Creating Meal Time Sanity with Make-Ahead Meals
Posted on April 14, 2010 by LJ Earnest
Categories: Simplification
Wednesdays are simplicity days at SimpleProductivity blog.
I am tired of cooking.
There, I said it out loud. Putting healthy meals on the table, day in and day out, is time-consuming and can be a bit tedious. Fast food isn’t a healthy option, and prepared meals from the grocery are not much better.
So I’ve been experimenting over the past few years, with ways to make this easier.
I’ve tried The Weeknight Survival Cookbook
Make Ahead Meals
My most recent experiment is make-ahead meals. I make double of a recipe and freeze half. This method of preparing food is not the full-blown Once A Month Cooking (OAMC), where you spend a weekend making an entire month’s worth of food (it’s exhausting. I’ve tried it.) Rather, it is a make-one-freeze-one strategy. This fits my cooking style better, and doesn’t require a major effort on my part.
Effort
The effort for make-ahead meals is no greater than to make one meal. The ingredients are doubled, but with the use of my food chopper, even chopping veggies doesn’t take noticeably more effort.
Ingredients
The make-ahead meal ingredients don’t seem to be more costly than the ones I would normally make. The ingredients are able to be frozen well, though.
I do try to make ingredient substitutions to healthier choices when I can. Lower fat soups, real cheese instead of “cheese food”, whole grain pastas and leaner cuts of meat are all valid for my purposes.
Finding Recipes
I’m picky about the quality of food that I serve. Most freezer recipes I have tried have ended up with mushy veggies and tasteless entrees. In order to try a new recipe, it has to come from a source I trust.
I have a whole bunch of cookbooks from Taste Of Home that offer make-one-freeze-one recipes. While these recipes may not be something that everyone has lying around, I did find a selection of the Taste of Home recipes compiled into a single volume at Taste of Home: Freezer Pleasers
So far I have done three sets of dinners. A crab/pasta dish, chicken and pasta dish and a beef soup/casserole starter all live in my freezer. They have all tasted great the first night, and the freezer versions held up well.
Photo by fdecomite
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Comments (2)
Great article; I think the key to remember is that planning ahead is what ensures success. Whether someone does the Once a Month cooking plan, or just doubles-up on meals for freezing later (as you’ve done), or enrolls in our Simple Meal Plan, planning ahead is what helps you save time, money, and aggravation. After all, when we don’t plan ahead, what happens? We wind up picking up fast food, or “convenience” food, or throwing something less-than-healthy together for dinner (or skipping dinner altogether!).
This is a great website, full of some really useful articles. If you are ever looking for guest writers, or if you’re interested in guest writing on other websites, let me know – I think we could provide a lot of useful content to our readers!
I love cooking! But it doesn’t mean it’s not a nightmare to prep for food. During mealtime, I have to think about what we’re suppose to eat next. I’ve found it very useful to schedule meals weekly. I know it sounds a little OCD. But this way, I could minimize trips to the grocery and usually, what we eat for lunch is what we also eat for dinner (if there are left-overs) It’s also a challenge because some people I have to feed doesn’t like to eat veggies and fish. So, I try and sneak in a little bit of healthy food, he doesn’t like it
I don’t think I like the Once a Month cooking either, most food cannot last that long, and I don’t want them to last that long even if I froze them. But I do do make ahead meals especially if I’m making spring rolls, cordon bleus, etc.