Cooking ahead

[Tink]

With summer officially here, I know there are going to be hot days when I simply do not want to cook. I like to do my cooking for the week on a single day as much as I can and freeze or refrigerate meals to be microwaved as I need them.

What recipes do you have that might work well for doing this?

[Lindsey]

I have a lot of sweet'n'sour beef in my freezer! I don't have the recipe right now because I'm at work but if you're interested I could get it for you when I get home. It's basically just little chunks of beef (I buy stir-fry strips and then just cut them into little peices) and then make the sauce and cook it all together in the oven. Then I just make some instant rice and put the sweet'n'sour beef on top!

[DianaB]

I have a recipe for a hamburger casserole that's been in my family for a long time and is one of our favorites. It's called Marchetti.

1 1/2 lbs. hamburger
1 whole onion (chopped)
1/3 pkg. Krinkle noodles (or any kind of wavy noodle), cooked
1 can tomato soup
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 small can of mushroom pieces, drained (optional)
1 1/2 c. grated American cheese (or Velveeta)
1/4 tsp. garlic powder

Brown hamburger and onion. Drain grease off (rinse if desired). Add cooked noodles and remaining ingredients, except 1/2 c. cheese. Add salt and pepper to taste. Mix well. Put into a large casserole dish (that's been sprayed with non-stick spray) and sprinkle remaining cheese on top. Bake 30-45 minutes at 350*. Serves 6-8.

[Janet]

I should really try doing this since I don't like cooking. Sure would be nice to have good meals already prepared.

[Taurus Babe]

Good idea! I sure didn't feel like cooking tonight! Ugh. I ate leftovers and I didn't have to cook! I hope you find some great recipies!

[Marilyn]

One thing that we have done is browned ground meat in advance and frozen it. It thaws quickly in the microwave. That really speeds up meal making, not having to worry about thawing & cooking raw meat.

We've been eating lots of vegetables. Slicing yellow and zuchinni squash, mushrooms & onions and warming them with a little bit (less than 1 tsp) of olive oil then adding 1/2 cup of water, covering and simmering for 20 minutes and they are done. You can season to taste with seasoned salt, hot sauce, tomatoes, cayenne, or whatever you want. We make extra and refrigerate for another day. (This veggie mix is zero points on Weight Watchers so you can eat all that you want.) We steam broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage together also, it's quick, filling, healthy and again, no points to worry about.

We also chop lots of salad ingredients, enough for 3 days or so and refrigerate, keeping each ingredient in a separate container and mixing them in your bowl makes the salad fixin's stay fresher longer. Putting a paper towel around freshly cut & washed lettuce before refrigerating makes the lettuce last longer, too. Don't know why this works, but it does.

If you have enough easy veggies and a quick to heat, precooked meat, you have a pretty good meal.

[Tink]

Thanks ladies!

Marilyn, I love veggies, so those would be a good choice. I already do the browned ground beef. I got sick of it going bad in the refrig waiting to be cooked.

Diana, the Marchetti sounds yummy... I'll have to give that one a try.

Lindsey, I'd love to get your recipe. Thanks!

[2tiredmom]

Have you tried cooking in a crock pot. I do that alot in the summer.
Roasts then any left overs i make either vegetable soup or bar b q.

[Lindsey]

Oops I went camping for the weekend and forgot all about my recipe promise! Here it is...

1/4 cup ketchup
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/4 cup vinegar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup water

Mix together to make sauce, and then cook in roaster with little chunks of beef. I have so much of this in my freezer! I just make some minute rice, warm up the meat and sauce and pour it on top. Oh I forgot I also sometimes cut up some green pepper into little peices and throw that in the roaster as well!

[jrsygal37]

With summer officially here, I know there are going to be hot days when I simply do not want to cook. I like to do my cooking for the week on a single day as much as I can and freeze or refrigerate meals to be microwaved as I need them.

What recipes do you have that might work well for doing this?

Tink, Really anything will work. What I do is buy the freezer to microwave compartment plates. Whenever, I cook dinners such as Prime Rib, Roast Beef etc. I always get a big roast. I usually will make sides like double baked potatoes and string bean cassarole. Whatever is left I'll put a potatoe in one compartment, string bean in another and the beef and gravy in the last. It works out great because my two boys play baseball and we are always doing games and tired of eating the crap so when we get home we just heat in the microwave and we have a beautiful dinner. E.

