It’s fresh produce season! Make a trip to your local farmer’s market this weekend and try one of the gorgeous and tasty salad recipes.
Here’s another delicious vegetarian recipe from my Monthly Freezer Meal Challenge. This was actually a life-saver yesterday when I’d realized it was 3 pm and I’d forgotten to put my other freezer meal into the crockpot. If you freeze this meal ahead of time, it will be ready in only 20 minutes using your stovetop. My five year old refused to try it, but the rest of my family loved it. Baby N actually kept yelling, “More! More!” to get seconds, and then thirds.
So, I know he doesn’t look thrilled, but I swear that he loved it and ate it all.
Tempeh Tikka Masala
Prep Time 1 hour 20 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 40 minutes
Servings 4
Ingredients
- 1 cup Yogurt Plain
- 5 teaspoons Garam Masala
- ½ teaspoons Salt
- 2 teaspoons Lemon Juice
- 1 teaspoon Cumin
- 2 teaspoons Ginger Ground #1
- 1 ½ cups Tempeh
- 1 tablespoon Butter
- 2 teaspoons minced Garlic Cloves
- ½ cups Peas or any green vegetable Frozen-We used green beans.
- ¼ teaspoons Turmeric
- 12 ounces Tomato Sauce
- 1 cup Heavy Whipping Cream
- 1 tablespoon Brown Sugar
- ⅓ cups chopped Cilantro -Optional
Instructions
Prepping to Freeze
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In a large bowl, combine yogurt, 2 teaspoons garam masala, salt, lemon juice, cumin, 1 teaspoon ginger, and tempeh.
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Make sure tempeh is completely covered by sauce and refrigerate for at least one hour.
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Remove tempeh from fridge.
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In a large saucepan, heat butter over medium high heat.
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Add garlic, cooking until golden, about 2-3 minutes.
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Add tempeh, peas, 3 more teaspoons garam masala, turmeric, 1 more teaspoon ginger, tomato sauce, whipping cream, and brown sugar.
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Turn heat down to low. Cook for 20 minutes, or until sauce begins to thicken.
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Remove from heat and stir in cilantro, if using.
To Freeze For Later
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Let the sauce cool and then add to a gallon freezer bag.
Reheating Instructions
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Add contents of the bag to a large saucepan and cook over medium heat, covered, for 20 minutes.
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Serve over brown rice or any other starch.
Recipe Notes
I added 1 1/2 cups of spinach to the sauce while I was reheating. It not only made the dish healthier, but also helped to add a bit more liquid to the saucepan.
You may need to add more water to the saucepan if the frozen meal has a hard time thawing.
Try topping the dish with a dollop or two of sour cream or Greek yogurt. It’s so good!
Please check out Once a Month Meals for even more great make-ahead recipes. My favorite part of this site is that they provide directions for making a recipe right away, as well as directions for freezing. A girl needs options! Happy cooking!
🙂 Erin
Picture provided by : veganricha.com
Why, oh why, did I wait so long to start freezer cooking?? All I needed to do was cut the bag open at the bottom and toss this pre-made recipe into the crockpot. I do love to cook, but now I have time for other things I enjoy even more, like beer drinking. I froze this meal for my Monthly Freezer Meal Challenge post at the beginning of the month. It comes from the site, Once A Month Meals, which is full of great make-ahead recipes. This vegan recipe is healthy, filling and delicious. We just ate it in bowls instead of on bread, so it tasted more like a thick lentil stew. I liked that it made enough for dinner for two nights, with leftovers to spare. I wasn’t sure the kids would eat it, but, as you can see below, it was a hit!
Toddler Approved!
Vegan Sloppy Joes
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 6 hours
Total Time 6 hours 10 minutes
Servings 8 people
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cup Lentils, brown uncooked
- 2 cups Brown Rice uncooked
- 15 ounces Diced Tomatoes
- 1 1/2 cups Textured Vegetable Protein -I found mine on Amazon.
- 1 1/4 cups Diced Onion
- 1 1/2 cups Diced Carrot
- 3/4 cup Ketchup
- 3 tbsp Maple Syrup
- 1 tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1 tbsp Yellow Mustard
- 2 tbsp Soy Sauce or liquid amino
- 1 tsp Marjoram
- 6 cups Water
Instructions
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Freeze ahead: Place all ingredients, except water, in a gallon freezer bag
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On the day of cooking: Place contents of the freezer bag and 6 cups of water into the crockpot.
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Cook on HIGH for 6 hours and enjoy!
Absolutely Nothing Left!
