Make-Ahead Meal Inspiration

As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve been stuck sitting around on the couch while recovering from a super fun appendectomy.  Unfortunately, this means I can’t carry anything heavy until Mid-May so regular grocery shopping is out for now. Luckily we have Freshdirect and a bunch of great friends and family that have stepped in to make sure we don’t starve (one friend even threw us a little grilled cheese party last week, awesome).

However, there’s no need to wait for someone to get sick to brighten their day with a delicious, homemade make-ahead meal. To inspire you, I've compiled links to some of my favorite make-ahead meals from the around the web for your cooking pleasure.  Just be sure to include the finishing instructions so that your friends can enjoy a delicious and easy meal!

Casseroles:  to make any casserole into a make-ahead meal, just prepare in advance, place in a disposable casserole dish, label and freeze.  When ready to use, thaw in fridge, and finish according to the recipe direction. Most casseroles can be prepared from frozen as well, just cover with foil, increase the baking time slightly and cook until heated through.

Cooking Light Baked Pasta with Sausage, Tomatoes and Cheese

Disney Family Fun Stuffed Shells

Epicurious Lasagna with Turkey Sausage Bolognese

Kraft Layered Fiesta Casserole

Martha Stewart Chicken Tetrazzini

Martha Stewart Sausage & Bean Casserole

Pioneer Woman Chicken Spaghetti

Taste of Home Cornbread Chicken Bake  

Southern Living King Ranch Chicken Casserole

Freezer Friendly Individual Meals: to make ahead, prepare through assembly, freeze individually on cookie sheets and place in freezer bags.  When you’re ready to cook either thaw the portions you need in the fridge and cook according to the recipe or cook from frozen by increasing the baking time a little until heated through and golden brown.

Martha Stewart Irish Beef Hand Pies

Martha Stewart Bean Burritos

Pillsbury Crescent Pizza Pockets

Pillsbury Buffalo Chicken Crescents

Pepperidge Farm Black Bean Empanadas

Other Ideas: there are tons of other recipes that can adapted into a made ahead meal, here are a few ideas to get you started!

Crockpot Turkey Cheddar Meatballs – freeze individually and reheat in microwave when ready to eat

Crockpot Taco Soup – freeze in containers and reheat in microwave when ready to eat

Martha Stewart Quick Ravioli – freeze individually and reheat in boiling water when ready to eat

Martha Stewart Turkey Dumplings

Rachael Ray Veal Ragu – prepare sauce and freeze until ready to serve over pasta

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Grandma's Pickled Beets

It's almost Easter, yay for Easter! Seriously, who doesn't love a holiday that involves plundering a basket full of candy for breakfast?! Delicious. 

Anywho, in my family, as with many Pennsylvania families, this is the only time of year that we get to break out the pickled beets.  I have fond memories of my Grandmother pulling a giant glass container from her fridge before Easter dinner which was filled full of beets, eggs and pickle juice. Now before you start picturing regular pickle brine with a bunch of beets and eggs thrown in (which would be gross), I have to tell you that the brine for this one more closely resembles a sweet & sour spiced syrup. Admittedly that's still a bit weird, but for some reason it just works.

Also, I have no idea how this pickled beet tradition began or why it is such a quintessentially Easter thing but I don't care because pickled beets are delicious.  One small note though, I'm not a big fan of hardboiled eggs so now I make mine sans offending eggs. If you're into that sort of thing though, feel free to throw a few peeled, hardboiled eggs into the brine to make some red beet eggs. I promise I won't judge.

Grandma’s Pickled Beets

• 2 15 oz cans of sliced beets
• 1 ½ c. sugar
• ¼ c. apple cider vinegar
• 2 cinnamon sticks

1. Drain beets, reserving liquid in a small saucepan
2. Add sugar, vinegar and cinnamon to the reserved liquid
3. Heat to a rolling boil, stirring constantly.
4. Pour over beets, let cool and then refrigerate for at least 8 hours.

image via Photo Bucket

Manly Man Irish Coffee

I've been sick, sickie, sick, sick....as in appendicitis sick. I had absolutely no idea, I thought I had the flu, but I guess that's why I don't have a medical degree.  My poor fiance, Mr. Awesome, took me to the doctor on Thursday and we thought I'd end up home in twenty minutes with instructions for lots of rest and fluids. WRONG. Instead the doctor took one look at me and sent us off to the ER for IV fluids and a CT Scan of my appendix. Two days, two sleepless nights, many scared tears and lots of blood tests later, I was free to go home minus one appendix.

