Freeze and bake meals

Creamy Enchilada Bake
(Quick meal to have on hand to give to friends after having a baby.)
1 lb ground beef
1 can refried beans
1 onion
1 package taco seasoning
1 can cream of mushroom soup
8 oz sour cream
8 oz shredded cheddar cheese
Tortillas (Deal Diva Tip: Buy the large packs from Costco to save money.)
Tomatoes – chopped

Brown ground beef and onions. Mix in beans. In a separate bowl, mix sour cream and soup. Spoon half of sour cream mixture on the bottom of a baking pan. Fill tortillas with beef mixture, roll up, and arrange in baking pan. Spoon remaining half of sour cream mixture over the tortillas. Cover with shredded cheese. Sprinkle tomatoes on top. Freeze. Bake at 350° for 25 - 30 minutes or until cheese melts and tortillas are golden brown.

Here’s another simple and tasty make-ahead recipe that freezes well and takes mere minutes to throw together.

Creamy Chicken Bake
1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 cup sour cream

Mix soup & sour cream. Spread half in pan. Add chicken. Spread remaining half of mixture on chicken. Freeze. Bake @ 375° for 30 minutes.

Finally, here’s another hearty dish great for a cold, winter night:

Hamburger Hot Dish
1 lb Ground Beef
1 cup Elbow Macaroni
1 cup Frozen Corn
1 can Cream of Mushroom soup
½ cup Sour Cream

Brown beef. Cook noodles. Drain. Mix all ingredients in a casserole dish. Freeze. Bake @ 375° for 30 minutes.

Crockpot recipe blog

Just got a new crockpot this week. Looking forward to 6.5 quarts of slow cooking goodness!

To honor low-key cooking, here is a blog where the author's goal was to use her crockpot 365 days in 2008. Every day. Yikes.

Let's hope she's hit a few success along the way, even if her pics make the food look disgusting. :P

Martha Stewart "Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies"

We'll see about that!

Here.

Orange Sage Turkey with Gravy

This is close to the one that is in the oven RIGHT NOW! Looking forward to it!

Roast Turkey with Sage and Orange Gravy
1 12- to 14-pound whole fresh or frozen turkey, thawed
2 tablespoons kosher salt
8 large oranges, scrubbed
1 large bunch fresh sage
3 heads garlic, cut crosswise in half
1 5.2- to 6.4-ounce package garlic-herb cheese spread (such as Boursin)
4 large carrots
3 small leeks, trimmed and rinsed, or 2 large onions, cut into quarters
Olive oil
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour

Remove the giblets, then rinse the turkey. Dry with paper towels. Rub the cavity with the salt. Cut 2 of the oranges into 2-inch chunks. Set aside a few sage sprigs for garnish later. Place the remaining sage, cut-up oranges, and garlic in the cavity. Loosen the skin from the breast and spread the cheese under the skin. Tuck the wings under the back; tie the legs together. Arrange the carrots and leeks in the roasting pan to create a "rack" and place the turkey on it; rub with oil. (The turkey can be prepared to this point up to 1 day ahead. Cover the pan with plastic wrap and refrigerate.) Heat oven to 350ºF. Roast for 1 hour. Place a foil tent over the turkey and continue roasting for 2 1/2 to 3 hours more or until an instant-read thermometer registers 180ºF when inserted in the breast.

Remove the roasting pan from the oven. Carefully move the turkey to a platter, pouring any cavity juice back into the pan. Cover with foil to keep warm. Set oven to 500ºF. Cut the remaining 6 oranges into quarters and arrange in a shallow baking pan. Roast for 10 to 15 minutes or until brown.

Meanwhile, discard the vegetables from the roasting pan. Pour the pan drippings into a 4-cup measure. When the fat separates and rises to the surface, spoon 1/3 cup of it into a medium saucepan; discard any remaining fat. Squeeze the juice from 12 of the orange wedges into the defatted broth; if necessary, add water or chicken broth to make 4 cups. Whisk the flour into the fat in the saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, for 3 minutes. Add the broth mixture and cook, stirring constantly, until the gravy thickens and boils, 5 to 7 minutes.

Arrange the remaining baked oranges with the sage on the platter around the turkey. Serve with the gravy.

Time-savers: Use a bed of carrots and leeks instead of a roasting rack. The vegetables flavor the drippings, and there's no rack to scour. Spread garlic-herb cheese under the turkey skin instead of the traditional mixture of butter and herbs. It adds flavor to the turkey and eliminates extra chopping and dirty mixing bowls. Roasting the turkey unstuffed shaves about 30 minutes off the cooking time.

Yield: 10 servings, with leftovers

Turkey gravy

INGREDIENTS: turkey neck and giblets 1 onion, chopped 1 carrot, chopped 1 stick celery, chopped 2 bay leaves few sprigs fresh thyme 3 tbsp plain flour gravy browning salt and freshly ground black pepper

PREPARATION: 1. Place the turkey neck and giblets in a saucepan with the vegetables, herbs and 600ml cold water. Bring to a simmer, cover and cook for 30 minutes. Drain and reserve. 2. To make the gravy, pour 3 tbsp fatty juices from the turkey roasting tin into a pan and stir in the flour. Cook, stirring, for about 1-2 minutes until lightly browned. 3. Pour in the giblet stock and 150ml turkey juices (or wine) and bring to the boil, stirring. Add a llittle gravy browning, season to taste and simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes. You now have a delicious turkey grav. From here.

Turkey Carving Demo by Washington Post

This is a great 6 min tutorial on how to carve a turkey cleanly. Master this and look like the pro you will be.