[Janet]

I've done that before Elaine. I have several of those compartment plates. When I do fix supper (instead of doing it all in one day) I make enough for another meal and put some in the freezer. Not always....lol...but I try.

[jrsygal37]

Hey Tink you are good cooking a lot of meals all in one day. I don't know if I could manage that. I can't walk and chew gum at the same time so I can't imagine myself watching all those different things cooking at once. LOL. Actually, though I do something similiar with my parrot. I take one day out of the month to make enough food for breakfast for a month. It's pretty simple though, just Goya 16 Beans, several different vegetables, brown rice, organic tri pasta and cooked egg. I make it all up and freeze it in individual freezer bags then I just take one out each morning and warm it up. E.

[HALEY]

We cook on the grill mon-thurs. and fridays are pizza days.. saturday and sundays i go over my mom's for homecooked meals :rolleyes:

[Janet]

This is so funny, my husband just asked if I would start using the divider plates again when I cook a meal. That way he can take it to work for his lunch.

[HALEY]

This is so funny, my husband just asked if I would start using the divider plates again when I cook a meal. That way he can take it to work for his lunch.

Janet i just went to Wal marts yesterday and got a bunch of frozen lunches/dinners for 1.00 each.... :rolleyes:

[Janet]

Yes, last Sunday my husband picked some up too so he could have something for lunch while he was off this week. He finds more deals than I so I told him maybe he should start getting the groceries...lol

[HALEY]

I go myself, if Mike goes with me the groceries are 100.00 more, he buys junk food! and i really don't want Micah eating that stuff right now, and i don't need to eat it .. don't want that extra weight back... i made him take all that stuff and put it in his car ... he gets chips, cookies, etc.. junk food..... :(

[Marilyn]

Hubby and I have been cooking together lately. We're doing a bunch of 30 minute meal ideas we just throw together. We've cooked chicken breasts, salmon, spagetti, sausage, etc, with lots of veggies. Hubby made some stuffing with chicken (using precooked roticceri chicken) in it for a fellowship dinner at church and he made extra, so we had that one day. We got creative with the salmon. We baked salmon fillets one day and two days later, I crumbled the leftovers and made salmon patties using a little clam juice from a bottle for the liquid that is usually in a can of salmon. The taste was a little different than using canned, but it worked and was a great way to use leftover salmon.

I also make my own tartar sauce using dill pickle, onion, Tabasco and mayonaise in a small food processor. The key to making it not too runny is to slice the pickle and blot it with paper towels to get rid of a lot of the juice.

One night we had BLT's. Not really cooking ahead ideas, but some thoughts to share. We'd been eating out way too much, and it was getting more and more expensive so decided to start using our kitchen and all that equipment we have again and saving some money and actually, it's quicker than eating out and waiting for them to serve us and cook the food.

[judy]

I used to do all of the cooking for the week on Sunday, and then freeze up portions. It was great, but I got sick of it after a couple of years.

When I do cook cook now, I almost always freeze a portion.

[HALEY]

I use to cook all the time, loved my grams recipes.. and mom's, but with Mike now working 10 hours a day, plus Saturdays, there just isn't enough time, and i can't have Micah running around the stove while i'm trying to cook.. it's hard. So we just been cooking out on the grill. come winter when the work hours slow down, i'll start cooking again.. plus it will heat up the kitchen too... ;)

[gja1000]

Well, my school has started and I am very busy during the week, tired, and just not "into" cooking when I get home. My hubby lived on sandwiches last week and I felt guilty, so today I made up a lasagna to cook tomorrow night. That should be good for two meals. I also cooked some hamburger and put it in the freezer so that I can get it out toward the end of the week to make his favorite hamburger casserole.

Next week I'll make a pot of pinto beans - we eat them the first night with cornbread and then the next night I mash them and mix with some Mexican seasoning (cumin, red pepper, etc), and cheese, and make bean quesadias. Oh and we have fresh Hatch New Mexico chiles - so I'll put some of them in also.

Anyone have any more good ideas for cook ahead meals???

[Nina]

When I make spaghetti, chili or soup, I try to make a double batch for the freezer. That way, I always have meals that can just be warmed up. I also use my crock pot alot in the summer. I have a good crock pot recipe for pot roast that is very easy.

Pot roast (or any roast)
1 can cheddar cheese soup
1 can french onion soup
1 can golden cream of mushroom soup

Put roast in crock pot. Mix all soups together and pour over roast. Cook for 6-8 hours on high in crock pot.

This is excellent served with mashed potatoes and a salad!