Freezer Cooking Part 2: Orange Beef Stew

Now this is a funny dish, I always feel the need to put a disclaimer: this does not taste orange-ish at all.  It's delicious and has a complex seasoning, one of my favorite freezer meals from Mama and Baby Love's freezer-to-crockpot cookbook.  Our family loves this meal, and it's a great way to eat spinach.  However, it is not anything like any orange beef I've had before.

So the next step in the freezer-cooking lifestyle is to find 3 or 4 recipes like this with similar veggies and prep them all in one sitting.  Time is saved when you're in chopping mode and you'll be more efficient dicing up a whole pile of veggies in one sitting than if you prepped the meals individually.  I used to do this and then I would have days at a time where all I do is dump food in the crockpot. Skipping the late-afternoon dinner scramble for a week or so was just heavenly. 

Now my time to cook is the afternoon when the kids are napping or having down time, the length of which is unpredictable, and at this stage in life I find I can only do 1 freezer recipe to make 2 meals usually, but I still come out ahead.  

Label 2 gallon-freezer bags or comparable containers, like Glad-ware type stuff.

If you have the time to break it down, I recommend buying one chunk of meat rather than pre-cut stew meat.  Stew meat tends to be random odds and ends from other cuts of meat and often turns out dry.


The recipe calls for flank steak, but chuck roast was on sale this week at our grocery store and is generally cheaper.  It's a versatile cut of meat, and we're not steak-savvy enough these days to notice the differences in cuts for a meal like this, especially when you slow-cook it.  The grill would be a different story.

If you have a good carving knife, breaking down your own meat isn't too time-consuming.

This meat was pretty fatty, so I trimmed a lot as I went.

Divide meat evenly between bags.

Chop green onions.

When prepping for multiple meals, use your largest cutting board or have dishes available and divide into piles as you go to save time in assembly later on.

Chop onions and garlic.

Nice and organized, helps you keep track of what step you're on when making a lot of meals in one sitting.

Divide between bags.

In 2 small bowls, measure out Arrowroot flour (thickener agent), ground Coriander, Thyme, ground Cloves and sugar.

Add to bags.

Divide bay leaves and add to bags. 

Save liquids for last to prevent spills.  

Measure out soy sauce and orange juice an add to bags.

Squeeze out air pockets and seal, taking care not to crumble the bay leaves.

Lay flat in freezer for maximum stack-ability.

Then celebrate your accomplishment with some Cheerios.  You've just made 2 meals for the month in a matter of minutes.  All the work on "day of" will be dumping the bag contents into the crockpot, adding  frozen spinach and optional water chestnuts, and turning it on--not too shabby!

And serve over rice--basmati or jasmine pair well, any rice would do.

This recipe goes a long ways--we always have at least a meal's worth of leftovers, so if your household is small, you could easily divide between 3 or 4 quart bags instead of gallon bags.  That way you won't be stuck eating the leftovers for a week and never want to cook it again!

Orange Beef Stew
by Stephanie Cornais

4-5 lbs of flank steak (I use chuck roast)
8 green onions, chopped
1 yellow onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, mince
2 Tbsp Arrowroot flour
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp thyme
2 tsp ground cloves
1 Tbsp sugar
4 bay leaves
2 Tbsp soy sauce
2 cups orange juice

Add day of cooking:
2 pkgs frozen spinach
2 (8 oz) cans water chestnuts

Combine all ingredients (except spinach and water chestnuts) into 2 separate gallon-sized freezer bags or containers.  Lay flat, label and place in your freezer.

Day of cooking, place contents of 1 bag into your slow cooker and add 1 pkg spinach and 1 can water chestnuts.  Cook on low for 8 hrs or on high for 4 hrs.

Serve with rice, cous-cous, a salad or make sandwiches.