Filling My Freezer with 21 Homemade Freezer Meals All From Scratch!

hey friends welcome back to aker  homestead welcome back to my kitchen   today we are doing a huge freezer cooking day  which i am thrilled about because i haven't had   any freezer meals in my freezer for about  a month to six weeks i'm not exactly sure   which is not good because the reason i do freezer  meals is so that we can have easy homemade meals   that are healthy all the time and i can just throw  something in the oven and i don't actually have   to think about dinner all the time i sometimes  get inspired and i make really nice meals you   know the night of and things like that but  i don't want to have to think about cooking   every single day because we try to eat at home as  much as possible and i can tell you that by not   having these freezer meals in my freezer for the  last six weeks or so we've been getting take out   which there's nothing wrong with takeout but my  husband and i prefer to eat at home we feel better   when we eat at home and we save a lot of money  we've got a couple projects around this house that   we want to do and one way that we save a ton of  money is actually eating at home and if you're new   to my channel i have a massive garden out there i  love to do home preservation and things like that   and i have a ton of food in my freezer in my  pantry that i've put up from the garden and if   we're not eating it then what was the point of  all that work so today we are gonna be making   probably about 24 meals ish and it is just my  husband and i i get a lot of questions about that   why do i cook this much food if it's just my  husband and i so that we can have homemade meals   every single day of the week and i don't have to  think about cooking every single day of the week   i can take five hours or so make a big mess in  the kitchen clean it up and then during the week   i can just pull meals out and all i have to do  is think about sides and things don't have to   worry about thawing meat i don't have to worry  about cleaning the kitchen and that's why i do   this and we are comfortable eating leftovers and  that's what we eat for lunch we don't um go out to   eat for lunch we eat our leftovers that i cook for  dinner so the meals we are gonna be making today   we are gonna be making honey mustard pork roast  their tenderloins we're gonna be making korean   beef and korean chicken a bunch of you guys had  recommended making korean beef when i did my asian   pear video and i looked up a bunch of recipes and  they look it looks fantastic so we're gonna make   that and i thought it'd be good to do a chicken  and beef version if i'm gonna make the marinade   might as well do both we are gonna do chicken  and biscuit chicken and biscuit basically i make   chicken pot pie filling and we put biscuits  on the top we're gonna make shepherd's pie   one way when i do my freezer meals i like to think  of recipes that have some of the same components   so that i can prep the same thing shepherd's pie  they have celery peas and carrots and onions in   both of them so i can make a big pot of that and  then i can divide it in half and then i can cook   the meat separately and then it just makes it  a lot easier we're gonna do creamy salsa verde   enchiladas we're doing that because i can have a  ton of salsa verde this year we're doing pumpkin   pasta tons of pumpkin we need to use up from  the garden the marinated chickens we're gonna   do i love having just marinated chicken in the  freezer this way i can pull it out the chicken's   already marinated as it thaws and then all i have  to do is think of a vegetable and a side whether   it's potatoes rice pasta something like that the  main part of the meal the chicken is done when i   first started watching freezer videos on youtube  i was wondering why would people make marinated   meat and put it in the freezer that doesn't make  any sense takes no time to make marinated meat   the reason is and i found this the root since i  started doing it is because when you pull that   meat out of the freezer and you put it in your  refrigerator say in the morning and it thaws   or the day before it's going to sit in that  marinade a lot longer so i don't have to think   the day before the night before the morning  of to have to get a marinade going on a meat   and having it sit in the refrigerator pull it  out of the freezer put it refrigerator and it   marinates all day long until you're ready to cook  it so that is why i love having homemade marinated   meats and all of these recipes we're going to  be doing are from scratch so i'm not going to   be opening a bottle and throwing in a bottle of  dressing and calling that a marinade i'll show   you how to make it from scratch so it's so it's  super easy and you can control the ingredients   that go into your marinades we are going to  do greek chicken marinade we're going to do   cranberry catalina dressing marinade this is an  adapted recipe from jennifer at a country life   she made it in one of her october videos and i  thought oh my goodness that sounds so good and   i've been wanting to do it ever since i saw that  all of these recipes are going to be from scratch   they are going to be found in the description  box at scratchpantry.com if i deviate from the   recipe just a little bit just know i don't tend to  follow recipes exactly i use them as a guideline   and even if they are my own recipe they don't  always get followed to the tea because like i   said i have a big garden and sometimes i'm going  to be throwing things in there just because we   have it and i want to use it up so one example  is right here i forgot to mention we're doing   stuffed shells too and right here i have some  pasta sauce that i started last night actually   i went through my freezer and as i was pulling all  the meat out to thaw then i realized i had a ton   of tomatoes that i needed to use up and i needed  to get them out of my freezer to create space so i   have in here some pasta sauce that's been cooking  all night and i actually pulled out some zucchini   and i want to cook this zucchini in the pasta  sauce for the stuffed shells you won't be able   to taste it but it will add some good nutrients  to the sauce it'll just kind of bulk it up a   little bit this pot was