Hellobee Boards

@looch: There are a few crock pot dumping recipes but it really depends on your taste. My husband makes them so I'm not sure a good go to recipe.

We try to keep on hand - Tortilla shells and shredded cheese (you can freeze both), salsa and onion and bell pepper (again you could cut up lots and freeze). That covers mexican pretty much any night of the week. Oh and then whatever seasoning you may want to use.

For salads, I try to keep a few crunchy toppings on hand to make the salad seem fuller. Croutons, bacon bits, sunflower seeds, raisins/craisins, all keep well. Chicken, shredded cheese, and even a hard boiled egg on top of a bag of lettuce makes a pretty good salad.

@looch: I just did this! I cooked all the chicken in the pressure cooker (could use slow cooker), then used some chicken and the broth for chicken torilla soup, and the rest of hte chicken in enchiladas and zucchini ziti. I cooked and we ate the ziti right away and froze the other two. If you haven't done so yet, buy the cheap, metal cooking trays at Costco, easy to freeze in and bake in later without taking up your cook-ware

Last week we did 3 kinds of dump chicken.

I mixed taco seasoning, a little water and lime juice on one big chicken breast. Chicken Montral seasoning and a little water for a second. And Indian curry paste and yogurt for another one. Mash around the ziploc bag to mix and coat and leave overnight. Then I cooked off all three from most neutral seasoning to strongest (so Montreal, then taco, then curry) just wiping down the pan between cooking. I just seat the meat and add a splash of water and throw a lid over the top to steam the rest of the way and let all the chicken cool. Then I chop it up in the same order and package up in Tupperwares with their juices. That week we had taco salad with salsa ranch, olives, cheese, avocado, and crushed up tortilla chips. Regular chicken salad with cashews, raisins, apples, and shredded carrots with a homemade French dressing. Then we had Indian salad with cashews, raisins, shredded carrots, cucumber, crushed plantain chips, and a herby yogurt dressing. Everything was atop a bed of baby greens from Costco although we added romaine to taco salad night. We are on a major salad kick so we've had Cobb and Waldorf salads in the last week too.

We try to keep a few dressings and interesting toppers in the house. Shredded carrots and cukes, and avocado, some nuts and crunchy bits, some apple or red grapes, some raisins or Craisins.

You can also buy those vacuum packs of rotisserie breast meat that's already cooked and skinned and just chop and go. We use it for so many things. Mash up with BBQ sauce, mash up with taco seasoning and lime juice and heat up, soup, risotto, chicken and dumplings, etc.

So I am in the middle of a 3 day freezer meal spree and here's what I have done and am going to do before I head back to work:

5 pounds of ground beef cook and sealed in 1 pound increments in bags
2 lbs breakfast sausage same as above
10 chicken breasts cooked, same as above
25 sandwiches (ham/swiss, roast beef/cheddar) individually wrapped in foil, ready to be cooked in oven
spaghetti sauce
sloppy joe
sour cream noodle bake
2 large pizza doughs frozen

Trying to think if I left anything off...I'll probably get a pork shoulder also, and throw in crockpot and freeze.

@looch: That recipe is great! I just make sure I have the 3 ingredients for the cream (milk flour and cream cheese), the broth and the cajun season. Everything else is kinda just go with the flow. My husband doesn't like tomatoes so we leave those out. He adds extra cajun in his bowl for more spice later.