Throughout the whole ordeal Mr. Awesome was there to hold my hand while I got an IV and intimidate the nurses into attending to my every need. He was there to keep me entertained with Angry Birds in the ER, go on a midnight toiletry run, bring me ice chips and manage my crankiness.  However, nothing touched me more than seeing my tough man with a little touch of sand in his eye when I woke up from anesthesia because he was so relieved to see me awake and okay. Now I understand why people get married, it's nice to have a right hand man to look out for you when you can't do it for yourself.

Poor guy though, he's had a rough week.  After a few days of sleeping in an uncomfortable hospital chair, he was definitely ready for some coffee and a lot of nerve calming booze. A word of caution though, this drink is no shrinking violet, but it's also a great treat for the stressed out guy in your life!
 
Manly Man Irish Coffee
1 mug brewed coffee
1 part Godiva chocolate liquor
2 parts Bailey’s Irish Cream
3 parts Jameson Irish Whiskey

1. Mix all ingredients together and enjoy!

*1 part is about equal to 1/2 jigger which means this is not for the weak of heart.

**To make a girlier version, just add milk or cream to taste and pretend you are enjoying an apres ski drink by a roaring fire.

Provided via youtube.com

BBQ Chicken Joes

The man of the household worked a double shift last weekend, which meant we spent a rare Saturday together. So, we made a little mini vacation out of it by meeting a friend for brunch, drinking boozy milkshakes in the afternoon and watching a Back to the Future marathon. In a word, our day together was AWESOME!
I knew that Mr. Man would be pretty tired from working an 18 hour shift, so I rewarded him with slowcooked BBQ Chicken Joes for dinner.  He had his on country white bread as a sandwich, which he swears is the way to go, but I had mine straight up in a bowl which I think is the better option.  Now I'm back from my "vacation" and trying to avoid the huge mountain of laundry that's been piling up in the bedroom, sigh.....

BBQ Chicken Joes

1 lb ground chicken

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1 onion, chopped

2 tbsp vinegar

2 tbsp Dijon mustard

¼ c. BBQ sauce (I used Stubb’s honey pecan sauce)

1 tbsp sugar

1 tsp chili powder

Shredded cheese as garnish

1.       Combine all ingredients in crockpot, cook on low for 8 hours.

Enjoy with the '80s movie of your choice for a fantastic date night!

image via Abduzeedo

Enchilade Fiesta!

We've had a recent tragedy here in our happy neighborhood.....our local Tex-Mex restaurant has closed.  Gasp, oh no! Some of you non-city dwellers might be thinking, "So what?! You live in NYC, you have tons of options." And, you would be right BUT you just don't really understand unless you've been faced with walking 10 blocks in a freezing, driving rain for a measly enchilada and cheap margarita.  So, I've decided that instead of torturing myself with a painful walk, I'll just figure out how to make my favorites at home so that we won't miss feel the loss quite so much.  Thus, I bring you today's recipe for low-fat turkey, black bean and corn enchiladas. We had ours with chips & salsa, Mexican beer and salad (I accidentally bought the Asian salad so our dinner was Mexican-Asian fusion, oops).

Dinner came out great and we had a nice little mid-week fiesta plus we've also got a freezer full of margarita concentrate so I'm seriously considering inviting the neighbors and charging admission to our living room.

Turkey, Black Bean & Corn Enchiladas

1 turkey tenderloins, cooked and shredded

1 10 oz. can enchilada sauce

1 15 oz can black beans, drained & rinsed

1 15 oz can corn, drained

1 4.5 can chopped green chiles

8 6 inch corn tortillas

1 c. low-fat Mexican style cheese

Low-fat sour cream or Greek yogurt, to taste

1 avocado, chopped

1. Mix shredded turkey with black beans, corn and chiles.  Can be made in advance and stored in fridge overnight.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease a 7 x 11 inch casserole dish.  Wrap tortillas in damp paper towels and microwave for 30 seconds or until warm.
3. Assemble enchiladas by putting a heaping spoonful of turkey mixture on the side of tortilla. Roll up the tortilla and place in casserole dish seam side down.
4. Pour sauce over enchiladas and sprinkle with remaining ½ cup of cheese.  Cover with foil and bake until bubbly (about 45 minutes). Garnish with sliced avocado and lowfat sour cream or Greek yogurt if desired.