filled to about here with  tomatoes and it cooked way down overnight i did   throw in a bunch of onions and now i'm also going  to throw in a couple jars of marinara sauce that   i actually canned up this summer a couple things i  did yesterday to prep for today i got all the meat   out of the freezer to thaw so we can actually  work with it today i have my potatoes here we   still need to wash up but i have my carrots washed  up here i did some prep last night and the reason   i did prep last night is i always like to start  a freezer cooking day with an empty dishwasher   that way as i'm cooking i can put dishes right  into the dishwasher and sure saves a ton of time   when i'm going to clean up i can clean as i  go my dishwasher is not completely full so   i didn't want to start it so i thought i need  to get some prep work done that's going to use   some dishes so i can turn my dishwasher on what  i did is i shredded up all the mozzarella we need   and all the cheddar cheese i like to buy my cheese  in bulk i buy it through azure standard i can get   organic cheese for a great price i will link them  down in the description box if you're interested   in knowing where i get my bulk food from just and  i like to use my food processor because it goes a   lot easier so while i had my food processor out i  went ahead and i ground up a bunch of bread crumbs   any time we have like hot dog buns or bread  or and their leftovers you know like one or   two i'll throw them in the freezer and  then i'll grind them up for breadcrumbs   these are actually the bags i just put the  bread crumbs back in the hot dog buns and   the cheese back in the hamburger bun so i didn't  have to mess up a ziploc bag or anything like that   while i had the food processor out last night i  went ahead and peeled i think this was like five   heads of garlic and i got them chopped up so  that just saved a ton of time pulling the food   processor out one time getting all this stuff  done i have some homemade pesto here that we're   gonna use in the stuffed shells i grabbed all  the cans that i think we're gonna need we might   need some more cans but if we do i'll grab them  i got bowls out i got some of my insta pot stuff   i grabbed some cream cheese out actually this  morning so i'd get a little bit softer and   butter when i unloaded my dishwasher this morning  instead of putting this away i just put it here   because i know we're going to use it i pulled out  all my baking dishes when i do my freezer meals   i'm trying to get away from foil pans as much as  possible so i bought a bunch of these at goodwill   and here like i said we have this cookie which i  think i need to turn oh yeah i need to turn this   down these were also in the dishwasher instead of  putting them away i just stuck them here because i   know we're going to use them so i like to empty my  garbage can and put it right here orbit you know   there's nothing in there you want yet but  i'm sure there will be later and that way   i have easy access to it these little sneakers  are gonna hang out with me so if you hear them   in the background this is tibro and the one that  was just in here was orbit i want to say a huge   thank you for all the love and support you guys  have shared with me over the loss of gizmo whoo   yeah it's hard to lose a fur baby isn't it it's  it's one of the toughest things but i know that   he's not suffering anymore and i am grateful for  that and he will be missed the step shell recipe   that we're making today is a vegetarian recipe  we're not vegetarians as you'll see soon enough   but sometimes i do like to make vegetarian meals  but if you wanted to add sausage to this you   could add the sausage when you cook the onions  or you could add ground beef whatever you like this marinara sauce is already cooked it  doesn't need to be cooked down anymore i'm   just adding it in here to mix it in so we  can have an even mixture and i do want to   cook that zucchini just a little bit more so  right off the bat i did just use these jars   for the marinara sauce i gave them a little bit  of a rinse and i'm going to throw them right in   the dishwasher but what i want to do first  is i actually want to get the meat cooking   for the shepherd's pie so let's get that  going in this pan i have a little bit   of olive oil that i just put in here and we  are going to put four pounds of ground beef this is 100 grass-fed grass finished beef  i am gonna take the red sauce off the stove   this is basically done i don't need to cook that  sauce anymore i just wanted to kind of get that   zucchini to melt in there it does melt into it  really well that's one thing that i love about   growing a ton of zucchini is i actually add  it into a lot of dishes i probably will add   it into some other dishes we'll just see what we  get when we get to it i don't have to chop the   onions or the celery because those are in the  freezer those i prepped and preserved up from   the garden so it makes my life a lot easier but  we do need to prep these carrots these carrots   have been washed and scrubbed really well i  did not peel them because they are home grown   i really don't worry about the peels i'm going  to get enough chopped up here for both this well   i was going to say shepherd's pie i guess it's not  technically shepherd's pie because we're not using   lamb it's cottage pie but i still usually call  it shepherd's pie for that and for the chicken   pot pie or chicken in a biscuit so one thing is  all the meat we are going to be cooking today   is actually from butcher box butcher box is  a company i did a bunch of research on myself   because they specialize in grass-fed grass  finished beef, free-range, USDA certified organic   chicken, and pork that is raised crate-free.  you guys know if you've been around here for any   length of time that i buy my beef from a local  rancher it's grass-fed grass finish and that's   really important to me but that is not reasonable  or realistic for everybody for too many reasons   one it takes a lot of space to buy half a cow at  a time and that's typically what i do and it's   a huge investment up front cost because you have  to you basically buy a year or two years worth of   meat at one time and it can be pretty pricey but  grass-fed grass finish is really