‘The Pioneer Woman’: Ree Drummond Recommends Keeping 5 Bags of This Freezer Food for ‘the Answer to All Your Dinnertime Prayers’
According to the Pioneer Woman, one tasty snack makes great freezer food and can answer many different dinnertime prayers. So, Ree Drummond recommends always keeping no less than five bags of them on hand. Read on to learn about one of her favorite frozen snacks to whip up for dinner quickly and how she suggests serving them.
Ree Drummond is a fan of freezer food for its versatility
In her cookbook, The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Dinnertime, Drummond writes, “If freezer food didn’t exist, I would just die.”
If that doesn’t send a clear message, the Food Network star also adds, “To say it’s a lifesaver is an understatement.”
As Drummond points out, there are quite a few benefits to preparing meals to keep in the freezer. First and foremost, it gets the chef ahead of their dinner game and is a “safety net” in a pinch.
But frozen meals also make an excellent gift for a loved one who could use a hand. “Delivering a frozen casserole or meal kit with the instructions attached is one of the best ways to say I’m thinking about you,” Drummond says.
Ree Drummond says keeping lots of meatballs as freezer food can lead to a ‘happy and content life’
Drummond’s easy freezer meatballs are one of her favorite foods to keep on hand, and she recommends having “at least five bags … in your freezer at all times” to be “happy and content in life.”
“They’re the answer to all your dinnertime prayers,” she promises in her cookbook.
Before freezing, she fries the meatballs in olive oil and drains them. She then places them in the freezer on a parchment-lined baking sheet until they are solid. Finally, she separates them into bags and freezes them for up to six months.
And they’re “versatile” because you can thaw them in various tasty sauces and soups. “All you have to do is whip up the sauce of your choosing, throw in the meatballs straight out of the freezer, and cook the sauce long enough for them to thaw and heat up,” she shares.
Notably, fans can watch Drummond make freezer meatballs for the Food Network on YouTube.
Ree Drummond suggests turning her freezer meatballs into three easy entrees
If you find yourself at a loss on how to use those freezer meatballs for dinner, Drummond has you covered once again. She recommends three easy sauces to turn them into delicious entrees. And she shares all three sauce recipes in The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Dinnertime.
First up, she recommends sweet-and-sour meatballs, which are “sweet, tangy, [and] slightly spicy.” They pair well with her pineapple fried rice and chow mein recipes, she notes.
Next, Drummond shares her recipe for “savory, creamy” Swedish meatballs with a “slightly unexpected hint of allspice.” She says these meatballs served over egg noodles are “too good for words.”
Last but certainly not least, Drummond suggests the simple choice of BBQ meatballs, which go great with mashed potatoes. While she offers a jazzed-up recipe for barbeque flavoring, she also says the chef’s favorite sauce without “doctoring” will do for “one of the easiest dinners in the Milky Way galaxy.”
