Chicken Parm Meatloaf

We closed on our new house about six weeks ago. Since then I had been mentally preparing for the move and what things I could do to make the transition easier. One of those things was planning a few freezer meals! I found about five recipes that I wanted to try. I don't have much experience with freezer meals besides spaghetti sauces and soups so I really had to spend some time researching.

I debated making them all separately and doubling each recipe - that way the recipe would be on the meal plan, doubled during prep, and then frozen for a future meal. I did this for one meal -- the Chicken Parmesan Meatloaf featured here. For the others I made them all in one day two weeks before Move Day when my mom was in town to assist with packing. More on that later! But for now here's Chicken Parm Meatloaf...

Chicken Parm Meatloaf served with sauteed kale

Chicken Parmesan Meatloaf from smiles and piles blog
Ingredients
   We doubled all ingredients for a double batch - one for now, one for later
1 lb. ground chicken
1 egg
¼ cup breadcrumbs
1 ½ tsp. Italian spice mix
2 tbsp minced garlic
½ cup onion, chopped
salt and pepper, to taste
½ cup Parmesan cheese
¾ cup marinara
½ Italian-style shredded cheese

Directions
   Make your meat mixture by combining everything EXCEPT the marinara and shredded cheese. Place the loaf into a lightly greased loaf pan and pour on your marinara. [**STOP HERE if you’re planning to freeze. Baking instructions at the bottom.]

Assembling! Right before Patrick put the marinara on the loaf.

For now dish (on the left) prepared in a pyrex dish
For later dish (on the right) prepared in a freezer ready aluminum pan

   Bake at 350° for 45 minutes. Pull it out and top with your shredded cheese, then bake a few more minutes to melt cheese. Let it sit for 10 minutes before cutting, this will allow it to setup a bit and not fall apart when you take a slice from the pan.

**To make as a freezer meal, prepare as instructed EXCEPT for putting the shredded cheese on top. Save that for baking day. You can bake from frozen by putting the loaf pan on a cookie sheet and baking for one hour. Pull out to add the cheese and stick in for a few minutes to melt it then let it rest before cutting.

For the freezer meal we double wrapped in saran wrap and then wrote the directions for reheating on the lid.

It feels good to have the freezer meal ready when we are. One of the nice things about making the recipe and doubling it is we know it was tasty. I imagine we'll be taking this out soon while we are getting settled in our new house!

Do you have a favorite freezer meal??