Meal Prep Encouragement

amother

Thu, Nov 11 2021, 9:43 am

Over the next few weeks, I want to stock up my freezer with meals. To keep myself going, I'm going to try to update here with what I've done. Maybe I'll be showing off a little...or maybe not, depends how much I do Wink

I plan to make:
crock pot meals (raw)
cooked suppers
Kugels/side dishes
raw chicken cutlets in marinade
desserts (a few basic ones, like cookies)
a few nicer mains for Shabbos (maybe)
Challah (to have a significant amount of challah frozen will take a lot of space, and I sometimes do buy. But I still want to have some)
soup (I don't serve a lot of soup, but small containers for lunch and chicken soup for Shabbos will be useful)

Feel free to ask for recipes or methods, but be aware that I don't use measurements for cooking.

amother

Thu, Nov 11 2021, 9:49 am

Here's what I have so far:

1. 1 batch of challah (5lb flour)
2. 1 meal's worth of browned ground beef (It's plain, but since it's already browned, I'll be able to put it straight in the crockpot with other stuff) https://smile.amazon.com/gp/pr.....psc=1

I also have a few meals' worth of ground meat, chicken legs, and chicken cutlets that are divided into meal-size portions. They are frozen, so I can add other ingredients and keep it frozen for a crockpot meal, or defrost and cook and refreeze. I have various containers, bags, and pans that I bought for this purpose, but I still need a few more things before I continue. I also need to buy whatever fresh produce will be included.

amother

Thu, Nov 11 2021, 10:19 am

thunderstorm wrote:

I love this. You may motivate me too!
Please provide your ground beef crockpot recipes . Would love some ideas .

The ones that require the meat to be browned before are:

meat sauce (meat, canned tomato sauce, spices. beans, veggies are optional) served with pasta or taco shells or mashed/baked potatoes or toasted rolls. For a healthier method, I sometimes scoop it up in a raw red pepper
meat with sliced potatoes and onions. (also some spices, either sprinkled on each layer or mixed with the meat.)

Not in the crockpot, I can heat the meat (even in the microwave), add spices, and serve with chummus and pita or lafa. Or I can use the meat to stuff knishes or something.

amother

Fri, Nov 12 2021, 4:59 am

3. 1 pan of Granola bars

They didn't really come out good (if anyone has a good easy recipe then feel free to share!), but OK. Some fell apart and will just have to be a granola topping for yogurt or something.
I know it isn't much, but hopefully I'll add some more when cooking today!

amother

Fri, Nov 12 2021, 6:00 am

4. 4 meals of crock pot lentils, in crockpot bags
Lentils, tomatoes, kolichel. I added carrots to two of them, because I didn't have enough for all of them.
Uh oh, just realized I completely forgot to add any salt or spices whatsoever. I should probably take them out and fix that...
A big advantage of this meal is that the lentils take up a lot less freezer space than chicken on the bone. I might end up making more of them, but I decided to do four for now.

amother

Fri, Nov 12 2021, 8:47 am

5. 4 meals of Chicken cutlets with honey mustard
6. 4 meals of chicken cutlets with garlic BBQ.

Each raw in a ziplock. Obviously these aren't a full meal, so I would need to prepare something else to complete it.
#6 isn't actually totally ready yet because I ran out of ziplocs, but the components are ready so I'm counting it.
In case you're wondering, each meal has to feed 2 adults and a few toddlers.

Surrendered

Fri, Nov 12 2021, 11:37 am

*you can coat chicken cutlets with eggs & bread crumbs/corn flake crumbs and freeze on cookie sheets.
*prepare mixture of ground chicken, form balls and place on cookie sheets. (delicious recipe: 1 lb. ground, 2 eggs, 1/2 cup onion soup mix, 1/2 oil, 1/2 cup selzer, paprika, salt, pepper, 1/2 cup bread crumbs)
* chicken bottoms- In 9×13 pans- place 4/5 bottoms, sprinkle paprika, garlic powder, 1/2 filled with water. bake 2-3 hours and freeze.
* glazed chicken bottoms- sauted onions, ketchup, paprika, salt, garlic powder. add oil, bake 2 hours, freeze.
* chicken soup- freeze in 5×7 pans (can stock several on top of each other with the covers.)
*ferfel or rice: use the sauce from the baked chicken bottoms, add salt and ferfel or rice. cook 10-15 minutes. Delicious and freezes well.
*any noodles (even shabbos soup noodles) can be cooked and frozen. rewarm it in microwave with a bit of water, then spill water. like freshly cooked.

