Your freezer is a good source for a hot dinner

I find myself looking at the ideas people post on Pinterest quite often, and one idea that I’ve noticed that’s popped up over and over the past few years is preparing a bunch of meals all at once, freezing them, and then thawing them out on busy nights when there’s no time to cook dinner.

With Joey and I being ships passing in the night most of the time, having a home-cooked dinner often doesn’t work out well. Our schedules seem to be too unpredictable to plan ahead, so I decided it was high time I try some of the freezer meals I found online to see if we could beat the system. I chose several recipes that we could freeze and then pop in the crockpot on days we were going to be working late.

One that we pulled from the freezer recently and enjoyed was for cilantro lime chicken. If you’re not a big fan of cilantro, the flavor wasn’t nearly as pronounced as I thought it would be, and you could always substitute in some other spices you like better. Made as is, though, it was actually a pretty mild chicken dish.

We ended up putting some green salsa on it when we served it just to kick it up a notch. It would definitely be a kid-friendly meal in that regard.

I found the recipe for this on the blog “Making Our Marx” by Ashley Marx. You can find the original at http://ashleynoelbarnes.blogspot.com/2013/05/10-freezer-to-crockpot-meals.html.

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Cilantro Lime Chicken

Ingredients

3 chicken breasts

juice from 2 limes

1 bunch cilantro, chopped

16 ounces frozen corn

4 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 onion, diced (I used a yellow one)

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

2 teaspoons cumin

salt and pepper to taste

Directions

If you would like to cook this at a later date, put all of these ingredients into a large zip-top bag and store it in the freezer. It’s a good idea to write the cooking instructions on the outside of the bag so you remember. When you’re ready to cook the meal, dump the above ingredient into a crockpot and cook on low for about eight hours. Shred the chicken and serve.

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We ate this as tacos on tortillas, adding in some cheese, salsa and fresh spinach, but you could also eat it over rice or just on its own if you’re cutting carbs.

While this wasn’t the most exciting dinner we’ve ever had, having it ready and waiting in the freezer was a major plus. It’s always nice to walk into the house and already be able to smell supper.

Lindsey Young is managing editor of The Clarion, the Kansas Publishing Ventures newspaper in Andale. She can be reached at lindseyclarion@gmail.com.

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