important to me   and sustainability is really important to me  when it comes to meat when at all possible   and i thought you know i talk about this  all the time grass-fed grass finished   but maybe there might be a way for people that  can't afford to do that up front cost or you   don't have the space to do that but i wanted to  try to find a way for you guys to have that as   an attainable option for and i found butcher box  i actually purchased with my own money a box and   i got a ton of stuff i got mostly beef it's a mail  delivery service that actually comes to your door   want to be up front with you the day after i  purchased my own box they actually contacted me   and asked if i wanted to be an affiliate for their  company and i said i would love to because i am   not invested in your company i actually purchased  an entire box so i have two boxes worth of butcher   box meat and we are gonna do the whole entire  meal with butcher box meat i'm gonna leave a   link for them down in the description box it is an  affiliate so if you buy through my link i do get a   little bit of a commission so it helps support my  channel but you also get a discount and you get 20   off your first five boxes and you get free bacon  in each one of your boxes when i ordered my box   i actually got a free turkey because they always  have amazing promotions and when i ordered i got   a free turkey and i knew i was gonna be doing this  freezer cooking day so what i did is when i got it   i went ahead and actually just cooked the turkey  i wrapped it in a foil pan my favorite way to   cook turkey is actually in the oven low and slow  for like six or eight hours i don't worry about   getting the skin crispy i want the meat nice and  juicy and tender so one thing we don't have to do   today is actually cook the chicken turkey for the  enchiladas because that is already done so that's   going to save us a ton of time and i also have a  couple of these packages of turkey in the freezer   i personally love turkey i think it's underrated  when it is on sale right now that's what i like to   do you know if you spend 100 at the grocery store  a lot of grocery stores have those promotions   where you get a free turkey and sometimes i will  actually stock up on food staple items right now   this time of year my chickens just distracted me  they're on my back porch they're not supposed to   and i will get myself a couple free turkeys  also fill up my pantry i'll cook them up and   i'll have turkey in my freezer ready to  go so that it's one convenient thing i'm   adding pepper so i have pepper in here with the  ground beef now i'm gonna add a bunch of salt   maybe a couple teaspoons and i'm gonna let  that cook while this ground beef is cooking   let's get the carrots going you know what i  take that back i'm going to take a break from   these carrots real quick because i need to get the  filling for the stuffed shells done because i need   that dutch oven to cook the onions the carrots  the celery and things like that for the shepherd's   pie so what we're going to do is we are going to  put some ricotta cheese in this bowl right here i'm using this homemade pesto  in this because i have it if   i didn't have it i would just add a bunch of basil some mozzarella cheese that i pre-ground yesterday parmesan cheese and two eggs and mix to combine i went ahead and i just put some water  onto boil for the stuffed shells to cook   those shells we have to cook two types of pasta  today the shells and the penne for the pumpkin   pasta normally i use rigatoni but i don't  have any so we're just gonna do penne today   i am putting in a ziploc bag my ricotta  mixture so i can stuff my shells   using this method i've never done it this  way before but i'm gonna give it a try i was going to and tell me if i'm crazy or if this  is a good idea but i chickened out so that's why i   had to put a pot of water on the boil i was going  to stuff these shells in the uncooked shell and i   was going to put them in the freezer uncooked  just like i do my lasagna when i make lasagna   i do not use the ready boil noodles i just just  buy lasagna noodles i put them in the lasagna and   then i cooked them when i cooked them in the oven  i chickened out and i went ahead and i'm going to   boil them because i've never done it before can  you let me know if i'm totally crazy on thinking   that i can this is really full this is probably  going to be hard to do this i don't know if this   is this is a recycled ziploc bag so i'm not going  to waste a ziploc bag if i cut this and it doesn't   end up working so tell me if i'm crazy or if you  guys have done it and you guys have used stuffed   shells and not actually cook them first so where  we're at now is i have to wait for that pasta to   cook i think actually before i even do the carrots  i'm going to get the potatoes washed up i'm   going to get those in the instant pot i've never  cooked mashed potatoes in the instant pot before   but i might as well give it a try and i can  have these cooking in the instant pot while   i have other stuff cooking so i'm  washing up these are homegrown potatoes i'm gonna cook these shells for five minutes  the box says nine but when i do freezer meals   with pasta i like to reduce the time so they don't  get soggy when you go to re-cook them i turn the   heat off this beef because the beef is completely  done do you see how it's really browned and even   sticking to the bottom of the pan and how right  there it's like caramelly brown color this is what   you want you don't want when you're browning meat  for it to just be brown beige like that you want   it caramelized like this piece right here that's  what's going to give you that flavor you want   and it's going to really increase the depth of  flavor so i'm going to let this deglaze the pan   just by turning it off and letting it cool on here  you'll be able to scrape up all those brown bits these are all homegrown potatoes i'm going  to put in here i've never cooked potatoes in   insta pot before so i'm going to have to do  some googling to figure out how much time   is needed so we're going to figure out together  if this works so i'm going to put manual and   then let me mash potatoes in the instant pot  it says eight minutes how big were we supposed   to cut them