Meal Swap: Friday’s April 2013 Menu and Recipes

Meal Swap April 2013 Menu

Seafood/Fish:

Lindsey M. – Fish and Chips

6 Cod Fillets
1 cup of mayonnaise
1 cup coarsely crushed kettle chips

Prep Day Directions: Place individually wrapped cod in Freezer bag. Label and freeze. Place mayo in small bag- refrigerate. Crush kettle chips and place in another small bag. Label and place in cupboard.

Serve Day Directions: Thaw cod. Preheat oven to 400F. Arrange fish on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Smear mayonnaise over top of each fillet. Cover completely with crushed chips patting gently. Bake 12-15 minutes, depending on thickness of fish, until fish flakes easily with a fork.

Gretchen – Pesto Crusted Tilapia

6 Tilapia fillets
4 tablespoons pesto sauce
3 tablespoons Italian seasoned breadcrumbs
2 tablespoons parmesan cheese, grated
ground black pepper

Prep Day Directions: Measure and mix breadcrumbs and parmesan cheese. Make and/or measure pesto.

Serve Day Directions: Thaw. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cover a baking sheet with foil and coat with non-stick cooking spray. Place fish fillets on baking sheet and sprinkle with black pepper. In a small bowl, combine pesto, breadcrumbs, and parmesan cheese. Divide the topping evenly over the fish fillets, spreading with your fingers and pressing into the fish. Bake for 10 minutes at 375 degrees, then switch to broil to crisp up the crust for the last 2-5 minutes. Fish is done when the middle of the fillet flakes with a fork and is completely opaque.

Poultry:

Vanessa – Chicken Artichoke Pesto Pizza

makes 3 recipes, each serve 6

3 – Knorr dry pesto sauce mix (.05 oz.)
3 packs of 6ct. Greek style pita
1 rotisserie chicken (yields 3 cups of chopped or shredded chicken)
3 – (6 ounce) jar artichoke hearts, drained
3 – (8 oz.) pkgs. shredded pizza cheese

Prep Day: Remove skin and bones from chicken. Chop and Place in 3 small freezer bag evenly. Zip close and place in a labeled gallon freezer bag along with cheese and pita. Zip close and freeze. Label a quart size Baggie, put in pesto mix and jarred artichoke hearts. All will be assembled later into a pizza at a later date.

Serve Day: Thaw for stuff. Prepare pesto according to package. Spread pesto sauce over the pizza crusts. Arrange chicken pieces and artichoke hearts over the sauce, and sprinkle with cheese. Bake according to pita package directions. I like my when my cheese is melted and lightly browned at the edges. You can fold over and eat as a pizza pocket too.

Beef:

Keri – Beef Dip Sandwiches

2.5 lbs beef chuck roast
1-1/2 tsp minced garlic
1-1/2 tsp dried rosemary
2 bay leaves
1/2 cup soy sauce
3 cups water French rolls (or hamburger buns)
Provolone Cheese (optional)

Prep Day Directions: Place all ingredients except the water into a gallon sized freezer storage bag. Seal and freeze.

Serve Day Directions: Defrost completely. Place contents into slow cooker and add 3 cups water. Cook on low setting for 6-10 hours (the longer the better!) Top with provolone cheese (optional, but provided). We like to use the juice in the slow cooker for dipping the sandwiches!

Lindsay L. – Fajitas

1 Lb. Flank steak,thinly sliced against the grain
1 onion, thinly sliced
2 red bell peppers,seeded and thinly sliced
1 jalapeno,seeded(if desired) and thinly sliced
1t. chili powder
1t. hot sauce(i use Frank’s Red Hot)
kosher salt

4t. olive oil
8-8″ flour tortillas,warmed
salsa
sour cream
guacamole

Prep Day: In a large bowl,combine the steak,onion,bell peppers,jalapeno,chili powder,hot sauce, and 3/4t. salt. Place in freezer bags. Freeze until ready to cook,up to 3 months.

