Cooked and froze several meals for our Disney trip!!!

[paysensmom]

Thanks for the idea to cover the cooler to keep it cold. We have a big hard side cooler that we will have with us in the back of the van. It will not be opened until we get to the resort and put it into the freezer there. We will be eating one of the meals on our first night.

We are driving down to Jacksonville and stopping for the night at a friend's house. I may or may not put some in her freezer then. I do have a setting on my freezer that goes to negative 25, I plan to use that function the day before we leave!


For the person who asked for my recipe for the chicken casserole, I don't have an exact recipe because I don't measure.
It is very simple though.

First I precook some brown rice. (This takes awhile, but you could use some quicker cooking type.)
After I get the rice started I put some olive oil in a frying pan and cook my chicken breasts.
I mix milk and cheese in a sauce pan (similar to what you would do for mac n cheese). I also add a half of a chicken bulion cube for added flavor. I have made it without and it is still yummy!
Once the rice and chicken are cooked, I put the chicken into my Kitchenaide for about 35 seconds to chop it up. (HUGE time saver, so glad I read about that somewhere!)
I get a big bowl and mix the rice, cheese sauce and chicken, I grab some broccoli from the freezer and mix it in as well.
I top it with some shredded cheddar cheese and bake until the top is nice and bubbley brown! I'm sorry I don't have an exact recipe for you.

 

[froggy922]

Thanks for the idea to cover the cooler to keep it cold. We have a big hard side cooler that we will have with us in the back of the van. It will not be opened until we get to the resort and put it into the freezer there. We will be eating one of the meals on our first night.

We are driving down to Jacksonville and stopping for the night at a friend's house. I may or may not put some in her freezer then. I do have a setting on my freezer that goes to negative 25, I plan to use that function the day before we leave!

For the person who asked for my recipe for the chicken casserole, I don't have an exact recipe because I don't measure.
It is very simple though.

First I precook some brown rice. (This takes awhile, but you could use some quicker cooking type.)
After I get the rice started I put some olive oil in a frying pan and cook my chicken breasts.
I mix milk and cheese in a sauce pan (similar to what you would do for mac n cheese). I also add a half of a chicken bulion cube for added flavor. I have made it without and it is still yummy!
Once the rice and chicken are cooked, I put the chicken into my Kitchenaide for about 35 seconds to chop it up. (HUGE time saver, so glad I read about that somewhere!)
I get a big bowl and mix the rice, cheese sauce and chicken, I grab some broccoli from the freezer and mix it in as well.
I top it with some shredded cheddar cheese and bake until the top is nice and bubbley brown! I'm sorry I don't have an exact recipe for you.

Thanks for the recipe. My family will love this. And I cook like you-- I never measure anything (unless I'm baking) so I can understand this recipe perfectly

 

[annsteere]

I have The Scout's Dutch Oven Cookbook. We've tried several recipes out of it--Spicy Tortilla soup; Life Scout's Lazy Lasagna; Texas Beans; and Apple CAramel Dump Cake (which we have done with other flavors as well).

If anyone wants any of the recipes, let me know and I can type them up.

I'd love the recipes for Lazy lasagna and Texas beans!

 

[indimom]

All of the food will be fine. We have frozen things and kept them in a cooler with ice while we camped and the stuff on the bottom of the cooler stayed frozen for days. Frozen plus ice really does work!

Agreed. We've taken week-long camping trips using this method. The things on top defrost first, and we use them as they thaw.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Scouts-Du...sr=8-1&keywords=boy+scout+dutch+oven+cookbook.

That looks like a good buy, I'll have to check it out! Thanks for the tip!

I routinely haul fresh seafood back to my home from the gulf coast, and we usually stop overnight on the 12 hour drive. Fresh fish is a different situation than frozen food, but you can still do it.

The trick with frozen food is packing your ice chest (aka "cooler") properly. A hardside is by far the best option for a long road trip with frozen food, but it needs to stay closed for the drive; if you are also cooling road snacks, put those in a second chest.

Absolutely, we only open our "deep freeze" once a day to quickly take out what we need and top off ice as needed.

First off, freezing. The most important issue is eliminating as much air as possible. If you have a deep freezer in your home, put them there for at least 24 hours before departure; they will be much more fully frozen than in the freezer compartment of a fridge. For the OP, remember that white potatoes do not freeze well, as they are too starchy -- you definitely want to use red spuds if you are going to be freezing them, and liquid will help as well.

We also use the deep freeze to get our foods well frozen before we leave. We use Ziploc freezer bags and freeze them flat so they also stack tightly in the cooler.

Pay attention to the dimensions of your freezing containers and try to pack them in as tightly as possible; if you fully fill the chest up to about 2 inches from the top, you should NOT need any additional ice too keep the contents frozen for at least 36 hours.

We usually add a couple quart milk jugs, washed and 3/4 full of water, and frozen in the deep freeze. Not necessary, but it also gives us some ice cold water to drink when camping.

Finally, sealing the opening is important. If you are taking beach towels, fold one up on top of the food to insulate the lid opening, and tightly strap or tape down the lid. If you are not bringing towels, an inch of newspaper will also do the trick nicely.

We also top the cooler off with beach towels, inside and out, for insulation.

Thanks for the idea to cover the cooler to keep it cold. We have a big hard side cooler that we will have with us in the back of the van. It will not be opened until we get to the resort and put it into the freezer there. We will be eating one of the meals on our first night.

We are driving down to Jacksonville and stopping for the night at a friend's house. I may or may not put some in her freezer then. I do have a setting on my freezer that goes to negative 25, I plan to use that function the day before we leave!


For the person who asked for my recipe for the chicken casserole, I don't have an exact recipe because I don't measure.
It is very simple though.

First I precook some brown rice. (This takes awhile, but you could use some quicker cooking type.)
After I get the rice started I put some olive oil in a frying pan and cook my chicken breasts.
I mix milk and cheese in a sauce pan (similar to what you would do for mac n cheese). I also add a half of a chicken bulion cube for added flavor. I have made it without and it is still yummy!
Once the rice and chicken are cooked, I put the chicken into my Kitchenaide for about 35 seconds to chop it up. (HUGE time saver, so glad I read about that somewhere!)
I get a big bowl and mix the rice, cheese sauce and chicken, I grab some broccoli from the freezer and mix it in as well.
I top it with some shredded cheddar cheese and bake until the top is nice and bubbley brown! I'm sorry I don't have an exact recipe for you.[/QUOTE]

That's all I need. I can wing it from there. Thank you for the recipe. I was looking for something chicken based that the family would enjoy. All of our meals are "red meat" and I get sick of that. This should work out great! Thank you!!

 

[jjsmom]

Love this! Sounds like something I would do. Anything to get to go to WDW!!!