Comments for FreezerDinner.com » Fabulous Freezer Meals – Recipes, Tips, and More!

Comment on Be your kids hero with Bento Boxes by kids health article

kids health article — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 23:46:14 +0000

kids health article…

[...]Be your kids hero with Bento Boxes | FreezerDinner.com[...]…

Comment on Making Your Own Frozen Pizza by Gen

Gen — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 18:28:24 +0000

It’s taken me forever to find a pizza stone UGH LOL but they came in the mail yesterday! I ordered them especially to make this recipe with. I can understand the placing the frozen pizza into a preheating oven directions on my pizza stone say to not throw a frozen pizza onto a room temp stone into the oven. Thanks for all the tips I cant wait to give this a go!

Comment on Making Your Own Frozen Pizza by Jenny Stanger

Jenny Stanger — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 18:09:55 +0000

Good question, but the pizza defrosts while the oven is heating up. My oven only 2-5 minutes to heat up. I assume yours is similar? It does not over cook the pizza. If anything, depending on your oven, you may need to cook it an extra two or three min. to brown the cheese. I’m excited for you to try this pizza out. It is so good. So much better then a store bought frozen pizza.

-Jenny

Comment on Making Your Own Frozen Pizza by Betsy

Betsy — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 16:54:43 +0000

You say in the directions to put the frozen pizza in the oven at 425 as it is preheating? Then cooking it 15 minutes longer once it reaches 425? Wouldn’t putting the pizza in while it’s preheating overcook it?

Comment on Taking the guess work out of dinner. by Jenny Stanger

Jenny Stanger — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 22:44:03 +0000

Egg rolls sound so good right now. Ham fried rice freezes really well as long as everything is chopped up tiny. I have before frozen large veggies in my ham fried rice and they turn out kind of soggy when I reheat. So keep everything diced. Just re-heat in a microwavable dish with a lid. Don’t add water, the ice in the water is enough to steam it. It should be hot and fluffy in 5-10 minutes on high depending on your microwave. I usually make my ham fried rice with 3 cups of white cooked rice already in my freezer. Once a month you can cook up a large batch of rice, cool it and package it in 2-3 cups per bag for the month. Squeeze the air out of the bags of rice and freezer flat like bricks. Pull it out as needed. I heat up my rice in the microwave. Meanwhile I cook bacon, diced ham in a skillet. I like to had a whole egg or two and fry that, add the rice, soy sauce to taste and some diced green onions, salt and pepper. How did you like the bean sprouts in your rice? That sounds yummy. The meatballs are amazing and make for a great quick meal. It’s so fun to think of that baby coming soon. I’m glad you will be ready so you can enjoy every moment with that sweet baby. Happy cooking!

Comment on Pizza Muffins by Jenny Stanger

Jenny Stanger — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 02:03:36 +0000

Thank you Crystal.

Hi Jenny! My husband bought me your book a couple years ago at the Lehi Costco for mother’s day when you were there and I have loved it ever since. I love your recipes and had a question about the pizza muffin one. I tried it out for the first time tonight and let me first say I love it! It’s such a yummy savory muffin and I love how versatile it is. I made this batch with pepperoni but already have ideas for making them with pineapple, canadian bacon, tomatos, olives, you name it!

My question is regarding the cheese that is mixed in. I followed the recipe and when we went to peel the paper off of the muffins it seems that the cheese has made it stick to the muffins, making us lose about 1/4 of the muffin to the paper in the process. I used regular paper muffins. Have you heard anyone else ask about this? Do you have any tips for not having the paper stick?

Thanks so much!
-Mary

Hi Mary, thanks for emailing. It’s fun to hear from you. The pizza muffins do seem to stick to the paper and I’ve heard a few people mention that more oil should be added to the recipe. I have not had time to experiment with adding more oil, but you are welcome to try it. I bet even 1/4 cup oil would make a difference. Pineapple is a genious idea. Yum, I love all your topping ideas. Our home was hit by lightening about 8 weeks ago and it took 6 weeks to fix the oven. I have been out of the habit of baking this summer, but I will put this recipe on my list to experiment with next time the opportunity opens up. Let me know if you find anything that works.

