopped onion chopped red pepper pepper
some mushroom soup we were doing two cans of that and then some cheddar cheese uh and then
we're gonna cook up a package of egg noodles now we're undercooking the noodles slightly again
just like we did in that last pasta bake and that is just so that it doesn't affect the texture
and it doesn't get overcooked and mushy on the day that you bake this we're also adding some frozen
peas in there so once you mix everything else except the noodles together then you're gonna
pour the noodles in there I drained them under cold water because I don't want to put this in the
bag when it's warm because that can affect getting freezer burn and you know I don't want to get
freezer burn the other important important thing in avoiding freezer burn is to be sure that you
get all the air that you can out of your bags so for this particular one some of my family members
who shall remain nameless my husband anyway some of them do not like tuna
so what I'm gonna do today is I'm going to put half of this into two containers and give those
to my dad because I know he does like tuna casserole and that way he will have some
single serving Freezer Meals for himself and he can just heat it in the microwave if he wants
and then I'll put the rest in a large freezer bag for us because if i do all of it and not our
whole family eats it then it'll be too much and I don't want to waste any food
so that's how I'm going about that today now I know the word casserole means different things
to different people for some people it's kind of like something that's all baked together in one
and when I think of casserole I think of it that way as like kind of a one pot meal
where you can get everything you need like most of most of or all of your food groups represented
all in one meal but I also think of comfort food and like really homey family friendly meals when I
think of casseroles so today when I chose these recipes that's kind of more what I had in mind
so let me know in the comments below what you think of when you think of casserole
and if you have any favorite casseroles that you would like to see me convert into a freezer meal
so that you can now make it ahead and have it whenever you want next we're gonna make
some casseroles with ground beef it's always fastest if you work with one protein at a time
so I've gone ahead and already cooked the ground beef in the oven on a sheet pan
and with that all cooked I'm ready to put these beef casseroles together
so the first one is our tater tot casserole with beef and veggies
you put the tater tots in the bag first because that way it mixes a whole lot better so you're
going to be adding those frozen tater tots ground beef diced onion some frozen mixed vegetables you
can use whichever are your favorites I just used a very basic one a can of cream of mushroom soup
some evaporated milk clove of garlic dry mustard powder salt and pepper and you're going to add
cheddar cheese into a medium sized bag and staple that to the large bag at the end now you mix
the cream of mushroom soup and evaporated milk and seasonings together before you pour it over all of
the other ingredients so a few times you're gonna seal the bag give it a shake and then at the end
you're gonna take all the air that you can out of the bag and then you're going to reseal it
that way again you're avoiding that freezer burn and that's always a good thing to do when you're
freezer cooking so this tater tot casserole is really popular especially with the kids
you can find the recipes for all of the meals that we're making today in the description
down below to find the description you just want to click on the video title and that will expand
the box so that you can see the recipes and I also will link the Freezer Meals 101 Club down below
because that is a way easier way for you to be able to make Freezer Meals because you can
create your own custom meal plans and then print out shopping lists it also allows you
to change the serving size so if you are living alone or have a smaller family you can adjust the
serving size down to one or two or three or four if you have a larger family then you can double
the recipes easily or change the serving size to eight people that kind of thing we in general
all of our meals feed six people if you've been watching our videos for a while then you'll know
that I have kind of a mega size family we have seven kids but our kids are growing up and so
only five of them still live at home so I'm just feeding seven and these recipes that are designed
for six do feed our family of seven when it's our family of nine then I do need to add some extra
sides and bulk things up a little bit because um they don't they don't stretch far enough on
their own to feed all nine of us but my neighbor Christie who makes a lot of the recipes with me
uses the same serving sizes for her family of four because then she finds that she has enough
left over for her husband to take to work and that is really convenient for their family and
works for them so when we make the meals together we always just make the serving size of around six
people and we just find that that works really well but again if you want you can
find the link for the Freezer Meals 101 Club below which allows you to really really easily
change the serving sizes for all the recipes and print your shopping list and all the things
and that's how I created my shopping list for today other than the chicken and rice casserole
because I've never made that one before so it's not in the club yet I
only add recipes to the club after we've tried them like frozen them thawed them cooked them
tried them and gotten votes from our family and Christie's family so that we know that there are
enough people that love it and rave about it to be willing to kind of put our stamp of approval on it
and put it in the club okay let's get back to making some more make-ahead casseroles
this one is great to have in the freezer because it's a slow cooker casserole
and it's a really good all-in-one meal and it's another one where you don't have to cook the rice
ahead you put the rice in uncooked but in this case we are gonna staple the bag of rice onto the
large bag and then we will dump both of those into the crock pot on the day that we go to make this
so you've got your ground beef diced tomatoes chopped onion chopped green pepper and salt and
chili powder that's it other than the rice and it makes a complete meal beefy rice slow cooker
casserole for you we have been making this next one for well over a decade in fact it might be
two decades this is our spanish rice we're using cooked rice in this recipe so everything in here
including the ground beef and the rice is already cooked so on the day that you go to make this
you are just reheating it and that means that it only needs to go in the oven for around a
half an hour so this is a great one for really busy weeknights if you're running kids to soccer
practice or piano lessons or if you're running around yourself this is a great one to just put
in the oven get a few things done while you're waiting for it to cook get everybody's you know
cleats and piano books and whatever it is you need and then you eat quickly and then you can go
about your merry way and get what you have to get done done so we've got the beef in there the rice
uh you're using pasta sauce you can make your own using the amazing red sauce or you
can use jarred pasta sauce then you've got onion green pepper sliced black olives and then we oh
garlic of course and we're adding a bag of cheddar cheese shredded on the outside so that
we can top it with the cheese on the day that we bake it my tea is done the meals are done
so that means that this video is almost over I'm gonna put a link right here to our last
big mega freezer meal session we did 126 meals in that video and that will give you a ton
of ideas of not just casseroles but all kinds of recipes and that will really expand your ideas
of what freezer cooking can be thank you so much for joining me today and happy cooking.