need recipes: large dishes, microwave reheatable

Cafe Society
1

I’m a graduate student who’s also working, and my SO, Acid Lamp has been having a lot of long hours at work lately. I have a lot of good recipes and know-how for things that I can whip up that taste fabulous the first time, but either don’t yield a large enough number of servings for much in the way of leftovers or don’t reheat well. We’re going to be having a few very busy weeks coming up soon, and I need input and recipes that I can make a big batch of, separate into work-friendly containers, and freeze/send Acid Lamp and myself off to work with. I have to go grocery shopping sometime later today, and should probably start making this stuff this afternoon/evening. There are very few things we don’t like, but two of them are roasted red peppers (that overwhelm a dish’s flavor with red pepper) and cooked spinach. Here’s a rundown of the tools and items I’ve got in my pantry, which might be helpful in building casseroles, soups, etc.

tools/cookware: 3 quart glass casserole, 9" glass pie dish, 12" ‘stir fry pan’, 1 medium stock pot, 1 small stock pot, 2 sauce pans of differing sizes, 1 large frying pan with ~4" high sides, 1 medium frying pan, 1 small nonstick frying pan, lids that fit all these pans, 1 giant slow cooker, ladle, wooden spoons, “spatulas/turners”, measuring cups, and a set of plastic mixing bowls and measuring cups/spoons.

pantry: 2 cans chicken stock, 2 cans condensed cream of mushroom soup, 2 cans red beans, 2 cans kidney beans, 1 can great northern beans, 1 can black beans, 1 can garbanzo beans, giant bag of medium grain white rice, white flour, wheat flour, white sugar, olive oil, vegetable oil, white vinegar, balsalmic vinegar, red wine vinegar, white and red wine, rum, vodka, mead, 1 can stewed tomatoes, 1 can diced tomatoes, 3 8oz cans tomato sauce, 1 6oz can pineapple chunks, 2 cans coconut milk, 1 can corn, peanuts, walnuts, slivered almonds, spaghetti, egg noodles, orzo. There’s other stuff, mostly canned soup, but that’s the main portion of what’s in there.
I’ve also got a decent amount of spices, but I’m hoping I won’t have to buy too much in the way of spices as we’re starting to run out of room for them.

2

I just made poblano corn chowder with shrimp, and am having leftovers today. It is incredible.
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/107062

I diced some red potatoes and added them. Chowder needs taters IMHO.

3

Oh, you just reminded me of one thing that I needed to add: in our area, it’s next to impossible to get shrimp without sulfates, and thus they’re off the list. Acid Lamp has averse reactions to the sulfate preservatives that they put on frozen shellfish, and I’d rather not cook things that might make his throat close up.

Do you think the recipe would do as well with a white fish or chicken?

4

Yep. You could even leave out the seafood altogether.

5

Let’s see… you’ve got the beans (I’d use the 2 kidney and 1 black) and the canned tomatoes and the corn…

Looks like you’re pretty close to the fixin’s for Taco Soup. The beans are interchangeable. If you don’t have chili beans, just throw a little extra chili powder and cumin into the pot. If you don’t have Mexican flavored stewed tomatoes, a tiny can of diced chilis or some fresh diced jalapeno along with a can of regular stewed or diced tomatoes works fine, as well. If low-fat is not a priority, you can make it with ground beef instead of ground turkey, or even cut up chicken or beef.

It’s a hearty soup, just this side of a chili. And it’s really, really good.

6

Thanks for the substitution help, Vetbridge. Depending on how things are priced today at the grocery store, I may try this out.

WhyNot, we’ve got a heavy enough Hispanic population that I could find just about any Mexican food ingredient I want in my local supermarket. I do have to ask, though: why ranch dressing mix? Is it used for thickening or making the soup creamy?