though because that could really  depend it says water to cover potatoes and   i did not do that i only put probably two cups  of water in there so let's read another recipe oh stop it okay so this says but put potatoes  in the insta pot and cover with about six cups   of water enough to completely cover okay so two  recipes said to do that so let me redo that let   me add more water and then it says that says cook  on steam setting which i don't know what that is   i don't have a steam setting so one thing about  the instapot i love my insta pot but when you   look at recipes online they're always  so different okay what does this one say   for some reason i don't want to cover it all the  way with water i don't know why i'm so resistant   to that okay come on come on come on where's  the recipe here we go okay this is six cups of   water so i am gonna add some more water which i'm  not gonna completely cover it and this one says   cook on high for 12 minutes so we're gonna do  that because i don't have a steam setting and   this pasta is done i'm gonna pull this off right  now i to reuse this hot water to cook the pasta   for the pumpkin pasta so i'm going to just ladle  out this pasta here and put it in some cold water then i'm going to put some  more water in here and i'm   going to get it boiling and we're going  to cook the pasta for the pumpkin pasta i'm putting cold water on here to stop the  cooking process i'm going to put some more   water in here and then i'm going to put it  on high for 12 minutes in the ends to pop this is pretty exciting we're actually  assembling something already which is pretty   great because this was super fast i'm going  to put some of this red sauce down here first i think i did add way too much zucchini in this  red sauce and i should have cooked the zucchini   with the tomatoes the whole time but i will  fix that for next time so i just put in some   more pasta into the cooking water so that we  can get the pumpkin pasta going i'm going to   cut a little slit on this and let's see if  this is easier than spooning it with a spoon this is working really well to use this bag i  think if i had to hold the bag it would be too   big and bulky and weird but having it lean on  the counter like this is working really well   so this red sauce is 100 home grown except for  the little bit of red wine that i put into it   so that is a awesome goal that i've  achieved and i'm pretty proud of that i'm just going to put a little bit of sauce on the  top because i think i put a little too much sauce   on the bottom now we are going to top with a good  amount of parmesan cheese i do have a little bit   left of everything so i think i'm going to get a  9x9 and i'm going to also fill a nine by nine so   we'll have two nine by 13 and one nine by nine of  stuffed shells all right i'm gonna let these cool   just a little bit more and then we'll wrap them  in two layers of foil and i'll get them in the   freezer so the way i like to cook my freezer meals  and if you watch my day and the lives and vlogs   and things like that you'll see how i cook them  because i usually prepare them in those videos   but i like to thaw them because they do cook  a whole lot faster if you thaw them first   i will usually take on sunday i'll take two  or three of them out of the freezer and put   them in the refrigerator and that way they are  thawed and i can cook those throughout the week   and i usually cook them at like 375 350 for  usually about 45 minutes until they're nice and   cooked all the way through and nice and bubbly and  the cheese on the top is nice and golden you can't   cook from frozen but they take so long to cook  from frozen it's usually like two or three hours   and i usually don't think through fast enough to  get them in the oven that soon so that's why i   try to pull out a couple on the weekend so that i  know what i'll be cooking during the week i went   ahead and washed out my dutch oven this is what  had the red sauce in it and we're going to get   the vegetables going finally for the shepherd's  pie i harvested these carrots from my garden   in july and they have been in my refrigerator  ever since and can you hear how crunchy they are   how i keep them fresh that long i don't have  a root cellar or anything like that and i have   no desire to can carrots i don't think i would  like that at all i'm not the hugest fan of cooked   carrots unless they are cooked in something like  shepherd's pie i actually don't really like just   to eat carrots that much if they're cooked so the  idea of canned carrots to me just does not sound   super appetizing so i try to keep them in the  refrigerator as long as possible by wrapping them   up in a towel and putting them in a ziploc bag  and they've held for months like this i think the   reason that works is because the towel will absorb  moisture when there's too much moisture and then   if the carrots need a little bit of extra moisture  they can reabsorb the moisture from the towel   i don't know i just discovered that kind of on a  whim and it's worked really well for me so that's   how i've done it if they start to get soft i  will chop them up blanch them and freeze them   but i have about five more containers  in the refrigerator about this big   and so far i don't think that i'm gonna need to  do that anytime soon i can hear my butter sizzling   over there so i think i'm gonna get some of these  carrots in there so let's see that'd be like one   shepherd's pie two shepherds by three i think i'm  gonna just chop just a few more we're almost there i got that just in time i almost just had  burnt butter there i'm gonna add some onions   these are pre-chopped onions that i had in  the freezer and i got out yesterday to thaw   you don't have to thaw your onions before you  cook them like this these are from the garden this   is for the chicken and the biscuit and for the  shepherd's pie so i'm making enough for four pans   and then i'm going to divide this evenly  between the two this is celery from the garden   one nice thing about when you put up food  from the garden is it forces you to chop   them wash them and when you get into the  kitchen it does save you time there is a   little bit of upfront time with actually getting  everything prepped but once it's in the house   