Freezer Cooking Example: Ground Turkey

Back in January, Ralphs had their Simple Truth brand of ground turkey on sale for $2.99 per pound, so I picked up five one-pound packages. I brought them home and turned them into the following freezer meals:


Slow Cooker Turkey Chili

When I make a turkey chili freezer meal, I start with this New Leaf Wellness Turkey Black Bean Chili recipe. But I don't like black beans in chili, so I substitute cans of rinsed kidney and pinto beans. I also leave out the corn, because it's not my family's favorite.

To freeze the chili, I put the liquid ingredients (tomatoes and sauce) in the bottom of a freezer ziptop bag, then the beans and spices, and finally the ground turkey. I use two freezer bags, and label and date the outside bag. Prepping the meal in a bag makes freezing it really easy, because you just have to lay the bag flat in the freezer.

To cook the chili, I pull the bag out of the freezer and let it sit in the fridge overnight. The next day, I dump the contents of the bag into my slow cooker and set it for low all day.

Brown Sugar Turkey Meatloaf

This is another adaptation of a New Leaf Wellness recipe. I substitute turkey for the ground beef, and actually mix the sugar-ketchup sauce mixture into the meat mixture. It makes the meatloaf super moist, and it's delicious.

When freezing a meatloaf, I usually just use a glass loaf pan, and cover it with a layer of plastic wrap and a layer of foil (as depicted below). I use a Sharpie to write the contents and date directly on the foil. You could use a foil loaf pan if you don't want to tie up a glass loaf pan in the freezer.

To bake the meatloaf, I defrost it overnight, then bake it the next day. I put the cold pan into the oven when I turn the oven on, instead of preheating it, to avoid shocking the glass. No guarantees, but it's worked for me so far.

Teriyaki Turkey Burgers

I completely improvised this recipe, adding onion powder, grated ginger, brown sugar, mirin and soy sauce to the ground turkey. My family actually really liked these burgers, so I'll have to make them again and record measurements.

You could defrost and pan fry the burgers, but I opted for the easy route and cooked the burgers in the oven from frozen. I just put them on a Silpat and baked them until they were done.


Instant Pot Turkey Bolognese

I've adapted my favorite bolognese recipe for the Instant Pot, which I love because of the saute function. I skipped the carrots and celery, used the saute function to brown the ground turkey before adding rest of the ingredients and cooking it on the Stew function for a few hours.

Once the sauce was done, I ladled it into mason jars, then labeled the lids with masking tape and a Sharpie. I really like the straight sided mason jars for freezing liquids - even if the center is still frozen, I can slide it out. The core doesn't get stuck the way it sometimes does in the more traditionally shaped mason jars.

Turkey Pesto Meatballs

I mostly followed this New Leaf Wellness recipe, but skipped the tomato sauce because my boys don't like tomato sauce except in baked pasta. These were a hit with my oldest, who liked them way more than the chicken meatballs I made a couple of months earlier.

What are your favorite freezer meals? Plus see the rest of this freezer meal series here.



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9 Quick Ways to Cheer Yourself Up

Over the years, I've gotten quite good at snapping myself out of a funk. (By "funk," I mean when I'm feeling cranky or down, but not for any big, obvious reason. If you've suffered a recent loss, or are truly depressed, these quick fixes probably won't do much for you. Please seek professional assistance if you're really in a dark place, and know that you are not alone.)


Obviously, the first step is to realize you're feeling moody or cranky or even sad. Once you do, try one or more of the tricks I use to change my mood and outlook:

• Listen to the Happier podcast. This is my most favorite podcast, and it's all about how to be happier. Gretchen and Elizabeth's focus on the different ways to be happier give me food for thought, and make it easier for me to change my mental place.



• Listen to your favorite music. Almost everyone has a song that makes them happy, and listening to a favorite song (or playlist) can instantly lift you up. Some selections from my Happy playlist include Thunder in the Rain by Kane Brown, Dancing in the Dark by Bruce Springsteen, Karma Chameleon by Culture Club, Shut Up and Dance by Walk the Moon, and Summer of '69 by Bryan Adams.