I hope your family enjoys this recipe as much as mine. Happy cooking!
🙂 Erin
I thought it might be helpful to make a post for each freezer meal we made, in case some of you found the idea of making fourteen meals at once pretty daunting.
Last night, I “cooked” the black bean fajitas that my husband prepared on Tuesday. You can find the details below with a link to the official recipe page. Basically, it’s a mix of beans, peppers and onions that you can serve for dinner any way you’d like. If any of you have made Slow Cooker Salsa Chicken in the past where you throw some frozen chicken breasts, a jar of salsa and taco seasoning in the crock pot and call it a day, think of this as the vegetarian version. You can serve them as black bean fajitas, nachos, tacos or just put them on top of brown rice, which is what we did. We also sliced up some lettuce, avocado and tomato to put on top. The flavor was sweeter than I expected, but it was really delicious. I was nervous the kids wouldn’t eat it because of all the red peppers and onions, but they all devoured it quickly. A meal that all three of them will eat?! Where am I right now? This meal is definitely a keeper. If I had it to do over again, I’d double or even triple the recipe to make it last longer. Ours was pretty much gone in one sitting. Hope your family likes it too!
Black Bean Fajitas/Tacos/Bowls-Quick and Dirty Version (You know how I like it.)
Ingredients
3 Bell Peppers-any color, or omit them altogether
and just add more beans-buy frozen peppers to save $$
1 Small Onion-chopped
1 can Black Beans-15 oz.
2 cloves Garlic, minced or 2 T pre-minced
1 tablespoon Honey
1 tablespoon Apple Cider Vingar
1 tablespoon Chili powder
2 teaspoons Cumin
1 teaspoon Paprika
1/4 teaspoon Crushed Red Pepper
Directions
Throw all those ingredients in a crockpot or gallon freezer bag. When you’re ready to cook, let it simmer in there on low for 6-8 hours or if suddenly it’s 2 pm and you realize you forgot to start cooking, I learned that it can also cook on high for 3-4 hours. If you’re cooking this from freezing, there is no need to thaw it before tossing it in.
Tips: If you’re feeling carnivorous, feel free to throw in some frozen/thawed chicken breasts to the crockpot at the same time as everything else, or add in some cooked ground beef 10 minutes before serving.
🙂 Erin
Now that you know the cheapest places to buy your ingredients, it’s time to share the recipes!
Monthly Freezer Meal Challenge-14 meals
- Tomato Veggie & Barley Soup
- Coconut Chickpea Curry
- Mexican Black Bean Chili with Cornbread topping
- Greens and Beans Soup
- Black Bean Fajitas
- Potato Stew-I’m subbing regular potatoes for sweet because my kids don’t like them.
- Noodles Stroganoff
- Vegan Minestrone
- Teriyaki Veggies & Rice
- Broccoli Cheese Un-Casserole
- Tempeh Tikka Masala
- Sloppy Vegan Joes
- Coconut Tofu Curry
- Edamame Fried Rice
I found recipes 1-5 on the awesome website, http://newleafwellness.biz. This site has tons of healthy crockpot freezer meals with beautiful photos of the food. They also offer many different crockpot cookbooks for a small fee. It’s run by a wife and husband team who have four kids so they know how to make things that are both delicious and simple.
Recipes 6-10 were found on another great site, whatvegankidseat.com. This blog was especially useful for us when we decided to go vegetarian at home. It’s easy for my husband and I to find vegan meals we like, but tougher to find things our kids will eat. The site is under construction right now, but the link above will take you to many more recipes.
The final four recipes came from the site, onceamonthmeals.com. These recipes were four out of 101 that were listed on just this post alone, so you can imagine how many more recipes they have to offer. The entire site is dedicated to helping subscribers shop, prep and cook meals for an entire month. In addition, for $16/month, they’ll provide the Grocery Shopping List, Prep Instructions, step-by-step Cooking Day Instructions, individual Recipe Cards, printable Labels, and Thaw Sheets for each monthly menu. There are over 600 menus to choose from. This sounds like a pretty sweet deal for busy parents.
With these three sites in our sights, (ugh, sorry for the cheesiness!), we’re well on our way to mastering the art of monthly meals. My husband and I worked together and it took us just under three hours to prep all 14 meals. We listened to music and there was a lot of singing (husband) and dancing (me). I hope you try monthly cooking and have fun with it, or at least as much fun as you can have while cooking.
🙂 Erin
You can see how much he loves having his picture taken.
My husband wouldn’t let me smile for the camera, so now I just look creepy.
