Preparing dinners in advance

mummiedearest

Mon, Dec 24 2012, 6:31 pm

take one day every few weeks. buy a whole lot of chicken (whichever cut is on sale, if possible). place chicken and other ingredients in a foil pan. cover, freeze. cook a ton of pasta, divide it into meals. add sauce if wanted. place in foil pan. cover. freeze. blended soups work nicely frozen. freeze them in ziploc bags. squeeze out extra air, lie flat to freeze. if you have space, you can use a shoebox to organize them standing up once frozen. many kugels freeze well. ground beef- divide into patties. freeze raw with parchment paper between layers. do the same with meatballs. you can add raw rice to the chicken or meatball pans, that should be no problem to freeze. you can make falafel batter and freeze that. herb sauces tend to freeze well. desserts often freeze well too. milchigs- baked ziti, mac and cheese, pancakes, latkes, lasagna, blintzes. stuffed zucchini probably freezes well too.

amother

Mon, Dec 24 2012, 6:33 pm

I'm actually in college full time and don't either have time to prepare suppers
Instead of buying takeout or raw meat I buy ready packages seasoned meats for example: breaded cutlets, ready made burgers, stir fry, marinated cutlets or chicken. I take it out in the morning and when I come home put it in the oven. It's only a few more cents then regular packaged chicken or meat
If I don't do that I do easy suppers like fish or pasta

seeker

Mon, Dec 24 2012, 7:01 pm

I don't have a humongous freezer but it's ok because I have enough time to make things like pasta fresh, all it takes is tossing into a pot for a few minutes. But in my way of thinking that's not much of a meal.

Soups are great for doing in advance. DH doesn't consider them a full meal, but I do! I can get away with it maybe once a week, twice in the winter maybe when hot soup is a bit more appreciated. DD doesn't go for it that much which means a separate arrangement for her.

Meat and chicken I find easy shmeasy because as I said, I have time to bake/cook when I get home just not prepare. So I'm fine seasoning the night before or the morning of, and then popping in the oven when I get home. The main reason I don't have time to prep fresh is because my hands are full with the kids when I get home. But meat/chicken is max one weekday plus Shabbos, because it just gets too expensive otherwise.

My biggest difficulty is vegetables I guess. And always fishing for new protein ideas. Meat/chicken once a week is easy. No tuna because I take that to work for lunch a couple of times a week and don't want to risk more mercury. Other fishes are not liked around here. Eggs DH almost always has scrambled for breakfast and you're not supposed to have that many in a day, let alone more for supper! I usually do pizza one night a week (dough, sauce, cheese prepped before, assemble hastily and pop in oven at dinnertime)

Somehow my vegetables aren't going great. They never seem to keep well. Today I thought I could make roasted squash but I thought I'd be all efficient and set it up in the morning so I could just roast it to be fresh at suppertime. I washed, cut, and seasoned. Came home to it sitting in a river of its own juices with all the seasoning washed off, realized belatedly that salt/spices make veggies release their water. I poured off the mess, re-spiced, and tried to roast but it got all dried out and burnt because it had lost its liquid Sad

So much for healthy tasty veggie side prepared in advance! Gr! We like fresh salads, but we don't like them dried out from being cut in advance or wilty/mushy from sitting in dressing all day... um...

MaBelleVie

Mon, Dec 24 2012, 7:34 pm

Ratatouille can sit in a pot waiting for you in the fridge. It tastes better if you sautee in steps, but you can absolutely get away with combining any of the following: onions, garlic, zucchini, eggplant, peppers, mushrooms- with olive oil, tomato sauce or diced tomatoes, salt, pepper and italian seasoning. Then stick it on the stove when you get home.

Butternut squash fries are yummy. You can chop up and put in a bowl in the fridge. It's actually better if it loses some of the water in advance. When you get home, dry off, toss with olive oil, kosher salt and pepper. Bake on parchment lined cookie sheet at 400.

Roasted green beans- also delicious. Trim and wash in advance. When you get home, dry off, toss with olive oil, kosher salt and pepper. Bake on parchment lined cookie sheet at 400.

Even steamed green beans- trim and clean in advance, put in pot with some water. In a separate pan, quickly sautee crushed garlic in olive oil, add kosher salt and pepper. Save in a little container. When you get home, put the beans on the stove to steam. When ready, drain and toss with garlic oil mixture.

Do you ever just do salads? As long as you don't dress it in advance it will be fine in the fridge. Also baked sweet potatoes- scrub and prick in advance, bake or nuke when you get home.

ra_mom

Mon, Dec 24 2012, 8:15 pm

I also need to prep my food in advance. but I don't have much time to cook when I get home, because once the kids get older supper needs to be served by 5. So I go by a basic schedule that goes something like this:

Sun: something that needs time to cook
Mon: crockpot
Tues: dairy for dh (I have a little more time to prepare bec dd and I eat leftovers from sun and mon)
Wed: something that bakes in the oven for no more than 30 min
Thurs: no cook protein salad, with baguette or hot pretzel, warmed and crusted in oven

We do chicken bottoms once a week, boneless breast or dark meat chicken once a week, red meat, dairy...

Figure out a basic schedule that works for you. (Sun I'm home so can do 2 hr baked chicken recipe, tues we have cleaning help so it makes sense for me to dirty the crockpot on mon, thurs I cook for shabbos so I do a no cook dinner, etc)

Lately it's gotten very hectic and I've been known to serve a frozen side like fries, sweet pot... hot sandwiches like meatball pita, shredded beef buns, burgers and buns, etc

SRD

Tue, Dec 25 2012, 9:07 am

I often wash and chop a bunch of veggies on sunday (e.g. peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, squash, carrots, celery, green beans) then during the week they are easy to throw into a meal (pasta, stir fry, salad) or cook by themselves.

For protein, I buy tempeh with flax seed which is inexpensive (much cheaper than kosher meat where I live), and it tastes great cooked many ways (grilled, stir fried, veggie wrap, even thrown into a pasta dish).

ra_mom

Tue, Dec 25 2012, 6:15 pm

seeker wrote:

So ra_mom, what are these things that bake for no more than 30 min? What is a no-cook protein salad?
*not fleishig please

We usually do fleishig, sorry.

Cooks no more than 30 min: variations of chicken breast cutlets, dark chicken cutlets, ground meat, falafel balls, frittata... all baked. If you do want fleishig ideas let me know.

Protein salads: egg and avocado salad, lox salad, fillet of tuna salad, caesar cheese salad, avocado dressing cheese salad, Greek salad, cubed turkey salad, kielbasa salad, deli salad, etc.

a1mom

Tue, Dec 25 2012, 9:38 pm

I'm in the same boat.
sundays I cook something that takes longer and another main
ie this week I made french onion soup and quiche- doubled the quiche and froze one.
one night a week is chicken cutlets- either grilled and put on salad or bbq shredded in tortillas with coleslaw.
one night is fish- tilapia or salmon- either teriyaki or I sautee veggies in advance ( think sunday), freeze and defrost the morning I am making it, throw it on top of fish smeared with a drop of mayo and spices and broil in the oven. side of couscous or pasta
baked sweet potatoes with 5% cheese and salad/ soup
tuna patties- I like the recipe from short on time- stays fresh from sunday to at least wed.
breakfast for dinner- pancake batter made on sunday can stay fresh until wed.
I also serve leftovers on monday night so we arent eating shabbos food two days in a row.
for salads- I wash dry and check lettuce on sunday for the week- if its dried well hearts of romaine stay fresh for at least 5 days
grape tomatoes dont need to be cut in a pinch
add canned corn, hearts of palm
you can chop peppers and leave in their own container add to salads as needed