I’ve lived on my own for a few years now, since being widowed. Due to being an indifferent wage-earner for most of my life (“indifferent” in the sense of “not overly effective,” not “apathetic”), I am still in the workforce.
I still have to eat regularly. And they give me a meal break at work, so I bring a meal with me every day. Fast food is an option, as is a frozen dinner from the supermarket, but those can get expensive. So I usually have something that I make myself in advance.
This thread is about that. I try to keep at least two different types of meals on hand so I don’t have to eat the same thing every day. I freeze them, take one out to thaw when I get home from work, and it will be ready to bring to work for my next shift.
Anyone else do this? What are some of the goodies y’all prep in advance? Let’s share some ideas and recipes!
I am not currently an alone-person. But I have been in many chunks of my past time.
a) Cook for yourself. It’s an act of love.
b) Reduce your preprocessed packaged food intake. Get it on with fresh produce and raw meat.
c) Make lots of food that can be frozen and microwaved as leftovers. Not every dish can be but some really great ones can be
I’ve found that rice and grain dishes freeze and thaw out really well. Pasta dishes were a little more variable like they get too watery or iced over too easily sometimes. For me, homemade Mexican or Asian foods with various spices can thaw out really well.
I share cooking responsibilities with my gf. On nights when I cook, I intentionally make enough so that I can package leftovers for my next few lunches.
The freezer is a black hole for me. I can go to teh supermarket & effectively plan & purchase a week’s worth of food but put some leftovers in the freezer & they won’t see the light of day for at least six months (usually more) when I go to clean them out & right into the trash. I just never think about anything in there with enough advanced time to let it thaw before wanting to cook/reheat it.
I buy six-packs of pasta (spaghetti or shapes) at Costco, along with three-packs of pasta sauce and four-pound bags of frozen meatballs. I can brown a pound of hangerber meat in the bottom of my Speedi, saute some pre-chopped mirepoix with it, add four cups of water, a jar of sauce, some bouillon cubes, meatballs, and a half-kilo of pasta, and set the device to STEAM. Twenty-five or so minutes later, I’ve got enough pasta and meatballs to make six meals.
Then I have to prepare another dish, of course, so I don’t accidentally con myself into hating pasta with meatballs.
This. I have a ton of inherited-from-Mom recipes that make hearty filling dishes for a family of six. I cook for two, almost always, but I use those recipes as in. One portion for tonight’s dinner, two portions for the freezer. I’ve found having it been at least a couple days since the first go through makes a huge difference in how happy you are when it reappears.
Of course you have to learn which dishes don’t survive the freeze/thaw cycle well, but many do. Tip: avoid mayonnaise!
Anything wrong with sandwiches? They’re better if you make them the morning before work, of course, not any earlier than that.
If the healthfulness or cost of deli meat is a problem, you can roast meats yourself and slice them thin. Let me know if you want a recipe for delicious roast beef from a cheap cut.
Fruits, cut up and toted in a little baggie, stay fresh if you toss with a little lemon or lime juice.
I will sometimes make a crockpot full of sloppy joe or chili or something. I then portion it out to freeze so that one afternoon of cooking equals about a half dozen or so meals over time. Though I often lose a meal when (like @Spiderman said) I forget what I have in the freezer.
I use 1-pint widemouthed Mason jars for all my leftovers, whether for the freezer or the fridge. They don’t cost much more than the plastic containers, survive the dishwasher with ease, don’t get permanently stained by tomato sauce, and the only ones I’ve lost were the few that broke because of clumsy handling on my part.
I’ve had good luck freezing any homemade bean dishes, esp homemade chili. I’ve only done it with cooked dried beans, so can’t verify how canned beans hold up, although I’m guessing they do.
Costco carries big bags of excellent Del Real Tamales for around $2 ea. They freeze very well. Supermarkets carry then too, albeit in slightly smaller portions. My favorite is the chicken in red sauce, but the others are good, too.
Beef tamale or enchilada casseroles are good portioned out and frozen.
Heh. I once bought those tamales on a regular basis when kaylasmom was still alive. Liked them quite a lot. Later, when I was with Joan (kaylasgodmother), we only ate tamales when Del Taco was selling them.
When she passed, I moved to Oregon and stayed at my sister’s house for six months. This is the sister who had her kitchen certified by the state to prepare food for sale. Her tamales are a revelation! But the standards for certification have changed and she won’t be selling them any more.
I should maybe pick up a couple of bags on my next Costco run (probably in the next couple of days, because Michaela’s flying in on Tuesday, and I promised to pick up a pack of Dole Whip).
I do aspirate the “h” when I say it, in case anyone was wondering.
You don’t have to let it thaw, in most cases. Dunk it in water in the sink long enough to get the wrapping to separate from the contents (depending on type of food and of wrapping this may not be necessary); stick it on a plate and thaw it/heat it in the microwave. That’s what microwaves are good for.
They do. When I was still working full time I’d make different bean dishes for myself, portion and freeze what I wasn’t going to eat in the next day or two. Couldn’t tell the difference.
Are the Lean Cuisine and Stouffer’s meals of the world suspect because of their typically high sodium content, or is there an additional reason? I’ve gotten a fair amount of mileage out of them, with no ill effects. Note the rest of the day I tend to minimize my salt intake.
Get a boneless top round, bottom round, or eye of round roast on sale, a 2-5 pound chunk. Preheat oven to 500F. Straight out of the fridge (don’t warm to room temp), rub the roast with vegetable oil, season with salt and pepper, and put it in the oven for 5 minutes per pound. Turn off the oven and keep the door closed for an hour or two. For sandwich meat, chill and slice as thin as possible.
if you’re talking something like raw ground meat I find them to be awful. Because it’s uusually lumped higher in the middle the edges are starting to cook & the middle is still frozen solid.