preserved up it sure does save a lot of time i'm just going to put the  rest of that bag in there   i'm going to add some pepper to this mixture  and i'm going to add a good amount of salt you want to make sure you're flavoring every layer i'm getting ready to make the cream of chicken for  the chicken and biscuit the reason i am bringing   you down here into this pantry is i ran out of  flour in this containers that i keep up next to   my mixing bowl so i have easy access to flour i  love these containers because they have such a   wide opening i can get my measuring spoon in  there really easily i'm going to link these   below because these are fantastic and they have a  really nice seal they snap on and these are just   fantastic i keep them for sugar flour oats any of  those pantry items that you need and you have to   measure and you want to have good access i just  love these things and we need to make a roux for   the chicken and biscuit and for the shepherd's  pie and i buy everything in bulk so that i don't   run out i actually have backups of backups this is  one container here it's a five gallon food grade   bucket that i keep in my cupboard with flour this  is organic white flour and i have another one in   my food pantry my walk-in pantry and that way  i absolutely never ever ever run out of these   staples because i do almost all of our own cooking  from scratch and you go through a lot of these   staples and i just really can't stand running out  of them and that's why i keep a extra container   because then i basically have my own grocery  store in my house and i am making an entire   mess down here i keep these gamma lids these are  called gamma lids they screw on nice and tight   so they keep any bugs or any rodents or anything  like that out of the container and they're really   easily accessible if you store your containers  with these white lids which i have a few of these   but i do not use them i should probably just  donate them i don't like using these because   you need a crowbar to take them on and off and  they are a pain and i do access this food i do do   a lot of bulk food storage i have a ton of extra  food in the house my dog is here eating some food   if you hear him crunching and i do rotate it  so i want to have easy access i am not in the   mindset of storing 20 30 years worth of food  storage i keep about a year's worth of food on   hand and i do actually like to rotate it so all  that to say in my own grocery store i was able   to fill up my flour and i didn't have to worry  about running out or going to the grocery store   in the middle of this big cooking day because  that is a big pain when you have to do that   so let's go finish up the shepherd's pie and the  chicken in a biscuit into this i am going to add   some garlic and i'm going to cook that just for  about a minute and then these vegetables are done i turned the heat off so i'm going to turn the  heat back on just to get this garlic cooked   through to here what we need to do is we need to  add flour i turn the heat off so i need to turn   the heat back on i am just making a mess all over  the place now we're gonna add one cup of flour oh   i did that wrong i did that wrong so i added  a half a cup of flour but i'm supposed to add   the wine first we're gonna  add two cups of red wine it's okay we messed up  it'll be all fine in the end   but it is better ideally if you actually  cook the red wine before you add the flour   so we're just going to backtrack just a little  bit and add that red one i think i'm gonna   just take some of this flour and meat up  it's okay if i get some of the meat up   any time you're cooking with alcohol it is  best if you cook down the wine a little bit   because it kind of gets that harsh alcohol  flavor cooked out give this a clean here i do try to clean as i go because it makes the  cleaning process in the end that much easier   all right so i'm going to turn this up a little  bit because that has been off for a while so it's   pretty cool these vegetables are done i'm going  to get them ladled up into the casseroles now   i don't want to overcook these vegetables  because they are going to cook again so as   soon as the cream of chicken mixture is done and  the vegetables are done we'll just lay that on top these two down here are for the shepherd's pie  i just haven't put the meat mixture in here yet   the sauce that goes in chicken in a  biscuit is basically a cream of chicken   so what we're going to do is we're going to make  the cream of chicken in this pan so that we can   keep using this pan over and over and over and  we're not having to dirty another dish you know   i don't have to wash this out fully because we're  just using it one after the other just like i used   this for the red sauce now i've used it to cook  all these vegetables and now we're gonna make   the cream of chicken i'm also gonna get a little  bit of parsley chopped up diet or a lot of frosty   i should say this is two full bunches and i'm  gonna divide this partially between these two   i love cooking with fresh herbs i think it's a  really affordable way to add especially parsley   and cilantro if you like cilantro to add really  great flavor freshness for a pretty affordable   price parsley and cilantro are two of the  cheapest herbs to purchase that are fresh   and honestly cilantro is the hardest herb for  me to grow so i buy a lot of cilantro this is   reducing down here i don't know if i'm gonna be  able to fit all of this in here but we'll see   i'm gonna add just a little bit of thyme  i'm gonna add some homemade tomato paste i don't think that i'm gonna be able to get all  the cream mixture in here if i don't remove some   of this meat mixture so i'm actually gonna remove  some of this meat mixture and put it right into   our casserole dish all right that looks good i'm  going to have room now we're going to add the   flour back in and we're going to cook this flour  until the flour cooks out the raw flour flavor i'm going to add a little bit more pepper to this  we're basically making a cream of beef here i take   that back because i don't have any beef stock on  hand i don't have any store-bought beef stock i   don't have any homemade beef stock which is kind  of sad so we're just going to use what we have   and i have turkey