Freezer Meals: 2 Hours, 4 Dinners

I've been quite inspired lately by many Pinterest posts of these wonder women setting aside an entire day to make 30+ freezer meals. I don't have the time, energy, or freezer space to do that, but I wanted to try it on a small scale. 

I went to Walmart and bought a huge pack of fresh chicken breasts - I had no plan for the chicken, but knew I could think of some meals with ingredients I already had in my cupboards. This is what I did:

I baked all 8 chicken breasts split between two cake pans. I seasoned them with salt, pepper, and seasoned salt, baked them on 375 for 1 hour. I took them out, shredded them (ended up with about 8 cups of chicken) , and let the pile of chicken cool while I chose my recipes.

 Here are the recipes I made:

Chicken Enchilada Filling (thank you Julia for this recipe!)

• 2 cups Shredded Chicken
• 1 can Cream of Chicken
• 1 4 oz. can of Diced Green Chiles
• 1 cup. light sour cream
• 1.5 cups shredded cheese
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• Dash of cayenne pepper
• To Serve: place thawed mixture in whole wheat tortillas, roll up, sprinkle with cheese and bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes.

White Bean Chicken Chili 

• 2 cups shredded chicken
• 2 cups corn
• 1 can white beans
• 1.5 cups chicken broth
• 1/2 packet of enchilada seasoning
• 1/2 orange bell pepper
• 1/2 tsp. oregano
• 2 tsp. garlic
• 2 tbl. olive oil
• 1 onion
• Salt and pepper to taste

BBQ Chicken Sandwich Filling

• 2 cups shredded chicken
• 1/2 small bottle BBQ sauce
• 1 tsp. Garlic
• 1/8 c. vinegar
• 1 tsp. red pepper flakes
• 1/4 c. brown sugar
• Serve BBQ Chicken hot on Whole Wheat Buns

Chicken Pot Pie Filling

• 2 Cups shredded chicken
• 2 cups of steamed veggies
• 1 can cream of chicken
• 1/2 c. milk
• Seasoned salt, pepper
• To make the pot pie crust: Combine 1 C. Whole Wheat Flour, 1/3 C. Butter (Softened), and 1 tsp of salt in a bowl. Use a pastry cutter to combine the ingredients until the butter has made its way throughout the mixture. Next add 5 TBL of cold water. Use a fork to "wisk" it. The dough will begin to pull away from the sides of the bowl. Add one or more tablespoons of  cold water if the mixture is still too dry. Pack the dough into a ball and roll out on a floured surface.Place pie crust in lightly greased pie pan. Dump in the pot pie mixture. If you choose, you can make another crust for the top, or even a crumble topping. Bake 400 degrees for 40-50 minutes.

I put each recipe (cooled) into a freezer bag, labeled with the contents, and baking directions. I'm really looking forward to 4 nights where we can simply heat dinner up and eat it. I hope this inspires you to do the same and save some stress during the week!