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Cooking for the freezer is one of the most common questions I get asked about when it comes to meal planning. I know many of you have wanted to learn more about cooking for your freezer and I’m happy to oblige with today’s “How-To”. I’ve actually had this post planned for a long time—meaning the pictures have been taken and put on to the computer—but it just hadn’t come together until now.
One of my most favorite freezer meals is marinated meats. I love that I can put all the ingredients into a ziptop bag, label and freeze. Then, when I’m ready to cook, all I need to do is thaw it out while it marinates in the bag and I’m good to go. I think my freezer meal exchange group was starting to wonder if I even knew how to make anything else since that’s about all I did for the first six months after our group got started!
This Bourbon Flank Steak is one of our all time favorites! It is so easy to put together. Pair it with garlic mashed potatoes and some steamed veggies or a salad and you’ve got a meal that is perfect for company too. It’s also a meal that I like to give to friends or neighbors when after they’ve had a new baby or perhaps are dealing with an illness or recovering from surgery (find out more on how to coordinate or give meals for others from my recent blog post). What I love about marinated meats like this is that I can have a few in the freezer at any one time to pull out when I need to make a meal for someone or when I have company drop by. They take up little room and are usually an economical meal to have on hand.
Bourbon Flank Steak
Ingredients
- ¼ cup brown sugar firmly packed
- ¼ cup yellow onions chopped
- ¼ cup bourbon
- ¼ cup light soy sauce
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ½ teaspoon cornstarch
- ½ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 pound flank steak
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients in a gallon size ziptop bag. Add steak and marinate about one hour. Remove steak from bag and reserve marinade. Grill over medium heat for about 20-30 minutes, flipping sides occasionally until you achieve desired doneness..
- For dipping sauce, add reserved marinade to small saucepan. Bring to boiling and simmer for about 10 minutes so that juices are cooked. Serve over cooked flank steak.
- FREEZING INSTRUCTIONS: If you are freezing first, label bag, then add marinade ingredients and steak. Close bag and put in the freezer. To prepare, thaw and cook as directed above.
Nutrition
Bourbon Flank Steak
¼ cup brown sugar
¼ cup chopped onions
¼ cup bourbon
¼ cup soy sauce.
½ teaspoon pepper
½ teaspoon cornstarch
½ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1-1 ½ lb. flank steakCombine all ingredients in a gallon size ziptop bag. Add steak and marinate about one hour. Remove steak from bag and reserve marinade. Grill over medium heat for about 20-30 minutes until you achieve desired doneness.. For dipping sauce, add reserved marinade to small saucepan. Bring to boiling and simmer for about 10 minutes so that juices are cooked. Serve over cooked flank steak.
FREEZING INSTRUCTIONS: If you are freezing first, label bag, then add marinade ingredients and steak. Close bag and put in the freezer. To prepare, thaw and cook as directed above.
My daughter helped with the assembly of this recipe. It probably took us about a half hour total to prepare eight bags worth for my freezer meal exchange. Not too bad! Here’s how we did it:
So, as you can see, freezer meal preparation can be easy when you set up an assembly line! What’s your favorite meal for the freezer? I hope you enjoy this one!
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I greatly appreciate all the info I’ve read here. I will spread the word about your blog to other people. Cheers.
Meal Plan Mom (Brenda)
Thanks! Glad you like it!
Polly
What’s a good substitue for bourbon in this recipe? Would apple juice work? Thanks!
Meal Plan Mom (Brenda)
Polly, I did an online search and it suggested vanilla. But a quarter cup, as the recipe calls for, would be a lot! Other suggestions are a sparkling wine like sparkling apple cider, sparkling cranberry juice or sparkling grape juice. I would tend to go for the cranberry since that will have the tartness that I like about this recipe. It’s funny because I only buy the bourbon for cooking. When I’m in the store some employee will usually try to talk me into something better than what I’m buying but I get the cheapest one there since I don’t really care much what it tastes like plain. Hope this helps!
Polly
Thanks, Brenda! I appreciate all of the great suggestions. Funny, it didn’t even occur to me to look on the internet! I sure would like to try it soon…it sounds really good.
Heidi
Great recipe. Thanks for sharing. I love the freezer bag meals.
Exede