Freeze it Friday

Have you seen this??

The Soapy Dish is starting a new feature for swapping our fabulous Freezer Recipes and tips! This is the very first week, and they were sweet enough to link to my post for this weeks WFMW regarding how to freeze meals for the, well, for the freezer because I am just not sure where else you could freeze them.

And if you saw my post from last week you will know that this is a big part of how I organize my cooking and baking!

So needless to say, I am thrilled with this new Friday Feature and plan to play along regularly.

Now I could just cheat and share my Lazy Cabbage Roll recipe that you cook in the slow cooker and then freeze using the freezer bag method for easy side dishes, but that would be lame, so I share a different favorite with you, Taco Chili.

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Taco Chili

Great as an appetizer, a light lunch, or as a chili with the toppings on top.

2 x 1 1/3 packages ground turkey
1 finely chopped large onion
2 taco seasoning envelopes (1/2 cup if you buy the big container)
56 oz crushed or petite diced tomatoes
3 sweet peppers (red, yellow, orange or green) chopped
2 cups salsa (whatever flavor and heat you prefer)
3 x 15 oz black beans, rinsed (1-1.5 cup dried)

tortilla chips
shredded cheddar cheese
more salsa
sour cream
whatever other topping sounds good


Brown turkey adding onions as they are chopped.

Once the turkey is cooked add the next ingredients and simmer for at least 20 minutes.

Serve hot.

Freeze meal size portions using freezer bag method.

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When I make this I usually use dried black beans so I soak them over night, cook them for 12 minutes in my pressure cooker, and then this is the size that fits in my pressure cooker.

If I was doing a serious stock up I would double this and use my massive dutch oven.

The nice thing about this recipe is that you simmer it briefly before you freeze it, so it has the ease of leftovers - thaw, heat through - with the great features of freezer recipes - thaw, cook, as good as the first time!


Freeze it Friday Freezer tip
Keep a list of freezer meals that are ready to go in your freezer so that if you have an unexpected tough day you can peruse the list and pull something out. This recipe is great for a last minute need because it thaws very fast in either the microwave, putting the whole bag in hot water in the sink, or just a large enough pot.

This recipe has saved our lunches and suppers many times!