OAMC Recipes I'm thinking on trying

[pollypurebred39]

I thought I'd share in case anyone else might be interested

100% would make again!

Make-Ahead Sloppy Joes Recipe | Taste of Home Recipes


Make-Ahead Saucy Sandwiches Recipe | Taste of Home Recipes

4+ stars

Make Ahead Lunch Wraps Recipe - Allrecipes.com


TV dinner ideas/helpers

Mary Ann's House: Homemade "T.V." Dinners


When my grandmother became very ill, my mother was called to see her and knew she would be away from home for over a month. She completely cooked the dinners and packaged them for my father and sister who were left behind. They turned out much better than meals you would get at the supermarket.

She cooked everything through as if to serve it then. Second, she ensured everything was cooled to room temperature prior to packaging it for the freezer. She put a layer of wax paper over the top and completely encase the meals in heavy foil. Then she would label on top of the foil with a magic marker. Her instructions to my father and sister was to thaw in the fridge by setting the meals on the bottom shelf in the AM, remove the foil, and then cooking them like they would heat up a plate in the evening.

My mother made stuffed peppers, stuffed cabbage, baked fish, spaghetti with meat sauce, etc. She found that fried dishes like fried chicken and fish did not taste as good when reheated. The baked fish and chicken dishes needed a sauce not to taste dry. Mashed potatoes froze and reheated well, but potato chunks did not.

I remember when she did this. She made over sixty pre-packaged meals. It looked like a stoeffers explosion in her kitchen

Above is a post from this link
Homemade TV dinners - precook meats or not? - Discuss Cooking - Cooking Forums


Jamie Oliver - Forums / Homemade Frozen TV Dinners - beta



http://fabulesslyfrugal.com/2010/04/...f-fajitas.html


http://fabulesslyfrugal.com/freezer-...es-master-list

[Palooka]

I make those lunch wraps or more like burritos all the time for the freezer. It's close to that recipe, but the one I make makes up like 24 burritos. It's really good and it's time for me to make them again.

It's perfect to nuke for lunch! Good luck. I'm picky about making freezer food, so just a few things I will do.

[Spirit Deer]

I'm working (not hard enough) on finding good Weight Watchers recipes for the freezer. No need to buy NutriSystem or Jenny Craig meals then!

[pollypurebred39]

Spirit Deer- Yes, I'm looking too. I'm trying to find a balance between filling, the budget, healthy, lower calorie & less blood sugar inducing. It's not been easy finding that balance. I need to find meals that are good and freeze well in combinations for individual meals for me. I like that one post about how her mother made them. If you find any you like I'd be grateful if you'd share. Thanks.

Palooka- This is my second try on freezer meals. The first time it was so labor intensive and the results were not pleasing. My family was not happy at all. I'm hoping this time to find suitable meals. The burritos I made last time went over like a lead balloon. still have 4 of them in the freezer. I'm really struggling with energy levels and I need to find ways to reduce my workload on a daily basis. Do you think you could share your recipe with me? I'd really appreciate it. Thanks.

I did find a fruit cup recipe that I'm going to try, with variations with what's the best prices for me. I really like the idea of of making a huge batch of fruit salad and portioning into 90 cups and freezing for the month. I bought some apples, bananas, cans of pineapple, blueberries and 2 frozen concentrate juices. I think they should turn out fine and will be low calorie and have the bonus of insuring 2 servings of fruit a day for everybody. I'm also thinking on tinkering on frozen oatmeal. I already made and froze 11 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I wasn't up to standing and doing it so I just brought it all to the table and sat down and made them and it didn't take much time at all. I put each one in a ziplock bag and stacked them in the bread bag. Fits perfect and only took up the room of one loaf of bread in the freezer. I hope I'm up to making a pot of soup tomorrow to freeze. Some days it's all I can do to get out of bed and shower and get dressed. I really need to find ways to still be able to eat healthy and put supper on the table every night.

[krbshappy71]

Sloppy joes are my favorite big-batch item. Its so versatile! I throw it on all kinds of breads/tortillas, spaghetti or other pasta, eat it plain out of a bowl like bean-less chili, I really enjoy it.

Thanks for the links!

