Freezer meals for your summer veggies

I realize this looks like kinda a mess…buuuuut…

What can I say? Do you eat with your eyes? No.

I created this dish because I had squash for days and thought it would be a good idea to cook some bulk freezer meals so I have healthy home-made stuff on hand.

Hello layerzzz.

I ended up using 3 summer squash and 4 tomatoes, but you could really use whatever you have on hand…eggplant, zucchini, etc.

The top is a corn meal crust, which I probably should have cooked a bit first because it ended up on the crunchy side. But I wasn’t too worried since I knew I’d be freezing them to thaw and re-heat later. Slightly al dente veggies were my other way of preserving the shape of the dish long term. Nobody wants leftover mush.

So those are some tips.

Layer 1: Squash
Layer 2: Tomato
Layer 3: Squash
Layer 4: Cornmeal mix
Topping: Goat’s milk kefir + goat cheese + salt + pepper

Cornmeal Veggie Bake [vegetarian, gluten free]

Ingredients:

• 2-3 tbsp garlic infused olive oil
• 3 summer squash, thinly sliced
• 4 heirloom tomatoes, thinly sliced
• 1 cup cornmeal
• kernels from 1 ear of corn
• 1 cup plain almond milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup plain kefir (I used Redwood Hill Farms’ goat milk kefir)
• 2-3 tbsp goat cheese
• 2-1 sprigs of thyme
• salt & pepper

Directions:

Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees F.

In a 7×11” baking pan, layer as indicated above – squash, tomato, squash – arranging pieces in a puzzle like manner so they don’t overlap too much. Drizzle

In a separate bowl, stir together cornmeal, kernels, almond milk, water, and thyme.

Spread the cornmeal on top the veggies (yes, the extra liquid will go down into the veggies, no worries). Finally drizzle the kefir on top along with chunks of goat cheese.

Bake for 40-45 minutes at 375 degrees F.

Let it sit and cool – the liquid will continue to absorb.

Notes:

If you aren’t cooking this to make it as a freezer meal, you may consider pre-cooking the cornmeal before adding it atop the veggies. [To make the grits, you may need to increase the almond milk and water by 1/2 cup.] I’m not sure how this will affect the cooking time of the casserole though.

This makes a healthy colorful side dish to whatever summer entree you have going on. Maybe some BBQ veggie burgers or shrimp kebobs.

I had mine alongside a fried egg and half an avocado.

And even though I probably could have had the same thing for the rest of the week, I decided to stick to two servings and freeze the rest as planned.

I still have wayyyy more garden goodies to get through so I’m not too worried about my vegetable supply…

See! More vegetables layered in a casserole pan!

Can’t stop won’t stop.

Sorry the final pics aren’t so hot. My camera battery died after the prep so I had to use my iPhone for the post-oven product.

This is a (vegan) twist on eggplant parmesan. But baked into a casserole. Full disclosure, I may not be totally up to speed on what eggplant parmesan actually is, so this may not be similar at all. But it has eggplant and a faux (nut-based) cheese sauce so that’s kinda sorta something? Eh, whatever. It was reallllly good. It’s all about the saucy sauce.

First I made a macadamia & cashew based cheese. I didn’t measure, but here are some approximate measurements:

-2 cups roasted salted nuts (I used macadamias, cashews, and some marcona almonds) —> soaked in plain almond milk >24 hours
-3/4 – 1 1/2 cup plain almond milk
-3 tbsp tamari
-1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
-2 tbsp nutritional yeast

Because I soaked the nuts, the final measurement was well over 2 cups. I’m also not sure how much almond milk I ended up using because I blended the sauce in batches. Use as much as you want depending on how thick you want. Mine had a thick but just pourable consistency.

For the casserole, I used 2 eggplants and 1 large heirloom tomato.

Sliced and layered just like the casserole above, overlapping the thin slices as minimally as possible.

Layer 1: Eggplant
Layer 2: Cheese sauce
Layer 3: Tomato
Layer 4: Cheese sauce
Layer 5: Eggplant
Layer 6: Cheese sauce

Just see below…

I thinned the sauce (with more almond milk) after the 2nd and 4th layers so the 6th layer of cheese sauce coated everything entirely.

I baked it for 40 minutes at 400 degrees and was blown away by how awesome it turned out. Somehow the top layer bronzed and crisped up creating an almost breaded fluffy texture.

Amazing.

Ooey gooey vegan comfort food.

Eggplant lovers 🙂