stock so we're actually going to  use turkey stock for both this recipe and for the   cream of chicken if you have beef broth i would  highly recommend you use beef broth i just don't   have any beef broth so that's not what we're using  today and that's okay while this is thickening up   i'm going to get the cream of chicken started  i'm going to add some butter into our pot here   get that melting we're going to add some  worcestershire sauce to our beef mixture we're going to move on to our next  step with our cream of chicken here   i'm going to add flour and we're going  to cook the flour and the butter together i'm going to let this cook it's going to soften  the flour and then i'm going to whisk the flour   into this and it's going to thicken up nicely  i realized i forgot that i needed to add peas   to both the shepherd's pie and the chicken pot  pie so i went ahead and i made i'm gonna make   three of the shepherd's pies you can't  see it but i have another one right here   i figured i would not be able to add the peas  the mashed potatoes and the rest of the sauce   so i'm going to make a third one i don't  want to thaw the peas or anything before   i put them on because these over quick  because peas overcook really quickly   so i just put them in frozen then  they'll cook when they go into the oven i did add some thyme to this and a little bit of  pepper and salt because i tasted it and it needed   a little bit of seasoning it is thickening up  really nice now i did take a whisk to it to make   sure all the flour and everything was incorporated  nicely now we're going to add some milk and we're going to let that cook  and then this is going to be done   we are starting to cook the sausage for the  pumpkin pasta this is one of my absolutely   favorite dinners it is my mother-in-law's  recipe we are going to be using a bunch of   homemade home-grown ingredients for this  recipe and i'm pretty excited about it i'm adding some onions in here these are the  homegrown onions that i froze we're going to   cook those in there i'm going to add a few  more but we're going to start with that bag   this cream of chicken is absolutely beautiful  i'm going to evenly distribute it between the two potatoes i think turned out perfect let's see  yep completely done i'm going to strain them now i need to flavor these potatoes i'm going to  put a little bit of garlic powder in there milk pepper i cannot find my potato masher fork it is all right let's give this a taste  you want your mashed potatoes on   your shepherd's pie to be just as good  as if you were to eat them by themselves add a little bit more salt a little bit more milk you know what i'm going to add a little bit of parmesan cheese actually  i think that's what it's missing the parmesan cheese was exactly  what i was missing on that do do the last thing we have to cook  other than making the sauce is   i need to caramelize some onions  and some peppers for the enchiladas   so i'm going to get that going in here  and we're going to check on the sausage   so i'm putting the sausage in this dutch oven so  that i can make the pumpkin pasta in here and i   have more room for the sauce in here i'm going  to add just a little bit of oil and i'm going   to get some onions and poblano peppers cooking  for the enchiladas are more home grown onions i'm gonna add a little bit more onions to  this pumpkin pasta because i don't think   i quite had enough i'm gonna put  some pepper in here pepper in here   while we're waiting for the onions we're gonna  go ahead and move forward with the pumpkin pasta   i need to put two blocks of eight ounces of  cream cheese into my onion and sausage mixture okay for some reason i can't remember this recipe  and i need to look it up again okay so we've got   the cream cheese in there i need to turn the heat  back on i need to add garlic and then pumpkin   have you guys ever tried pumpkin pasta before  the first time i had it i was like i don't know   about pumpkin pasta but let me tell you it is  absolutely delicious i'm going to add a little   extra pumpkin actually because i have some in the  fridge because i made pumpkin muffins yesterday   so there will be a little extra  pumpkin in this but that's okay oregano this homegrown oregano and then we're supposed to  put red pepper flakes in here let me get that extra pumpkin i need to add one more ingredient to this pumpkin  sauce and that is parmesan cheese i need to get   one more bag of this turn that off the first time  i made this i forgot to add the parmesan cheese   and let me tell you the parmesan cheese  is really what makes this delicious i'm going to take our cooked pasta and put  half of it in one and half in the other and we'll get these mixed up so let's get the enchilada filling mixed up started   to start the creamy enchiladas i'm going to put  some sour cream and cream cheese in our big bowl we are going to get this mixed up this recipe is  pretty incredible it is so so good we are going to   use the turkey that i pre-cooked earlier in this  recipe i'm also going to chop up two big bunches   of cilantro like i said i love cilantro so so  much but i know it's a very controversial herb so   you could use some parsley in here i wouldn't use  quite as much fresh parsley as i did cilantro but   you could definitely substitute that we now are  going to add a little bit of cumin and coriander give that a good mix these are the onions that we caramelized  up i tried to cook them quite a bit   i then went and cooked the poblano peppers that  i grew this year's garden had the best pepper   harvest i've ever ever had and i'm so happy  about it you could also use canned chilies if   you wanted if you didn't want to go through  the process of cooking them i have two cans   of my homemade salsa verde here this is salsa  verde that i actually made with green tomatoes   i have salsa verde that i made with tomatillos  as well but i like to use that with chips this   is perfect for the green enchiladas i'm taking a  half cup measure here and i'm trying to fill these   quite full because i did make so much extra  mixture i like to put a little bit of the salsa   verde on the bottom the casserole so it doesn't  stick i roll them up and i made the perfect amount   of filling for three pans i'm then going to take  the rest