I confess that I have never actually done a HUGE Freezer Cooking Day where I spend all day making up enough dinners for the entire month. (Well, there was that one time when I was feeling all granola-mama.) However, I do like to double a recipe and freeze the second portion or otherwise speed up the prep process.

Recently, I decided to make Chicken Noodle Soup. The boys are constantly asking for Chicken Noodle Soup, so I already knew it was going to be a winner!

I don’t really have a recipe for Chicken Noodle Soup. Nothing terribly concrete, anyway. However, I’ll try to give you some basic measurements. I make a HUGE pot!

Chicken Noodle Soup

In a LARGE stock pot -
Saute in butter until crisp/tender:
1 C. chopped or sliced Carrots
1 C. chopped or sliced Celery
1 C. chopped or sliced Onions

Add 2 C. Cooked Shredded Chicken (about 2-3 chicken breasts)
Add about 12-16 C. of Chicken Broth - I used a combination of homemade, from a carton, and chicken bouillon.
Sprinkle with freshly ground pepper. Add additional herbs to taste. I just gave it a couple of shakes of my Pampered Chef Rosemary Seasoning. YUM! I do change it up sometimes, though. Whatever! Taste it before you add salt, because it might not need it.
Add 1 bag of noodles. I usually use Egg Noodles, but since I had all that Ronzoni on hand, I let my son pick a box to dump in.
Let it simmer until the noodles are soft, then serve!

Of course, we always have a bunch of leftovers, so I ladle it out into individual portions and freeze it. Then, I pop the frozen soup out of the bowls and store it in freezer bags.

I don’t buy celery that often, so when I know I’m going to use it in a recipe I like to plan other meals that use celery, too!

The next night, I made some Chicken Pot Pie from a recipe my friend Lindsay posted over at Food Love. Here is her original recipe.

Chicken Pot Pie

For Two Pies:

1 cup diced onion
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped carrots
1/3 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup flour
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup evaporated milk
4 cups cooked and cubed chicken
1 cup frozen peas
1 1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper
4 pie crusts

Saute onions, celery and carrots in butter in a large skillet over medium heat til tender. Add flour and stir well, cook about 1 minute, stirring (will be very thick and dry). Slowly add chicken broth and evaporated milk and cook, stirring til bubbly and thickened. Stir in chicken, peas, salt and pepper. Remove from heat. Divide filling into crusts top with another crust and pinch edges to seal. Bake uncovered at 350 for 30 minutes, cover with foil and bake another 30 minutes . Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Or cool filling mixture and divide into freezer bags. When ready to use, thaw filling, put into crusts and bake as directed.

Do you guys see the similarities? I do!! Both recipes have chicken, celery, carrots and onions.

As I prepped the Chicken Noodle Soup, I also prepped the Chicken Pot Pie. How? Enter the Crock Pot and the Food Processor. They made easy/quick work of the chicken and the veggies.

Yeah, some of the veggies were a bit larger than I would have liked (still getting the hang of my food processor), however I just left it like that and no one cared. Still tasted yummy, and the prep went SO fast!!

I ended up with a pie for dinner, and some prepared filling for the freezer.

I would LOVE to find more 1 prep, 2 meals type recipes. Do you have any? Link me up!!

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