Apricot Marinade

Marinade:
1 tbsp. olive oil
2 cups apricot jam or preserves
2 cups french dressing
2 (1 oz each) packages of dry onion soup mix
2 garlic cloves, crushed

Meat options:
6 pork chops (about 1/2-3/4 inch thick)
or
6-8 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Mix marinade ingredients together and divide into 2 freezer bags.

Freezing and cooking options:

1. Freeze just the marinade. Thaw the marinade when you're ready to cook. Place your meat choice (browned separately, if desired) in a baking dish and cover completely with the marinade. Bake at 350 until the pork or chicken is completely cooked.
2. Add half of your fresh meat choice to each bag of marinade. Freeze. Thaw completely before baking. Dump meat and marinade into a baking dish and bake at 350 until the pork or chicken is completely cooked.
3. Freeze just the marinade. Thaw just enough to get it out of the bag. Throw a few frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts into a large saucepan. Squeeze the slightly thawed sauce out of the bag over the chicken. Cover and heat over low to medium heat, stirring occasionally. Make sure chicken is cooked completely, then remove chicken and dice it. Or keep cooking until chicken falls apart with stirring. Return chicken to sauce. Serve over rice. Yummy!

Since the recipe makes two packages, you could split it up and make one per family if you need to keep costs down.

We found that you really need to use a good cut of pork to make this recipe worth it. If you don't like so much onion flavor, you can use one envelope of onion soup mix per 6 pork chops; I've tried it and it works just as well.

Adapted from this original recipe at Freezer Chicks.