of the salsa verde and put it on top   and spread that out evenly and we are  going to smother this in cheese i love   the cheese part of enchiladas and just like  that we have three pans of creamy enchiladas   i'm going to take a few minutes now that we've  done all the cooking and we're going to get a   bunch of dishes washed the only thing left we  have to do is the marinades and that's going to   be pretty quick pretty easy and i want to get this  dishwasher going so let's get these dishes washed   and the dishwasher go in a lot of you guys have  asked what my freezer situation looks like because   if you know if you're going to make this many  meals you do need a good amount of freezer space   and i can tell you that i do have an entire  freezer tour video i actually have two deep   freezers and then a stand-up fridge freezer  that's in my pantry i did a tour of those back   probably nine months ago it was really before  the garden season hit because i wanted to show   what my freezers look like pre-garden and i  am actually probably in about a day or two   i'm gonna be filling me new tour and you can see  all the veggies that i preserved up throughout   the garden season and what a deep freezer  looks like with all these freezer meals in it   now i would love to have a stand-up  freezer i would prefer a stand-up freezer   but the problem is i know myself and i am more  likely to on accident leave a stand-up freezer   door open the risk of the investment is too  great for that so that is why i have chest   freezers and i can show you how i keep them  organized and i kind of know what is in what   and that will be in a video coming out very soon  i was always really embarrassed to show you guys   my sink because it was super stained and gross  someone in the comments had recommended this the   barbs keeper's friend and i used this this morning  and i wish i had taken a before picture because   it looks so much better it's not perfect you can  still see like kind of around here where there's   some stains and scratches because it's actually  scratched too it's not just stained and this stuff   i don't know i think it was like 99 cents or two  dollars at walmart not sponsored i just am shocked   how well this worked and i got that cleaned up  and it looks so much better so thank you if you   were the one that left in the comments to get this  stuff because i am super happy with how it turned   out we've got all the major dishes done so let's  get the marinades done we it's time i'm gonna   remind you what marinades we are doing we are  doing honey mustard pork and chicken honey mustard   chicken is so good and i think it'll be just as  good with pork these are pork tenderloins all   of this meat that we are going to be marinated is  all from butcher box and can i just say i am super   thrilled with the quality they come in the package  like if you've ever bought chicken at costco where   there's the three individual packages and there's  like two or three chicken breasts in each package   same with the chicken thighs and i'm gonna show  you and then i have to wash my hands again but   the chicken breasts are small which to me i like  that i don't like getting those massive monstrous   huge chicken breasts i always cut them  in half if you've ever watched any other   freezer cooking videos or anything like that you  know i always cut the chicken breasts in half   and these are perfect size i am so happy with that  i'm not going to cut that in half i'm thrilled   let me go wash my hands and i'll finish telling  you what we're making so where were we we're doing   the honey mustard chicken and pork we're going to  do the korean beef it's a beef bottom round roast   i'm actually i think i'm going to cook that on  the wood stove whenever i get around to cooking   it and we're going to do beef and chicken  we are going to do let's see greek chicken   i'm going to do that with the breasts  cranberry chicken oh my gosh cranberry chicken   so let's get going first we're gonna start with  the honey mustard chicken whenever i do these   marinades i actually take the bag and i turn  it inside out so when i put the meat in there   that the outside of the bag stays nice and clean  and i don't have to worry about making it a mess   i'm just gonna eyeball these ingredients  we're gonna start with some oil we are going   to put in mustard i probably put a little too  much oil in there i'm gonna put in some honey some salt and pepper homegrown basil now what i'm going to do is close these  bags up and give everything a good mix mustard and pork just go so well together so i'm  imagining this honey mustard pork tenderloin is   gonna be a huge hit so with my recipes when i  make these marinated meats usually i cook them   in the oven because i like them to be caramelized  and i like the sauce to reduce and thicken   and kind of glaze the meat you could put these  marinated meats in a crock pot in the instant pot   whatever method of cooking your chicken you  like i just prefer the oven or cooking on   the wood stove because it caramelizes it  and you get a really like glazy rich sauce   for the cranberry chicken i put one cup  of cranberry sauce in each one of these   and now we're gonna make a homemade catalina  dressing the first time i saw this recipe was   actually made with bottled catalina dressing  and canned cranberry sauce this is home canned   cranberry sauce so if you want you can  just open a bottle of catalina dressing   and a can of cranberry sauce but i'm gonna make it  homemade today so this is ketchup i'm putting in sugar garlic i'm running out of garlic here  so i'm going to add some powdered garlic oil grated onion if that doesn't make you  cry i don't know what does i'm just gonna divide that onion between the two and that is our cranberry chicken i forgot a very important ingredient the red  wine vinegar this is what's going to help balance   the flavor and give it its zing if it didn't  have this it would just be too sweet i think my eyes are still watering from  grating that onion that is intense   i don't know if i've ever grated an onion before we're gonna do a greek marinade with the  chicken breast this is olive oil going in here lemon juice basil grape chicken is way better  with fresh garlic but i have used   all my fresh garlic i need