Tag: freezer friendly

Recipes

BEEF AND ROASTED EGGPLANT STEW

Alasen Zarndt

This hearty stew makes a perfect dinner for postpartum recovery. It’s packed with the veggies your body needs and gives you a good amount or iron from the beef and chickpeas. This is a great one to send to a friend or relative who wants to bring you a meal! Bonus: it also  freezes well, so you can prepare a double batch and save half for later.

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 lb (450 g) lean  ground beef
• 2 medium eggplants, cut into bite-size pieces
• 2 cups (330g) cherry tomatoes
• 14oz. (400g) can chopped tomatoes
• 14oz. (400g) can chickpeas, drained
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 4 tbsp. tomato puree
• 1 tbsp. apple cider vinegar
• 2 tsp. mixed herbs
• handful parsley, chopped

Instructions:

Pre-heat the oven to 400°F (200°C). Place the cut eggplant into a baking dish and drizzle with 1 tbsp. olive oil and season with salt. Cook in the oven for 40 minutes until soft.

In the meantime, heat the remaining 1 tbsp. oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Brown  the ground beef.

Add the onion and garlic, season with salt and pepper, and cook for 5-6 minutes until soft—then add in the mixed herbs, tomato puree, and cook for another 2 minutes.

Next, add in the chopped tomatoes, vinegar, chickpeas, and cherry tomatoes. Bring to boil, then reduce heat and continue simmering until the eggplant is ready.

Once the eggplant is soft, add into the tomato sauce and mix well. Serve with rice and chopped parsley.

   

Recipes

Mushroom Soup

Alasen Zarndt

Mushrooms, what?

That’s right. This soup is delicious and a great source of Vitamin D – making it a good choice for the winter. You can batch make this and freeze so you have easy lunches or dinner on a day when things get hectic.

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp. coconut oil
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1/2 leek, chopped
• 5 1/3 cups (500g) mushrooms, sliced
• 1 small carrot, chopped
• 1 small parsnip, chopped
• 1 small potato, peeled, cubed
• 2 ½ cups (600ml) vegetable stock
• scant ½ cup (100ml) cream fraiche

Instructions:

In a large pot heat the oil, and sauté the chopped onion and sliced leek for about 3 mins.

Next, add washed and sliced mushrooms and fry for another 10 minutes stirring now and then. Add the carrot, parsnip and potato. Mix well and cook for 3-4 mins. Season with salt and pepper.

Pour in the hot vegetable stock and bring to the boil. Simmer, covered for about 15 mins. until the vegetables are soft.

Mix with a hand blender until smooth, add cream at the end and serve.

   

Recipes

Leek and Pea Soup with Basil

Alasen Zarndt

When optimizing postpartum recovery, don’t miss out on this soup. This fresh and delicious soup is perfect for anytime of year. It’s another great option to batch make in advance and freeze for when you have a busy week ahead.

Ingredients:

• 2 tsp. coconut oil
• 3 ¼ cups (400g) leek, chopped
• 4 cups (1L) water
• 2 vegetable stock cubes
• 3 cups (450g) garden peas
• ½ cup (15g) fresh basil, chopped
• 1 ¼ cup (150g) light feta, crumbled

Instructions:

Heat the oil in a large saucepan and cook the leek for 2 minutes. Add the water and the stock cubes. Bring to the boil and cook for a further 5 minutes.

Add in the garden peas and cook for another 2 minutes. Put three-quarters of the basil into the soup, turn off the heat and puree with a hand blender until smooth.

Divide the soup over 4 bowls and sprinkle with the crumbled cheese and the rest of the basil to serve. Season with freshly ground pepper.

   

Recipes

Hearty Beef and Veggie Chili

Alasen Zarndt

This chili is an all-time favorite at our house for two reasons: It’s incredibly easy to make and it’s delicious.

Oh, and it contains a huge helping of veggies in it, which makes my little nutrient-density-loving heart happy.

