Managing Your Meals

Managing Your Meals

"She brings her food from afar....and provides food for her household." Proverbs 31:14-15

Home | About Janet & Kathy | Family Notebook | Delightful Resources | E-mail Us

How to Develop Your Frozen Assets

If dinnertime at your house is a desperate enterprise rather than a delightful family experience, let us introduce you to your new best friend -- the freezer. For those of us who hate to cook or find it difficult to provide regular homemade meals, a freezer can be the best appliance for saving time in the kitchen. Whether you have an extra deep-freeze in the garage or just the regular compartment over your refrigerator, learn to use your freezer to its fullest potential. Think of it as your second pantry.

The most immediate way you can use your freezer, especially if you don't enjoy cooking, is to double your portions when you do cook, then eat one dinner and freeze the other. By doing this on a consistent basis, you'll build a great inventory of dinners on hand. Freeze the dinner with the title, any cooking instructions, and the side dishes that you plan to eat with it. If possible, freeze any condiments, like cheese, in baggies and tape them to the container. This process keeps your planned-ahead meals "safe" and intact until you need them and also makes it easy for your family members to start supper before you get home.

Does your family hate leftovers? Make up individual plates in aluminum pie pans or freezer-safe dishes that can be reheated in the microwave or oven. Dump leftover vegetables, noodles, meat, or rice into a large freezer container. When the container is full, make vegetable soup by adding canned tomato juice.

Freezing ahead helps save money when you can stock up on specials. For instance, when chicken breasts are on sale, buy several packages and cook them all at once. You can boil them in a large pot or bake them in a 13x9 dish; pour a can of stewed tomatoes over the chicken for added flavor and to prevent it from drying out. Cut up the cooked, cooled chicken and freeze in 2-cup portions. The other staple, ground beef, can also be prepared in advance. Cook several pounds of ground beef, drain, and freeze in 1-pound amounts. Now it will be easy to "throw together" a soup, casserole, or pasta dish. Be sure to label each package with the type of food and the date since it can be hard to tell the difference between some cooked items like ground beef and sausage.

Another way to save money with your freezer is to buy reduced grocery items that are nearing the expiration date. Day-old baked goods freeze well if double bagged. Clearance meats should be cooked or frozen immediately.

When your kids want pancakes, waffles or biscuits, double your recipe. Freeze two or three per plastic zippered sandwich bag so they can warm up their own breakfast on other days. It doesn't take that much longer to cook the larger amount of food, but you save lots of time and steps by getting out all the ingredients and cleaning up just once.

Just remember, fixing dinner is a whole lot easier if the meat's already cooked before you defrost it!

Score Big with Quick Meals on Ballgame Nights

If your family lives at the ballpark, you've got to plan some quick and easy meals or resort to fast food again (please, not that again!). Here are a few of our favorite quickie menus.

Tacos: Janet's family loves tacos! [Tip: Cook your ground beef as soon as you get it home from the grocery and freeze it in 1 or 2 pound packages.] On a busy night, all she has to do is delegate some of these steps to the rest of the family--

put the taco shells into the oven on 200
use the microwave to defrost a container of cooked ground beef then heat it up with a package of taco seasoning and water
tear up some lettuce in a bowl
open a package of shredded cheese
empty a can of diced tomatoes into a bowl
chop up a few onions
get out the paper plates
serve the tacos with salsa and applesauce

Loaded potatoes: Fix them in the crock pot before you head to work and forget about them until time to sit down and eat. Plus, you don't have to heat up the whole kitchen like baking in the regular oven does. Wrap each potato in foil, place in your slow cooker, and cover. Four medium-sized potatoes need to cook at least five hours on low. Lay out a selection of toppings like leftover meat cut into cubes, bacon bits, cheese, cut up raw vegetables, butter and sour cream. Invite everyone to fix their own. Round out the meal with a bagged salad.

Chicken salad: With this recipe, you can feed a family of four with one large chicken breast. Put an egg or two on to boil. Finely chop cooked chicken breast in food processor. (If you don't have chicken already cooked, throw a frozen skinless/boneless breast on your George Foreman grill. It will be fully cooked from frozen in about thirteen minutes.) Peel the cooked egg, chop it in the food processor, and add it to the chicken. Dump in about half a small jar of sweet pickle relish and mix with a tablespoon of mayonnaise, adding more as necessary. You could chop up some apple, grapes, nuts, or onion to mix in as well. Make sandwiches or do like we do and eat the chicken salad on saltine crackers with apple slices.

Janet's "Company" Menu

Chicken Spaghetti:

4 chicken breasts, cooked and chopped

3 cups angel hair pasta, cooked

3 to 6 oz. Velveeta cheese, cubed

1 can fat-free cream of chicken soup

1 onion, chopped

1 bell pepper, chopped

1 can Rotel tomatoes

Saute vegetables and set aside. Over low heat, mix soup and cheese, stirring until cheese melts. Add all other ingredients and cook on low until heated through or bake in casserole dish for 30 minutes at 350.

Carrot Pie:

2 cups carrots, cooked and mashed

1 cup sugar

3 tablespoons flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 stick butter/margarine, melted

3 eggs, beaten

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Combine all ingredients and pour into casserole dish. Bake uncovered for 15 minutes at 400 and then 45 minutes at 350. This is so yummy! It tastes like sweet potato casserole.

Tomato-Cucumber Salad:

Chop fresh tomatoes, cucumbers and onion. Add salt and pepper. Mix in some Italian or vinaigrette salad dressing and chill before serving.

Ice Cream Sandwich Sundaes:

Drizzle chocolate syrup in a swirly design on a dessert plate. Place ice cream sandwich on the plate. Squirt whipped topping into a mound on top of the sandwich. Garnish with maraschino cherry and chopped nuts. I used Yarnell’s ice cream sandwiches, but really prefer to use the round cookie-shaped kind when available.