• Remember what you're grateful for. Research shows that grateful people are happier people. I don't keep a gratitude journal, but I frequently try to remember what I'm grateful for. (Every morning when I wake up, I say a quick prayer of thanks for my family and other blessings that come to mind.) When I'm down in the dumps, gratitude is usually not as much at the forefront of my thoughts, so making a quick list - mental or written - is a good way to turn my mood around.



• Help someone. Research also shows making someone else happier makes you happier. So help someone, or do something nice for them, and you'll feel better too. In my experience, even planning to do something for someone else can knock you out of your funk.



• Try something new. This can be something simple you've been thinking about, like signing up for a free trial of Amazon Prime. Or something bigger you've been afraid of, like going to a spinning class for the first time. There's just something about trying a new activity that's exhilarating and chases away those negative feelings. Just a cautionary note here, though - make the effort to set yourself up for success, for example, by taking a supportive friend to the spinning class.



• Treat yourself. If you can think of something that would feel indulgent that you won't regret later, go ahead and indulge. The key here is the absence of regret. This means that if you'll berate yourself for having a slice of chocolate cake, you shouldn't have the cake. But if you want to re-read a favorite book and you have or can make the time to read, then why not?



• Plan to treat yourself. Anticipation is often even better than the actual event, so making plans for a treat can make you happier than giving yourself a treat right now. And this strategy works well when you don't have the time for the treat you want to give yourself. (Like when the kids are underfoot and require your full attention - speaking from experience.)



• Go ahead and sulk. But set a time limit. This idea is similar to the idea of scheduling time to worry. In fact, you can even schedule time for sulking later if you have to be "on" at the moment. Sometimes just knowing you can wallow later is enough to make you feel better now.



• Think about something you've overcome to remind yourself of your resilience. In fact, you might want to keep a success journal that details your accomplishments so that you go back to it when you need a pick-me-up. This was advice my dad gave me years ago, and i have to admit that I haven't kept up with my success journal. But it's not too late to start adding to it again!

What are your favorite ways to cheer yourself up that I can add to my arsenal of tricks?

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How to Send Your Kids to College Without ANY Debt (my new financial goal)

I recently read a fantastic book called Debt-Free U: How I Paid for an Outstanding College Education Without Loans, Scholarships, or Mooching off My Parents, and it's helped to change my thinking about college. First off, I am now absolutely determined to send my boys to college without any of us taking out loans. Second, I am convinced that it will be possible to do so.


That said, I realize there will likely be compromises that need to be made, the biggest one being that they may not be able to attend their first-choice school. But that's a bridge we'll cross when we come to it. My kids are in seventh and fifth grade right now, so we're not even close to drawing up lists of schools to consider.

If you want a more detailed discussion of Debt-Free U, check out my other site, LAUSD Magnet Schools. Here, I'll share a few things that are logical first steps in preparing to pay for college.

Learn how the system works. If you went to college, you might remember the FAFSA, or Free Application for Federal Student Aid. It's the one financial aid application you pretty much have to fill out in order to get any kind of financial aid for college and grad school.

A key concept related to the FAFSA is EFC, or Expected Family Contribution. Based on the information you provide on the FAFSA, you'll get an EFC, which is the amount the government says you should be able to pay that year for your child's education. Low-income families can have a low EFC, which helps them get more financial aid. But it seems like middle-class families and even many lower-income families are assigned EFCs that are unrealistic. I just read about one single mother with a $65,000 annual salary who has an EFC of $40,000! I am expecting our EFC to be painfully high and that we will therefore be ineligible for any need-based financial aid.

One other note: "Financial aid" includes loans. As in, when you get the financial aid package from a school, explaining the aid they are giving, it frequently includes loans as a form of "aid." For example, if the total cost is $30,000 and your EFC is $10,000, they might give you $10,000 in need-based scholarship aid, and $10,000 in loans. I know student loan debt is often touted as "good" debt, much like a mortgage, but Debt-Free U makes some compelling arguments about why that's not the case. This Forbes article explains why parents especially shouldn't take out loans to help their kids.