Then do your Casa Bonita happy dance:

 
image via examiner.com

Retro Baked Hot Dogs

We just got back from vacation, yay vacation! We went on a cruise and had a great time. We got sunburned on the beach, drank mai tais, made fun of the onboard entertainment (while secretly enjoying every minute) and watched for dolphins from our balcony. Most of all though we just spent time together which is a special treat for two busy people with very different work schedules. Here's a very awkward picture of me enjoying our fun vacation, I think I was mid sentence or something and um, don't mind my fantastic tan.

Now we're back to regular life (ugh), and will be heading back to work soon (double blah). I was smart enough to clean out the fridge before we left so that we didn't come home to the lovely scent of old milk but my awesome planning meant the dinner pickins' were pretty slim. On a side note, this thoughtful bit of planning also lead to the great oj debate of '11 when I accidentally threw out the orange juice minutes before my main squeeze went to pour himself a glass....oops. I'm still hearing about it and doubt the jokes about throwing out the juice will stop anytime soon.

Anywho I'm trying to avoid ordering take-out all the time sooooo tonight I'll be looting what's left of the fridge to make a childhood favorite....baked hot dogs and soup.The recipe for this one came from one of the first cookbooks I got as a child (either Betty Crocker or Better Homes & Gardens Junior, although I can't remember which at the moment) so I've creatively named this one Retro Baked Hot Dogs and that's about as good as it gets with vacation brain, enjoy!

Retro Baked Hot Dogs

4 hot dogs

4 pieces of bread

8 toothpicks

Butter or margarine

1. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil or parchment paper.
2. Cut slits down the length of the hot dogs.
3. Butter the bread and place buttered side down on the cookie sheet.  Place the slit hot dogs diagonally across the bread, then fold the buttered side up and secure with toothpicks (creating a little “tent” with the hot dogs nestled in the middle).
4. Bake the hot dogs in the oven for about 20 -25 minutes or until bread is golden brown.

*Note: some people add a piece of cheese between the bread and the hot dogs before baking.  I like to think that by leaving out the cheese, I'm making it healthier....please let me have these small comforts.

Still lazy - this time with roast beef!

My days are long, there are meetings to worry about, laundry, gym, Hoarders, the inevitable post Hoarders cleaning spree, Jersey Shore....well, you get the idea.  So you might be wondering, where does dinner fit into this packed schedule of trashy TV? Well ladies and gents, I present you with my all time favorite kitchen appliance:

That's right, the lowly slow cooker has found a place of honor in this metropolitan kitchen. No joke, if I had a car it would have an I heart crockpots bumper sticker. Because really, who doesn't want to come home to a delicious and healthy dinner after a full day of stuff and things? Plus I found out I can throw frozen protein in there directly from the freezer......genius! I'm not ashamed to admit that I own 4 of  them, viva la slow cooker!

Anyway enough about my unhealthy obsession, let's get down to business with a classic Sunday roast from my childhood adapted for my favorite appliance.  Interesting side note on this one, I hated sandwiches when I was a kid (seriously, what kid hates sandwiches) so my Mom would give me straight up roast beef cubes in a plastic baggie. No bread, no cheese, just plain old roast beef because I was a weird kid.  It's amazing that I ever managed to become a relatively well adjusted adult.  Still working out some kinks on that well adjusted adult thing though so no promises.

Slow cooker Roast Beef
Beef Roast (pretty much anything will do, mine was a frozen 3 1/2 lb top round roast)
1 10.75 oz can mushroom soup
1 14.5 oz can beef broth
1 packet onion soup mix

Place roast directly in slow cooker (frozen is fine, no need to defrost just let it cook a little longer). Whisk together the three soups and pour over the beef.  Cook on low for 10-12 hours.

French Sweet Potatoes
2 sweet potatoes, cubed
3 tbsp Olive oil
1 tbsp mustard
1 tsp herbs de provence
1 tsp rosemary
Salt & pepper to taste

Mix together mustard, olive oil and seasonings, toss with potatoes to coat. Bake at 450 for 20 minutes, tossing stirring halfway through.