My kids love it topped with cheese and I love it served over brown rice or a sweet potato. We even eat it with Frito-style chips sometimes. It is also something that is super easy to freeze and thaw, so I almost always make a double or triple batch of it. This let’s us have a super fast meal on a weeknight if needed, that’s still super healthy.

Ingredients

  • 1 lb of high quality ground beef or bison
  • 1 can of diced tomatoes (no salt added)
  • 1 can of black beans
  • 1 can of garbanzo beans
  • 2 cans of pinto beans
  • 1 8oz can of diced green chilis (optional)
  • 16 oz of diced root veggies of your choice (for this, I love using the Healthy 8 veggie blend from Trader Joe’s. Here’s a copycat recipe in case you don’t have TJ nearby or need ideas)
  • 1/2 medium onion, diced
  • 1 TBSP olive oil
  • 2 TBSP chili seasoning
  • 16 oz organic beef bone broth

Instructions

Open all of the cans of beans, chilis, and tomatoes. Drain the water from the beans, but do NOT drain the tomatoes or chili.

In a large pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat and brown the ground meat, until it is cooked through. Add in the diced onion and stir occasionally until the onion softens and releases its water. Then add in the chili seasoning and stir until everything is evenly coated.

Add in the 16oz of chopped root veggies. Cover and cook until the veggies are softening (but not cooked through). If the veggies or meat is sticking to the bottom of the pan, you can add a few oz of the beef stock in this step to prevent that.

Once the veggies have begun to soften, add in the diced chilis if you are using them. Mix thoroughly. Next, add in the diced tomatoes and all of the beans. Stir the mixture to evenly distribute.

Finally add in the remaining bone broth and bring the chili to a simmer. You can simmer in as little as 10 minutes, or wait up to two hours to serve if you keep it over very low heat. You can also add the chili to a crock pot at this point and cook on low heat for up to 6 hours.

If you made a double batch, separate half of the chili out to freeze once is it cooked. Wait until it is cooled to room temperature before placing in a freezer bag and freeze it flat for easiest storage and thawing.

Recipes

Chicken Enchiladas

Alasen Zarndt

These chicken enchiladas are probably the all-time favorite in our house. They even win out over my healthy chicken tacos. They are relatively easy to make, but hand rolling the enchiladas is a little time consuming. Because of that, I will often make a very large batch of these on the weekend and freeze 2 or 3 sets for easy weeknight dinners down the road.

The key to great enchiladas is using good quality corn tortillas AND being able to roll them tightly without the tortilla ripping. Many recipes use flour tortillas instead because they are easier to roll. However, if you heat the corn tortilla correctly, it rolls just as easily as the flour ones and tastes SO MUCH BETTER.

Ingredients:

  • 2 C of shredded chicken
  • 1 8 oz can of green chiles
  • 2 TBSP avocado oil
  • 2 TBSP chicken taco seasoning
  • 1-2 TBSP lime juice
  • 12 sprouted corn tortillas
  • 2 C shredded cheese
  • 24 oz of red enchilada sauce (it’s ok to buy a can that you like, or you can make your own)

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350F. In a large skillet, heat the avocado oil. Add the shredded chicken and the green chiles to the pan and mix until heated through. Add in the taco seasoning and lime juice and mix again until everything is evenly coated. Add in half of the enchilada sauce. Allow the mixture to simmer until most of the liquid is reduced. Remove from the heat.

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Take a small pan (egg pan, non-stick works great) and heat it to about 350F on the stove top (Medium to Medium Low heat). Place one corn tortilla in the pan and sprinkle it with a little cheese. When the cheese starts to melt, add 2-3 tbsp of the chicken mixture in a line across the tortilla. Slide the tortilla onto a plate and roll it up. Place the rolled tortilla into an oven safe dish with the seam side down. Repeat this for the remainder of the tortillas.

When all 12 tortillas are rolled, pour the enchilada sauce over the top of each tortilla. sprinkle the tops of the enchiladas with cheese. Bake them at 350F uncovered for 20 minutes. Enjoy!

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