Cooking ahead

[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.