Freezer Cooking In An Hour

I had another successful Freezer Cooking in an Hour session yesterday.  The Whole Wheat Blender Pancakes were fun to make (and that photo above? I shot it in manual mode… yes, I’m getting brave! )

I love how the Vitamix makes the pancake batter so smooth.

While the pancakes were baking, I mixed up the yeast mixture for the Crusty Baguettes and let that sit for 10 minutes. Then, I whipped up the Quinoa Cookies.

I love how yellow the batter is when I use farm-fresh eggs!

The Quinoa Cookies were a definite success. They are a soft cookie — more along the lines of a breakfast cookie — and they pack a nutritional punch.

The Crusty Baguettes were so easy to make.

The dough was stickier than I expected so I ended up adding a little more flour than it called for.

I didn’t get a picture of the final Crusty Baguettes, but they were beautiful and I was very impressed with the recipe.

And the Whole Wheat Blender Pancakes turned out well, too. They weren’t sweet — since they didn’t have any sweetener in them — but they were wholesome and yummy.

All in all, it was another very successful Freezer Cooking in an Hour session — yay!

Recipe Links:

• Whole Wheat Blender Pancakes
• Crusty Baguettes
• Quinoa Cookies
• New to freezer cooking? Be sure to check out my post on How to Save Time and Money by Freezer Cooking.

Did you do any freezer cooking this week?

I mixed up the roll dough for the Pull Apart Rolls in the middle of our morning homeschooling while the girls were working on an independent project.

An hour later, the dough was done and ready to bake. Oh how I love my bread machine!

The rolls turned out beautifully (I forgot to brush them with butter, though!) and were very delicious. Plus, they froze well. By the way, these are so, so good with Crockpot Apple Butter.

Yay for another fantastic bread recipe to add to my line-up of favorite bread recipes!

I wasn’t sure how the Banana Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Pancakes would turn out. It seemed like an awful lot of different ingredients to throw into one recipe.

I used buttermilk and bananas that I’d purchased marked down and had frozen. I love it when I can incorporate ingredients that I’ve gotten on a great sale into my freezer cooking.

Jesse and I both agreed we really liked the end result. They are hearty and delicious. Best of all, they pack a nutritious punch.

We like them best served cold without any sort of topping. And don’t get too hung up on the “pancake” part of their name. They are pancakes, but they reminded me a little more of breakfast cookies than pancakes in how they taste.

And finally, we LOVED the IHOP Pancakes. They were so fluffy and yummy. This is definitely a recipe I’ll be making again!

Did you cook or bake anything for your freezer this week? Share the recipe link in the comments; I’d love to check it out!

Recipe links:

Pull Apart Oat Rolls
Banana Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Pancakes
IHOP-Knock-Off Pancakes

Last night, I switched up my planned Freezer Cooking in an Hour session and used up some of the items I’d purchased at great prices at Dillon’s yesterday instead.

First, I made Kale Chips. (More pictures and details on this recipe coming tomorrow.) These were super simple to make since I had bought a marked-down bag of pre-rinsed and torn Kale chips.

Then, while the Kale Chips were baking, I whipped up two bags of Bean Burritos. As you probably guessed I would, I tweaked the recipe some. I’ll share my tweaked version with you soon — probably early next week.

Finally, I make two pans of Beef & Cheese Pockets. You can read more about that recipe creation here.

I was highly motivated to get finished quickly since it was almost dinner time — and sure enough, all of this was accomplished in right at an hour. Yay!

Did you do any freezer cooking this week?

I’m so excited because all of my Freezer Cooking in an Hour recipes tonight were a success. And best of all, they took me right around 45 minutes total to make, complete with interruptions.

I was anxious to try the Chocolate Cranberry Energy Bites — and was really happy with how they turned out.

I substituted sunflower seeds for the coconut and left out the nuts and they turned out deliciously.

The Vegan Banana Oatmeal Pancakes were also very successful. I was rather cynical that they’d actually work — but they turned out beautifully.

They were a bit banana-y, but yummy and hearty.

The Crockpot Refried Beans were so, so easy to make. If they turn out well, this is definitely a winner recipe. I’ll let you know tomorrow morning how they end up turning out.

So all in all, tonight’s quick Freezer Cooking session was a huge success. I love it when that happens!

Freezer Cooking Recipes:

Crockpot Refried Beans
Chocolate Cranberry Energy Bites
Vegan Banana Oatmeal Pancakes

Did you bake or cook anything for the freezer this week?