to make a note to  self that when i'm peeling garlic for these   days i need to do twice as much as i think because  i always run out by the end this is oregano and   thyme homegrown parsley look at the color on that  it's so much greener than the store-bought parsley   i'm gonna put a lot in there black pepper but i'm  out of black pepper right now i have to grind more   i'm gonna put a note on this bag that i'm gonna  have to put black pepper on it when i cook it   salt and if i had used fresh lemons  i would put the zest of the lemon   juice on here but i did not use fresh  lemons so we're just gonna go with it   this is such a fresh marinade i mean it would  be better if all these herbs were fresh but just using what we got the korean beef was a recipe i wanted to try  because it has asian pear sauce in it which i have   an asian pear tree and i was able to make this  sauce with it but i did not follow the recipe at   all because i didn't have like four of the  ingredients so i'm going to leave a link to the   blog where i found this recipe so if you want to  try it it is available down in the description box talk about a productive day i took this entire  day almost and i got 22 meals done we got two   four six eight marinated meats which are kind  of the beginning of a meal because i still   need to make two sides but this is a great  start for a meal this saves me a ton of time   they're homemade marinades i know exactly  what's in them and i'm pretty excited about that   i got 13 meals that are completely ready to go  except for the chicken and a biscuit the only   thing i have to do when i pull this up to thought  is i actually still need to make the biscuits but   i don't do that until i actually go to cook it  what i do is i take this i throw it in the oven   once it's nice and bubbly and hot and i know  that the inside's hot i go ahead and i put the   biscuits on there so that i know that the bottom  is going to cook if i was to put cold biscuits on   cold filling then the bottom is not going to cook  so that's how i do that so i still need to do that   but that's pretty easy we so we got let me recap  we got two chicken and biscuits three stuffed   shells which is way more than i was expecting  three creamy enchiladas two pumpkin pastas   two bulgogi beefs i know i'm saying that wrong  two honey mustard marinades one chicken one   pork two of the cranberry marinated meat two of  the greek marinated meat and three shepherd's pies   i still do cook when we have freezer meals but  this is just a way that i don't have to cook every   single night i don't have to worry about it as  much this is insurance for me that if i don't have   the energy or i don't want to then i have still a  home-cooked meal that i don't have to think about   i love cooking i love spending the day and doing  this i love cooking at night i love doing that   i don't love the pressure of having to cook  all the time and because we mostly eat at home   and we really are trying not to eat out very much  for two reasons one i grow a lot of this food and   so we need to make sure we're eating it and two  i like to know what ingredients are in things   and if i make it that's a way to guarantee that i  know what ingredients are in what we're eating and   three it saves us a lot of money we've got some  big projects we're wanting to do on this house   and going out to eat can get really expensive we  still do enjoy going out to eat but after 2020 and   realizing how much we were going out eating out  for us is more of a special thing and so having   these here really just ensures it's a peace  of mind for me it's almost like food insurance   it's meal insurance this is meal insurance  for me that if i don't have the energy   i still have a meal that i can just throw in the  oven and it's ready to go the last thing we need   to do is actually wrap these up what i'm going  to do is i'm actually going to wrap them up in   two layers of foil and one layer of saran wrap  i was trying to get away from the saran wrap but   what happened the last two times i just used the  foil is the foil tends to rip if anything rubs   against it and because i do have a deep freeze  then there i'm moving things around there is a   likelihood that the foil is going to rip so i  am going to do a layer of saran wrap this time   so many of you guys gave me the suggestions to  buy the covers that go over these and i would love   to be able to do that but i bought most of these  at goodwill and they're all different shapes and   sizes so i wouldn't know which ones to actually go  by to buy the covers like the silicone covers that   go with them if you guys do freezer meals could  you leave down in the comment section some ideas   because i'm always looking for new ideas when it  comes to freezer meals i do say you can go down   your freezer aisle and you can get inspiration  there but let me know if you guys have favorite   freezer meals and i'd love to try maybe your guys  favorites that might be a fun video maybe the next   one i just cook your guys's recipes as opposed  to mine don't forget if you're interested in   any of these recipes they will be linked down at  scratchpantry.com they also will be linked like   the golgi beef i'm not saying that right i will  link to the blog where i got that recipe so if   you're interested in making any of these you can  go ahead and check those out i hope you guys are   having a great day i hope you guys found value  in this if you did please give it a thumbs up   if you know anybody that would enjoy watching  this video please consider sharing it with them   if you enjoyed this video and you want to watch  more of my cooking videos or you want to watch   the videos of me actually harvesting a bunch of  this stuff i will leave some videos right up here   you can go watch i hope you guys are having a  great day and i'll see you next time bye guys last one to go in the freezer

Channel: Acre Homestead

Views: 1,028,388

Keywords: Acre Homestead, Freezer Meal, Filling my Freezer, Cooking From Scratch, Bulk Food, Food Prep, Bulk Food Cooking, Cooking in Bulk, Easy Freezer Meals, Mega Cooking, Batch Cooking, Large Family Cooking, Mega Freezer Meals, buter box

Id: 9q9-wiw4UsM

Length: 52min 20sec (3140 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 02 2021