[Spirit Deer]

One big time-saver I've been using for several years now is to just brown large batches of ground meat and freeze in meal-sized portions. Usually I use a mix of hamburger and lean ground turkey and then throw in chopped onions, celery, sometimes chopped bell peppers, etc. Mild flavored stuff so it doesn't add flavor but does add a little nutrition. I freeze in pint jars, which is a good size for us. From that, I can nuke it for one minute to thaw it a little and then quickly mix up any number of meals such as spaghetti, chili, sloppy joes, goulash, lasagna, Bisquick recipes, etc, etc. That makes it more versatile than a specific dish, and takes less room in the freezer, too. I also make rice, especially wild rice, and keep that on hand as a separate ingredient. Then that's ready to use in salads, as a base to pour a sauce over, as an ingredient to stretch other dishes, etc.

The favorite WW dish I've found so far is chimichangas.
baked chimichangas recipe | weight watcher recipes | healthy recipes
They're so filling I've started making them smaller. They're really handy to grab for lunches or whatever and can be used directly from the freezer without thawing. I also like that they're practically crying out to have piles of various raw veggies added on top, for very few calories and lots of good nutrition.

I know what you mean about trying to balance it all. It's a challenge, for sure.

[sunshine]

I use a lot of Taste of Home recipes for OAMC.

This is the sloppy joe one I use :

Sloppy Joes for 100 Recipe | Taste of Home Recipes

And their meatloaf recipe (I usually cut this one in half)

Meat Loaf for 120 Recipe | Taste of Home Recipes

[mauimagic]

Green bell peppers are on sale so I am buying some to dehydrate, some for salads now and also for stuffed peppers for now and to freeze. Focusing on one ingredient works for me best.

[missyali]

My friend and I do batch cooking each summer right before we go back to school. It makes for such a better time for my family

We do a Parmesan Chicken (panko bread crumbs, garlic, parmesan cheese, and butter),
sloppy joes,
meatballs,
meatloaf,
enchillada casserole (black beans, tortillas, cream of mushroom soup, sour cream, cheddar cheese, sausage crumbles and enchillada sauce, layered like lasagna - YUM!).

This year I am thinking about looking at some new recipes. I will just assemble what freezes well, add anything before cooking that doesn't, and see how it works. I prefer to freeze things before cooking them, if possible. But mostly, I like that I have "convenience" foods that I know what is in them.

[Luckybustert]

I like to freeze batches of sloppy joes, spaghetti sauce, and ground beef or chopped chicken with taco seasoning for quick and easy dinners later on. There's a little additional prep for tacos or fajitas, but not that much.

[Libby]

Saw this somewhere and thought of you:

SLOPPY JOE MUFFINS

1lb ground beef or turkey, cook, fat drained

1 cup BBQ sauce

8 canned biscuits (such as Pillsbury Grands)

Brown meat in pan or electric skillet. Mix in BBQ sauce. Press biscuits into lightly greased muffin tins, and add ground beef mixture to muffin cups, bake at 350 for 10-15mins or until biscuits are brown.

[You could make your own biscuit mix from scratch for pennies right and/or use homemade BBQ sauce so you control whats in it. And you can control how much sloppy joe goes into each cup so you can make this stretch]

[pollypurebred39]

All of these recipes are great! Thank you everyone!

I made frozen fruits cup using this recipe as a guide. I used fruit that was on sale, so my recipe was somewhat different. But WOW are they great!

Frozen Fruit Cups Recipe - Food.com - 278998

I also made ground meat crumbles using the method posted in this forum. Easy Peasy! I'll be getting more ground turkey and chicken chubs to do this with.

[pollypurebred39]

I thought I'd try this recipe for freezer meals too. I already discovered that you can make up batches of cornbread and cake batter in prepared pans and freeze. You just take them right from their frozen state and bake. They come out perfect, you'd never know you froze the batter.

Barbeque Beef Casserole Recipe - Allrecipes.com

[Spirit Deer]

We freeze most common varieties of cookie dough in logs and then bake them up as slice and bake cookies. It's a nice way to help control portions, and by having several varieties of dough in the freezer, we can bake a variety of flavors without having to bake multiple batches all at once.

[mauimagic]

More great ideas - mahalo ladies!!