Do you plan whole meals to cook at once in your oven?

[Judi Dial]

I have two cookbooks that have these, one from Mohawk Power and another old Hotpoint electric range cookbook. It occurred to me that although I have these, I next to never make any of the recipes in them, and I should organize the recipes that I do make to do this...and discovered that I really mostly cook on the stove top or micro!

What I started was a spreadsheet with my common recipes in it, that looks like this:

Name of recipe

Type

temp

time

I think I should use my oven more, it's a ways of cooking that doesn't require all the checking that stovetop/micro does.

So here's my question: do you cook whole meals in the oven? Do you organize your recipes so that you can? If you do, what do you cook, how do you organize your recipes to do this?

Thanks!

Judi

[Ceashels]

I tend to do most of my cooking on the stove top. If I'm planning a big holiday meal, I will plan items for the oven to save myself some time. But I'm not one to automatically think... "Oh, I'll roast veggies while the chicken is cooking."

I'll need to give this some thought in my menu planning.

[monkeywrangler71]

I can't fit more than one thing at a time in my oven.

[shp1055]

Yes I have done this; bake a chicken & a cake at 350 side by side. when they get thru, turn the oven up to 450 and bake the cornbread.

At the office before work, I get everything together and put it in the fridge, then about 10 I put dressing on top rack, beside it the sweet potato casserole; around 11 on the lower rack I put the broc. casserole & a pie and at 12? Voila!! Lunch for 10 to 12 for about $10. (Try to use as many leftovers as possible.)

[MsMarieH]

During the work week, I don't really cook things in my oven all THAT often, and when I do, it's usually an all in one casserole that I'm not making anything else cooked to accompany.

I'm far more likely to do this on the weekends, especially sunday, when I usually make something "larger" like a turkey, chicken, ham, roast beef, lasagna. Then, I might be more inclined to make a baked side dish or dessert to go with it "as long as the oven is on anyway".

[zakity]

I don't always cook things together, but I do "cascade".

Today, I am baking

drumsticks for tomorrow's lunch
biscuits to go with dinner
I baked tater tots for my lunch
we are having baked chicken for dinner
I am thinking muffins or brownies need to be made also (maybe both)

[Judi Dial]

I don't always cook things together, but I do "cascade".

Today, I am baking

drumsticks for tomorrow's lunch
biscuits to go with dinner
I baked tater tots for my lunch
we are having baked chicken for dinner
I am thinking muffins or brownies need to be made also (maybe both)

Zakity,

How do you decide what you'll cascade? Do you group your recipes by the temp they're cooked in your oven? Time? Type of food? (entree, side dish, etc.)

Thanks!

Judi

[zakity]

Well, I am in a "clean out the freezer/pantry" mode. The drumsticks needed out of the freezer, baked chicken was planned for dinner, tater tots for my lunch because I have a "thing" for tater tots and I found some at the store for $1 and the oven was going to be on anyway, brownies because I am PMSing and chocolate helps to keep my from killing my children, muffins wound up being a cake because I had a cake mix in the pantry and it needed it to go, and biscuits because I try to have some sort of bready thing with dinner. We also had French fries with the baked chicken because my child who is supposed to be the "chef" failed to make mashed potatoes to go with dinner.

Most everything gets baked at 350° because I bake almost every thing in glass bakeware. Well, the French fries got baked at 400°, they went after everything else though.

My rule is that if the oven is going to be heated up, what else can be baked. Also, I take a peek at the week's schedule to see what needs baked and what is in the freezer that needs used up.

I also used the oven to heat up the house instead of having a fire in the fireplace since it is still chilly here.

[shoiji]

I am more of a stovetop and microwave person. When I do use the oven it is usually in the fall and winter. Then I try to roast vegetables and cook whatever meat. I actually did this this week. Baked some chicken legs and sausage stuffed mushrooms at the same time. Ended up taking the mushrooms out sooner. If I am thinking ahead I will try to find recipes that use the same temperature.

[Spirit Deer]

I sort of do the same thing as Zakity, although not really in a planned way. If the oven's hot, I try to multi-task. Like the other day I was making crackers, so when those were done, I baked some frozen cookie dough and made four different kinds of cookies. I like doing stuff like that because I can use the same pans without washing them in between, so it saves clean-up work, too.

I do whole meals in the oven. I never thought about it that it's anything special. Most things bake at 350 so it's not hard to group things together. Holiday meals are mostly what I do for multiple dishes at once. For regular meals, we rarely eat very much so no need for multiples. If something needs to bake at 400, then it can be baked after the stuff requiring 350 is done, or if it has to be baked first, I just leave the oven door open a couple minutes to cool it down.

We have a small electric convection oven we use a lot to avoid having to heat up the large gas oven. We have low electric rates here but propane has gotten very expensive.

[2_at_the_farm]

I try to use the oven as little as possible. But when I do, it's two pans of lasagna, or 3-4 loaves of bread, etc. It's been years since I did whole meals in the oven (other than holidays) since the kids are all grown. I remember roast, potatoes, carrots..
Now, I'm more of a crockpot kinda gal. I even 'bake' bread in the slow cooker.

[SwirlyThing]

I don't use the oven on most days. But when I do, I try to do this. For example, I make bread twice per month (enough to last 2 weeks... I don't buy breasd). On days that I make bread, I will also make a dinner that requires the oven, and make them at the same time.