Comment on Taking the guess work out of dinner. by Amy Stanger

Amy Stanger — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 22:22:22 +0000

Yum! Thanks for sharing! I’m loving crock pot meals lately, but I made egg rolls yesterday. The recipe I have makes a ton so I stuck some in the freezer. So yummy! I was actually wondering if my ham fried rice will freeze? Do you know? I had a ton left over. It has celery, bean sprouts, ham, eggs, rice and soy sauce in it. I guess it wouldn’t hurt to freeze some and give it a try to see. How do you make your fried rice? Do you do any pre-prep on a different day or do you have to make it all fresh? I need to try your meatballs! It’s nice that I’m in the mood to cook lately with the cold weather. I need to freeze a bunch of meals for when my baby comes.

Comment on Freezing Cake balls. by Jenny Stanger

Jenny Stanger — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 12:45:04 +0000

Now keep in mind, my friend makes her cake balls with frosting, I found cream cheese is better for freezing but that is why she mentions frosting.

Comment on Freezing Cake balls. by Jenny Stanger

Jenny Stanger — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 12:44:09 +0000

Fran, good news, I heard back from my friend who has many hundreds more cakeballs then I and she gave some great advice. I’ve added her tips to my cake ball post.

“As far as cake balls go….the very best way I found for melting chocolate is to put it in the crock pot on low for about an hour and then on warm once it’s melted. It melts perfectly smooth and then you can just take a bowl out at a time to dip and the chocolate stays smooth in the crockpot. When using the microwave, it tends to need re-heated and I always have problems with it cooking to much. I also like to use the melting chips from Winco or any craft store…they just seem to work best.
Now dipping…honestly, mine look horrible because I’ve yet to master the dipping. I still just use my hands to plop them in and pull them out…not the prettiest, but it works. I’ve never frozen them before dipping, but I do refrigerate them for a while (preferably overnight) and that seems to firm them up a bit for dipping. I wonder if this person has too much frosting to be causing them to fall apart??? But I have frozen leftovers once they are dipped and other than the condensation they get on them when thawing, they still taste great…sometimes even still partially frozen.

Hope this helps!!!”
..

Comment on Freezing Cake balls. by Jenny Stanger

Jenny Stanger — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 20:43:43 +0000

Oh Fran, I am so sorry you had a hard time with melting the chocolate and the cake balls were falling apart. How frustrating! Yes you can freeze your leftovers. They only problem with freezing cake balls is when you bring them out to serve again and they defrost, tiny drops of moisture form on them. They still taste wonderful, but the dew drops make them not look as beautiful.

There is nothing worse then burning chocolate. Such a tragedy, I am so sorry. Everyone’s microwave is different and sometimes it will burn the chocolate so easily. I think I will change the instructions to say “stop and stir chocolate every 10 seconds until chocolate is melted”. Also, often the lowest you can turn an oven is 170 degrees F and that temperature will burn the chocolate. Here’s another idea. Melt your chocolate in a pan over a stove top. Place unwrapped chocolate in a pan. Melt over very low heat and Stir constantly. Add 1 teaspoon of shortening for each ounce of chocolate.
Sometimes Moisture can cause chocolate to become stiff and lumpy. Here is a link to my family blog where we dipped cake balls last year for Christmas. If we took too long, the cake balls defrosted and I had to place a tray or two back in the freezer to dip with. Also, your local grocery store often will sell bakers chocolate that is easy to melt in it’s own package. That is what I used for the white chocolate.
For dipping balls, you can dip the entire frozen ball (better to freeze over night) and use two forks to pull it out if you do not want a hole where the toothpick is. Thanks for your feedback, I hope you will attempt to make them again. I’m sure next time will be much easier for you.

Any more tips from the cake ball experts out there? I will ask my friend who has made hundreds of these babies for weddings. Have a great day Fran!