Vacation at home!

This year Mike and I just couldn't get our act together. Each summer we usually go camping for a long weekend and go away someplace fun for a week or more. But this year we never managed to make any plans and suddenly we realized summer was almost over.

So, we decided to take a quick spontaneous trip to the Outer Banks Friday and Saturday. And then next week, our nanny is off, which means I'll be home with the kids. So I decided we'd be on vacation too. Each day during the week the kids and I will go off on day trips (for more about our plans and photos from our adventures, check out our family blog at http://360.yahoo.com/lisamikeplus3). And since I'm on vacation, I don't plan to cook dinner. We'll either order out, or bake a casserole I made ahead of time and put in the freezer. I like to make my casseroles in 8x8" foil pans, which you can easily cover with foil and slip into a gallon-size zipper bag and stack in the freezer.

Here are a few of my husband and kids' favorite freezer-ready foods:

Tater Tot Casserole
1 lb. ground beef (or 1/2 lb. ground beef and 1/2 lb. ground chicken or turkey)
1 32-oz. package frozen tater tots
2 c. sour cream
1 c. cheddar cheese, shredded
1 10-oz. can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 can green beans, drained
Salt and pepper to taste
Cracker or potato chips, crushed into crumbs
Grease two 8x8" foil pans. Brown ground beef (and chicken, if using) and drain. Spread half of tater tots on the bottom of each pan. In a mixing bowl, combine ground beef (and chicken, if using), sour cream, cheese, soup and beans. Stir until mixed through. Pour over potatoes and spread evenly. Salt and pepper to taste. Cover with foil and freeze.
To serve: Defrost. Top with cracker or potato chip crumbs. Bake in oven preheated to 375 F. until cooked through, about an hour (may be longer if still frozen when baked.

Chicken and rice casserole
1 chicken breast from a rotisserie chicken (I like the ones from Costco)
Juice from bottom of rotisserie chicken
Flour, enough to make a paste (amount depends on how much juice comes out of chicken)
1/2 cup white wine (optional. You could use water instead)
2 quarts veggie stock
1 cup sour cream (I use the light kind) divided
2 Tablespoons butter
1/2 sweet onion, finely diced
2 to 4 mushrooms, finely diced
2 to 4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 cup rice, cooked according to package directions
Salt and pepper to taste
Crackers or potato chips, crushed
Chop chicken breast finely. Put in mixing bowl and set aside. Meanwhile, put juice from the bottom of the rotisserie pan in a small sauce pan and heat. Add flour, 1 Tablespoon at a time, until makes a paste. Add wine and veggie stock to make gravy. Heat until boiling, reduce heat to simmer and continue to cook until coats bottom of a wooden spoon. Add 1/2 cup sour cream and stir until melted. Meanwhile, Melt butter in a small saute pan. Saute onion, mushroom and garlic until very soft, about 15 minutes. Mix together minced chicken, wine/stock gravy, onion/mushroom saute, rice and salt and pepper to taste. Cover with foil and freeze pan.
When ready to serve, tp with cracker or potato chip crumbs. Bake one pan in a preheated 350 F. oven until bubbly and cooked through, about an hour.

Mix together leftover chicken, rice, mushrooms/onions.