Forget Fast Food -- Meals You Can Freeze
Posted: Friday, September 17, 2010
by Jamie McCarthy
As a mother of four kids, I’m finding it harder and harder to make a good home cooked meal each night for dinner. Between the soccer practices, dance classes, girl scouts, etc. our weeknights become less and less of our own. I’ve quickly become sick of the quick store bought freezer meals, nightly visits from the pizza guy, and trips in the fast food drive thrus. Not to mention I felt like a completely failure as a stay-at-home mom. I should have plenty of time to prepare dinner, right? Ha.
To my complete surprise and amazement, it’s true. You can make your dinner ahead of time, freeze it, and reheat it in minutes. Now, it’s not all fast and fancy free. It requires some time prepping. We’re talking about making two weeks worth of dinners in a day.
First you have to decide which meals you’re going to make. Then you need to prepare your grocery list for each meal. Finally, choose your cooking day. Don’t be too scared. It’s not a full day’s worth of slaving in the kitchen but it will take a few hours.
I will share with you my schedule, which meals I’ve prepared, and our family’s tastiness review. It’s important to determine which days of the week are your busiest so you can decide which cooking method will work best (cold meal, slow cooker, or easy reheat).
For our family, the busiest days are Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. Monday nights we have soccer practice and dance which means NO cooking time for dinner. And with dad coming home from work when we’re all out, I need to have something cold or something he can reheat. We have two options on Monday night: (1) a no cook meal or (2) a slow cooker meal. Wednesdays we have soccer practice until 6:45 p.m. so it’s helpful to have either something that requires very little cook time or a slow cooker meal. Thursdays involve dance and Girl Scout meetings with an hour for dinner in between.
My no-cook/virtually no-cook meals were: classic BLTs (with precooked bacon) and spinach salad with mandarin oranges, ramen noodles, an Asian dressing, and whatever toppings you have laying around.
Recipe Reviews:
Chicken Pot Pie (Martinez, Howell, Garcia 92-93) – Cooks in 30 minutes. My kids do not care for the frozen pot pies. Why, exactly, I’m not sure but they pick and complain through the whole meal. I, on the other hand, loved them as a child and still do now. So, I knew this meal would either be a success or complete failure. The adult review – YUM! Loved them. Even better then frozen – go figure. Kids – picked at it. This recipe yields two pot pies so the next meal I tried a variation with biscuits on top instead of pie crust. It went over a little better but it still wasn’t a crowd pleaser.
Hawaiian Chicken (Martinez, Howell, Garcia 101) – Big hit! Cooked in a crock pot and served over white rice, this meal couldn’t be easier. Plus the recipe yields 2 dinners – so double bonus!!
Barbecue Spareribs (Martinez, Howell, Garcia 119) – Cooked in a slow cooker. Cooked as is, it’s a pretty expensive meal. If you’re a smart cook, then you know which meats will be cheaper yet yield the same result. I’m not, so I probably won’t make this one again. Although, sauce wise and prep wise, it was good and easy.
Beef Chimichangas (Martinez, Howell, Garcia 120-121) – Cooks in 15 minutes. We don’t know how we ever lived without this recipe. It is SO good! And it could not be any easier to make. Just serve it with some quick Mexican fried rice, sour cream, guacamole, salsa…whatever toppings you like…and be prepared to stuff yourself. If you are a family of four, this will easily make two meals for you.
Beef Stroganoff (Martinez, Howell, Garcia 126) – Heat through and serve over white rice or noodles. Not a family favorite. I can’t exactly pinpoint why I don’t like this. It’s worth a try though in the event your family does like it.
Still more to try…
These next two weeks, our family will be trying: Cheesy Chicken Bundles (After prepping this meal, I know it will be a hit!), Elegant Chicken Roll (Prep work was scary at best…we’ll see how this turns out), Sassy Sloppy Joes (Makes two dinners), Farmer’s Casserole (A brunch dish), and Polynesian Chicken Bundles. All these recipes come from the same book Don’t Panic – Dinner’s in the Freezer (Martinez, Howell, Garcia). Of course, we’re also making the Hawaiian Chicken and Beef Chimichanga recipes!
In addition to these freezer recipes, I’ve discovered a new cookbook: Crock Pot The Original Slower Cooker Recipe Collection by West Side Publishing. So, I’m incorporating some of these meals into our schedule to see how they go. I can smell the Spicy Asian Pork Lettuce Wraps (262) cooking now! Updates on these recipes to follow later.
Bibliography
Martinez, Susie et. al., eds. Don’t Panic – Dinner’s in the Freezer Great Tasting Meals You Can Make Ahead. Grand Rapids: Revell, 2005.
West Side Publishing. Crock Pot The Original Slow Cooker Recipe Collection. Lincolnwood: Publications International, Ltd, 2008.
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Top-level comments on this article: (3 total)I'm so impressed, Jamie, not just with your article, but how you manage your life and motherhood! The recipes sound divine, and I think can work for singletons also!
Even those whose days are not filled to the brim can benefit from doing this. It gives us more time to enjoy those last minute things that pop up in life without worrying about a good home-made meal.Grace
I found interesting about this subject after reading your post. I agree with you that the daily diet of life is important. so that I would say forget the use of fast food in these cases is not needed, go to the kitchen to cook food and enjoy.
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