amother

Fri, Nov 12 2021, 12:58 pm

1. Batch of challah
2. 1 meal ground meat
3. 1 pan granola bars
4. 4 meals crockpot lentils
5. 4 meals chicken cutlets, honey mustard
6. 2 meals chicken cutlets, garlic BBQ (plus a ziplock of extra marinade)
7. 3 meals crockpot chicken legs, rice, green beans (with duck sauce and spices)

I updated the list, because it turned out I have less chicken than I thought. I put the extra marinade in a ziplock in the freezer and I'll see what I end up doing with it. To make up for that, I did the chicken legs (that's thigh+drumstick, where I live) meals. Now I have plenty more ground meat but I need to stock up on all kinds of chicken. And I really need onions.
I also need to remember to daven that the freezer doesn't stop working for any reason while all the food is in there.

#BestBubby

Sun, Nov 14 2021, 10:27 am

This makes 8 soups - and takes up very little freezer space:

Saute for 5-10 minutes:

2 lb of processed onions

Process and add:

1 lb carrots

1/2 stalk celery or medium celery root

1 turnip

1 large parsnip (I forgot this)

1 large zuchinni

6-8 cloves garlic

1 Bell Pepper (I forgot this)

2 large potatoes (optional. adds carbs)

saute for 30-40 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent bottom from burning.

cool and divide into 8 sandwich bags and freeze.

To make soup:

you can just add some water (about 5 cups) and have processed soup
with croutons or noodles.

If you like vegetables in the soup you can add: If adding vegetables use 6 c. water

frozen vegetables: broccolli, cauliflower, mixed vegetables, zuchinni

raw vegetables: sliced zuchini, potato chunks, sliced or baby carrots

Last edited by #BestBubby on Sun, Nov 14 2021, 3:55 pm; edited 2 times in total

#BestBubby

Sun, Nov 14 2021, 10:36 am

torquoise wrote:

Best bubby, I love your recipe!
What blade do you use for processing - shred? Slice?

Thank you.

I use the S blade.

Hardest part of making soup is peeling, processing and sauteing - so just make
a big batch of sauted veggies for 8 soups.

And doesn't take up a lot of freezer space like cooking 8 pots of soup.

thunderstorm

Sun, Nov 14 2021, 11:00 am

#BestBubby wrote:

This is great. You can also boil Navy beans in a separate pot and add it to the vegetable soup and simmer for a few hours for a vegetable bean soup.

Or add barley for a vegetable barley soup .

amother

Sun, Nov 14 2021, 2:39 pm

8. 3 crockpot meals of ground meat, onion, potatoes (in crockpot bags)
9. Split pea soup, 2 lb of peas (in about 6 containers of various sizes)
10. Sweet potato muffins (planning to make in a cake shape and slice into 24)
Im in middle of the sweet potato thing. I may still do more today.

amother

Sun, Nov 14 2021, 6:07 pm

11. 5 packets of balsamic sautéed onions (to be used as a topping for stuff)
12. 3 containers of alfredo-type of sauce

I ended up making the sweet potato muffins in a 9x13, which I cut into 15 portions, and a square pan which I left whole. I also rearranged the freezer a little so that the stuff that I'm preparing is at the bottom and the top is things that I need now and ingredients.
I feel like I got a lot done today. Now I have to update the list of what I still want to make, because I haven't been doing that.

#BestBubby

Sun, Nov 14 2021, 7:51 pm

You can use a bag of sauteed veggies to make a delicious kishka

1 bag defrosted veggies

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1 Tablespoon paprika

1 egg

1/2 c oil

1 1/4 C flour

mix and form into a log - wrap in parchment or foil. Bake one hour.

Yum!

You can also fry these as patties to make Veggie Burgers which you can
melt a slice of cheese on top for cheese burgers.

Sunny Days

Sun, Nov 14 2021, 8:13 pm

#BestBubby wrote:

You steam and blend veggies first? And which bag do you use?