On Top of Old Smoky

Did you know that the real version of "On Top of Old Smoky" is NOT about cheese-covered meatballs?

Here are the results of all that cooking I did the other day, stashed in the freezer to use later this fall when I need or want to make dinner in a hurry:

1. Four lbs. meatballs
2. Four chicken/long grain & wild rice casseroles (The kind with celery and water chestnuts. One of the few casseroles I can stand to eat.)
3. Three quarts cooked white rice
4. Two quarts cooked black beans
5. Three meatloafs (meatloaves?)
6. Two quarts homemade chicken stock

I used up what was left of the chicken after composing the casseroles to top a barbecue chicken pizza that we ate for dinner last night. I still have some long grain & wild rice left over too - I'm thinking this but changed up to suit my tastes - I'll add some chopped up celery and onion, and use 1% milk instead of the heavy cream.

 

The awesome part of this whole thing is that the only additional things I purchased to make all this food was a pound of ground pork for the meatloaves and two cans of sliced water chestnuts for the casseroles. The ground pork wasn't absolutely necessary because I had plenty of ground beef in the freezer but adding the ground pork was something new I wanted to try. For the most part I used my food storage to make these meals. I think that water chestnuts is something I will begin buying on sale and keeping in my food storage; I really like their mild-flavor and crunch.