Once again this week, I split up my freezer cooking plans over two days because I didn’t have an hour block available. While this isn’t quite as efficient, it’s manageable — and at least it means that some things got made and made it to the freezer.

The winner recipe of this week was definitely the Apple Butter Muffins. So good — and they froze very well, too.

The Peanut Butter Pancakes were so-so. Very fluffy, but not as delicious as some of our other favorite pancake recipes. (And make sure not to let them cook too long — yikes on that burned one!)

And I was so sad to be disappointed by the Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Brownies. They were just really dry. Part of me wonders if they would do better if they had a full stick of butter in them instead of a half stick? Or if I cooked the brown sugar/butter mixture too long?

I followed the recipe exact as written (yes, truly, I did — believe it or not!) but my bars were much more dry than shown. Anyone have ideas as to what might have been my problem or what might “fix” the recipe?

Recipe links:

Apple Butter Muffins
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Brownies
Peanut Butter Pancakes

Did you bake or cook anything for the freezer this week?

Yesterday’s Freezer Cooking Session was so simple that it’s hard to even say it qualifies as a Freezer Cooking in an Hour session. And I guess that’s the beauty of letting your appliances do the work for you.

I stuck all of the ingredients for the Bread Machine Cinnamon Rolls in the bread machine.

The chocolate chips sort of jumped out of the freezer while I was getting the yeast out… so I had to help the bag be a little lighter so it wouldn’t keep jumping out of the freezer like it always seems to.

And then I dumped all of the ingredients for the Southwestern Slow Cooker 2-Bean Chicken in the crockpot. That was just about the easiest recipe known to man… er, woman.

A little while later, I came back and rolled out the Cinnamon Rolls, let them rise, and baked them.

A few hours later, I turned off the crockpot. And I was D-O-N-E with this week’s freezer cooking. Talk about simple, it almost seems a little hypocritical to label it as a Freezer Cooking Session.

But hey, on a busy week like this week, I’ll take it.

Recipes I Made:

Southwestern Slow Cooker 2-Bean Chicken — So easy, but we thought it was somewhat lacking in flavor. Anyone have suggestions or ideas on things I should try adding next time around?
Bread Machine Cinnamon Rolls — These are SO good. If you haven’t tried them, you are seriously missing out. Just sayin’.

Did you do any freezer cooking this week? If so, tell us about it!

I did another freezer cooking in an hour session today. I had to split it up before and after swimming lessons (our kids have swimming on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons after school this Fall).

So I mixed up the dry ingredients for the Brown Butter Banana Waffles and put together the Pancake/Waffle Mix before we left.

After we got home, I finished the waffles and baked them. They were more time-consuming than most waffle recipes I’ve made and I didn’t feel like they were worth the extra effort — but I really think it’s because I decided I didn’t love the flavor of bananas in waffles. But don’t worry, with plenty of butter and syrup, we’ll have no problem eating them.

Since I didn’t have any muffin tin liners, I just made the Crunchy Peanut Butter Cups into bars. I think it was easier to do so and the bars turned out beautifully. Now if I can just have the self-control not to eat half of the pan in the next few days.

I’m going to cut up the Crunchy Peanut Butter Cup Bars and freeze them. And I’m thinking having one of these will be a perfect little pick-me-up at the end of a long homeschooling day. Peanut butter and chocolate… it doesn’t get much better than that!

Have you done any cooking or baking for your freezer this week?

Here’s a little peek into the freezer cooking I did tonight:

I baked some chicken earlier in the day and chopped it while I was talking with my mom (she’s been coming over to spend time with the kids every Thursday afternoon after school).

And then Silas helped me grind up some flour while I mixed up the homemade pizza dough.

The Deep Dish Barbecue Chicken Pizzas were a little time intensive to put together.

Gratefully, I had some extra help in putting the pizzas together. I think someone likes their cheese.

I also made up a pizza with the extra ingredients.

Silas took this picture himself and I thought he did a pretty good job.

The Deep Dish Barbecue Chicken Pizzas turned out beautifully and the family declared them to be delicious. I’m happy to have some yummy grab-and-go foods in the freezer — perfect for a quick snack or lunch.

I also mixed up a double batch of these Knock Off Betty Crocker Brownie Mixes. I’m anxious to make them and see how they turn out.

Have you done any cooking or baking for your freezer this week?