Merit scholarships do exist. They might be difficult to come by, but they are out there. However, you have to earn them. I've been learning about what that takes, and not surprisingly, a lot of it comes down to good grades and high test scores. It also helps to do volunteer work and be passionate about something. Of course, it's a difficult balance between encouraging your kids and stressing them out too much. I try to remember to emphasize that my kids should do their best, and that effort matters more than results (and that when you put in the effort, the results usually come).

Save, save, save! I wish California had a pre-paid tuition option for state schools, because I'd be all over that. It's a big enough state that I wouldn't feel bad about telling them they have to stay for undergraduate work, at least - they can still get plenty far away enough from home. Unfortunately, all we have is a 529 plan. Which, of course, we are contributing to. But balancing college savings and retirement savings is tricky, to say the least.

There are a lot of schools out there. Until I started talking with friends who have high schoolers and recent grads, I'd never heard of a couple of schools that are less than 40 miles away from my house. One of my friends hired a private college counselor, who helped her son find some smaller schools that they wouldn't have known about or considered (in addition to helping him write his essays and get his applications in).

High school counselors don't know a lot about paying for college. I'm sure there are a lot of great high school counselors out there, but I'm also discovering that many focus solely on helping your child get into a school, and completely ignore the financial aspect of the process.

There are some really nice financial breaks available to California residents at UC schools. I don't know if we'll qualify for any of them, but I want to spread the word about them because if you're eligible, they can be a huge help!

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Freezer Meal Recipe: Enchiladas

This recipe is part of our Freezer Meals series, in which I'm sharing how freezer cooking has helped me save time, money, and sanity.

One of the easiest and fastest freezer meals I know how to make is enchiladas. It's a fabulous way to use up leftover taco meat, a roast, or rotisserie chicken. Quantities listed are not precise - that's one of the beauties of this meal. You can use what you have on hand. If you don't have Mexican blend cheese, use shredded cheddar or mozzarella. No refried beans? Mash up some pinto or black beans, or skip them altogether. Just a little bit of meat? Use more beans.


As you can see, I made two smaller pans of enchiladas, but you could make one large pan instead. (I can sense that day coming here, as my older son now frequently eats more than his father at dinner.)

Here's my workspace:

Start by spreading the beans on a tortilla (I work on a cutting board because I can be messy):

Top with meat and cheese:

Roll up, put in the pan seam side down, and top with enchilada sauce and more cheese - I made one with red sauce and one with green sauce:

Cover with plastic wrap and foil, label, and freeze!

To eat the enchiladas, defrost overnight in the fridge, then bake at 350 degrees until bubbling at the edges - about 45 minutes to an hour. You can cover with foil while baking to speed the cooking process up, and remove it for the last 15 minutes to melt the cheese on top.

Freezer-Friendly Enchiladas

Makes two 4-serving pans.

Nonstick cooking spray
8 8-10 inch tortillas
1 cup of refried beans
1-2 cups of cooked ground or shredded meat
3-4 cups of shredded Mexican blend cheese
2 cups of enchilada sauce (we love Frontera brand)

1. Spray two 8x8 and/or 11x7 baking dishes with nonstick cooking spray. Spread 1/4 cup of enchilada sauce on the bottom of each dish.

2. On each tortilla, spread 2 tablespoons of refried beans. Top with 2-4 tablespoons of meat and 2-4 tablespoons of cheese. Roll each tortilla up and place seam-side down in baking dishes.

3. Spread remaining enchilada sauce over the tortillas (about 3/4 cup per dish; use more if you like your enchiladas on the saucy/soupy side). Top with remaining cheese (about 1/2 cup per dish).

4. Cover each dish with plastic wrap, then again with aluminum foil. Label and date the dish (I write directly on the foil with a Sharpie). Freeze for up to 3 months.

5. To cook, defrost the pan in the fridge overnight. Leave out for an hour so pan is not too cold when you put it in the preheated oven. Remove foil and plastic wrap. Bake at 350 degrees for 45-60 minutes, or until bubbling. Serve with guacamole and sour cream, if desired.

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