Serve Day: In a large skillet,over medium heat,heat the oil. Empty the frozen contents of the bag into the skillet. Cook,covered,stirring occasionally to break up ingredients,for 10 minutes. Raise heat to medium-high and cook,uncovered,until the vegetables are tender and the steak is cooked through,2-6 minutes. Serve with the tortillas and the salsa and sour cream and guacamole,if desired.

Your Choice/Vegetarian:

Heather G. – Veggie Lasagna

No Bake Lasagna noodles
onion chopped
Garlic minced 3 cloves
Spinach chopped- can be frozen or fresh
Salt and Pepper
Ricotta or cottage cheese
Mozzarella chesse shredded
Oregano,basil, parsley,
Chopped mushroom, broccoli,zucchini
Parmesan cheese
Tomato sauce

Prep Day Directions: Cook onions and garlic in a little oil. Add spinach cook season with Salt and pepper. Add ricotta, mozzarella. Stir together and set aside. Cook the broccoli, mushroom and zucchini add herbs. Set aside. Layer tomato sauce – Noodles – Spinach and cheese – Cooked Veggie, Repeat. Top with Cheese.

Serve Day Directions: Defrost, Bake on 400 covered for 30-40 minutes. Check after 30 minutes. Needs to be warm all the way through. Serve.

Megan – Pesto Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

12 slices good Italian bread
6 tablespoons softened butter, divided
6 tablespoon prepared pesto sauce (we’re using pesto rosso for this but you can do either – my husband loves the flavor of this with grilled cheese so hopefully you will too)
6 slices provolone cheese
6 slices American cheese
Box of tomato soup

Prep Day Directions: Spread one side of a slice of bread with butter Spread the top of the bread slice in the skillet with half the pesto sauce, and place a slice of provolone cheese and the slice of American cheese onto the pesto. Spread remaining pesto sauce on one side of the second slice of bread, and place the bread slice, pesto side down, onto the sandwich. Butter the top side of the sandwich. Place all sandwiches in large two gallon freezer bag and separate by using wax paper.

Serve Day Directions: Thaw Preheat oven to 400 degrees F Arrange sandwiches on baking sheet Bake in preheated oven on the bottom rack for 6 to 8 minutes. Flip the sandwiches and bake for another 6 minutes. They will brown on the bottom so you would have to keep an eye on them using this method. It’s a quick way to have them all cooked at once for you. You can also do whatever is most convenient for you, frying ect. Prepare soup based according to directions on box.

Pork:

Ann – Brown Sugar Glazed Pork Chops

5 pork chops
1/3 C. brown sugar
1/8 t ground red pepper
1/2 t garlic powder
1/2 t paprika
Salt & pepper to taste (I left this out for the swap, so everyone can season as they want.)

Prep Day Directions: Make-ahead Instructions: Add last 5 ingredients to a ziploc bag and shake to mix. Rinse pork chops and add to bag. Shake until pork chops are coated. Squeeze out all of the air and freeze flat.

Serve Day Directions: Prepare Instructions: Thaw completely in fridge. Place each pork chop on a foil-lined baking sheet and cook at 350 until done (20-25 minutes.)

Heather T. – Crockpot Island Pork

3lbs pork roast cut into bite size pieces
1 orange, peeled and cut into pieces
1 can (14oz) crushed pineapple
2T soy sauce
1/2 t ground cloves
1/4 t pepper
2T cornstarch
2T water
2 cups brown rice

Prep Day Directions: Place ingredients in a 1-gallon size zip lock bag. Seal bag. Squish the ingredients together and freeze.

Serve Day Directions: Dump frozen contents of bag into crockpot and cook on low for 8 hours. Cook the rice according the directions enclosed in the bag. Serve over brown rice.

Note: In May there is 10 of us swapping now. Anna from FEFC MOPS is joining us!

Next Meal Swap: Friday May 19th, 2013 @ 11:30am in front of Vanessa’s house. I live in SE Minneapolis. I will email out my address.