I have some catching up to do. A few weeks ago I made a few make-ahead meals, stuck them in my freezer, and forgot about them. Well .. I didn’t really forget about them, I made them, I photographed them, and then I never blogged about it. Which is a shame because they’re pretty good. So I have a few recipes to share with you today, and not much else Hope you enjoy!

I have a new favorite cookbook. Its called Fix, Freeze, Feast by Kati Neville and Lindsay Tkacsik. I love it! This Tequila Lime Chicken recipe came from it, as well as the Shanghi Stir-Fry that I’ll be posting later.  

The best part of make-ahead meals is that you separate them into perfect serving sizes for your family. The recipes in this book usually make 4 person entrees, so I split them up. After my 1st prep day I realized that I should probably split the recipes in half, because ending up with 6 to 8 meals of the same kind can be overwhelming. 

So here are my bags, quart sized freezer bags, with 2 chicken breasts in each. Don’t do what I did and forget to label the bags first. Its alot easier to write what’s in the bags before you fill them up. ha!

Here’s where I made another mistake. I mixed the liquids together, and threw in the garlic, then I wondered how do I make sure every bag gets an even amount, because all the garlic floated to the top. Well turns out .. if I had read the recipe carefully .. you are supposed to only mix the liquids and mustard together, and add the garlic right into the bag. So you get the right amount in each. Now I know for next time This is all one big learning process. Oh, if you’re wondering how I did split the marinade evenly, I had a little over 1.5 cups of marinade (i think) and 6 bags of chicken. So each got 1/4 cup of liquid, and then the left over I added little by little to each bag (that was mostly the garlic). I mixed up the liquids in my measuring cup, made that whole process really easy. 

Here is the chicken ready to go in the freezer. Well not quite ready, since they needed to be labeled. I wrote the name and the date that I prepared it. I’d rather put the ‘use by’ date on it, but this book didn’t have any suggestions for that yet. I did find in another book that frozen marinated chicken can be kept frozen for upto 10 months .. but I really dont believe that, I’d stick to 3 months

Last night I prepared one of the meals (hence the reason why I’m posting the recipe today). I grilled it just like the directions, and served it on a bed of rice and black beans. Yummmm!

UPDATE: I forgot Nikki sent me a picture of her preparation of the TLC (Tequila Lime Chicken) .. she put it over caribbean rice

Tequila Lime Chicken
(makes 3 entrees, about 4 servings each. I split them to 2 servings each and ended up with 6 entrees, feel free to split the recipe)

• 1 tray (about 6lbs, or 12 half-breasts) boneless, skinless, chicken half-breasts (tray refers to buying at a wholesale club)
• 3/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/2 cup bottled margarita mix
• 3 tablespoons tequila 
• 3 tablespoons lime juice
• 1 tablespoon dry mustard
• 3 teaspoons minced garlic
• 3 one-gallon freezer bags, labeled (if making 2 serving entrees, 6 quart sized bags)

1. Rinse and trim chicken as desired. Divide chicken evenly among the freezer bags (2 per 2 serving bag, 4 in a 4 serving bag). 
2. Combine soy sauce, margarita mix, tequila, lime juice and mustard in a medium bowl (or measuring cup). Divide marinade evenly over the chicken. Into each bag measure 1 teaspoon minced garlic (1/2 teaspoon for 2 person bags). 
3. Seal and Freeze