7

No, it gives it a nice rich creamy fatty taste without the fat. It’s sort of hard to explain, but it’s an undertone of flavor - there’s all this wonderful chili/cayenne flavor up on top, with a soothing rich undertone of salty “dairy” goodness underneath. Think of how good cream cheese or sour cream is on a cheesy stuffed jalapeno, and you’re in a similar ballpark.

I know, it sounds weird, but it’s really good. And it’s what makes the dish something other than a simple beany, corny, cheap chili.

8

Hmmm. I may play around with that idea while I’m at the store; I’m good at making a reasonable chili, and the addition of the ranch mix might keep Acid Lamp from overdoing it on adding cheese. Then again, knowing him, it might not. Heh.

9

Hey, I just realized, I’m right now as we speak enjoying a can of Campbell’s Select Mexican Style Chicken Tortilla Soup and it has a similar tone to my Taco Soup…and sure enough, the ingredients include “whey, buttermilk solids…dehydrated onion…spice” - pretty much buttermilk ranch salad dressing mix! :smiley:

10

Heh. We’ve got a can of that lying around somewhere in the pantry.

11

Chicken and dumplings. If the casserole is microwavable, that is.

Cook onions and celery, or other vegetables if you prefer, in the chicken broth, until it’s about halfway done- maybe 10 minutes in the microwave. Either buy cooked chicken (I prefer getting a roasted one, eating some of it, and using the remaining meat for the soup) or poach chicken in the broth. Add some flour and black pepper. Microwave until boiling. Throw in some dried sage. Top with either homemade or Bisquick dumplings (the recipe should be on the box, add an egg and reduce the milk content if eggs aren’t listed), cover, and microwave 3-10 minutes, until the dumplings are done. When you freeze or put it in the fridge, store the dumplings separately, and heat the soup before topping the dumplings and warming those through.

You could also do this on a stove. Maybe in a crockpot, I’m not sure.

Or use the egg noodles in your pantry instead of dumplings. For that, you probably want the stove, at least for the last noodle part. The only problem there is making sure the noodles don’t get soggy when reheated- but if you pull it off the stove when they’re al dente, it should be okay.

12

That does sound good. prints out recipe

13

If your aversion to roasted red peppers doesn’t spill over to sweet green peppers, stuffed peppers freeze and microwave really well. Here’s my recipe, if you want to give it a try:

Stuffed Peppers

2 lbs lean ground beef
1/2 - 2/3 cup cooked jasmine rice (about 1/3 cup dry)
Salt, pepper, finely chopped fresh basil, parsley & chives
1 29oz can tomato sauce
1 6oz can tomato paste
8 to 10oz tomato juice
1 or 2 packets Sweet-n-Low (to taste)
peppers for stuffing (green, yellow or red – any combination. I only use 2 or 3, but you can use as many as will fill your crockpot if you’d like.)

Cook the rice (you may want to make extra, and set some aside to serve the peppers over).
Cut the tops off the peppers. Remove the core and seeds from the insides, then cut the stems out of the tops and discard, then chop the remaining pepper into pieces to add to the sauce.
Mix the ground beef with the cooked rice, chopped herbs (set some aside to add directly to the sauce), salt and pepper.
Gently stuff the peppers with the meat and rice mixture, avoiding packing them too firmly.
Make meatballs out of any remaining beef and rice mixture.

In the crock pot, mix the tomato sauce, juice and paste, smoothing the paste to blend it well. Season with the artificial sweetener and toss in the remaining herbs and the chopped pieces of pepper.

Place the stuffed peppers in the bottom of the crockpot, then add the meatballs, making sure everything’s coated with sauce.

Set on low and simmer for 5 – 6 hours.

14

Incidently, I spent part of my lunch flipping through a recipe book that just happened to by lying on my kitchen table. One of the recipes was for Taco soup, and it contained ranch dressing mix. I was amused. But I don’t think I’ll be fixing the recipe. Mostly because I don’t like ranch dressing, and while I in theory believe WhyNot that it affects mouthfeel and such, in practice it isn’t worth the risk of having a huge pot of stuff I don’t like waiting for me to throw it away.